Marked for Ehsan Azmoun
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market11 Sep 2028
“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 The request is on a desk at Volna, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom11 Sep 2028
Volna close the window on a squad of their own making
10 in and 15 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.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Words exchanged at Volna
Mikhail Zabotkin 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.
Boardroom11 Sep 2028
Wages swallow 164% of the Volna income
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
Boardroom11 Sep 2028
Volna are $4.8M in the red
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
The dugout11 Sep 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Kristoffer Hertzberg Vestgøte, and the manager let it.
Looking ahead11 Sep 2028
Volna take on the side everybody is chasing
Orenburg 2 arrive as leaders. A side at the top is beaten roughly once a month, and the club that does it gets a week it remembers for a year.
Market11 Sep 2028
Volna bring in an old head
Ehsan Azmoun is 36 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
The dugout11 Sep 2028
Simon Baroš gets picked when it counts
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 Simon Baroš is on it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces17 Jan 2028
The mood at Atyrau 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.
Boardroom17 Jan 2028
Pressure builds in the Atyrau boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Words at Atyrau training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dmitry Yashin 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.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Words exchanged at Atyrau
Victor Ferreira 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.
Market17 Jan 2028
The name of Abylaikhan Zhūmabek keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Atyrau say nothing, which says plenty.
Market17 Jan 2028
Contract settled, hands shaken, no fee changing hands. Ehsan Azmoun leaves Atyrau the quiet way, and the wage bill breathes a little easier.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad3 Jan 2028
Egor Tkachenko damages knee ligaments — 20 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 20 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.
Match3 Jan 2028
Every point is an argument now for Atyrau
Position 11 and 14 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Boardroom3 Jan 2028
Askhat Akhmetov has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Atyrau can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Boardroom3 Jan 2028
Crisis meeting at Atyrau
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Mario Rabiu in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atyrau this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Jan 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ehsan Azmoun and Atyrau agree another 1 years.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces27 Sep 2027
The mood at Atyrau 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.
Boardroom27 Sep 2027
Pressure builds in the Atyrau boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Words exchanged at Atyrau
Mario Rabiu 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.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Dmitry Yashin 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 dugout27 Sep 2027
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Atyrau, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout27 Sep 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.
Market27 Sep 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Atyrau know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Squad27 Sep 2027
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad11 Jan 2027
Tempers go at Atyrau
Abylaikhan Zhūmabek 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.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Abylaikhan Zhūmabek, and the manager let it.
Market11 Jan 2027
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
Dmitry Ivanov gets picked when it counts
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 Dmitry Ivanov is on it.
Market11 Jan 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Atyrau know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
Yegor Tushev has been promised minutes
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 Yegor Tushev has written the date down.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad4 Jan 2027
15 days out for Alexey Polev after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Atyrau will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Ehsan Azmoun gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Ehsan Azmoun has just signed for Atyrau, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad4 Jan 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 Atyrau this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
The manager makes an example of Yegor Tushev
“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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ehsan Azmoun and Atyrau agree another 1 years.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
Oleksandr Noiok has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Atyrau 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.