The Tobol Post
Market26 May 2036
Vadim Kondrashov asks to leave Tobol
“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.
Match24 May 2036
No end in sight to Tobol's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Tobol has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings26 May 2036
Vadim Kondrashov runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad26 May 2036
Tempers go at Tobol
Luca Giorgione 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.
Match26 May 2036
Halfway: Tobol sit in position 8
10 points at the turn. The first half of a season is a promise; the second is a bill, and the town is about to find out which of the two this one was.
Squad26 May 2036
Keenan Patten 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.
Player ratings26 May 2036
The afternoon belonged to Denis Mitrofanov
A mark of 7.21, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout26 May 2036
Cristian Di María on the point
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Cristian Di María after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The dugout26 May 2036
Keenan Patten dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
In brief
- Match No goals between Tobol and Taraz
- Squad A first senior shirt for Samat Postnikov
- Market The Daniil Ustimenko story refuses to die