Marked for Askhat Postnikov
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces25 Jun 2035
The mood at Akzhaiyk 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.
Match23 Jun 2035
The wait goes on for Akzhaiyk
11 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.
Squad25 Jun 2035
A knee injury of the worst kind for Samat Nuserbayev
25 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Akzhaiyk lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings25 Jun 2035
Age has not caught Abzal Abiken yet — 8.20
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.20 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad25 Jun 2035
Abzal Abiken 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.
Squad25 Jun 2035
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Talgat Dosmagambetov, and the manager let it.
Player ratings25 Jun 2035
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad25 Jun 2035
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Askhat Postnikov and Akzhaiyk agree another 3 years.
Match23 Jun 2035
A 1‑1 draw with Zhetysu leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces5 Mar 2035
The mood at Akzhaiyk 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.
Boardroom5 Mar 2035
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Maxim Murtazaev has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Boardroom5 Mar 2035
Crisis meeting at Akzhaiyk
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Squad5 Mar 2035
Abzal Abiken 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 Mar 2035
Words at Akzhaiyk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Timur Postnikov 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.
Squad5 Mar 2035
“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.
Boardroom5 Mar 2035
$405.8K taken back off the Akzhaiyk table
What was available in the summer has quietly gone. Upstairs nobody will call it a change of ambition; downstairs nobody will call it anything else.
Squad5 Mar 2035
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.
Market5 Mar 2035
5 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Akzhaiyk could get for him.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market19 Feb 2035
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Akzhaiyk is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad19 Feb 2035
Abzal Abiken 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.
Squad19 Feb 2035
Words at Akzhaiyk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Uri Peretz 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.