Marked for Vasiliy Sovpel
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad24 May 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 38 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match22 May 2027
The wait goes on for Okzhetpes
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
The dugout24 May 2027
Dauren Taykenov faces a manager he fell out with
They have worked together before and it did not end well. Nobody at Okzhetpes expects the new manager to have forgotten, least of all Dauren Taykenov.
Squad24 May 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Okzhetpes this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 May 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Nūrğaini Böribaev and Okzhetpes agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Match22 May 2027
1‑2 to Atyrau, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad24 May 2027
A row about effort at Okzhetpes
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dmitriy Borodin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match24 May 2027
Halfway: Okzhetpes sit in position 9
9 points at the turn. The first half of a season is a promise; the second is a bill, and the town is about to find out which of the two this one was.
The dugout24 May 2027
The manager makes an example of Ilja Vsyakikh
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 May 2027
52 days out for Dauren Taykenov after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Okzhetpes will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The dugout10 May 2027
Dauren Taykenov faces a manager he fell out with
They have worked together before and it did not end well. Nobody at Okzhetpes expects the new manager to have forgotten, least of all Dauren Taykenov.
Squad10 May 2027
Qobylandy Kamariden and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout10 May 2027
The manager makes an example of Vasiliy Sovpel
“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.
Squad10 May 2027
A row about effort at Okzhetpes
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dmitriy Borodin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match8 May 2027
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout10 May 2027
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Squad10 May 2027
One yellow too many, and a match watched from the stand. The most avoidable absence in football, and Okzhetpes will feel it on Saturday.
The dugout10 May 2027
Vladimir Vomenko has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Okzhetpes 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Apr 2027
83 days out for Dauren Taykenov after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Okzhetpes will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad12 Apr 2027
32 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Okzhetpes lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match10 Apr 2027
0‑3 to Aktobe, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Match7 Apr 2027
Okzhetpes win it in stoppage time
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 90th minute. Ordabasy will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Player ratings12 Apr 2027
Vasiliy Sovpel did the work nobody counts — 6.60
17 combined actions and 6.60. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
Dauren Taykenov faces a manager he fell out with
They have worked together before and it did not end well. Nobody at Okzhetpes expects the new manager to have forgotten, least of all Dauren Taykenov.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Vasiliy Sovpel 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.
Squad12 Apr 2027
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Okzhetpes are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Apr 2027
90 days out for Dauren Taykenov after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Okzhetpes will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad5 Apr 2027
40 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Okzhetpes lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
Dauren Taykenov faces a manager he fell out with
They have worked together before and it did not end well. Nobody at Okzhetpes expects the new manager to have forgotten, least of all Dauren Taykenov.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Words exchanged at Okzhetpes
Vasiliy Sovpel and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Zakhar Porokh is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Match3 Apr 2027
6 matches without a win, and then this, against Astana. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Match3 Apr 2027
It finished 1‑0, and it was Oralkhan Ömirtaev’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Okzhetpes.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
The manager makes an example of Borys Lototskyi
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad22 Mar 2027
55 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Okzhetpes lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Okzhetpes will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match20 Mar 2027
The wait goes on for Okzhetpes
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
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 7.60 for the rest of it.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
Dauren Taykenov faces a manager he fell out with
They have worked together before and it did not end well. Nobody at Okzhetpes expects the new manager to have forgotten, least of all Dauren Taykenov.
Match20 Mar 2027
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Qobylandy Kamariden 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 dugout22 Mar 2027
“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 Mar 2027
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad22 Feb 2027
84 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Okzhetpes lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Transfer targets22 Feb 2027
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Okzhetpes have done the hard part with Akzhaiyk, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad22 Feb 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Qobylandy Kamariden and Okzhetpes agree another 4 years.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Zhansūltan Mūkhametzhanov 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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at Okzhetpes training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vladislav Vasiljev 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.
Transfer targets22 Feb 2027
Okzhetpes asked and Zhetysu said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad15 Feb 2027
The words a physio says slowly. 91 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Vasiliy Sovpel 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.
Boardroom15 Feb 2027
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Transfer targets15 Feb 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Tobol have kept their man, and Okzhetpes go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad15 Feb 2027
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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
6 new faces, and Okzhetpes are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Dec 2026
143 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Okzhetpes lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad28 Dec 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Okzhetpes this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Dec 2026
A row about effort at Okzhetpes
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dmitriy Borodin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market9 Nov 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Okzhetpes is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Vasiliy Sovpel and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad9 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Okzhetpes
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vladislav Vasiljev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Ivan Kuzmichev's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Okzhetpes, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market9 Nov 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at Okzhetpes
Dmitriy Borodin and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad28 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Okzhetpes
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vladislav Vasiljev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Zhansūltan Mūkhametzhanov, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market21 Sep 2026
Only the photograph left for Viktor Ziabko
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Viktor Ziabko will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Okzhetpes the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at Okzhetpes
Vasiliy Sovpel and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Zakhar Porokh is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Okzhetpes training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vladislav Vasiljev 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.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Mohammed Ensebaev has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Okzhetpes 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market10 Aug 2026
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Okzhetpes they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Okzhetpes
Dmitriy Borodin and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Okzhetpes asked and Kairat said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match8 Aug 2026
Oralkhan Ömirtaev scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Atyrau, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Maxim Akhmetov has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Marat Nurgaliev has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Dauren Murtazaev is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Vasiliy Sovpel, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Zhansūltan Mūkhametzhanov did not need any: 7.75, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Vasiliy Sovpel and Okzhetpes agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Okzhetpes this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Dmitriy Borodin 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Market3 Aug 2026
49 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 2‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Zhetysu have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.