Marked for Baurzhan Postnikov
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match24 Jun 2028
The wait goes on for Zhetysu
11 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.
Market26 Jun 2028
Zhetysu say no — this time
The offer from Akzhaiyk for Aslan Akhmedov 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.
Market26 Jun 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Zhetysu can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings26 Jun 2028
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad26 Jun 2028
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.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Alan Chochiev 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.
Market26 Jun 2028
Ordabasy are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Zhetysu will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Squad26 Jun 2028
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Zhetysu told Baurzhan Postnikov something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Match24 Jun 2028
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match22 May 2028
Every point is an argument now for Zhetysu
Position 10 and 11 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.
Squad22 May 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 16 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match20 May 2028
No end in sight to Zhetysu's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Zhetysu has to find a result from somewhere.
Market22 May 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 Zhetysu, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad22 May 2028
Serikzhan Muzhikov 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.
Squad22 May 2028
Words at Zhetysu training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alan Chochiev 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market15 May 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 Zhetysu, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad15 May 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 23 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match13 May 2028
The wait goes on for Zhetysu
5 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.
Squad15 May 2028
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.
Squad15 May 2028
Alan Chochiev 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.
Match13 May 2028
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad27 Mar 2028
Serikzhan Muzhikov 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.
Squad27 Mar 2028
“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.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Words at Zhetysu training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Diego Ramirez 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market19 Jul 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad19 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 Zhetysu this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market19 Jul 2027
Add another name to the list: Atyrau have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Dinmūkhamed Qashken. The answer from Zhetysu has not changed — yet.
Match17 Jul 2027
A 1‑1 draw with Kairat leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Squad19 Jul 2027
The manager makes an example of Rauan Orynbasar
“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.
Squad19 Jul 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Ädilkhan Dobai'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.
Player ratings19 Jul 2027
4.28. Every footballer has these and most of them happen away from a full ground; his did not, and he will be aware of that all week.
Squad19 Jul 2027
A booking nobody needed, on a night the game was already won. Zhetysu lose a player for the most avoidable reason there is.
Player ratings19 Jul 2027
He was not in the side at half past three and he had settled it before five. Half an hour, and Zhetysu had a different afternoon.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match10 Jul 2027
21 matches without a win for Akzhaiyk
The run now stands at 21, and the questions being asked around Akzhaiyk are no longer polite ones.
Squad12 Jul 2027
66 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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 12 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match10 Jul 2027
0‑9 to Aktobe, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Match12 Jul 2027
Every point is an argument now for Akzhaiyk
Position 12 and 1 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.
Match10 Jul 2027
Akzhaiyk are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 9 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Market12 Jul 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.
The terraces12 Jul 2027
Supporters turn on the $350.0K sale of Baurzhan Postnikov
He is going to Zhetysu, the club has $350.0K it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Match10 Jul 2027
6 matches without a goal for Akzhaiyk
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 6 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings12 Jul 2027
At 37 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.06 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Serikzhan Muzhikov 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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Meik Karwot pulls a muscle — 16 days out
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 16 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
The terraces12 Jul 2027
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Baurzhan Postnikov from Akzhaiyk for $350.0K, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
The terraces12 Jul 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Diego Ramirez has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Match10 Jul 2027
Irtysh made Zhetysu work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad12 Jul 2027
31 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Words at Zhetysu training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikita Kildzhiev 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.
Player ratings12 Jul 2027
Successful dribbles: 13. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match3 Jul 2027
The wait goes on for Akzhaiyk
20 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.
The terraces5 Jul 2027
Anger at Akzhaiyk spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Squad5 Jul 2027
73 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.
Match3 Jul 2027
0‑6 to Astana, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Squad5 Jul 2027
There were 9 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.
Boardroom5 Jul 2027
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Nurbol Baizhanov has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Boardroom5 Jul 2027
The scrutiny sharpens at Akzhaiyk
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Akzhaiyk is running low.
Market5 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.
Match3 Jul 2027
No clean sheets in sight for Akzhaiyk
8 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match19 Jun 2027
The wait goes on for Akzhaiyk
18 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.
Squad21 Jun 2027
The words a physio says slowly. 88 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.
Market21 Jun 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.
Market21 Jun 2027
Irtysh come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Akzhaiyk did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Match19 Jun 2027
Akzhaiyk are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 6 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Rayan Al-Mousa 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.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Erkebūlan Seidakhmet 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.
Match19 Jun 2027
3 matches without a goal for Akzhaiyk
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Match19 Jun 2027
0‑2 to Zhetysu, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match12 Jun 2027
17 matches without a win for Akzhaiyk
The run now stands at 17, and the questions being asked around Akzhaiyk are no longer polite ones.
Squad14 Jun 2027
The words a physio says slowly. 95 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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
There were 11 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.
Match14 Jun 2027
Akzhaiyk are in real trouble now
Position 12, 1 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.
Match12 Jun 2027
Beaten 0‑3 by Tobol, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Squad14 Jun 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Akzhaiyk may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market14 Jun 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.
Match12 Jun 2027
No clean sheets in sight for Akzhaiyk
5 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Squad14 Jun 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
Crisis
Match29 May 2027
15 matches without a win for Akzhaiyk
The run now stands at 15, and the questions being asked around Akzhaiyk are no longer polite ones.
Squad31 May 2027
110 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.
Squad31 May 2027
There were 9 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.
Market31 May 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Akzhaiyk can pretend not to have heard.
Squad31 May 2027
A muscle injury sidelines Baurzhan Postnikov for 15 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Akzhaiyk will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad31 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.
Match29 May 2027
Irtysh left with the points after a 2‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings31 May 2027
Erkebūlan Seidakhmet was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.20. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Player ratings31 May 2027
Off the bench and decisive: Askhat Shomko
The substitution nobody applauded turned out to be the whole story. Akzhaiyk were going nowhere until he came on.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match22 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.
Squad24 May 2027
117 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.
Match22 May 2027
1‑5 to Ordabasy, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Market24 May 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Akzhaiyk can pretend not to have heard.
Squad24 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.
Match22 May 2027
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Akzhaiyk and Ordabasy, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad24 May 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Rinat Tagybergen commits to Akzhaiyk for another 4 years.
Squad24 May 2027
Words at Akzhaiyk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Baurzhan Postnikov 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.
Player ratings24 May 2027
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad17 May 2027
124 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.
Match15 May 2027
13 matches without a win for Akzhaiyk
The run now stands at 13, and the questions being asked around Akzhaiyk are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings17 May 2027
Successful dribbles: 40. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad17 May 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 18 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match17 May 2027
Akzhaiyk sink to position 12
1 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Squad17 May 2027
There were 6 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings10 May 2027
Successful dribbles: 56. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad10 May 2027
131 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.
Match8 May 2027
The wait goes on for Akzhaiyk
12 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.
Squad10 May 2027
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Akzhaiyk will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market10 May 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.
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
Crisis
Squad19 Apr 2027
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Akzhaiyk will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match17 Apr 2027
No end in sight to Akzhaiyk's wait for a win
9 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Akzhaiyk has to find a result from somewhere.
Match19 Apr 2027
Akzhaiyk sink to position 12
0 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Match17 Apr 2027
Beaten 0‑3 by Astana, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Match17 Apr 2027
No clean sheets in sight for Akzhaiyk
9 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Player ratings19 Apr 2027
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Rayan Al-Mousa 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.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Erkebūlan Seidakhmet 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.
Squad19 Apr 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
Crisis
Match10 Apr 2027
Beaten 3‑6 by Kairat, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Akzhaiyk will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match7 Apr 2027
The small margins put Akzhaiyk out
Out, 0‑2 to Aktobe, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Match10 Apr 2027
The wait goes on for Akzhaiyk
8 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.
Match10 Apr 2027
Akzhaiyk leaking at the back
8 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Market12 Apr 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 Apr 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.
Match10 Apr 2027
9 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Akzhaiyk and Kairat in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad22 Mar 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 79 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 33. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad22 Mar 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Akzhaiyk may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match20 Mar 2027
No end in sight to Akzhaiyk's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Akzhaiyk has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words at Akzhaiyk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Baurzhan Postnikov 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.
Match20 Mar 2027
No clean sheets in sight for Akzhaiyk
4 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad8 Mar 2027
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Akzhaiyk will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad8 Mar 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 ratings8 Mar 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.50, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market8 Mar 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.
Squad8 Mar 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Rayan Al-Mousa commits to Akzhaiyk for another 2 years.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Rayan Al-Mousa 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
Graduation day at Akzhaiyk
7 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Match6 Mar 2027
Ordabasy left with the points after a 2‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Market8 Mar 2027
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Rinat Postnikov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad1 Mar 2027
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Akzhaiyk will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Nurali Akhmetov damages knee ligaments — 18 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 18 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.
Market1 Mar 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad22 Feb 2027
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Akzhaiyk will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Nurali Akhmetov damages knee ligaments — 25 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 25 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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Rayan Al-Mousa 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market8 Feb 2027
$1.1M. No player has ever cost Akzhaiyk more, and expectation arrives with him.
Market8 Feb 2027
Akzhaiyk say no — this time
The offer from Irtysh for Ordabasy Nuserbayev 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.
Market8 Feb 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Akzhaiyk can pretend not to have heard.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Rayan Al-Mousa 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 terraces8 Feb 2027
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Erkebūlan Seidakhmet from Aktobe for $1.1M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at Akzhaiyk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Baurzhan Postnikov 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad1 Feb 2027
Baktiyor Nurgaliev damages knee ligaments — 15 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 15 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.
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 Akzhaiyk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market1 Feb 2027
Akzhaiyk say no — this time
The offer from Zhetysu for Askhat Shomko 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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Yegor Baranov gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Yegor Baranov has just signed for Akzhaiyk, and for once the answer mattered.
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 Akzhaiyk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Baurzhan 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad25 Jan 2027
Baktiyor Nurgaliev damages knee ligaments — 22 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 22 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.
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
Rayan Al-Mousa 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad18 Jan 2027
Baktiyor Nurgaliev damages knee ligaments — 29 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 29 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.
Squad18 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 Akzhaiyk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Baurzhan 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad11 Jan 2027
37 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 15 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Rayan Al-Mousa 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.
In brief
-
Squad
Words at Akzhaiyk training over how hard people work
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Dec 2026
A fracture rules Nurali Akhmetov out for 30 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Akzhaiyk will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad28 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Akzhaiyk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Baurzhan Postnikov 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Dec 2026
A fracture rules Nurali Akhmetov out for 37 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Akzhaiyk will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad21 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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Baurzhan 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.