Marked for Maxim Postnikov
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market12 Jul 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 The request is on a desk at Akzhaiyk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad12 Jul 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.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
The deal with Kairat died in the treatment room. Nobody will say what was found and everybody in the game will find out by Friday.
Match10 Jul 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 Jul 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.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
Akzhaiyk have gone to Okzhetpes with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Squad12 Jul 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Timur Suyumbayev commits to Akzhaiyk for another 3 years.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Words at Akzhaiyk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Khalid Shakhtiev 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 dugout12 Jul 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Davron Zakirov, and the manager let it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match21 Jun 2027
Akzhaiyk are in real trouble now
Position 12, 5 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
The dugout21 Jun 2027
Eduardo Grechi: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Akzhaiyk have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market21 Jun 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.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2027
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Akzhaiyk have done the hard part with Kairat, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
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.
Match19 Jun 2027
Timur Suyumbayev scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Tobol, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Khalid Shakhtiev 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.
Squad21 Jun 2027
A falling-out at Akzhaiyk
Serikzhan Vorogovskiy 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
Uneasy
Match15 May 2027
No end in sight to Akzhaiyk's wait for a win
14 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 dugout17 May 2027
Talgat Akhmetov: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Akzhaiyk have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match15 May 2027
Akzhaiyk cannot find the net
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad17 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.
Squad17 May 2027
Words at Akzhaiyk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Davron Zakirov 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 dugout17 May 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Dauren Postnikov, and the manager let it.
The dugout17 May 2027
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Market17 May 2027
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Maxim Postnikov has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Akzhaiyk.
The dugout17 May 2027
Mikhail Gabyshev dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.