Marked for Alexandr Burkov
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Taraz keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Khalid Shakhtiev 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.
Market31 Aug 2026
Business is business: Viktor Ziabko goes
Shakhter paid $71.0K and Okzhetpes took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Zhalğas Zhaqsylyqov 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Taraz: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market24 Aug 2026
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Okzhetpes people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A move Alexandr Burkov would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Alexandr Burkov is living that version at Okzhetpes, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A muscle injury and 14 days out for Khalid Shakhtiev
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Okzhetpes will quote 14 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Everything agreed with Taraz, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Nart is saying, and nobody at Okzhetpes is enjoying the guessing.
Squad24 Aug 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.
Squad24 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.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Zenit have kept their man, and Okzhetpes go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout24 Aug 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.