Marked for Ordabasy Murtazaev
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom5 Feb 2029
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Maxim Nuserbayev has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Market5 Feb 2029
Akzhaiyk say no — this time
The offer from Okzhetpes for Rinat Murtazaev 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.
Squad5 Feb 2029
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.
Market5 Feb 2029
Everyone has stopped pretending: Zhetysu will make the call about Azat Zainutdinov this week. Akzhaiyk have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Boardroom5 Feb 2029
$995.6K taken back off the Akzhaiyk table
What was available in the summer has quietly gone. Upstairs nobody will call it a change of ambition; downstairs nobody will call it anything else.
Squad5 Feb 2029
Somebody else's move, somebody else's headline. What it left at Akzhaiyk is an empty peg and a footballer who keeps glancing at it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom6 Dec 2027
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Maxim Nuserbayev has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Squad6 Dec 2027
40 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Islambek Vorogovskiy 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
Crisis
Match29 Nov 2027
Akzhaiyk are in real trouble now
Position 11, 15 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.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Nurbol Kuat 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.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Abzal Murtazaev 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
Crisis
Match1 Nov 2027
Akzhaiyk sink to position 11
15 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Squad1 Nov 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 Nov 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Baurzhan Suyumbayev commits to Akzhaiyk for another 3 years.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match4 Oct 2027
Akzhaiyk are in real trouble now
Position 11, 15 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.
Boardroom4 Oct 2027
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Maxim Nuserbayev has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Squad4 Oct 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Islambek Vorogovskiy and Akzhaiyk agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad4 Oct 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.
Loan watch4 Oct 2027
“I watch every Akzhaiyk game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Bnei Sakhnin runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad4 Oct 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nurbol Kuat, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match6 Sep 2027
Every point is an argument now for Akzhaiyk
Position 11 and 15 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.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Maxim Nuserbayev has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Akzhaiyk can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Market6 Sep 2027
Ordabasy 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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Akzhaiyk may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad6 Sep 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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
The medical room confirms 32 days on the sidelines for Azat Zainutdinov, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Loan watch6 Sep 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 Akzhaiyk, and 0 appearances in 10 say he has earned the hearing.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
$1.2M taken back off the Akzhaiyk table
What was available in the summer has quietly gone. Upstairs nobody will call it a change of ambition; downstairs nobody will call it anything else.
Squad6 Sep 2027
A window away with the national side, and a shirt at Akzhaiyk that briefly doubles as an advertisement. A call-up flatters the player and the club that built him in the same breath.