The offer from Taraz for Sergei Malyi was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
“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 The request is on a desk at Ordabasy, and it is not being withdrawn.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Ordabasy have done the hard part with Rosario Central, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
$290.0K on the table at Aktobe. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Kairat have kept their man, and Ordabasy go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Nikola Antić 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 have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Ordabasy can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
The offer from Astana for Zikrillo Sūltaniiazov was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Ordabasy have done the hard part with Shakhter, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Ordabasy will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Ordabasy are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Ordabasy will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Successful dribbles: 33. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Ordabasy have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
4 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nikola Antić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Ordabasy know it.
Anton Orlov 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 103 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
8 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
5 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Ordabasy know it.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: David Abagna. 1‑0 against Atyrau, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nikola Antić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Anton Orlov 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.
38 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Ordabasy lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ordabasy this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Aleksa Amanović is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Sūltanbek Astanov signs something — a contract at Ordabasy or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Sergei Malyi damages knee ligaments — 142 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 142 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and El'khan Astanov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Zikrillo Sūltaniiazov 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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Tidiane Keita is on it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Ordabasy, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Ordabasy. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Anton Orlov 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.
9 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 4 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
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.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Bjørn Johnsen obliged against Shakhter. 5‑1 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Ordabasy.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.73 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Anton Orlov has just signed for Ordabasy, and for once the answer mattered.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Kairat have kept their man, and Ordabasy go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
6 goals in one match, Bjørn Johnsen on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Ordabasy and Shakhter.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ordabasy this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. KAMAZ have kept their man, and Shakhter Donetsk go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
PSK Pervorechenskoe left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Pyotr Fyodorov left the room before anybody could ask which.
Shakhter Donetsk have made the call to Kuban. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Shakhter Donetsk have made the call to Dinamo Stavropol. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Shakhter Donetsk have made the call to Neftyanik. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Contract settled, hands shaken, no fee changing hands. Andriy Riaboy leaves Shakhter Donetsk the quiet way, and the wage bill breathes a little easier.
Contract settled, hands shaken, no fee changing hands. Vladimir Khozin leaves Shakhter Donetsk the quiet way, and the wage bill breathes a little easier.