It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Astana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Aïssa Mandi 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Saiat Zhūmağali will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Astana the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Astana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Aïssa Mandi 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.
“I watch every Astana game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Tobol runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Saiat Zhūmağali has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Jaouad El Yamiq 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.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Words at Astana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aïssa Mandi 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.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
The award is a small thing with a heavy meaning: for four weeks nobody in this division did his job better. Astana have the trophy on a shelf and the player in the side.
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Zhetysu, and it could have been more.
Player ratings31 Jul 2028
David Nogueira, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 8.58
A mark of 8.58 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.02 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Astana they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Astana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Aïssa Mandi 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. David Nogueira has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
19 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
17 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Astana, and it is not being withdrawn.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Ian Vorogovskiy scored, was marked 7.25, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Astana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
22 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Astana did not have in the autumn.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Aïssa Mandi 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.63 at 39, and nobody on the pitch was better.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Astana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Aïssa Mandi 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.
It finished 2‑1, and it was Ivan Bašić’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Astana.
Player ratings14 Jun 2027
Ivan Bašić was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.92. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Astana has been clear about where Felipe Ávila stands, which is more than many ever get.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Getting past Temirlan Anarbekov has become the hardest job in the division
7 clean sheets and counting. Forwards used to back themselves here; now they shoot early, shoot wide, and look for somebody to blame.
In brief
The terracesEverybody has an opinion about Karlo Bartolec
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings17 May 2027
A brace, and Marin Tomasov takes the afternoon — 8.81
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Marin Tomasov provided it, and the 8.81 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Astana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 May 2027
Leeroy Owusu 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.
Match15 May 2027
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for Astana. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Marked 8.10 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
In brief
Player ratingsA defender's afternoon for Älibek Qasym
The terracesThe press cannot get enough of Marin Tomasov
A brace, and Marin Tomasov takes the afternoon — 8.69
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Marin Tomasov provided it, and the 8.69 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Position 3, 13 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Jaouad El Yamiq 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.
It finished 3‑2, and it was Marin Tomasov’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Astana.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Words at Astana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aïssa Mandi 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Temirlan Anarbekov has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Marked 8.80 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.