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.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Words at Atyrau training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Erving Botaka-Yoboma 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.
Abylaikhan Zhūmabek 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 8.13 — 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.
“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; Atyrau are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Ordabasy kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Atyrau will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
1 for Mario Rabiu, marked 7.63, 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.
7.16, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Carlos Biro scored, and precious little else went right: 3‑4 to Ordabasy, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Words at Atyrau training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Erving Botaka-Yoboma 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 tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Atyrau can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Atyrau can pretend not to have heard.
0‑1 to Shakhter, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Words at Atyrau training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mario Rabiu 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.
The dugout5 Jun 2028
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Baurzhan Orazov to a room that had heard them before.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Malthe Hansen is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Abylaikhan Zhūmabek’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Atyrau needing him to play as if none of it matters.
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 Berik Shaikhov is on it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Atyrau have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
Position 8, 11 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
“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.
The dugout29 May 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Baurzhan Orazov was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Atyrau dressing room was either.
“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; Atyrau are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad22 May 2028
Words at Atyrau training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Erving Botaka-Yoboma 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Baurzhan Orazov on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
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.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 34 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Abylaikhan Zhūmabek 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 Mario Rabiu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A goalkeeper’s error has no defender behind it to tidy it away. He knew before the ball crossed the line, the crowd knew a second later, and there is nothing anybody can say tonight.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Matheus Santos and Atyrau agree another 4 years.
Squad8 May 2028
Words at Atyrau training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Erving Botaka-Yoboma 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atyrau this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Aktobe next, and one man in the Atyrau dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Nobody at Atyrau 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.
“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; Atyrau are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atyrau 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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Nobody at Atyrau 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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Berik Shaikhov’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Atyrau needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Nobody at Atyrau is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
Shohruh Isoqov 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.
Successful dribbles: 16. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Words at Atyrau training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abzal Beysebekov 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.
The dugout24 Apr 2028
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.” Baurzhan Orazov chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
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 Behruz Haydarov is on it.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Rifat Nurmugamet’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Atyrau needing him to play as if none of it matters.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Erving Botaka-Yoboma was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Atyrau know it.
Abylaikhan Zhūmabek 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.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Two goals and a mark of 9.23 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
1 for Mario Rabiu, marked 7.93, 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.
Player ratings10 Apr 2028
Dmitry Ivanov was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.48. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Erving Botaka-Yoboma was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Behruz Haydarov 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.
Player ratings10 Apr 2028
Behruz Haydarov was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.52. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Atyrau have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Atyrau and Akzhaiyk in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
50 for the club now, each one filed in somebody’s memory with a date and a scoreline. Numbers like this are what supporters argue about in twenty years.
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Erving Botaka-Yoboma was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Mario Rabiu 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.
Squad27 Mar 2028
5 new faces, and Atyrau 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.
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.
Akzhaiyk next, and one man in the Atyrau dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
“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; Atyrau are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Shohruh Isoqov 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.
Abylaikhan Zhūmabek scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑3 to Ordabasy, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Words at Atyrau training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Erving Botaka-Yoboma 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 could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑3, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout20 Mar 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Matheus Santos's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
There was one mistake and it ended in the net. Defenders are judged on the worst thing they did rather than on the eighty-nine minutes either side of it, which is unfair and is also the job.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Atyrau have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 12 combined actions and a mark of 6.95, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mario Rabiu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 15. 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.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
In brief
Looking aheadAtyrau take on the side everybody is chasing
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Kairat is saying, and nobody at Atyrau is enjoying the guessing.
The board have signed the man in the dugout to a longer contract, which says more than any statement of support. Stability is easy to promise and costly to keep.
“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; Atyrau are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Samat Nuserbayev is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Nurali Vorogovskiy 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Nurbol Orazov 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 deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 4 arrived, 0 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Shohruh Isoqov 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.
Atyrau asked and Nasaf said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
Position 5, 36 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Atyrau, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Atyrau opened the door and nobody walked through it. So Dmitry Yashin stays — listed, trained, and available — while both sides mark the days to January on the same calendar.
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.
“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 Atyrau, and it is not being withdrawn.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Kairat have kept their man, and Atyrau go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Mario Rabiu falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I have 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 Atyrau know it.
5 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.
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 Carlos Biro is on it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Erving Botaka-Yoboma was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Atyrau asked and Zenit said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Egor Tkachenko 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 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.
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 Atyrau this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Atyrau can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Shohruh Isoqov 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.
Atyrau 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.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Mario Rabiu 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 Atyrau 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 registration window is open and the phone has started. Between now and the deadline this club will be linked with forty players and sign three, which is the usual ratio.
Position 5, 36 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
“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 Atyrau know 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.
Abylaikhan Zhūmabek 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.
Shohruh Isoqov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Words at Atyrau training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Erving Botaka-Yoboma 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.
6 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.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Atyrau know which stage they are at.
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.
Everything agreed with another club, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atyrau 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 Mario Rabiu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Atyrau are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Matheus Santos has, at Atyrau, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Erving Botaka-Yoboma commits to Atyrau for another 4 years.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Words at Atyrau training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Erving Botaka-Yoboma 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Atyrau, another week without a signature from Matheus Santos.
Alexandr Dmitryuk 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Malthe Hansen trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Erving Botaka-Yoboma was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Egor Tkachenko 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.
Joel Orlando 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Juninho was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Atyrau 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Atyrau know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Atyrau, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
Joel Orlando 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.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Words at Atyrau training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juninho 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 Atyrau know 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 Atyrau 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 Erving Botaka-Yoboma was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Atyrau know it.
Joel Orlando and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Words at Atyrau training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juninho 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 are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Atyrau will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
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.
Abylaikhan Zhūmabek 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.
Nobody at Atyrau 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Atyrau know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Gabriel Mancha trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Atyrau will quote 16 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Words at Atyrau training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Erving Botaka-Yoboma 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.
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.
Egor Khatkevich 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 Atyrau 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Sanzhar Satanov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A window away with the national side, and a shirt at Atyrau that briefly doubles as an advertisement. A call-up flatters the player and the club that built him in the same breath.
Joel Orlando and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Words at Atyrau training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juninho 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.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Oleksandr Noiok is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Zé Vitor
The dugoutCarlos Biro has become a man the manager trusts
Joel Orlando 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.
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 Zé Vitor is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Atyrau know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
Joel Orlando 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 Juninho was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atyrau this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Malthe Hansen has, at Atyrau, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
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 Atyrau know it.
Nobody at Atyrau 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Gabriel Mancha
Egor Khatkevich 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 Atyrau know it.
Nobody at Atyrau 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Juninho was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atyrau this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Atyrau has been clear about where Mikhail Kharlan stands, which is more than many ever get.
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 Zé Vitor is on 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 Atyrau, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mario Rabiu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Atyrau 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.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 33 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Atyrau know which stage they are at.
That is the business done at Atyrau until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atyrau 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.
Atyrau asked and Alvarado said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Joel Orlando trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Atyrau would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
“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 Atyrau, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Dinamo Moscow is saying, and nobody at Atyrau is enjoying the guessing.
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.
Atyrau asked and Sochi 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 was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Atyrau has been clear about where Nikolay Zabolotny stands, which is more than many ever get.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Atyrau can pretend not to have heard.
Joel Orlando 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.
Shakhter paid $330.0K and Atyrau took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Atyrau asked and Shakhter said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Words at Atyrau training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juninho 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 not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Atyrau told Egor Khatkevich something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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. Atyrau will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
“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 Atyrau, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Sochi keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Joel Orlando 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Pakhtakor have kept their man, and Atyrau go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Pakhtakor keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Egor Khatkevich 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.
Atyrau asked and Sochi 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 offer from Tobol for Ian Trufanov 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 Atyrau can pretend not to have heard.
Everything agreed with Argentino de Merlo, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Tobol is saying, and nobody at Atyrau is enjoying the guessing.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Juninho 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. Rostov have kept their man, and Atyrau go back to a list with one name crossed off 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 Atyrau, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atyrau this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It had gone 6 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Words at Atyrau training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Erving Botaka-Yoboma 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.
Atyrau 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.
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.
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.
Joel Orlando 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Atyrau has been clear about where Vyacheslav Krotov stands, which is more than many ever get.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Atyrau can pretend not to have heard.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Oleksandr Noiok scored, was marked 7.44, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Egor Khatkevich 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Astana have kept their man, and Atyrau go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Alexandr Dmitryuk has his answer from Atyrau; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.37 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Atyrau have done the hard part with Zenit, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
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.
Egor Khatkevich 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 Erving Botaka-Yoboma was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Atyrau asked and Rostov said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atyrau this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
9 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 Juninho was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 21 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Atyrau will try very hard not to make too much of it.
Four weeks in which nobody in the division did his job better. The award goes on a shelf and the player goes back into the side, which is the order Atyrau prefer.
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.89 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Marked 7.83. There is a kind of forward whose value only shows up when you count what he was involved in rather than what he finished, and this is the day that argument makes itself.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Juninho was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A mark of 7.96 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
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. Astana have kept their man, and Atyrau go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Alexandr Dmitryuk 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 8.09 — 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.
Everybody at Atyrau saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 33 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
“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 Atyrau, and it is not being withdrawn.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Konstantin Dorofeev did not need any: 7.90, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Egor Khatkevich 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.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Atyrau and Akzhaiyk in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
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.
8 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
In brief
Player ratingsJuninho was on a different afternoon to everybody else
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Yury Klochkov at his very best
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Juninho was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 7.04 on 13 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atyrau 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; Atyrau are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑4, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
A mark of 7.64 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
“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; Atyrau are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Ulvi Babaev 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 pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nikolay Zabolotny, and the manager let it.
Player ratings31 May 2027
Ulvi Babaev was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.45. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gabriel Mancha was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The first defeat in 9 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Okzhetpes; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Egor Khatkevich 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.
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad24 May 2027
Words at Atyrau training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juninho 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.
Half the programme played, position 4, 22 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
The dugout24 May 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑3 defeat, delivered by Baurzhan Orazov to a room that had heard them before.
Nobody at Atyrau 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. Abylaikhan Zhūmabek provided it, and the 8.89 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.22 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.85 for the rest of it.
Oleksandr Noiok 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.
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Taraz spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew 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 Atyrau 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 Gabriel Mancha was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Baurzhan Orazov on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Atyrau, another week without a signature from Alexandr Dmitryuk.
Two goals and a mark of 8.53 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Oleksandr Noiok and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 May 2027
Words at Atyrau training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juninho 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.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 6 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
At 23 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.
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.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Oleksandr Noiok scored, was marked 7.79, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Kairat made Atyrau work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at Atyrau training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mario Rabiu 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.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.09 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Abylaikhan Zhūmabek. 3‑1 against Zhetysu, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Vyacheslav Krotov 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.
Something was said to Juninho and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Squad19 Apr 2027
7 new faces, and Atyrau 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.
In brief
SquadGabriel Mancha falls out with a teammate over standards
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Player ratings12 Apr 2027
Up for the corner, and Carlos Biro delivers — 7.98
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Carlos Biro scored, was marked 7.98, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Juninho was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 23 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atyrau 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Ulvi Babaev 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 Atyrau can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Egor Khatkevich 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.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 33 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Atyrau is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gabriel Mancha was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Berik Shaikhov’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Atyrau needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Two goals and a mark of 8.13 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
7.87, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Egor Khatkevich 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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words at Atyrau training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juninho 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.
At 21 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.
A performance of 8.04 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The terraces22 Mar 2027
Atyrau's travelling support get something back at Akzhaiyk
They paid twice — for the ticket and for the journey — and got a 4-0 win for it. Away support is the truest kind precisely because nothing about it is convenient.
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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“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 Atyrau know 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.
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Atyrau had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Cukaricki, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
“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; Atyrau are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atyrau this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every long career reaches the week the player starts thinking about the last one. He would like it to be at the club that first put him on a pitch, and Atyrau now know that too.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Nurbol Baizhanov 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.
Atyrau close the window on a squad of their own making
7 in and 0 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.
Everything agreed with Cukaricki, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
“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; Atyrau are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Every long career reaches the week the player starts thinking about the last one. He would like it to be at the club that first put him on a pitch, and Atyrau now know that too.
Juninho 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 Mario Rabiu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Atyrau, another week without a signature from Alexandr Dmitryuk.
Atyrau had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Fenix, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Egor Khatkevich 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mario Rabiu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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. Atyrau will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Abylaikhan Zhūmabek signs something — a contract at Atyrau or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Navbahor is saying, and nobody at Atyrau is enjoying the guessing.
Egor Khatkevich and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Mario Rabiu 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.
Atyrau asked and Navbahor 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 pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Egor Tkachenko, and the manager let it.
Squad15 Feb 2027
7 new faces, and Atyrau 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.
A loan enquiry to Deportivo Riestra: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Zé Vitor has just signed for Atyrau, and for once the answer mattered.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atyrau 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 Mario Rabiu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Saiat Zhūmağali has his answer from Atyrau; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Zé Vitor has just signed for Atyrau, and for once the answer mattered.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Pakhtakor is saying, and nobody at Atyrau is enjoying the guessing.
Egor Khatkevich 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Pakhtakor have kept their man, and Atyrau go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Signings arrive with a picture of the club in their head, and this one’s picture was bigger than the building. He will play well and he will be gone, in that order, and everybody knows it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gabriel Mancha was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Vyacheslav Krotov 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Atyrau, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Abylaikhan Zhūmabek signs something — a contract at Atyrau or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
18 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Atyrau lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The words a physio says slowly. 25 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Abylaikhan Zhūmabek 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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The words a physio says slowly. 33 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Egor Khatkevich 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.
40 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Atyrau lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Oleksandr Noiok 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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Abylaikhan Zhūmabek signs something — a contract at Atyrau or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The words a physio says slowly. 27 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Atyrau, and both men came out saying it was fine.
36 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Atyrau lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Konstantin Dorofeev's mistake
Vyacheslav Krotov 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.
Egor Khatkevich 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Quanysh Qalmüratov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Abylaikhan Zhūmabek signs something — a contract at Atyrau or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Abylaikhan Zhūmabek 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atyrau this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Redvan Memeshev is on it.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 17 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Oleksandr Noiok 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.
25 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Atyrau lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Egor Khatkevich 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Atyrau, another week without a signature from Alexandr Dmitryuk.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Abylaikhan Zhūmabek signs something — a contract at Atyrau or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
32 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Atyrau lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 34 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atyrau this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at Atyrau 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.
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.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Atyrau that is a harder question to answer.
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.
Egor Khatkevich 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 demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Konstantin Dorofeev is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
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.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Atyrau the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atyrau this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Atyrau asked and Napredak said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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 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.
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. Atyrau will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 24 arrived, 0 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Atyrau had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Newell's Old Boys, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Egor Khatkevich 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Flamengo have kept their man, and Atyrau go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
22 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.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Atyrau know which stage they are at.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Atyrau, another week without a signature from Dmitry Ivanov.
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.
Egor Khatkevich 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.
Atyrau asked and Javor-Matis 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 demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Dmitry Yashin is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Atyrau have made the call to Newell's Old Boys. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Abylaikhan Zhūmabek 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 Atyrau, another week without a signature from Alexandr Dmitryuk.
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. Atyrau will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Still no offer on the table, and Mikhail Kharlan’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Atyrau have done the hard part with Andijon, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
A call-up flatters the player and the club that produced him in the same breath. Atyrau would like him back in one piece and know they will not be consulted.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atyrau 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. Kauno Zalgiris have kept their man, and Atyrau go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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 will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
A new face in his position and a shirt he thought he owned suddenly up for discussion. Atyrau have promised nothing, which is what clubs promise at this stage.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Redvan Memeshev provided it, and the 8.15 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Brasil de Pelotas is saying, and nobody at Atyrau is enjoying the guessing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atyrau this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Atyrau and Taraz in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Atyrau asked and Almirante Brown said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
18 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.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 2‑4 defeat, delivered by Baurzhan Orazov to a room that had heard them before.
The offer from Akzhaiyk for Ian Trufanov 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Navbahor is saying, and nobody at Atyrau is enjoying the guessing.
At 20 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Dauren Taykenov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Erbol Beysebekov 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Yury Klochkov has just signed for Atyrau, and for once the answer mattered.
Successful dribbles: 24. 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.
Oleksandr Noiok 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.
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. Atyrau will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Atyrau, another week without a signature from Rinat Zhūmatov.