52 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Kairat lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.” Kairat have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Erkin Tapalov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Kairat training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tiago Pucciarelli 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.
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.
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.
60 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Kairat lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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 Luís Mata is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Luís Mata trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Kairat. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
67 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Kairat lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Aleksandr Shirobokov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Kairat the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Alexandr Martynovich 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Kairat training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tiago Pucciarelli 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Kairat, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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. 74 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Kairat is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Erkin Tapalov 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.
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.
82 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Kairat lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 Kairat know it.
Nobody at Kairat 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.
2 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Kairat could ask drops and the wages Luís Mata can ask rise.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Marc Gual has written the date down.
89 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Kairat lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ramazan Bağdat is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Lucas Áfrico wants continental football; whether Kairat can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
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.
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.
Nobody at Kairat 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.
97 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Kairat lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Aleksandr Shirobokov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Kairat the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Sherkhan Kalmurza is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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 Kairat 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Kairat they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“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 Kairat know it.
Alexandr Martynovich 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.
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.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Gustavo Mendonça is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Nobody at Kairat 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ismail Bekbolat is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kairat 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 Tiago Pucciarelli 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 Oiva Jukkola is on it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tiago Pucciarelli was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
9 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Nobody at Kairat 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.
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. Kairat will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Marked 7.73 at 19, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 15 signed and 1 gone
That is the business done at Kairat 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Aleksandr Shirobokov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Kairat the goodbyes have quietly begun.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Aleksandr Mrynskii 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Ordabasy Orazov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Tobol spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Kairat is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Kairat can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tiago Pucciarelli was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The young player of the month award goes to a 18-year-old at Kairat who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
Everything agreed with Crvena Zvezda, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
The offer went to Aktobe this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
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.
Kairat asked and Fehervar said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Add another name to the list: Shakhter have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Azamat Tuiakbaev. The answer from Kairat has not changed — yet.
Tiago Pucciarelli is 20, and Kairat have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
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. Kairat will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
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 Örken Makhan is on it.
In brief
MarketThe clock does Luís Mata’s negotiating for him
Kairat and All Boys have settled on $310.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Gustavo Mendonça scored, was marked 7.98, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Fehervar is saying, and nobody at Kairat is enjoying the guessing.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Kairat can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Kairat 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Gustavo Mendonça 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.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Kairat people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Alexandr Martynovich 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.
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.
Kairat have made the call to Crvena Zvezda. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Qarabag waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Kairat is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
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.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Kairat asked and Gimnasia La Plata 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 Kairat 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Talgat 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Yeldos Islamkhan 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.
Two goals and a mark of 9.38 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Kairat have gone to Rubin 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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Alexandr Martynovich and Kairat agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Alexandr Martynovich 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 Kairat and Irtysh in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.