Marked for Viktor Ziabko
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match5 Jun 2027
No end in sight to Okzhetpes's wait for a win
8 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Okzhetpes has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad7 Jun 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Okzhetpes this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings7 Jun 2027
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad7 Jun 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Zhansūltan Mūkhametzhanov, and the manager let it.
Match5 Jun 2027
A 1‑1 draw with Kairat leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Player ratings7 Jun 2027
5.79 on the card. Some afternoons a footballer looks like a man who has only just been introduced to the game, and this was one of them.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market1 Mar 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 Okzhetpes can pretend not to have heard.
Market1 Mar 2027
Okzhetpes say no — this time
The offer from Taraz for Mikhail Golubnichii 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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Vasiliy Sovpel 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market1 Feb 2027
Add another name to the list: Irtysh have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Borys Lototskyi. The answer from Okzhetpes has not changed — yet.
Squad1 Feb 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Okzhetpes this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Feb 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Borys Lototskyi, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market28 Dec 2026
“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 Okzhetpes, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad28 Dec 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Okzhetpes this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom28 Dec 2026
Wages eat 138% of everything Okzhetpes 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market9 Nov 2026
“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 Okzhetpes, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market9 Nov 2026
Only the photograph left for Saian Mūqanov
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Saian Mūqanov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Okzhetpes the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Vasiliy Sovpel 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
“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.
Loan watch9 Nov 2026
“I watch every Okzhetpes game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Taraz runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad9 Nov 2026
The penny has dropped for Azeez Falolu
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Okzhetpes the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Oct 2026
77 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Amir Ben-Shimon 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Gafurzhan Tymoshchuk, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market12 Oct 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Okzhetpes is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad12 Oct 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Okzhetpes this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Loan watch12 Oct 2026
“I watch every Okzhetpes game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Taraz runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match12 Aug 2026
The cup run ends for Akzhaiyk
1‑2 against Tobol, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Squad17 Aug 2026
The medical room confirms 137 days on the sidelines for Yeldos Kuat, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Amir Ben-Shimon 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.
Market17 Aug 2026
Okzhetpes pay $27.0K, 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
“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.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.04, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad17 Aug 2026
This league is too small for Rintaro Yajima
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Akzhaiyk will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 12. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.