After his success as the national team coach, he joined Spartak Moscow winning the silver medal of the Russian league in 2005, but in April 2006 he was forced to quit due to total obstruction from the team's fans and a conflict with former team captain Dmitri Alenichev.
With Genadi Shitik and Yuri Popkov he formed one of the strongest midfield lines in the 1st Soviet league, and playing together with strikers like Evgenii Milevskii and Aleksandr Starkov in 1985 with Daugava won the first league title.
Despite the appointment of famous names such as Bülent Korkmaz, Winfried Schäfer, Aleksandrs Starkovs and Božidar Bandović, the club did not achieve any success and squandered large sums of money on unsuccessful signings.