From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market24 Aug 2026
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nūrbergen Nūrbol will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Zhetysu the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Zhetysu had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Vicenza, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
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 Zhetysu this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Zhetysu
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alan Chochiev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Zhetysu asked and Astana said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad24 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Rodion Konstantinov and Zhetysu agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match12 Aug 2026
The cup run ends for Zhetysu
0‑3 against Ordabasy, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
A cup embarrassment at Ordabasy follows Zhetysu 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Rodion Konstantinov is living that version at Zhetysu, and it tends to show in the first month.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
No thanks: Diego Otoya rejects the move
Zhetysu had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Sporting Cristal, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Zhetysu
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alan Chochiev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ordabasy have kept their man, and Zhetysu go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Stefan Sicaci
“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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Rodion Konstantinov and Zhetysu agree another 3 years.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
Nobody left the Zhetysu dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market10 Aug 2026
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Zhetysu people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad10 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Zhetysu
Serikzhan Muzhikov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Aibol Suyumbayev 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. Kairat Shomko 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
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Timur Abiken 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Zhetysu are still strangers to each other
14 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.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Ordabasy have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Sporting Cristal: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad3 Aug 2026
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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Serikzhan Muzhikov and Zhetysu agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Zhetysu
Serikzhan Muzhikov 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.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
$190.0K was the most the club would pay and Ordabasy were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Aktobe have kept their man, and Zhetysu go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Zhetysu training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alan Chochiev 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.
Match1 Aug 2026
A bad afternoon for Zhetysu against Aktobe
0‑2 to Aktobe, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Market3 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: Irtysh have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Nūrbergen Nūrbol. The answer from Zhetysu has not changed — yet.
Market3 Aug 2026
24 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.