“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ordabasy can pretend not to have heard.
Léo Natel was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Marked 8.01 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ordabasy this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
8 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings18 Jun 2029
David Abagna was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.22. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Didier Nkomo Ossomba and Ordabasy agree another 4 years.
Nobody at Ordabasy will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ordabasy can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ordabasy this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Jun 2029
Words at Ordabasy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aleksa Amanović is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Nobody at Ordabasy will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
15 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Tobol defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
The words a physio says slowly. 26 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Ordabasy they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Didier Nkomo Ossomba is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Mihai Căpăţînă was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Dimitar Mitkov. 2‑1 against Taraz, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
8.70. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Taraz tried to reorganise, Ordabasy did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
In brief
SquadNikola Antić falls out with a teammate over standards
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Léo Natel at his very best
41 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ordabasy lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ordabasy this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad16 Apr 2029
Words at Ordabasy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mihai Căpăţînă is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
23 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Ordabasy is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Ordabasy have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ordabasy this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad4 Sep 2028
Words at Ordabasy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sūltanbek Astanov is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
32 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ordabasy lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Ordabasy, and it is not being withdrawn.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.91 for the rest of it.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Didier Nkomo Ossomba is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Akzhaiyk will make the call about Everton Moraes this week. Ordabasy have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
83 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ordabasy lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ordabasy can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Ordabasy they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Everton Moraes was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Marked 8.46. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Ordabasy.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Words at Ordabasy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sūltanbek Astanov is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
108 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ordabasy lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ordabasy this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 May 2028
Words at Ordabasy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Léo Natel is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 19 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Marked 8.10 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Marked 8.08 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
117 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ordabasy lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ordabasy can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Ordabasy they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Aleksa Amanović was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Didier Nkomo Ossomba is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad15 May 2028
Léo Natel falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The words a physio says slowly. 132 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Ordabasy will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Two goals and a mark of 8.45 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Aleksa Amanović was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Taraz spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Ordabasy will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ordabasy this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Words at Ordabasy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Léo Natel is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Dimitar Mitkov signs something — a contract at Ordabasy or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 77 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Ordabasy they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Aleksa Amanović was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Léo Natel falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Marked 8.30 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Player ratings20 Mar 2028
Dimitar Mitkov was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.16. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Everton Moraes was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Léo Natel falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Nobody at Ordabasy will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Astana go through and Ordabasy go home, 0‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Ordabasy, and it is not being withdrawn.
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
The terraces22 Nov 2027
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 6 of the 25 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 19 actions, 6.60, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Everton Moraes was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Words at Ordabasy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Idowu is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.