Marked for Timur Logvinenko
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Boardroom1 Mar 2027
Irtysh close the window on a squad of their own making
11 in and 0 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Squad1 Mar 2027
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Irtysh are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad1 Mar 2027
A falling-out at Irtysh
Denis Mitrofanov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets1 Mar 2027
Irtysh asked and Fakel said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Transfer targets1 Mar 2027
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Irtysh will try again when the window opens; Zhetysu may not be selling by then.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Karam Sūltanov 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad1 Feb 2027
17 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Irtysh lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad1 Feb 2027
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Irtysh will quote 14 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Irtysh have done the hard part with Kairat, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Tobol have kept their man, and Irtysh go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad1 Feb 2027
A row about effort at Irtysh
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oluwabori Falaye was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad1 Feb 2027
A falling-out at Irtysh
Matviy Huihanov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market1 Feb 2027
Nikita Kildzhiev is 17, and Irtysh have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Open for business: Irtysh enter the window
The registration window is open and the phone has started. Between now and the deadline this club will be linked with forty players and sign three, which is the usual ratio.
The dugout1 Feb 2027
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Timur Logvinenko is on it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad4 Jan 2027
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Irtysh know it.
Squad4 Jan 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Lucas Streit and Irtysh agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad4 Jan 2027
“56 caps was 56 more than the boy who started ever expected.” At 34 he has stepped away from the national side and has not stepped away from Irtysh.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market7 Dec 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Marat Taykenov has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market7 Dec 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Maxim Dosmagambetov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market7 Dec 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Islambek Nurgaliev has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market7 Dec 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Islambek Kuat has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Irtysh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oluwabori Falaye 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
A falling-out at Irtysh
Matviy Huihanov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad7 Dec 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Mykhaylo Zakharov and Irtysh agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad7 Dec 2026
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Irtysh are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Timur Logvinenko is on it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout2 Nov 2026
Oluwabori Falaye has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Irtysh 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
Squad2 Nov 2026
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Irtysh the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout26 Oct 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 dugout26 Oct 2026
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Bauyrzhan Islamkhan is on it.
Squad26 Oct 2026
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Irtysh would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.64, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
No sign of nerves from Azamat Tuiakbaev at 19 — 8.05
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Azamat Tuiakbaev did not need any: 8.05, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Sochi keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Match19 Aug 2026
Irtysh make it 3 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Irtysh have 3 straight wins of it.
Match19 Aug 2026
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Irtysh and Shakhter, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
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.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Murodzhon Khalmatov 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.
The dugout24 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
Upbeat
Match12 Aug 2026
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Timur Logvinenko obliged against Okzhetpes. 1‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Irtysh.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
1 on the scoresheet on his first appearance and a mark of 7.65 beside it. Most debuts are got through; this one was enjoyed, by him and by everybody watching it.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Irtysh
Denis Mitrofanov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets17 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.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 14-year-old it feels ownership of. Timur Logvinenko 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Too much change too quickly at Irtysh
19 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
A loan move for Zakhar Fedorov is in the works
Irtysh have made the call to Sochi. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
A loan move for Andrey Ivlev is in the works
Irtysh have made the call to Akhmat Grozny. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Radnicki Nis: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.