Marked for Baktiyor Shomko
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match12 Aug 2026
Akzhaiyk through in the cup
A 1‑0 win over Tobol, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Market17 Aug 2026
Akzhaiyk say no — this time
The offer from Irtysh for Ordabasy Orazov 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 targets17 Aug 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Sogdiana keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Kairat have kept their man, and Akzhaiyk go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market17 Aug 2026
The name of Timur Baizhanov has come up in conversations Akzhaiyk were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Talgat Suyumbayev 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 dugout17 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Baktiyor Shomko
“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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Akzhaiyk
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dauren Vorogovskiy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Aktobe 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Akzhaiyk have done the hard part with Sogdiana, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
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.” Serikzhan Tymoshchuk and Akzhaiyk agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad10 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Akzhaiyk
Talgat Suyumbayev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Ordabasy Orazov 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
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.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Match8 Aug 2026
Level with 92 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Akzhaiyk had all but put away. Shakhter will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
The dugout10 Aug 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Akzhaiyk
Talgat Suyumbayev 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Akzhaiyk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Baktiyor Shomko 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Akzhaiyk have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Yeldos Islamkhan and Akzhaiyk agree another 2 years.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Akzhaiyk have made the call to Sogdiana. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Kairat: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Baurzhan Tymoshchuk after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The dugout3 Aug 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.