Marked for Askhat Nuserbayev
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces28 Jul 2036
The mood at Atyrau has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Squad28 Jul 2036
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market28 Jul 2036
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad28 Jul 2036
Tempers go at Atyrau
Abylaikhan Zhūmabek 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.
Transfer targets28 Jul 2036
$5.0K was the most the club would pay and Ordabasy were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Match26 Jul 2036
Atyrau cannot find the net
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Transfer targets28 Jul 2036
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Astana have kept their man, and Atyrau go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad28 Jul 2036
Words at Atyrau training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Merei Zhambyl 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.
Match26 Jul 2036
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces5 May 2036
Anger at Atyrau spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Match3 May 2036
A hiding for Atyrau
Beaten 1‑4 by Astana, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Squad5 May 2036
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Boardroom5 May 2036
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Boardroom5 May 2036
Emergency meeting at Atyrau
The whole football department in one room on a weekday morning. Nothing was announced afterwards, which is what a board announces when it has run out of patience.
Market5 May 2036
Miras Dilmūrat has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Atyrau they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad5 May 2036
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atyrau this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 May 2036
Merei Zhambyl 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 dugout5 May 2036
“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.
In brief
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Boardroom
Doors closed at Atyrau
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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Squad
Askhat Nuserbayev named in the team of the month
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad31 Mar 2036
Tempers go at Atyrau
Abylaikhan Zhūmabek 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.
Squad31 Mar 2036
Words at Atyrau training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Merei Zhambyl 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 dugout31 Mar 2036
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mironshox Mexmonov, and the manager let it.
The dugout31 Mar 2036
Miras Dilmūrat 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 Atyrau, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad31 Mar 2036
“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.
The dugout31 Mar 2036
The manager makes Askhat Kuat a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Atyrau. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Market31 Mar 2036
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Atyrau, another week without a signature from Askhat Nuserbayev.
Boardroom31 Mar 2036
Atyrau keep producing them
105 graduates from an academy now rated 7 out of 20. A club this size does not survive any other way, and every name on that list is known in the town.
Market31 Mar 2036
5 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Atyrau could get for him.