From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad6 Dec 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Market6 Dec 2027
The name of Patrick Wood keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Zhetysu say nothing, which says plenty.
Squad6 Dec 2027
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Zhetysu, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market23 Aug 2027
“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.
Squad23 Aug 2027
The medical room confirms 32 days on the sidelines for Askhat Baltabekov, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Dias Lesbek gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market16 Aug 2027
“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.
Squad16 Aug 2027
“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.
Market16 Aug 2027
The name of Patrick Wood keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Zhetysu say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match24 Jul 2027
Chastening afternoon for Zhetysu
A 0-3 beating by Astana was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Match24 Jul 2027
No end in sight to Zhetysu's wait for a win
8 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Zhetysu has to find a result from somewhere.
Market26 Jul 2027
“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.
Squad26 Jul 2027
61 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Boardroom26 Jul 2027
Nobody left the Zhetysu dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Dias Lesbek gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match10 Jul 2027
No end in sight to Zhetysu's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Zhetysu has to find a result from somewhere.
Market12 Jul 2027
Ordabasy pay $140.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Squad12 Jul 2027
“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.
Market12 Jul 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Zhetysu have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Match10 Jul 2027
A 1-1 draw with Irtysh leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Squad12 Jul 2027
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces14 Jun 2027
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 6 of the 26 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
Squad14 Jun 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Match12 Jun 2027
Ordabasy left with the points after a 2-3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad14 Jun 2027
“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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
A defender's mistake gets tidied up by somebody else; a goalkeeper's ends up in the net. He knew before the ball crossed the line, and so did everybody in the ground.
Market14 Jun 2027
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Rafkat Aslan has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Zhetysu.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market26 Apr 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Zhetysu can pretend not to have heard.
Squad26 Apr 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Match24 Apr 2027
Zhetysu and Irtysh cancel each other out
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Irtysh came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad19 Apr 2027
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.
Match17 Apr 2027
Beaten 0-1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad19 Apr 2027
The manager makes an example of Marko Živanović
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match27 Mar 2027
Still nobody has beaten Zhetysu
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad29 Mar 2027
The manager makes an example of Patrick Wood
“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.
Match27 Mar 2027
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Ordabasy will be the happier side with the point.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match13 Mar 2027
Three points for Zhetysu, 2-1 the final word against Okzhetpes in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad15 Mar 2027
The medical room confirms 114 days on the sidelines for Rafkat Aslan, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Meik Karwot gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Patrick Wood finally opens his account
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Zhetysu have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
Market15 Mar 2027
The name of Askhat Baltabekov keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Zhetysu say nothing, which says plenty.
Squad15 Mar 2027
At 35 he is in the side on merit and somebody else is watching from the bench. Places at Zhetysu are won quietly and lost loudly.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market1 Mar 2027
Ordabasy come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Zhetysu did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market1 Mar 2027
The name of Jovan Pajović keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Zhetysu say nothing, which says plenty.
Market1 Mar 2027
The window shut and Shoqan Abzalov is still in the building
Zhetysu spent a month trying to move him and nobody rang back. He trains with a squad that has told him where he stands, and both sides start counting down to the next one.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Dec 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Ädilkhan Dobai commits to Zhetysu for another 3 years.
Squad7 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Danil Podymskii
“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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
The message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Alan Chochiev plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad2 Nov 2026
56 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
Wages eat 168% of everything Zhetysu earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Market2 Nov 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market14 Sep 2026
Ädilkhan Dobai has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Zhetysu they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market14 Sep 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Zhetysu can pretend not to have heard.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad10 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Ädilkhan Dobai
“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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The clock runs on Jovan Pajović's contract
48 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
Market10 Aug 2026
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Adam Adakhajiev has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Zhetysu.
Market10 Aug 2026
Zhetysu bring in an old head
Daylon Claasen is 36 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Alan Chochiev has company in his position
The competition arrived without a word said to him about it. Alan Chochiev keeps the shirt for now, at Zhetysu's convenience rather than his own.
Market10 Aug 2026
5 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Zhetysu money.