From our football correspondent
Steady
Market31 Aug 2026
Shakhter say no — this time
The offer from Tobol for Aidos Tättibaev 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.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
$220.0K settles it between the clubs for Stanislav Samoilov
Taraz have accepted the money. What Shakhter do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Market31 Aug 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Atlético Tucumán is saying, and nobody at Shakhter is enjoying the guessing.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
The offer went to Kairat 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Shakhter
Alexandr Gagloev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Shakhter training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Konstantin Savichev 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.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Shakhter asked and Crvena Zvezda said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market31 Aug 2026
Shakhter have let the market know Aidos Tättibaev can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match19 Aug 2026
Shakhter bow out of the cup
Ordabasy go through and Shakhter go home, 0‑3 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Market24 Aug 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
A cup embarrassment at Ordabasy follows Shakhter home
0-3. Going out of a cup is one afternoon; going out like that is a week of phone-ins, and the manager will hear every one of them.
Squad24 Aug 2026
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Shakhter had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Turan Tovuz, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Konstantin Savichev was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Shakhter
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bohdan Savkiv was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Navbahor have kept their man, and Shakhter go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Igor' Shatskii
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Shakhter
Igor' Shatskii 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Konstantin Savichev 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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Astana have kept their man, and Shakhter go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad17 Aug 2026
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Shakhter know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Turan Tovuz: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Squad17 Aug 2026
5 new faces, and Shakhter 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.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
“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.
Market17 Aug 2026
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Mikhail Gabyshev may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match8 Aug 2026
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.24 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad10 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shakhter this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Andijon have kept their man, and Shakhter go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Talgat Logvinenko 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Maxim Abiken 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Baktiyor Postnikov 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Talgat Kuat is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Squad10 Aug 2026
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Shakhter know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 10 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Market3 Aug 2026
Baltika come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Shakhter did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Igor' Shatskii and Shakhter agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Igor' Shatskii was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Bohdan Savkiv 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.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Kokand 1912 have kept their man, and Shakhter go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market3 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Shakhter have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Market3 Aug 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Market3 Aug 2026
36 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.