Marked for Timur Postnikov
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market28 Aug 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 The request is on a desk at Astana, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Tempers go at Astana
Karlo Bartolec 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.
Loan watch28 Aug 2028
“I did not go to Ordabasy to sit and watch. I want to come back to Astana and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 9 matches say the rest.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match29 Jul 2028
Still nobody has beaten Astana
The unbeaten run reaches 9. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Market31 Jul 2028
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Player ratings31 Jul 2028
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad31 Jul 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 Astana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Words at Astana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Karlo Bartolec 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 ratings31 Jul 2028
Defensive actions: 20. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Player ratings31 Jul 2028
Defensive actions: 18, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Loan watch31 Jul 2028
“I did not go to Ordabasy to sit and watch. I want to come back to Astana and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.
Squad31 Jul 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The terraces5 Jun 2028
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 8 of the 24 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
Market5 Jun 2028
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Astana they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Tempers go at Astana
Karlo Bartolec 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.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Kipras Kažukolovas 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.
Match3 Jun 2028
Aktobe left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings5 Jun 2028
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad5 Jun 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.
Boardroom5 Jun 2028
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
Boardroom5 Jun 2028
$1.2M on the table at Astana
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match6 May 2028
Astana cannot stop winning
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Market8 May 2028
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Timur Postnikov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Astana the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad8 May 2028
Tempers go at Astana
Karlo Bartolec 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.
Match6 May 2028
Astana are at home on the road
4 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
Player ratings8 May 2028
Ninety minutes of Amaury Morales at his very best
Marked 8.87. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Astana.
Squad8 May 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.
Match6 May 2028
Three points for Astana, 1‑0 the final word against Tobol in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings8 May 2028
17 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Squad8 May 2028
The award is a small thing with a heavy meaning: for four weeks nobody in this division did his job better. Astana have the trophy on a shelf and the player in the side.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Apr 2028
Ramazan Bağdat: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Astana have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market10 Apr 2028
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Timur Postnikov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Astana the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Kipras Kažukolovas 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.
Squad10 Apr 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 Astana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Apr 2028
The manager makes an example of Hazem Mastouri
“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.
Player ratings10 Apr 2028
Marked 8.59 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Market10 Apr 2028
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Ryuji Sugimoto has his answer from Astana; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Match8 Apr 2028
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The terraces10 Apr 2028
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The terraces13 Mar 2028
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 7 of the 27 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
Player ratings13 Mar 2028
Successful dribbles: 25. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market13 Mar 2028
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Astana they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Tempers go at Astana
Karlo Bartolec 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.
Squad13 Mar 2028
A move Yaseen Barnawi would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Yaseen Barnawi is living that version at Astana, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Kipras Kažukolovas 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.
Match11 Mar 2028
A bad afternoon for Astana against Irtysh
1‑2 to Irtysh, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad13 Mar 2028
“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.
Boardroom13 Mar 2028
Doors closed at Astana
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market14 Feb 2028
The paperwork is done: Gustavo Mendonça joins from Kairat in a deal worth $870.0K. Now comes the harder part.
Market14 Feb 2028
Ordabasy come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Astana did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Tempers go at Astana
Karlo Bartolec 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.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Branimir Kalaica 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.
Squad14 Feb 2028
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Astana know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Ivan Bašić has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Astana 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
Upbeat
Squad7 Feb 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Hazem Mastouri and Astana agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad7 Feb 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 Astana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Words at Astana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kipras Kažukolovas 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
Upbeat
Squad20 Sep 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 61 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad20 Sep 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Astana may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad20 Sep 2027
24 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad23 Aug 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 93 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Tempers go at Astana
Karlo Bartolec 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.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Kipras Kažukolovas 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
Uneasy
Squad23 Aug 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Shakhter may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Eden Shamir in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shakhter this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Aug 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Akito Mukai, and the manager let it.