Marked for Azat Beysebekov
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Dec 2026
A falling-out at Akzhaiyk
Yeldos Postnikov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad7 Dec 2026
A row about effort at Akzhaiyk
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Askhat Islamkhan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad7 Dec 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Azat Beysebekov and Akzhaiyk agree another 3 years.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market30 Nov 2026
“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 The request is on a desk at Akzhaiyk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Akzhaiyk
Serikzhan Logvinenko 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Akzhaiyk
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Talgat Nuserbayev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout30 Nov 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 dugout30 Nov 2026
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
Azat Beysebekov asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad9 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Rinat Murtazaev
108 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Samat Postnikov 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Akzhaiyk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Talgat Nuserbayev 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.
Loan watch9 Nov 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 13 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Akzhaiyk. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
Maxim Orazov asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Oct 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Serikzhan Postnikov and Akzhaiyk agree another 3 years.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Aibol Nurgaliev
“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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Talgat Nuserbayev 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.
Loan watch12 Oct 2026
“I did not go to Irtysh to sit and watch. I want to come back to Akzhaiyk and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 9 matches say the rest.
Squad12 Oct 2026
A falling-out at Akzhaiyk
Yeldos Postnikov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 0 in, 2 out at Akzhaiyk
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 0 arrived, 2 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Yeldos Nurgaliev and Akzhaiyk agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Loan watch14 Sep 2026
“I did not go to Irtysh to sit and watch. I want to come back to Akzhaiyk and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Akzhaiyk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Askhat Islamkhan 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.
The dugout14 Sep 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 dugout14 Sep 2026
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 Aibol Nurgaliev has written the date down.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market24 Aug 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Irtysh can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Everything agreed with Inter, 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
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: FCSB keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Irtysh
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oluwabori Falaye was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Kairat have kept their man, and Irtysh go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Irtysh
Stanislav Ruban and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match12 Aug 2026
The cup run ends for Irtysh
1‑2 against Okzhetpes, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 28. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Kairat have kept their man, and Irtysh go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
A performance of 8.15 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Irtysh
Stanislav Ruban 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 dugout17 Aug 2026
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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Ordabasy Orazov to a room that had heard them before.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Irtysh have made the call to FCSB. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Dmitry Guz' has outgrown this division
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Irtysh know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
Nobody at Irtysh will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad10 Aug 2026
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Akzhaiyk will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market10 Aug 2026
Akzhaiyk say no — this time
The offer from Zhetysu for Serikzhan Logvinenko was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Kairat keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Yeldos Shomko and Akzhaiyk agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Timur Beysebekov 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 targets10 Aug 2026
Akzhaiyk 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Samat Postnikov 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 targets10 Aug 2026
Shakhter 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
No place for Maxim Orazov in the plan
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Maxim Orazov has his answer from Akzhaiyk; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match1 Aug 2026
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Serikzhan Akhmetov will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Akzhaiyk escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Squad3 Aug 2026
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Squad3 Aug 2026
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.
Market3 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Akzhaiyk
Samat Postnikov 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.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Marked 9.43. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Akzhaiyk.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
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 dugout3 Aug 2026
“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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Akzhaiyk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aibol Nurgaliev 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.