Chinonso Offor 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.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Astana know which stage they are at.
The training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 5 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Astana, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Astana know which stage they are at.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Stanislav Basmanov is on it.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Astana can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Nobody at Astana will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Astana can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lauro was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Astana know which stage they are at.
Nobody at Astana will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Alexandr Ektov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“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; Astana are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
7 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Prince Adu Kwabena is on it.
Alexandr Ektov 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.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“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; Astana are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Words at Astana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pavel Mogilevets is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Astana know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Ian Vorogovskiy is on it.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Pavel Mogilevets may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Position 3, 47 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Astana can pretend not to have heard.
The deal that would have taken Nikola Burić to Kairat has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Astana with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Astana have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Astana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Astana heard it as anything else.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Aleksandr Dovgal' is living that version at Astana, and it tends to show in the first month.
Astana asked and Aktobe said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
He arrived for a fee and leaves for a fraction of it. $42.9K of what Astana paid for Victor Mudrac is money the club will not see again, and the boardroom will be asked about it for two seasons.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 19 arrived, 10 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Chinonso Offor 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.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I have 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 Astana know it.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Astana people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Chinonso Offor and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Astana asked and Talleres said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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 Astana know it.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Astana will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Prince Adu Kwabena has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Älibek Qasym falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Córdoba have kept their man, and Astana go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Antonio Boršić and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 5 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Astana can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Astana told Abinur Nūrymbet something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Ian Vorogovskiy is on it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Astana, and both men came out saying it was fine.
In brief
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Chinonso Offor’s exile
Prince Adu Kwabena and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Words at Astana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Älibek Qasym is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“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 Astana know it.
Älibek Qasym and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“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 Astana know it.
Astana asked and Chesterfield said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Nobody at Astana will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Astana people have started saying his name in the past tense.
5 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
There were 6 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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Älibek Qasym falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Astana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Prince Adu Kwabena. 2‑1 against Kairat, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Kairat held the lead for 2 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Astana answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Bernard Schlupp provided it, and the 9.08 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The offer from Shakhter for Abzal Beisebekov 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Astana can pretend not to have heard.
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Astana have 4 straight wins of it.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Words at Astana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Älibek Qasym is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Las Palmas have kept their man, and Astana go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Artem Sokol 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.
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The offer from Taraz for Nikola Burić 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.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Successful dribbles: 19. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Astana can pretend not to have heard.
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Words at Astana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ian Vorogovskiy is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ordabasy have kept their man, and Astana go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Astana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Two goals and a mark of 8.66 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Everything agreed with Nueva Chicago, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Kairat keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Ian Vorogovskiy 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Älibek Qasym was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
12 combined actions and 6.92. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Abinur Nūrymbet has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Astana can pretend not to have heard.
Prince Adu Kwabena 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.
Astana asked and Torpedo Moscow said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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; Astana are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Astana have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Astana, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Älibek Qasym was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ordabasy have kept their man, and Astana go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Astana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Astana people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Astana, and it is not being withdrawn.
Two goals and a mark of 8.47 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The offer from Atyrau for Stanislav Basmanov 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Älibek Qasym was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Astana asked and Tobol said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Kipras Kažukolovas had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Kipras Kažukolovas and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“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; Astana are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
With 5 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like one.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ramazan Kärimov provided it, and the 8.87 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
15 seasons and 405 appearances, all of them here. Careers like this are not designed; they happen to a certain kind of man at a certain kind of club, and this town has one.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Astana have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Älibek Qasym was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ramazan Kärimov. 3‑1 against Aktobe, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Irtysh spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
Squad31 May 2027
Words at Astana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pavel Mogilevets is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
In brief
Player ratingsPrince Adu Kwabena was on a different afternoon to everybody else
1 for Artem Sukhanov, marked 7.04, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Älibek Qasym and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 92. Kairat had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
Half the programme played, position 5, 20 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lauro was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Astana and Zhetysu in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
It finished 4‑2, and it was Ramazan Kärimov’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Astana.
Squad17 May 2027
Words at Astana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Älibek Qasym is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Chinonso Offor and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Marked 8.53 — 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Astana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I have 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 Astana know it.
The dugout10 May 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Yeldos Nuserbayev chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Nobody at Astana will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Prince Adu Kwabena provided it, and the 8.18 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Prince Adu Kwabena has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Astana can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Minute 90, against Atyrau, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Kipras Kažukolovas 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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at Astana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Älibek Qasym is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“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; Astana are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Yeldos Nuserbayev after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Astana, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Astana can pretend not to have heard.
Älibek Qasym and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“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; Astana are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Words at Astana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lauro is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad19 Apr 2027
8 new faces, and Astana are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Astana, another week without a signature from Mükhammedzhan Seisen.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Astana can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Marked 7.94 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Astana had the best player on the pitch.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Words at Astana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lauro is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Astana can pretend not to have heard.
4 away wins in a row. Travelling support is the truest kind, and this season it is being repaid in the only currency that counts.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Words at Astana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Älibek Qasym is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“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; Astana are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Älibek Qasym falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Pavel Mogilevets and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
6 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Involvement in 2 goals, from a player who spent the ninety minutes doing the thing a manager actually wants: being where the ball was going to end up. 7.84 beside his name.
Älibek Qasym and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Astana can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words at Astana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lauro is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
7 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Yeldos Nuserbayev, on a 4‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Pedro Romano
The dugoutBernard Schlupp has become a man the manager trusts
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Prince Adu Kwabena provided it, and the 8.14 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
5 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Astana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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; Astana are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Älibek Qasym falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Astana asked and MFK Michalovce said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Astana can pretend not to have heard.
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
A new deal for the man in the dugout, and the clearest thing a board can say without calling a press conference about it. Stability is cheap to promise and expensive to deliver.
$620.0K was the most the club would pay and Okzhetpes were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Astana are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Kipras Kažukolovas reports back to Astana with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Baltika did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $2.1M for Chinonso Offor, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
Boardroom1 Mar 2027
Astana close the window on a squad of their own making
7 in and 3 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Astana have gone to Okzhetpes with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
“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 Astana know it.
Kipras Kažukolovas and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $2.1M for Chinonso Offor, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Stevenage have kept their man, and Astana go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Astana have done the hard part with Baltika, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $1.3M has been paid because Vladislav Galkin is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
Astana asked and Atyrau said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Eduard Kozyk has, at Astana, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Älibek Qasym falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Pavel Mogilevets 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.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Astana, and it is not being withdrawn.
Shakhter paid $1.7M and Astana took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
The fee is $670.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Tobol drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Astana had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Apollon, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Astana asked and Ordabasy said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lauro was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Astana have gone to Tobol with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Astana asked and Aktobe said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Cleyton has, at Astana, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Astana, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Pedro Romano is living that version at Astana, and it tends to show in the first month.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Älibek Qasym was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Pavel Mogilevets and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The offer from Vasas for Kipras Kažukolovas 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.
Älibek Qasym and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at Astana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ian Vorogovskiy is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Nobody writes a headline about a tutor. Nobody has to be told, either, what happens to a signing who spends two years being the man nobody can talk to at lunch.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Kipras Kažukolovas had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Nūrali Zhaqsylyq is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Astana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Älibek Qasym is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“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; Astana are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Bernard Schlupp is on it.
The name of Kipras Kažukolovas has come up in conversations Astana were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Älibek Qasym 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ian Vorogovskiy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Astana can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Ian Vorogovskiy is on it.
105 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Astana lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 15 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Astana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadWords at Astana training over how hard people work
114 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Astana lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Astana will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Astana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Älibek Qasym is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
122 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Astana lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Astana will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Älibek Qasym falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
129 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Astana lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Astana will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Älibek Qasym 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.
136 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Astana lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 46 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Astana is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
This is the season the town will measure the next twenty against. The trophy travels home with the squad, and the route through the streets was agreed days ago.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Astana will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Qualification is done, and next season the floodlights come on for something bigger. A stage for the players, oxygen for the accounts and a passport for everybody else.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Astana have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Astana will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Astana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Nikola Burić falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 68 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Karlo Bartolec and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Älibek Qasym falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Astana will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Astana is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Lauro has just signed for Astana, and for once the answer mattered.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Älibek Qasym was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Pavel Mogilevets 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Astana will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Astana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Nikola Burić falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Astana will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Astana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nikola Burić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Bernard Schlupp is on it.
2 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Astana could ask drops and the wages Branimir Kalaica can ask rise.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 97 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Älibek Qasym was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
9 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Astana will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Branimir Kalaica will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Astana the goodbyes have quietly begun.
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Nikola Burić falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Nobody at Astana will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Astana will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Älibek Qasym and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Astana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikola Burić is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Nobody at Astana will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Astana will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Alexey Polev has, at Astana, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Karlo Bartolec and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Nobody at Astana will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
A new face in his position and a shirt he thought he owned suddenly up for discussion. Astana have promised nothing, which is what clubs promise at this stage.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.38 at 39, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 23 arrived, 2 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Astana asked and Huracán said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Pavel Mogilevets and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Nurbol Baizhanov has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Erbol Islamkhan has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Ordabasy Akhmetov has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Astana, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Branimir Kalaica will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Astana the goodbyes have quietly begun.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Astana have done the hard part with Nasaf, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Astana asked and Stockport County said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Pavel Mogilevets 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.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Astana will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Nikola Burić has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Marin Tomasov is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Astana, another week without a signature from Branimir Kalaica.
In brief
The dugoutIan Vorogovskiy has become a man the manager trusts
The dugoutJosip Čondrić is still being punished for one mistake
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Astana have paid $2.7M for Bernard Schlupp, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
Astana asked and Kairat said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Astana had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Talleres, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Branimir Kalaica has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Bernard Schlupp was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $2.7M. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
The training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 4 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Nazareno Durán is in the works
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Prince Adu Kwabena obliged against Taraz. 3‑1 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Astana.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Astana can pretend not to have heard.
The phone has started ringing about Branimir Kalaica again, and this time the name on the line is Kairat. Astana are listening politely and promising nothing.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Astana have paid $58.0K for Victor Mudrac, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Astana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Baltika have kept their man, and Astana go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Älibek Qasym 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.
Astana offered $380.0K; Ordabasy said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Tobol will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Kirill Gluschenkov has pre-agreed a move to Astana, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Nikola Burić falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Astana know which stage they are at.
Squad17 Aug 2026
5 new faces, and Astana are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Karlo Bartolec signs something — a contract at Astana or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Crvena Zvezda keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
$380.0K on the table at Ordabasy. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Kairat will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Jorginho has pre-agreed a move to Astana, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Astana asked and All Boys said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The shape has not worked since the summer and the reason was never a mystery. Prince Adu Kwabena comes in from Viktoria Plzen to be the missing piece, which is a flattering description and a heavy one.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Gafurzhan Tymoshchuk is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 4‑0 against Zhetysu, and it could have been more.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
A brace, and Ivan Bašić takes the afternoon — 8.30
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ivan Bašić provided it, and the 8.30 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
$1.3M on the table at Viktoria Plzen. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Astana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nikola Burić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.