A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Ordabasy will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“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 Ordabasy know it.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Taraz have kept their man, and Ordabasy go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and El'khan Astanov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
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 Ordabasy would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
In brief
BoardroomOpen for business: Ordabasy enter the window
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Ordabasy is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and David Abagna was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Ordabasy they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Ordabasy can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 17 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
In brief
SquadWords at Ordabasy training over how hard people work
Ordabasy had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Meshakhte Tkibuli, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Arsenal Tula have kept their man, and Ordabasy go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Ordabasy training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. El'khan Astanov 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.
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
Squad7 Sep 2026
9 new faces, and Ordabasy are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Bjørn Johnsen is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Abinur Nūrymbet trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Ordabasy they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Ordabasy asked and Arsenal Tula said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 4 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
A call-up flatters the player and the club that produced him in the same breath. Ordabasy would like him back in one piece and know they will not be consulted.