Marked for Ordabasy Orazov
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market31 Aug 2026
“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 The request is on a desk at Akzhaiyk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market31 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.
Squad31 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 targets31 Aug 2026
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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Akzhaiyk
Timur Baizhanov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
“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.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Squad31 Aug 2026
A new face in his position and a shirt he thought he owned suddenly up for discussion. Akzhaiyk have promised nothing, which is what clubs promise at this stage.
Squad31 Aug 2026
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Akzhaiyk will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match19 Aug 2026
The small margins put Akzhaiyk out
Out, 0‑1 to Astana, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Market24 Aug 2026
“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 The request is on a desk at Akzhaiyk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market24 Aug 2026
Akzhaiyk say no — this time
The offer from Okzhetpes for Timur Baizhanov 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.
Squad24 Aug 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Akzhaiyk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ordabasy Orazov 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.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
17 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
Nobody at Akzhaiyk 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.
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.
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.