Marked for Talgat Logvinenko
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match9 Aug 2027
Zhetysu finish in position 10
20 points, and the season has a number on it. Whatever it felt like from the inside, this is what it will look like in a book.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
Zhetysu 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.
Squad9 Aug 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 Zhetysu this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Aug 2027
100 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
The dugout9 Aug 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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
“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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Words at Zhetysu training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Muslim Dachaev 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.
Match7 Aug 2027
It needed Talgat Logvinenko to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Aktobe, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout9 Aug 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Serikzhan Postnikov was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Zhetysu dressing room was either.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match21 Jun 2027
Zhetysu sink to position 11
12 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market21 Jun 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Taraz waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Zhetysu is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2027
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.
Squad21 Jun 2027
A falling-out at Zhetysu
Jovan Pajović and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings21 Jun 2027
Successful dribbles: 19. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Match19 Jun 2027
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Looking ahead21 Jun 2027
Zhetysu face Akzhaiyk in the game that matters most
Two sides from the bottom of the table, three points, and an afternoon that will be described afterwards as a relegation decider by whoever loses it.
The dugout21 Jun 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.
The dugout21 Jun 2027
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match8 May 2027
No end in sight to Akzhaiyk's wait for a win
8 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Akzhaiyk has to find a result from somewhere.
The dugout10 May 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.
Squad10 May 2027
7 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Market10 May 2027
“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 Akzhaiyk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad10 May 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Azat Beysebekov commits to Akzhaiyk for another 4 years.
Match8 May 2027
Akzhaiyk are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Match8 May 2027
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Loan watch10 May 2027
“I watch every Akzhaiyk game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Zhetysu runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad10 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 Akzhaiyk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Apr 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Nurali Nuserbayev
23 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Akzhaiyk lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match7 Apr 2027
Akzhaiyk bow out of the cup
Tobol go through and Akzhaiyk go home, 3‑5 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Match7 Apr 2027
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Azat Beysebekov will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Akzhaiyk escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Squad12 Apr 2027
There were 8 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Player ratings12 Apr 2027
A brace, and Azat Beysebekov takes the afternoon — 8.53
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Azat Beysebekov provided it, and the 8.53 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Match10 Apr 2027
The wait goes on for Akzhaiyk
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.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Words exchanged at Akzhaiyk
Roman Yemeljanov 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.
The terraces12 Apr 2027
He is 19 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Roman Yemeljanov, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad5 Apr 2027
There were 8 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match3 Apr 2027
7 matches without a win for Zhetysu
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Zhetysu are no longer polite ones.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Zhetysu may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Ramazan Aliev is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Damir Qasabūlat 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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Artem Kulishev and Zhetysu agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Loan watch5 Apr 2027
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Zhetysu, and 0 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
Match3 Apr 2027
0‑1 to Ordabasy, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Serikzhan Postnikov to a room that had heard them before.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words exchanged at Zhetysu
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.
The dugout29 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.
Looking ahead29 Mar 2027
The leaders are next for Zhetysu
Ordabasy top the table and they are coming into view. Nothing to lose, which is what every manager says before losing.
Looking ahead29 Mar 2027
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Igor' Trofimets’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Zhetysu needing him to play as if none of it matters.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
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.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
Rafkat Aslan knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Rafkat Aslan trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad8 Mar 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Market8 Mar 2027
“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.
Squad8 Mar 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Roman Yemeljanov commits to Akzhaiyk for another 2 years.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Roman Yemeljanov 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.
Boardroom8 Mar 2027
5 academy graduates step up at Akzhaiyk
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Match6 Mar 2027
Ordabasy left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Market8 Mar 2027
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Dauren Suyumbayev 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.
Market8 Mar 2027
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Ordabasy Dosmagambetov 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.
Market8 Mar 2027
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Yeldos Orazov 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market1 Feb 2027
“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 Zhetysu, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
$770.0K settles it between the clubs for Alexandr Zuev
Tobol have accepted the money. What Zhetysu do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Squad1 Feb 2027
“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.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
Zhetysu asked and Astana said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad1 Feb 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 Zhetysu this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout1 Feb 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Marko Živanović, and the manager let it.
Squad1 Feb 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Kawann and Zhetysu agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Market1 Feb 2027
He is 20, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Zhetysu will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad25 Jan 2027
53 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Akzhaiyk lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market25 Jan 2027
“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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
A falling-out at Akzhaiyk
Roman Yemeljanov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
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.
Market25 Jan 2027
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Akzhaiyk has been clear about where Gafurzhan Dosmagambetov stands, which is more than many ever get.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
“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
Steady
Squad18 Jan 2027
60 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Akzhaiyk lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words exchanged at Akzhaiyk
Roman Yemeljanov 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.
The dugout18 Jan 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 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 Akzhaiyk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Dec 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Matviy Huihanov and Akzhaiyk agree another 2 years.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad30 Nov 2026
A falling-out at Akzhaiyk
Roman Yemeljanov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Yerkebulan Tagybergen, and the manager let it.
The dugout30 Nov 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Akzhaiyk
Roman Yemeljanov 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.
Loan watch23 Nov 2026
“I did not go to Okzhetpes to sit and watch. I want to come back to Akzhaiyk and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 13 matches say the rest.
The dugout23 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 Akzhaiyk, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Oct 2026
Sherkhan Kalmurza 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.
Loan watch26 Oct 2026
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Akzhaiyk, and 0 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad26 Oct 2026
He came through the session, took part in everything and finished it smiling. Akzhaiyk will not rush him, and he will spend the next fortnight trying to rush them.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market26 Oct 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Asilbek Jumayev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Oct 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.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“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.
The dugout26 Oct 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Sep 2026
Sherkhan Kalmurza 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.
Loan watch28 Sep 2026
“I watch every Akzhaiyk game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Okzhetpes runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad28 Sep 2026
5 new faces, and Akzhaiyk 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
Steady
Market31 Aug 2026
Irtysh come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Okzhetpes did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market31 Aug 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.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Okzhetpes have done the hard part with Neftchi, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad31 Aug 2026
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.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Okzhetpes asked and Pakhtakor said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Miroslav Lobantsev'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.
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.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market24 Aug 2026
“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.
Market24 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad24 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 Akzhaiyk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Aktobe wanted more than $66.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Kairat have kept their man, and Akzhaiyk go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad24 Aug 2026
14 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
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.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
“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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A new face in his position and a shirt he thought he owned suddenly up for discussion. Akzhaiyk have promised nothing, which is what clubs promise at this stage.