Marked for Abdallah Boukhanfer
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces30 Jun 2031
The mood at Atyrau has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Boardroom30 Jun 2031
The scrutiny sharpens at Atyrau
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Atyrau is running low.
Squad30 Jun 2031
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Atyrau may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad30 Jun 2031
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atyrau this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market30 Jun 2031
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Atyrau will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Squad30 Jun 2031
Words at Atyrau training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Egor Tkachenko 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.
Squad30 Jun 2031
24 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Market30 Jun 2031
He is 17, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
Market30 Jun 2031
He is 17, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings9 Jun 2031
Successful dribbles: 28. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad9 Jun 2031
Tempers go at Atyrau
Abylaikhan Zhūmabek 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.
Match7 Jun 2031
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Paschal Durugbor. 3‑1 against Akzhaiyk, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad9 Jun 2031
Egor Tkachenko 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.
Player ratings9 Jun 2031
Abylaikhan Zhūmabek was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.74. 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.
Player ratings9 Jun 2031
Marked 8.05 — 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.
Boardroom9 Jun 2031
93% of the income goes out in wages at Atyrau
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Squad9 Jun 2031
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Atyrau have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
Squad9 Jun 2031
The manager makes an example of Baurzhan Abiken
“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
Squad31 Mar 2031
Tempers go at Atyrau
Abylaikhan Zhūmabek 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.
Squad31 Mar 2031
31 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad31 Mar 2031
Egor Tkachenko 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.
Match29 Mar 2031
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad31 Mar 2031
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Tohirbek Nabiyev, and the manager let it.
Player ratings31 Mar 2031
Successful dribbles: 12. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market19 Aug 2030
Zhetysu come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Atyrau did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad19 Aug 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atyrau this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Aug 2030
The medical room confirms 16 days on the sidelines for Abdallah Boukhanfer, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad19 Aug 2030
33 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad19 Aug 2030
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.
Market19 Aug 2030
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Tohirbek Nabiyev has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Atyrau.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom5 Aug 2030
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Market5 Aug 2030
“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 Atyrau, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings5 Aug 2030
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad5 Aug 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atyrau this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Aug 2030
Words at Atyrau training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Donervon Daniels 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.
Match3 Aug 2030
Three points for Atyrau, 1‑0 the final word against Okzhetpes in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings5 Aug 2030
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.72 on the card, and the Atyrau support went home talking about one name.
Squad5 Aug 2030
Ian Trufanov left out for the big one
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Ian Trufanov will call it something else in private.
Squad5 Aug 2030
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Atyrau told Ian Trufanov something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match20 Jul 2030
The wait goes on for Atyrau
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.
Market22 Jul 2030
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad22 Jul 2030
Tempers go at Atyrau
Oleksandr Noiok 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 Jul 2030
Words at Atyrau training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Donervon Daniels 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.
Squad22 Jul 2030
“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.
Player ratings22 Jul 2030
Marked 8.04. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Atyrau.
Squad22 Jul 2030
“The easiest signature of my career.” Dimas Putra and Atyrau agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Match20 Jul 2030
It needed Abylaikhan Zhūmabek to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against Aktobe, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Player ratings22 Jul 2030
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings10 Jun 2030
Two goals and a mark of 9.38 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings10 Jun 2030
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.17, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market10 Jun 2030
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Match8 Jun 2030
Three points for Atyrau, 5‑3 the final word against Akzhaiyk in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad10 Jun 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atyrau this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match8 Jun 2030
8 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Atyrau and Akzhaiyk in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad10 Jun 2030
Words at Atyrau training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Donervon Daniels 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.
Player ratings10 Jun 2030
Marked 7.46 on 11 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Player ratings10 Jun 2030
Abdallah Boukhanfer was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.37. 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad4 Feb 2030
A knee injury of the worst kind for Oleksandr Noiok
49 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Atyrau lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad4 Feb 2030
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 35 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Boardroom4 Feb 2030
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Atyrau can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Boardroom4 Feb 2030
The Atyrau board call everybody in
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Boardroom4 Feb 2030
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Atyrau
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Squad4 Feb 2030
“The easiest signature of my career.” Oleksandr Noiok and Atyrau agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad4 Feb 2030
Tempers go at Atyrau
Abylaikhan Zhūmabek 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.
Market4 Feb 2030
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Mohammed Tahiri signs something — a contract at Atyrau or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Market4 Feb 2030
Contract settled, hands shaken, no fee changing hands. Marlon Mena Martinez leaves Atyrau the quiet way, and the wage bill breathes a little easier.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Jan 2030
A knee injury of the worst kind for Oleksandr Noiok
56 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Atyrau lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad28 Jan 2030
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Atyrau will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad28 Jan 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atyrau this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Jan 2030
Words at Atyrau training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Donervon Daniels 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.
Market28 Jan 2030
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Dafiq Firdaus has his answer from Atyrau; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Market28 Jan 2030
The name of Abylaikhan Zhūmabek keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Atyrau say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Jan 2030
A knee injury of the worst kind for Oleksandr Noiok
65 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Atyrau lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad21 Jan 2030
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Atyrau will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad21 Jan 2030
Tempers go at Atyrau
Abylaikhan Zhūmabek 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.
In brief
-
Squad
Mario Rabiu falls out with a teammate over standards
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Jan 2030
A knee injury of the worst kind for Oleksandr Noiok
72 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Atyrau lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad14 Jan 2030
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Atyrau will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad14 Jan 2030
Tempers go at Atyrau
Oleksandr Noiok 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Jan 2030
A knee injury of the worst kind for Oleksandr Noiok
79 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Atyrau lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad7 Jan 2030
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 65 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Boardroom7 Jan 2030
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Atyrau can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Boardroom7 Jan 2030
The Atyrau board call everybody in
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Squad7 Jan 2030
Tempers go at Atyrau
Abylaikhan Zhūmabek 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.
Squad7 Jan 2030
Donervon Daniels 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad31 Dec 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Oleksandr Noiok
88 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Atyrau lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad31 Dec 2029
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 72 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad31 Dec 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atyrau this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 Dec 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Oleksandr Noiok
95 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Atyrau lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad24 Dec 2029
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 81 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market24 Dec 2029
“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 Atyrau, and it is not being withdrawn.
In brief
-
Squad
Tempers go at Atyrau
-
Squad
Mario Rabiu falls out with a teammate over standards
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad17 Dec 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Oleksandr Noiok
102 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Atyrau lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad17 Dec 2029
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 90 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad17 Dec 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atyrau this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad10 Dec 2029
Oleksandr Noiok damages knee ligaments — 110 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 110 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.
Squad10 Dec 2029
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Atyrau will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad10 Dec 2029
Tempers go at Atyrau
Abylaikhan Zhūmabek 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 Dec 2029
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 106 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Boardroom3 Dec 2029
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Atyrau can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Boardroom3 Dec 2029
Crisis meeting at Atyrau
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Squad3 Dec 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atyrau this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Dec 2029
Words at Atyrau training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mario Rabiu 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.
Squad3 Dec 2029
The medical room confirms 35 days on the sidelines for Azat Tymoshchuk, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Market3 Dec 2029
The name of Abylaikhan Zhūmabek keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Atyrau say nothing, which says plenty.
Market3 Dec 2029
2 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Atyrau could get for him.
Market3 Dec 2029
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Sultan Al-Otaibi may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
In brief
-
Boardroom
The Atyrau dressing room answers
-
Boardroom
The Atyrau production line keeps running
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Nov 2029
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Atyrau will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market26 Nov 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Atyrau can pretend not to have heard.
Squad26 Nov 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atyrau this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Nov 2029
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 122 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad19 Nov 2029
Donatas Kuklys damages knee ligaments — 50 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 50 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.
Squad19 Nov 2029
A muscle injury sidelines Mohammed Tahiri for 17 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Atyrau will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Nov 2029
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 129 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad12 Nov 2029
Donatas Kuklys damages knee ligaments — 57 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 57 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.
Squad12 Nov 2029
Tempers go at Atyrau
Abylaikhan Zhūmabek 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Nov 2029
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Atyrau will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad5 Nov 2029
Donatas Kuklys damages knee ligaments — 64 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 64 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.
Boardroom5 Nov 2029
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Atyrau can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Boardroom5 Nov 2029
Crisis meeting at Atyrau
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Squad5 Nov 2029
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Donervon Daniels and Atyrau agree another 2 years.
Squad5 Nov 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atyrau this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.