From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Sep 2026
Tempers go at Taraz
Andrei Pasechenko 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Market14 Sep 2026
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Taraz will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Market14 Sep 2026
The window shut and Erasyl Keulimzhai is still in the building
Taraz spent a month trying to move him and nobody rang back. He trains with a squad that has told him where he stands, and both sides start counting down to the next one.
Market14 Sep 2026
The minutes were not coming at Taraz, so they will be looked for at Okzhetpes. A loan out is not a goodbye, but it is always a question: about the player, or about the plan.
Market14 Sep 2026
The minutes were not coming at Taraz, so he will look for them at Okzhetpes. Everybody involved calls it development; for the player it is simply a chance to play.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market7 Sep 2026
“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 The request is on a desk at Taraz, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad7 Sep 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 Taraz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market7 Sep 2026
Shakhter pay $130.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market31 Aug 2026
Nūrlan Däirov hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Taraz can pretend not to have heard.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Taraz
Egor Ališauskas 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.
Market31 Aug 2026
Taraz have let the market know Ülan Konysbaev can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
From our football correspondent
Steady
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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
53 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad24 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 Taraz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match12 Aug 2026
The cup run ends for Taraz
1‑1 against Atyrau, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Andrei Pasechenko: 1 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Squad17 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 Taraz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market17 Aug 2026
Zhetysu paid $140.0K and Taraz took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
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. Taraz know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
It was his to settle and he did not settle it. A long walk back to the halfway line, and a considerably longer week.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market17 Aug 2026
He is 20, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
Market17 Aug 2026
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Ülan Konysbaev has his answer from Taraz; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market10 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Taraz
Ibrahima Dembélé was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad10 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Nūrlan Däirov
“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.
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. Taraz know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Market10 Aug 2026
48 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
Market10 Aug 2026
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Nūrlan Däirov may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market3 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Bauyrzhan Baitana and Taraz agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Taraz
Madiiar Nūraly 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Taraz have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Match1 Aug 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Sanzhar Kemelbek. 1‑0 against Tobol, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market3 Aug 2026
The clock runs on Nūrlan Däirov's contract
36 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Defensive actions: 15, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.