The mood at Zhetysu 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.
Boardroom26 Feb 2029
Zhetysu close the window on a squad of their own making
1 in and 1 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Raphael Success 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.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Zhetysu will try again when the window opens; Atyrau may not be selling by then.
Squad26 Feb 2029
Words at Zhetysu training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Meik Karwot 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 manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Nūrbol Anuarbekov is on it.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Dinmūkhamed Qashken has written the date down.
Zhetysu spent a month trying to move him and nobody rang back. He trains with a squad that has told him where he stands, and both sides start counting down to the next one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zhetysu this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Dec 2028
Jovan Pajović 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Zhetysu can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Andrea Baldetti is living that version at Zhetysu, and it tends to show in the first month.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Meik Karwot was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Nūrbol Anuarbekov is on it.
Raphael Success 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.
Squad2 Oct 2028
Meik Karwot 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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
16 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zhetysu lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Zhetysu had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Ordabasy, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Askhat Baltabekov 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jovan Pajović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Zhetysu know it.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Askhat Baltabekov is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Zhetysu know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The words a physio says slowly. 27 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.
Askhat Baltabekov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Jovan Pajović 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.
“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; Zhetysu are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Zhetysu told Marko Živanović something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Askhat Baltabekov 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.
This is not rotation. Rauan Orynbasar has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Zhetysu is pretending otherwise.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Words at Zhetysu training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lucas Juárez 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.
Askhat Baltabekov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Words at Zhetysu training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jovan Pajović 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.
“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; Zhetysu are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Zhetysu are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Marko Živanović trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Akobirjon Ahmadjonov signs, and the fee column stays empty. Deals like this look small in July and clever by March — or they are never mentioned again.