Marked for Marat Postnikov
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets16 Aug 2027
Everything agreed with Slavia Prague, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Transfer targets16 Aug 2027
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Fenerbahce is saying, and nobody at Irtysh is enjoying the guessing.
Squad16 Aug 2027
A falling-out at Irtysh
Malik Odeyinka and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Words at Irtysh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bohdan Sarnavskyi 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.
The dugout16 Aug 2027
“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.
The dugout16 Aug 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 Marat Postnikov is on it.
The dugout16 Aug 2027
David Gondim knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and David Gondim trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market16 Aug 2027
5 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Irtysh money.
Squad16 Aug 2027
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market9 Aug 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad9 Aug 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 Irtysh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
Irtysh asked and Pafos 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 targets9 Aug 2027
Fenerbahce 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.
The dugout9 Aug 2027
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.
The dugout9 Aug 2027
“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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
A row about effort at Irtysh
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marat Postnikov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout9 Aug 2027
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Irtysh. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Squad9 Aug 2027
A new face in his position, and Bauyrzhan Islamkhan suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. Irtysh have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad2 Aug 2027
10 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Match2 Aug 2027
Irtysh finish in position 7
24 points, and the season has a number on it. Whatever it felt like from the inside, this is what it will look like in a book.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Tempers go at Irtysh
Malik Odeyinka 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.
Squad2 Aug 2027
A row about effort at Irtysh
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bohdan Sarnavskyi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match31 Jul 2027
The goals have deserted Irtysh
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Irtysh can tell you which week it ends in.
Match31 Jul 2027
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Market2 Aug 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Irtysh have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
The dugout2 Aug 2027
The manager makes an example of Örken Makhan
“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.
Squad2 Aug 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Danil Glinskiy and Irtysh agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match15 May 2027
The wait goes on for Irtysh
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Match15 May 2027
5 matches without a goal for Irtysh
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 5 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad17 May 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 Irtysh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match17 May 2027
Irtysh at the halfway mark
Half the programme played, position 8, 11 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
Player ratings17 May 2027
Marked 7.52. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
The dugout17 May 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 Meirambek Qalmyrza is on it.
The dugout17 May 2027
“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 dugout17 May 2027
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Squad17 May 2027
Marat Postnikov 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
Crisis
Match8 May 2027
Chastening afternoon for Irtysh
A 0‑3 beating by Kairat was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Match8 May 2027
No end in sight to Irtysh's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Irtysh has to find a result from somewhere.
Match8 May 2027
4 matches without a goal for Irtysh
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad10 May 2027
Tempers go at Irtysh
Malik Odeyinka 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.
Squad10 May 2027
A row about effort at Irtysh
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bohdan Sarnavskyi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings10 May 2027
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.
Market10 May 2027
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Ordabasy Islamkhan 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.
Boardroom10 May 2027
Nobody left the Irtysh dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout10 May 2027
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings26 Apr 2027
Successful dribbles: 22. 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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
A falling-out at Irtysh
Malik Odeyinka and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match24 Apr 2027
Whatever happens, Irtysh do not lose
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Marat Postnikov 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.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
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.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Yegor Sedov, and the manager let it.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
Somebody else is better right now than Abdulaziz Al-Asbahi
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Match24 Apr 2027
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Zhetysu defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings12 Apr 2027
A debut Marat Postnikov will not forget — 9.52
There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 3 on the scoresheet, 9.52 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.
Match7 Apr 2027
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Marat Postnikov obliged against Zhetysu. 3‑2 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Irtysh.
Match7 Apr 2027
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Irtysh scored in the 97th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Player ratings12 Apr 2027
Two goals and a mark of 8.78 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad12 Apr 2027
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Player ratings12 Apr 2027
No sign of nerves from Marat Shomko at 14 — 8.07
The hardest thing about being 14 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Marat Shomko did not need any: 8.07, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Words at Irtysh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bohdan Sarnavskyi 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.
Squad12 Apr 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.83 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 24. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match13 Mar 2027
It finished 2‑1, and it was Bauyrzhan Islamkhan’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Irtysh.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words exchanged at Irtysh
Malik Odeyinka 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.
The terraces15 Mar 2027
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.98 on the card, and the Irtysh support went home talking about one name.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Irtysh are still strangers to each other
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 2‑1, already talking about the next one.
Squad15 Mar 2027
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Irtysh know which stage they are at.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market11 Jan 2027
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Aibol Tagybergen is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Squad11 Jan 2027
The medical room confirms 24 days on the sidelines for Marat Postnikov, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Shaxzod Shaymanov, and the manager let it.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
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.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Irtysh. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Market11 Jan 2027
Irtysh have made Maxim Belkovskiy available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at Irtysh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bohdan Sarnavskyi 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.
Market14 Dec 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Baurzhan Beysebekov 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.
Market14 Dec 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Nurbol Beysebekov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad2 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Irtysh
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bohdan Sarnavskyi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout2 Nov 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.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
Nahuel Tisón gets picked when it counts
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 Nahuel Tisón is on it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Irtysh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bohdan Sarnavskyi 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Irtysh are still strangers to each other
18 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Squad26 Oct 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Marat Postnikov and Irtysh agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
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 Meirambek Qalmyrza is on it.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Maxim Belyaev knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Irtysh, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout26 Oct 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
Steady
The dugout19 Oct 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.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Karam Sūltanov has written the date down.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Irtysh, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at Irtysh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bohdan Sarnavskyi 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.
Market12 Oct 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Marat Postnikov 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.
Market12 Oct 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Serikzhan Kuat 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.
The dugout12 Oct 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.
The dugout12 Oct 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.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Karam Sūltanov has written the date down.