The Irtysh Herald
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
Egor Tkachenko will not be coming to Irtysh
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Atyrau is saying, and nobody at Irtysh is enjoying the guessing.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Marezi arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Marezi has, at Irtysh, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Jamshid Boltaboev 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 targets8 Feb 2027
Astana tell Irtysh: Karlo Bartolec is not for sale
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
The manager makes an example of Karam Sūltanov
“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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Too much change too quickly at Irtysh
7 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
Irtysh ask about Nikita Kireev
A loan enquiry to Dinamo Vologda: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
Irtysh try to borrow Dmytro Topalov
Aktobe 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.
Market8 Feb 2027
Irtysh sign Lucas Berrutti, one for the future
Lucas Berrutti is 20, and Irtysh have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
In brief
- Market Irtysh buy the years ahead of Rafael
- Squad Lucas Berrutti signs on for more
- The dugout Jamshid Boltaboev has become a man the manager trusts