From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom8 Oct 2029
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Squad8 Oct 2029
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Yassine Abdelali and Akzhaiyk agree another 3 years.
Squad8 Oct 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Akzhaiyk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad8 Oct 2029
The manager makes an example of Yeldos Akhmetov
“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.
Boardroom8 Oct 2029
$750.4K taken back off the Akzhaiyk table
What was available in the summer has quietly gone. Upstairs nobody will call it a change of ambition; downstairs nobody will call it anything else.
Market8 Oct 2029
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Akzhaiyk know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom1 Oct 2029
The scrutiny sharpens at Akzhaiyk
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Akzhaiyk is running low.
Squad1 Oct 2029
Yeldos Akhmetov: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Akzhaiyk have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market1 Oct 2029
“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 The request is on a desk at Akzhaiyk, and it is not being withdrawn.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market24 Sep 2029
“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 The request is on a desk at Akzhaiyk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market24 Sep 2029
Only the photograph left for Yakov Matveev
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Yakov Matveev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Akzhaiyk the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad24 Sep 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Akzhaiyk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market17 Sep 2029
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Akzhaiyk they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad17 Sep 2029
Rintaro Yajima 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.
Squad17 Sep 2029
20 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad17 Sep 2029
“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.
Squad17 Sep 2029
Yakov Matveev knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Akzhaiyk, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market17 Sep 2029
Contract settled, hands shaken, no fee changing hands. Kairat Nurgaliev leaves Akzhaiyk the quiet way, and the wage bill breathes a little easier.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad10 Sep 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Akzhaiyk may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad10 Sep 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Akzhaiyk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market10 Sep 2029
The Yakov Matveev conversation is coming
Everyone has stopped pretending: Taraz will make the call about Yakov Matveev this week. Akzhaiyk have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Squad10 Sep 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Farrux Jo'rayev, and the manager let it.
Market10 Sep 2029
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Akzhaiyk know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom3 Sep 2029
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Nurali Baizhanov has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Boardroom3 Sep 2029
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Akzhaiyk
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market3 Sep 2029
“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.
Market3 Sep 2029
The phone has started ringing about Yakov Matveev again, and this time the name on the line is Taraz. Akzhaiyk are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad3 Sep 2029
Rintaro Yajima 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.
Squad3 Sep 2029
“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.
Market3 Sep 2029
Okzhetpes are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Akzhaiyk will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Boardroom3 Sep 2029
Akzhaiyk pull $750.4K back off the table
The money that was there in the summer is not there now. Nobody upstairs calls this a change of ambition, and everybody downstairs reads it as one.
Squad3 Sep 2029
“Ask me in the summer. I will know before anybody else does.” He is 36 with 36 appearances behind him, and Akzhaiyk have to plan for both answers.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market27 Aug 2029
“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 Akzhaiyk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market27 Aug 2029
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Akzhaiyk they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad27 Aug 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Akzhaiyk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market27 Aug 2029
The phone has started ringing about Talgat Baizhanov again, and this time the name on the line is Okzhetpes. Akzhaiyk are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad27 Aug 2029
“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.
Market27 Aug 2029
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Talgat Baizhanov may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad20 Aug 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Akzhaiyk may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad20 Aug 2029
Yassine Abdelali 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.
Squad20 Aug 2029
49 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market13 Aug 2029
Akzhaiyk say no — this time
The offer from Taraz for Yakov Matveev 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.
Squad13 Aug 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Akzhaiyk may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market13 Aug 2029
The deal that would have taken Nurbol Tagybergen to Taraz has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Akzhaiyk with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Squad13 Aug 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Akzhaiyk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 Aug 2029
The manager makes an example of Yeldos Akhmetov
“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.
Market13 Aug 2029
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Akzhaiyk has been clear about where Talgat Baizhanov stands, which is more than many ever get.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market6 Aug 2029
“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 Akzhaiyk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom6 Aug 2029
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Akzhaiyk
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Match4 Aug 2029
6 matches without a win for Akzhaiyk
The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around Akzhaiyk are no longer polite ones.
Squad6 Aug 2029
Rintaro Yajima 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.
Match4 Aug 2029
1‑2 to Shakhter, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings6 Aug 2029
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.02, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad6 Aug 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ūlyqbek Khaitmuratov, and the manager let it.
Squad6 Aug 2029
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Yeldos Akhmetov will call it something else in private.
Squad6 Aug 2029
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Vava Mario Yagalo and Akzhaiyk agree another 2 years.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match28 Jul 2029
The wait goes on for Akzhaiyk
5 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.
Market30 Jul 2029
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nurbol Tagybergen will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Akzhaiyk the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad30 Jul 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Akzhaiyk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings30 Jul 2029
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad30 Jul 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Dauren Zainutdinov, and the manager let it.
Squad30 Jul 2029
Yakov Matveev knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Akzhaiyk, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Player ratings30 Jul 2029
Defensive actions: 14, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Match28 Jul 2029
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Okzhetpes will be the happier side with the point.
Player ratings30 Jul 2029
Shots: 6, not one of them in. A centre forward is paid for one thing, and on this evidence he has forgotten which thing it is.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market23 Jul 2029
“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.
Match21 Jul 2029
No end in sight to Akzhaiyk's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Akzhaiyk has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad23 Jul 2029
Rintaro Yajima 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.
Player ratings23 Jul 2029
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.09, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad23 Jul 2029
“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.
Squad23 Jul 2029
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Maxim Beysebekov commits to Akzhaiyk for another 3 years.
Squad23 Jul 2029
Yakov Matveev lets one through his hands
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.
Match21 Jul 2029
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Player ratings23 Jul 2029
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match16 Jul 2029
Akzhaiyk are in real trouble now
Position 10, 22 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Market16 Jul 2029
“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 Jul 2029
“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.
Market16 Jul 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Akzhaiyk is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad16 Jul 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Akzhaiyk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match14 Jul 2029
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad16 Jul 2029
“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.
Market16 Jul 2029
Zhetysu are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Akzhaiyk will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Player ratings16 Jul 2029
A mark of 5.27 tells the story without any need for embellishment. He will want the tape of this one quietly lost.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market9 Jul 2029
Yakov Matveev hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Akzhaiyk can pretend not to have heard.
Squad9 Jul 2029
“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.
Squad9 Jul 2029
“The easiest signature of my career.” Rintaro Yajima and Akzhaiyk agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad9 Jul 2029
Yassine Abdelali 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.
Match7 Jul 2029
Astana left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad9 Jul 2029
The manager makes an example of Yakov Matveev
“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
Squad2 Jul 2029
There were 8 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad2 Jul 2029
“The easiest signature of my career.” Rintaro Yajima and Akzhaiyk agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad2 Jul 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Akzhaiyk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 Jul 2029
“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 ratings2 Jul 2029
A performance of 8.45 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings2 Jul 2029
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.01, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match30 Jun 2029
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Market2 Jul 2029
Okzhetpes are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Akzhaiyk will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Player ratings2 Jul 2029
5.80 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match20 Jun 2029
Aktobe ended it 1‑2. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Squad25 Jun 2029
Rintaro Yajima 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.
Match23 Jun 2029
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Dauren Zainutdinov. 1‑0 against Zhetysu, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings25 Jun 2029
A performance of 8.43 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad25 Jun 2029
“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.
Squad25 Jun 2029
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Yakov Matveev knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
Player ratings25 Jun 2029
Marked 7.70 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Akzhaiyk had the best player on the pitch.
Player ratings25 Jun 2029
Defensive actions: 14. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Player ratings25 Jun 2029
Successful dribbles: 12. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match18 Jun 2029
Akzhaiyk are in real trouble now
Position 10, 18 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Market18 Jun 2029
“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.
Match16 Jun 2029
No end in sight to Akzhaiyk's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Akzhaiyk has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad18 Jun 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Akzhaiyk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match16 Jun 2029
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings18 Jun 2029
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad18 Jun 2029
“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.
Squad18 Jun 2029
Yakov Matveev asks for a word with the manager
“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.
Market18 Jun 2029
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Nurbol Tagybergen has his answer from Akzhaiyk; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market11 Jun 2029
Yakov Matveev hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Akzhaiyk can pretend not to have heard.
Match9 Jun 2029
No end in sight to Akzhaiyk's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Akzhaiyk has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad11 Jun 2029
Rintaro Yajima 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.
Player ratings11 Jun 2029
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad11 Jun 2029
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Ozodbek Ergashev commits to Akzhaiyk for another 3 years.
Match9 Jun 2029
A bad afternoon for Akzhaiyk against Atyrau
0‑1 to Atyrau, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad4 Jun 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Akzhaiyk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad4 Jun 2029
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Dauren Zainutdinov and Akzhaiyk agree another 2 years.
Match2 Jun 2029
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Squad4 Jun 2029
“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 ratings4 Jun 2029
Shots: 9, not one of them in. A centre forward is paid for one thing, and on this evidence he has forgotten which thing it is.
Squad4 Jun 2029
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ozodbek Ergashev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
In brief
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Player ratings
Nobody could get near Yeldos Kuat
-
Boardroom
The Akzhaiyk production line keeps running
From our football correspondent
Steady
The terraces28 May 2029
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 7 of the 33 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
Squad28 May 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Akzhaiyk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings28 May 2029
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match26 May 2029
Ordabasy left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad28 May 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ordabasy Tagybergen, and the manager let it.
Squad28 May 2029
Yakov Matveev lets one through his hands
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 May 2029
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad21 May 2029
The medical room confirms 22 days on the sidelines for Rintaro Yajima, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad21 May 2029
Yassine Abdelali 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.
Match19 May 2029
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Akzhaiyk did not have in the autumn.
Player ratings21 May 2029
Marked 8.42 — 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.
Player ratings21 May 2029
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad21 May 2029
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Nurbol Beysebekov and Akzhaiyk agree another 1 years.
Match19 May 2029
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Market21 May 2029
The name of Serikzhan Taykenov keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Akzhaiyk say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market14 May 2029
“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.
Squad14 May 2029
“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 May 2029
Akzhaiyk make it 3 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Akzhaiyk have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad14 May 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Akzhaiyk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings14 May 2029
Marked 9.30 — 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.
Match12 May 2029
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Yassine Abdelali. 1‑0 against Okzhetpes, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad14 May 2029
“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 ratings14 May 2029
Defensive actions: 17, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Squad14 May 2029
The first one is the one every signing is asked about until it arrives. It has arrived, and he can stop being asked.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad7 May 2029
“The easiest signature of my career.” Yeldos Akhmetov and Akzhaiyk agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad7 May 2029
Rintaro Yajima 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.
Player ratings7 May 2029
A performance of 9.75 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Match5 May 2029
Taraz made Akzhaiyk work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings7 May 2029
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad7 May 2029
“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 ratings7 May 2029
Defensive actions: 14. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Squad7 May 2029
The captaincy has been taken off Amir Ben-Shimon. Akzhaiyk will call it a decision about the team; a dressing room reads it as a verdict on a man.
Player ratings7 May 2029
Shots: 10, not one of them in. A centre forward is paid for one thing, and on this evidence he has forgotten which thing it is.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad30 Apr 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Akzhaiyk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match28 Apr 2029
A 2‑1 win over Aktobe, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings30 Apr 2029
Marked 8.75 — 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.
Squad30 Apr 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Yakov Matveev, and the manager let it.
Player ratings30 Apr 2029
Marked 5.65, and generously at that. Nothing came off, and by the end the crowd had stopped expecting it to.
Player ratings30 Apr 2029
Successful dribbles: 10. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match23 Apr 2029
Akzhaiyk sink to position 11
7 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Squad23 Apr 2029
The medical room confirms 51 days on the sidelines for Rintaro Yajima, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Player ratings23 Apr 2029
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad23 Apr 2029
Rintaro Yajima 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.
Player ratings23 Apr 2029
Defensive actions: 19. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Squad23 Apr 2029
The manager makes an example of Rahmat Hidayat
“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.
Squad23 Apr 2029
Yakov Matveev knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Akzhaiyk, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Match21 Apr 2029
Point won or two lost for Akzhaiyk?
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Astana? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Player ratings23 Apr 2029
Shots: 8. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market16 Apr 2029
“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 Akzhaiyk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings16 Apr 2029
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 26 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Squad16 Apr 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Akzhaiyk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Apr 2029
“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.
Match14 Apr 2029
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Kairat came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
Player ratings16 Apr 2029
Successful dribbles: 11. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match4 Apr 2029
Akzhaiyk through in the cup
A 2‑0 win over Tobol, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Squad9 Apr 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Akzhaiyk may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad9 Apr 2029
Rintaro Yajima 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.
Player ratings9 Apr 2029
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 21 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Player ratings9 Apr 2029
Marked 8.60 — 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.
Match7 Apr 2029
Zhetysu left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings9 Apr 2029
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.48, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings9 Apr 2029
Marked 8.14 — 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.
Squad9 Apr 2029
“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 Akzhaiyk know it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad2 Apr 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Akzhaiyk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match31 Mar 2029
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ordabasy Tagybergen. 2‑0 against Tobol, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings2 Apr 2029
A performance of 8.43 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad2 Apr 2029
“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.
Squad2 Apr 2029
“The easiest signature of my career.” Dauren Tymoshchuk and Akzhaiyk agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Player ratings2 Apr 2029
Defensive actions: 15, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Squad2 Apr 2029
Akzhaiyk will explain it as a decision about the team, and it may well be one. A dressing room has never once read it that way.
Player ratings2 Apr 2029
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.
Market2 Apr 2029
Akzhaiyk have let the market know Marcelo Zampetti can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad26 Mar 2029
81 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad26 Mar 2029
“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.
Squad26 Mar 2029
Yassine Abdelali 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.
Match24 Mar 2029
A bad afternoon for Akzhaiyk against Atyrau
0‑1 to Atyrau, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad26 Mar 2029
The manager makes an example of Yeldos Akhmetov
“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.
Player ratings26 Mar 2029
A performance of 8.13 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings19 Mar 2029
Successful dribbles: 29. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad19 Mar 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Akzhaiyk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Mar 2029
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Nurbol Beysebekov commits to Akzhaiyk for another 1 years.
Player ratings19 Mar 2029
Marked 7.99 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Akzhaiyk had the best player on the pitch.
Match17 Mar 2029
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Player ratings19 Mar 2029
Shots: 10, not one of them in. A centre forward is paid for one thing, and on this evidence he has forgotten which thing it is.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market12 Mar 2029
The shirt still fits. Talgat Akhmetov is back at Akzhaiyk, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Market12 Mar 2029
The shirt still fits. Nurbol Kuat is back at Akzhaiyk, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Market12 Mar 2029
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Islambek Nurgaliev is a Akzhaiyk player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Market12 Mar 2029
The shirt still fits. Maxim Shomko is back at Akzhaiyk, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Squad12 Mar 2029
Rintaro Yajima 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 Mar 2029
18 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad12 Mar 2029
“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.
Squad12 Mar 2029
“The easiest signature of my career.” Samat Islamkhan and Akzhaiyk agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Match10 Mar 2029
It needed Ordabasy Tagybergen to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Ordabasy, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Boardroom5 Mar 2029
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Nurali Baizhanov has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Squad5 Mar 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Akzhaiyk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Mar 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Yakov Matveev, and the manager let it.
Boardroom5 Mar 2029
$1.2M taken back off the Akzhaiyk table
What was available in the summer has quietly gone. Upstairs nobody will call it a change of ambition; downstairs nobody will call it anything else.
Squad5 Mar 2029
The table has started to be checked before the results are in, and that is always the tell. Nobody at Akzhaiyk says the word out loud, and everybody in the building is thinking it.
Squad5 Mar 2029
“Ask me in the summer. I will know before anybody else does.” He is 35 with 32 appearances behind him, and Akzhaiyk have to plan for both answers.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match26 Feb 2029
Every point is an argument now for Akzhaiyk
Position 10 and 14 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Squad26 Feb 2029
Yeldos Akhmetov: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Akzhaiyk have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad26 Feb 2029
109 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market19 Feb 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Akzhaiyk can pretend not to have heard.
Market19 Feb 2029
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Baurzhan Murtazaev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Akzhaiyk the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad19 Feb 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Akzhaiyk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom12 Feb 2029
Pressure builds in the Akzhaiyk boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad12 Feb 2029
Yassine Abdelali 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 Feb 2029
The medical room confirms 48 days on the sidelines for Yeldos Kuat, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom5 Feb 2029
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Squad5 Feb 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Akzhaiyk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Feb 2029
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Dasok Nanribet and Akzhaiyk agree another 3 years.
Squad5 Feb 2029
“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; Akzhaiyk are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad5 Feb 2029
The manager makes an example of Farrux Jo'rayev
“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.
Boardroom5 Feb 2029
$1.2M taken back off the Akzhaiyk table
What was available in the summer has quietly gone. Upstairs nobody will call it a change of ambition; downstairs nobody will call it anything else.
Market5 Feb 2029
36 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
Market5 Feb 2029
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Farrux Jo'rayev may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match29 Jan 2029
Akzhaiyk are in real trouble now
Position 10, 14 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Squad29 Jan 2029
138 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad29 Jan 2029
Rintaro Yajima 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.
Squad29 Jan 2029
The manager makes an example of Yeldos Akhmetov
“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.
Market29 Jan 2029
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Akzhaiyk has been clear about where Talgat Baizhanov stands, which is more than many ever get.
Market29 Jan 2029
The name of Serikzhan Taykenov keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Akzhaiyk say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad22 Jan 2029
“The easiest signature of my career.” Rinat Tagybergen and Akzhaiyk agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad22 Jan 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Akzhaiyk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Jan 2029
The manager makes an example of Yakov Matveev
“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
Boardroom15 Jan 2029
Pressure builds in the Akzhaiyk boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad15 Jan 2029
The medical room confirms 76 days on the sidelines for Yeldos Kuat, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Rintaro Yajima 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
Boardroom8 Jan 2029
Nurali Baizhanov has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Akzhaiyk can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Squad8 Jan 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Akzhaiyk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom8 Jan 2029
$1.2M taken back off the Akzhaiyk table
What was available in the summer has quietly gone. Upstairs nobody will call it a change of ambition; downstairs nobody will call it anything else.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match1 Jan 2029
Akzhaiyk sink to position 10
14 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Squad1 Jan 2029
Rintaro Yajima 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.
Squad1 Jan 2029
Akzhaiyk will explain it as a decision about the team, and it may well be one. A dressing room has never once read it that way.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad25 Dec 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Akzhaiyk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 Dec 2028
The manager makes an example of Farrux Jo'rayev
“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.
Squad25 Dec 2028
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Rintaro Yajima has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom18 Dec 2028
Pressure builds in the Akzhaiyk boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad18 Dec 2028
106 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad18 Dec 2028
Yassine Abdelali 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
Squad11 Dec 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Akzhaiyk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Dec 2028
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Yassine Abdelali has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
Squad11 Dec 2028
The language is coming and there is somebody to talk to in the dressing room. A footballer who feels at home plays like one, and it never shows up in a scouting report.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom4 Dec 2028
Nurali Baizhanov has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Akzhaiyk can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Match4 Dec 2028
Every point is an argument now for Akzhaiyk
Position 10 and 14 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Squad4 Dec 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Rintaro Yajima and Akzhaiyk agree another 2 years.
Squad4 Dec 2028
Yassine Abdelali 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.
Squad4 Dec 2028
The manager makes an example of Yeldos Akhmetov
“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.
Squad4 Dec 2028
“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 Akzhaiyk know it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad27 Nov 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Akzhaiyk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Nov 2028
Yakov Matveev knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Akzhaiyk, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad27 Nov 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Farrux Jo'rayev, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom20 Nov 2028
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Akzhaiyk
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Squad20 Nov 2028
136 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad20 Nov 2028
Rintaro Yajima 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
Squad13 Nov 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Akzhaiyk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Loan watch13 Nov 2028
“I did not go to Zhetysu to sit and watch. I want to come back to Akzhaiyk and fight for my place.” 2 appearances in 37 matches say the rest.
Squad13 Nov 2028
A window away with the national side, and a shirt at Akzhaiyk that briefly doubles as an advertisement. A call-up flatters the player and the club that built him in the same breath.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom6 Nov 2028
Nurali Baizhanov has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Akzhaiyk can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Match6 Nov 2028
Akzhaiyk sink to position 10
14 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Yassine Abdelali 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.
Squad6 Nov 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Dauren Zainutdinov and Akzhaiyk agree another 2 years.
Squad6 Nov 2028
The manager makes an example of Yeldos Akhmetov
“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.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Akzhaiyk will explain it as a decision about the team, and it may well be one. A dressing room has never once read it that way.
In brief
-
Boardroom
Akzhaiyk pull $1.2M back off the table
-
Boardroom
Akzhaiyk were not finished after all
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad30 Oct 2028
“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.
Squad30 Oct 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Akzhaiyk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Oct 2028
Questions about Ozodbek Ergashev on the training pitch
The standards have slipped, and in a building where everybody watches everybody it has not gone unremarked. This is how a player loses a place before he loses one.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom23 Oct 2028
Pressure builds in the Akzhaiyk boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad23 Oct 2028
Rintaro Yajima 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.
Squad23 Oct 2028
119 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Oct 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Akzhaiyk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Loan watch16 Oct 2028
“I watch every Akzhaiyk game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Zhetysu runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad16 Oct 2028
The manager makes an example of Dasok Nanribet
“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
Match9 Oct 2028
Akzhaiyk are in real trouble now
Position 10, 14 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Squad9 Oct 2028
Rahmat Hidayat: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Akzhaiyk have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad9 Oct 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Yeldos Akhmetov commits to Akzhaiyk for another 2 years.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom2 Oct 2028
Nurali Baizhanov has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Akzhaiyk can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Squad2 Oct 2028
41 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad2 Oct 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Yeldos Akhmetov commits to Akzhaiyk for another 2 years.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom25 Sep 2028
Pressure builds in the Akzhaiyk boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Yassine Abdelali 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.
Squad25 Sep 2028
14 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad18 Sep 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Akzhaiyk may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad18 Sep 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Akzhaiyk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Loan watch18 Sep 2028
“I watch every Akzhaiyk game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Zhetysu runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match11 Sep 2028
Akzhaiyk are in real trouble now
Position 10, 14 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Squad11 Sep 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Akzhaiyk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Sep 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Yeldos Akhmetov, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom4 Sep 2028
Nurali Baizhanov has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Akzhaiyk can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Squad4 Sep 2028
Yassine Abdelali 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.
Squad4 Sep 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Yeldos Tagybergen commits to Akzhaiyk for another 3 years.
Squad4 Sep 2028
The manager makes an example of Ofoin Jackson
“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.
Squad4 Sep 2028
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Yeldos Akhmetov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Boardroom4 Sep 2028
Akzhaiyk pull $1.2M back off the table
The money that was there in the summer is not there now. Nobody upstairs calls this a change of ambition, and everybody downstairs reads it as one.
Boardroom4 Sep 2028
The Akzhaiyk dressing room answers
Whatever was said behind that door, it worked: the pressing is back, the arguing has stopped, and the manager’s job is being defended in the only language that counts.
Market4 Sep 2028
The loan is done. Appearances: 0. Goals: 0. The number that matters is neither — it is how the manager looks at him on the first morning of training.
Market4 Sep 2028
The loan is done. Appearances: 0. Goals: 0. The number that matters is neither — it is how the manager looks at him on the first morning of training.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom28 Aug 2028
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Akzhaiyk
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Squad28 Aug 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Akzhaiyk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Aug 2028
The medical room confirms 42 days on the sidelines for Yerkebulan Beysebekov, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market21 Aug 2028
Zhetysu come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Akzhaiyk did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Yassine Abdelali 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.
Loan watch21 Aug 2028
“I watch every Akzhaiyk game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Zhetysu runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match14 Aug 2028
Akzhaiyk are in real trouble now
Position 10, 14 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Squad14 Aug 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Akzhaiyk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Loan watch14 Aug 2028
“I did not go to Tobol to sit and watch. I want to come back to Akzhaiyk and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 26 matches say the rest.
Squad14 Aug 2028
“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.
Market14 Aug 2028
He is 16, and nobody at Akzhaiyk signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Squad14 Aug 2028
The table has started to be checked before the results are in, and that is always the tell. Nobody at Akzhaiyk says the word out loud, and everybody in the building is thinking it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom7 Aug 2028
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Yassine Abdelali 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.
Loan watch7 Aug 2028
“I watch every Akzhaiyk game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Ordabasy runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Match5 Aug 2028
It finished 1‑0, and it was Ordabasy Tagybergen’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Akzhaiyk.
Player ratings7 Aug 2028
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 19 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Player ratings7 Aug 2028
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.18, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad7 Aug 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Vava Mario Yagalo commits to Akzhaiyk for another 1 years.
Squad7 Aug 2028
The medical room confirms 32 days on the sidelines for Farrux Jo'rayev, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad7 Aug 2028
“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
Crisis
Boardroom31 Jul 2028
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Akzhaiyk
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Squad31 Jul 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Akzhaiyk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings31 Jul 2028
Defensive actions: 22. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Squad31 Jul 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ordabasy Tagybergen, and the manager let it.
Squad31 Jul 2028
“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 Akzhaiyk know it.
Player ratings31 Jul 2028
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.82 on the card, and the Akzhaiyk support went home talking about one name.
Loan watch31 Jul 2028
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Akzhaiyk, and 1 appearances in 24 say he has earned the hearing.
Player ratings31 Jul 2028
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match29 Jul 2028
Point won or two lost for Akzhaiyk?
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Okzhetpes? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market24 Jul 2028
Samat Akhmetov has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Akzhaiyk they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Yassine Abdelali 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.
Player ratings24 Jul 2028
Marked 9.11 — 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.
Match22 Jul 2028
Three points for Akzhaiyk, 2‑1 the final word against Taraz in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings24 Jul 2028
A performance of 8.51 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings24 Jul 2028
A performance of 8.36 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Loan watch24 Jul 2028
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Akzhaiyk, and 2 appearances in 21 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad24 Jul 2028
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Akzhaiyk pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Squad24 Jul 2028
“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
Crisis
Match15 Jul 2028
16 matches without a win for Akzhaiyk
The run now stands at 16, and the questions being asked around Akzhaiyk are no longer polite ones.
Match17 Jul 2028
Akzhaiyk are in real trouble now
Position 11, 7 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Squad17 Jul 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Akzhaiyk may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad17 Jul 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Akzhaiyk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match15 Jul 2028
Beaten 2‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings17 Jul 2028
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.81, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad17 Jul 2028
“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 Jul 2028
A performance of 8.19 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Loan watch17 Jul 2028
“I did not go to Tobol to sit and watch. I want to come back to Akzhaiyk and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 22 matches say the rest.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match8 Jul 2028
No end in sight to Akzhaiyk's wait for a win
15 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Akzhaiyk has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Yassine Abdelali 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.
Loan watch10 Jul 2028
“I watch every Akzhaiyk 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.
Match8 Jul 2028
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings10 Jul 2028
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad10 Jul 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Yeldos Akhmetov, and the manager let it.
Squad10 Jul 2028
The medical room confirms 61 days on the sidelines for Farrux Jo'rayev, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Player ratings10 Jul 2028
5.53 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.
Player ratings10 Jul 2028
5.60 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match1 Jul 2028
The wait goes on for Akzhaiyk
14 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.
Boardroom3 Jul 2028
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Nurali Baizhanov has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Boardroom3 Jul 2028
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Akzhaiyk
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Squad3 Jul 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Akzhaiyk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Loan watch3 Jul 2028
“I watch every Akzhaiyk game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Ordabasy runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad3 Jul 2028
The team sheet said everything about Yeldos Akhmetov
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Yeldos Akhmetov.
Squad3 Jul 2028
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Nurbol Baizhanov knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
Match1 Jul 2028
It needed Ordabasy Tagybergen to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Kairat, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Squad3 Jul 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ofoin Jackson, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match24 Jun 2028
The wait goes on for Akzhaiyk
13 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.
Match21 Jun 2028
Akzhaiyk bow out of the cup
Astana go through and Akzhaiyk go home, 1‑3 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Squad26 Jun 2028
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Akzhaiyk have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market26 Jun 2028
Only the photograph left for Samat Akhmetov
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Samat Akhmetov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Akzhaiyk the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Yassine Abdelali 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.
Player ratings26 Jun 2028
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.88, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match24 Jun 2028
Zhetysu left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad26 Jun 2028
“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 watch26 Jun 2028
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Akzhaiyk, and 1 appearances in 17 say he has earned the hearing.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match17 Jun 2028
11 matches without a win for Akzhaiyk
The run now stands at 11, and the questions being asked around Akzhaiyk are no longer polite ones.
Match19 Jun 2028
Akzhaiyk sink to position 11
6 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market19 Jun 2028
Akzhaiyk say no — this time
The offer from Ordabasy for Rinat Tagybergen 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.
Market19 Jun 2028
“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 Akzhaiyk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad19 Jun 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Akzhaiyk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match17 Jun 2028
Tobol left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad19 Jun 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ordabasy Tagybergen, and the manager let it.
Loan watch19 Jun 2028
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Akzhaiyk, and 0 appearances in 18 say he has earned the hearing.
Player ratings19 Jun 2028
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match10 Jun 2028
The wait goes on for Akzhaiyk
10 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.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Yassine Abdelali 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.
Player ratings12 Jun 2028
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad12 Jun 2028
The medical room confirms 94 days on the sidelines for Farrux Jo'rayev, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad12 Jun 2028
“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 watch12 Jun 2028
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Akzhaiyk, and 0 appearances in 17 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad12 Jun 2028
The first one is the one every signing is asked about until it arrives. It has arrived, and he can stop being asked.
Player ratings12 Jun 2028
A mark of 5.54 tells the story without any need for embellishment. He will want the tape of this one quietly lost.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match3 Jun 2028
9 matches without a win for Akzhaiyk
The run now stands at 9, and the questions being asked around Akzhaiyk are no longer polite ones.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad5 Jun 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Akzhaiyk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Loan watch5 Jun 2028
“I watch every Akzhaiyk game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Ordabasy runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Player ratings5 Jun 2028
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match27 May 2028
0‑3 to Ordabasy, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Match27 May 2028
No end in sight to Akzhaiyk's wait for a win
8 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Akzhaiyk has to find a result from somewhere.
Market29 May 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Akzhaiyk is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad29 May 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Rinat Tagybergen and Akzhaiyk agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad29 May 2028
Rintaro Yajima 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.
Squad29 May 2028
The manager makes an example of Yeldos Akhmetov
“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.
Boardroom29 May 2028
Nobody left the Akzhaiyk 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.
Squad29 May 2028
“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; Akzhaiyk are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Loan watch29 May 2028
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Akzhaiyk, and 1 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match22 May 2028
Akzhaiyk are in real trouble now
Position 10, 6 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Match20 May 2028
7 matches without a win for Akzhaiyk
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Akzhaiyk are no longer polite ones.
Squad22 May 2028
“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.
Squad22 May 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Akzhaiyk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings22 May 2028
Marked 8.05 — 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.
Loan watch22 May 2028
“I watch every Akzhaiyk 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.
Match20 May 2028
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Squad22 May 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ofoin Jackson, and the manager let it.
Squad22 May 2028
Yakov Matveev knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Yakov Matveev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match13 May 2028
6 matches without a win for Akzhaiyk
The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around Akzhaiyk are no longer polite ones.
Squad15 May 2028
Rintaro Yajima 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.
Squad15 May 2028
The medical room confirms 123 days on the sidelines for Farrux Jo'rayev, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Loan watch15 May 2028
“I did not go to Tobol to sit and watch. I want to come back to Akzhaiyk and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 13 matches say the rest.
Player ratings15 May 2028
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad15 May 2028
“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.
Player ratings15 May 2028
A mark of 7.87, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Squad15 May 2028
Yakov Matveev asks for a word with the manager
“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.
Match13 May 2028
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Okzhetpes defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces8 May 2028
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 30 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
Match6 May 2028
No end in sight to Akzhaiyk's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Akzhaiyk has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad8 May 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Rintaro Yajima and Akzhaiyk agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad8 May 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Akzhaiyk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Loan watch8 May 2028
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Akzhaiyk, and 0 appearances in 12 say he has earned the hearing.
Match6 May 2028
A bad afternoon for Akzhaiyk against Taraz
0‑1 to Taraz, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad8 May 2028
“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 ratings8 May 2028
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad8 May 2028
The award is a small thing with a heavy meaning: for four weeks nobody in this division did his job better. Akzhaiyk have the trophy on a shelf and the player in the side.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings1 May 2028
Defensive actions: 28. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Market1 May 2028
“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.
Market1 May 2028
Only the photograph left for Samat Akhmetov
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Samat Akhmetov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Akzhaiyk the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match29 Apr 2028
The wait goes on for Akzhaiyk
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.
Squad1 May 2028
Rintaro Yajima 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.
Squad1 May 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ordabasy Tagybergen, and the manager let it.
Player ratings1 May 2028
A mark of 7.85, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Loan watch1 May 2028
“I did not go to Zhetysu to sit and watch. I want to come back to Akzhaiyk and fight for my place.” 1 appearances in 9 matches say the rest.
Player ratings1 May 2028
Successful dribbles: 13. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match24 Apr 2028
Akzhaiyk are in real trouble now
Position 10, 3 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Squad24 Apr 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Akzhaiyk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Apr 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Ūlyqbek Khaitmuratov commits to Akzhaiyk for another 3 years.
Player ratings24 Apr 2028
Marked 9.02 — 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.
Squad24 Apr 2028
The manager makes an example of Yeldos Akhmetov
“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.
Loan watch24 Apr 2028
“I watch every Akzhaiyk 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.
Match22 Apr 2028
A 1‑1 draw with Astana leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Squad24 Apr 2028
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Akzhaiyk have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
Player ratings24 Apr 2028
Successful dribbles: 11. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad17 Apr 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Yassine Abdelali 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.
Player ratings17 Apr 2028
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.83, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad17 Apr 2028
“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 watch17 Apr 2028
“I did not go to Tobol to sit and watch. I want to come back to Akzhaiyk and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 9 matches say the rest.
Match15 Apr 2028
It needed Rinat Tagybergen to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Kairat, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match5 Apr 2028
Akzhaiyk through in the cup
A 2‑1 win over Shakhter, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Squad10 Apr 2028
The medical room confirms 18 days on the sidelines for Ordabasy Tagybergen, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad10 Apr 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Akzhaiyk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match8 Apr 2028
0‑1 to Zhetysu, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings10 Apr 2028
A performance of 8.50 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad10 Apr 2028
“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.
Squad10 Apr 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Baktiyor Zainutdinov commits to Akzhaiyk for another 3 years.
Player ratings10 Apr 2028
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Loan watch10 Apr 2028
“I watch every Akzhaiyk game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Ordabasy runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match1 Apr 2028
4 matches without a win for Akzhaiyk
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Akzhaiyk are no longer polite ones.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Rintaro Yajima 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.
Squad3 Apr 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Dauren Zainutdinov commits to Akzhaiyk for another 2 years.
Match1 Apr 2028
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad3 Apr 2028
“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 watch3 Apr 2028
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Akzhaiyk, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad3 Apr 2028
The captaincy has been taken off Serikzhan Taykenov. Akzhaiyk will call it a decision about the team; a dressing room reads it as a verdict on a man.
Player ratings3 Apr 2028
Successful dribbles: 13. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings3 Apr 2028
Shots: 7, enough of them from close enough that a striker in form scores two. He is not a striker in form.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match25 Mar 2028
Beaten 0‑3 by Atyrau, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Squad27 Mar 2028
“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.
Squad27 Mar 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Akzhaiyk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings27 Mar 2028
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad27 Mar 2028
The manager makes an example of Yeldos Akhmetov
“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.
Boardroom27 Mar 2028
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
Squad27 Mar 2028
“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 Akzhaiyk know it.
Loan watch27 Mar 2028
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Akzhaiyk, and 0 appearances in 6 say he has earned the hearing.
Player ratings27 Mar 2028
5.45 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad20 Mar 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Akzhaiyk may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
The terraces20 Mar 2028
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 7 of the 30 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Yassine Abdelali 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.
Squad20 Mar 2028
The manager makes an example of Rintaro Yajima
“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.
Loan watch20 Mar 2028
“I watch every Akzhaiyk 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.
Player ratings20 Mar 2028
Successful dribbles: 13. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad20 Mar 2028
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Akzhaiyk have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
Player ratings20 Mar 2028
A mark of 5.29 tells the story without any need for embellishment. He will want the tape of this one quietly lost.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings13 Mar 2028
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad13 Mar 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Akzhaiyk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 Mar 2028
“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 ratings13 Mar 2028
Defensive actions: 13. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Match11 Mar 2028
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Ordabasy will be the happier side with the point.
Squad13 Mar 2028
At 20 years old, Yakov Matveev became the latest name off the academy production line to be handed a senior shirt.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Boardroom6 Mar 2028
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Nurali Baizhanov has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Market6 Mar 2028
The shirt still fits. Ofoin Jackson is back at Akzhaiyk, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Market6 Mar 2028
The shirt still fits. Samat Akhmetov is back at Akzhaiyk, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Market6 Mar 2028
The shirt still fits. Talgat Dosmagambetov is back at Akzhaiyk, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Market6 Mar 2028
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Yassine Abdelali 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.
Squad6 Mar 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Yeldos Kuat and Akzhaiyk agree another 2 years.
Squad6 Mar 2028
“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.
Boardroom6 Mar 2028
Akzhaiyk pull $889.8K back off the table
The money that was there in the summer is not there now. Nobody upstairs calls this a change of ambition, and everybody downstairs reads it as one.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market28 Feb 2028
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad28 Feb 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Akzhaiyk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Samat Akhmetov knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Akzhaiyk, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad28 Feb 2028
A season on the outside for Askhat Kuat
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Akzhaiyk has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Market28 Feb 2028
The window shut and Samat Akhmetov is still in the building
Akzhaiyk 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.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Yassine Abdelali has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Feb 2028
Rintaro Yajima 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.
Squad21 Feb 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Yeldos Akhmetov, and the manager let it.
Market21 Feb 2028
Add another name to the list: Ordabasy have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Talgat Baizhanov. The answer from Akzhaiyk has not changed — yet.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom14 Feb 2028
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Akzhaiyk
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market14 Feb 2028
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad14 Feb 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Akzhaiyk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Feb 2028
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Akzhaiyk has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Market14 Feb 2028
6 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Akzhaiyk could get for him.
Squad14 Feb 2028
The language is coming and there is somebody to talk to in the dressing room. A footballer who feels at home plays like one, and it never shows up in a scouting report.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Market7 Feb 2028
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Rintaro Yajima 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 Feb 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Farrux Jo'rayev and Akzhaiyk agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad7 Feb 2028
“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.
Market7 Feb 2028
He is 19, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
Market7 Feb 2028
He is 19, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Akzhaiyk pull $889.8K back off the table
The money that was there in the summer is not there now. Nobody upstairs calls this a change of ambition, and everybody downstairs reads it as one.
Market7 Feb 2028
Akzhaiyk have made Nurbol Beysebekov available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market31 Jan 2028
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad31 Jan 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Akzhaiyk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market31 Jan 2028
The phone has started ringing about Talgat Baizhanov again, and this time the name on the line is Okzhetpes. Akzhaiyk are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad31 Jan 2028
“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 Akzhaiyk know it.
Squad31 Jan 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Farrux Jo'rayev commits to Akzhaiyk for another 3 years.
Squad31 Jan 2028
A new face in his position, and Rintaro Yajima suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. Akzhaiyk have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 Jan 2028
Rintaro Yajima 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.
Squad24 Jan 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Yeldos Akhmetov, and the manager let it.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Rintaro Yajima has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom17 Jan 2028
Pressure builds in the Akzhaiyk boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad17 Jan 2028
35 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Market17 Jan 2028
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad10 Jan 2028
Yassine Abdelali 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.
Squad10 Jan 2028
“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.
Market10 Jan 2028
7 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Akzhaiyk could get for him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom3 Jan 2028
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Nurali Baizhanov has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Yassine Abdelali 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.
Squad3 Jan 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Yakov Matveev, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad27 Dec 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 Akzhaiyk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 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.
Squad27 Dec 2027
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom20 Dec 2027
Pressure builds in the Akzhaiyk boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad20 Dec 2027
64 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Yassine Abdelali 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
Market13 Dec 2027
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Squad13 Dec 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 Akzhaiyk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 Dec 2027
A new face in his position, and Yeldos Akhmetov suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. Akzhaiyk have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom6 Dec 2027
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Nurali Baizhanov has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Rintaro Yajima 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.
Squad6 Dec 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Yakov Matveev, and the manager let it.
Squad6 Dec 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Marcelo Zampetti commits to Akzhaiyk for another 3 years.
Boardroom6 Dec 2027
Akzhaiyk pull $889.8K back off the table
The money that was there in the summer is not there now. Nobody upstairs calls this a change of ambition, and everybody downstairs reads it as one.
Market6 Dec 2027
The best deals are the ones the accountants never notice. Marcelo Zampetti arrives at Akzhaiyk with his wages the only cost and something to prove the only clause.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad29 Nov 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 Akzhaiyk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad29 Nov 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.
Market29 Nov 2027
Contract settled, hands shaken, no fee changing hands. Marat Tymoshchuk leaves Akzhaiyk the quiet way, and the wage bill breathes a little easier.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom22 Nov 2027
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Akzhaiyk
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Squad22 Nov 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Akzhaiyk may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad22 Nov 2027
92 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad15 Nov 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 Akzhaiyk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Nov 2027
A window away with the national side, and a shirt at Akzhaiyk that briefly doubles as an advertisement. A call-up flatters the player and the club that built him in the same breath.
Squad15 Nov 2027
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Akzhaiyk has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.