The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Lokomotiv is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“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; Lokomotiv are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aleksandar Šušnjar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Sunnatilla Poyonov 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 Lokomotiv 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.
Aleksandar Šušnjar 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.
2 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Lokomotiv could ask drops and the wages Temur Mamasiddiqov can ask rise.
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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Lokomotiv they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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 tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Lokomotiv can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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 Lokomotiv 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Muhriddin Zoirov signs something — a contract at Lokomotiv or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Lokomotiv they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Nikola Ninković is living that version at Lokomotiv, and it tends to show in the first month.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Lokomotiv have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alisher Salimov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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; Lokomotiv are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Ewerton 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Javohir Sidiqov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Izzatullo Abdulhaqov has, at Lokomotiv, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Vasil Tašovski will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Lokomotiv the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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 Lokomotiv now know that too.
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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Lokomotiv, another week without a signature from Uroš Ćuk.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lokomotiv can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lokomotiv this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Javohir Sidiqov commits to Lokomotiv for another 2 years.
Squad4 Nov 2030
Words at Lokomotiv training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ewerton 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 Lokomotiv can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Lokomotiv has been clear about where Muhammadsafo Fozilov stands, which is more than many ever get.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lokomotiv 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Lokomotiv has been clear about where Uroš Ćuk stands, which is more than many ever get.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Lokomotiv told Uroš Ćuk something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
6 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 system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Lokomotiv, 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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Lokomotiv. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Lokomotiv is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“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 Lokomotiv know it.
A season average of 7.03 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Lokomotiv know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Squad21 Oct 2030
Words at Lokomotiv training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aleksandar Šušnjar 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Uroš Ćuk trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Lokomotiv know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Lokomotiv is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lokomotiv this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 Lokomotiv know it.
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.
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 Lokomotiv 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.
Position 5, 55 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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aleksandar Šušnjar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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; Lokomotiv are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
The dugout7 Oct 2030
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 Jaloliddin Abdullaev to a room that had heard them before.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Lokomotiv they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Nazar Kovalenko has just signed for Lokomotiv, and for once the answer mattered.
Every long career reaches the week the last one is thought about. He would like it to be where he started, and Lokomotiv know now that the thought has arrived.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 5 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
5 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Lokomotiv is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Vasil Tašovski has agreed terms with Bunyodkor for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Lokomotiv can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Rustambek Fomin obliged against Nasaf. 1‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Lokomotiv.
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.
Boardroom2 Sep 2030
Deadline passes with 22 signed and 17 gone
That is the business done at Lokomotiv 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.
Match31 Aug 2030
Another one collected away from home
5 on the bounce on the road for Lokomotiv. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Aleksandar Šušnjar 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.
Lokomotiv have gone to Bunyodkor 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ewerton 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. Igdir FK have kept their man, and Lokomotiv go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The offer from Bukhara for Mirkomil Murodov 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Shortan waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Lokomotiv is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The deal with Rustavi is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lokomotiv this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.00, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Squad26 Aug 2030
Words at Lokomotiv training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jovan Nišić 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.
Lokomotiv asked and AGMK said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
2 behind and going nowhere, until Muhriddin Zoirov decided otherwise. Bukhara had done the hard part and then watched it come apart, and the noise at the final whistle was the sort a ground keeps.
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.
Player ratings19 Aug 2030
Mirkomil Murodov, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.75
A mark of 7.75 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 offer from Mashal for Muhammed Habibullayev 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Lokomotiv is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Lokomotiv can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Lokomotiv have gone to Bunyodkor 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lokomotiv this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Sunnatilla Poyonov scored, was marked 7.98, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
The name of Mirkomil Murodov has come up in conversations Lokomotiv were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Lokomotiv is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
Lokomotiv have gone to Bunyodkor 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.
Ewerton 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.
In brief
SquadJovan Nišić falls out with a teammate over standards
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Lokomotiv have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“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 Lokomotiv, 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 Lokomotiv 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 Jovan Nišić 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. River Plate have kept their man, and Lokomotiv go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 17 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Lokomotiv they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Mashal waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Lokomotiv is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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; Lokomotiv are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Lokomotiv will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Gafurzhan Dosmagambetov scored, was marked 7.62, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Aleksandar Šušnjar and Lokomotiv agree another 2 years.
The offer went to Bunyodkor 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.
Ewerton 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 Jovan Nišić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Lokomotiv will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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 Lokomotiv, and it is not being withdrawn.
Successful dribbles: 26. 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Lokomotiv they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
One scored and one made, which is a different afternoon from scoring twice and an easier one to overlook. Marked 7.82, and involved in 2 of his side's goals.
$83.0K on the table at Bunyodkor. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
18 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Lokomotiv lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Lokomotiv will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about 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 Lokomotiv, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Lokomotiv is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Lokomotiv have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“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 Lokomotiv know it.
Lokomotiv offered $83.0K; Bunyodkor said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Lokomotiv asked and Bunyodkor said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
25 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Lokomotiv lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The bid was some way short and Lokomotiv did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Player ratings10 Jun 2030
Mirkomil Murodov, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.86
A mark of 7.86 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.
$83.0K on the table at Bunyodkor. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
“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; Lokomotiv are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad10 Jun 2030
Words at Lokomotiv training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jovan Nišić 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.
Lokomotiv asked and Penarol 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 Lokomotiv this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
39 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Lokomotiv lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Lokomotiv will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 9 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Lokomotiv they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Ewerton and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad27 May 2030
Words at Lokomotiv training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jovan Nišić 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.
60 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Lokomotiv lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 43 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lokomotiv this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The first defeat in 6 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Bukhara; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Jaloliddin Abdullaev after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
81 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Lokomotiv lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Lokomotiv will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mirkomil Murodov provided it, and the 8.77 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
“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 Lokomotiv know it.
Ewerton 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.
Marked 8.10 — 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Lokomotiv will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Lokomotiv is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jovan Nišić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is 20 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
The end came on a Tuesday, as these things usually do: a short meeting, a shorter statement, and Dostonbek Hasanov clearing his office by noon. Football’s cruellest ritual, performed to schedule.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 108 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“Somebody picks the team on Saturday. This week it is me, and that is as far as I have thought.” No promises were made in either direction, which is how these usually begin.
“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 Lokomotiv, and it is not being withdrawn.
The instruction has come from upstairs rather than from the dugout, which is the version of this conversation no manager enjoys. Somebody in that squad is now available whether the man who picks the team thinks so or not.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Muhammed Habibullayev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Lokomotiv the goodbyes have quietly begun.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Sunnatilla Poyonov had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lokomotiv can pretend not to have heard.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Lokomotiv can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jovan Nišić 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. Olympiacos have kept their man, and Lokomotiv go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
10 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 Lokomotiv 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 words a physio says slowly. 16 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.
“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 Lokomotiv, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom4 Feb 2030
Deadline passes with 4 signed and 4 gone
That is the business done at Lokomotiv 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Lokomotiv they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Add another name to the list: Shortan have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Sunnatilla Poyonov. The answer from Lokomotiv has not changed — yet.
The shirt still fits. Temur Mamasiddiqov is back at Lokomotiv, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
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. Shakhtar have kept their man, and Lokomotiv go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The words a physio says slowly. 31 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.
Ewerton 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.
Squad21 Jan 2030
Jovan Nišić 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 Lokomotiv 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. Lokomotiv know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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 Valijon Rahimov has written the date down.
The words a physio says slowly. 39 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 settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Lokomotiv people have started saying his name in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lokomotiv this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Jan 2030
Words at Lokomotiv training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ewerton 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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Jovan Nišić has his answer from Lokomotiv; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
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 clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Lokomotiv people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“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 Lokomotiv, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Muhammed Habibullayev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Lokomotiv the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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; Lokomotiv 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 Lokomotiv this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Jan 2030
Words at Lokomotiv training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jovan Nišić 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.
Nobody at Lokomotiv 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.
18 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Lokomotiv lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Lokomotiv have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Ewerton 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.
Squad31 Dec 2029
Words at Lokomotiv training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jovan Nišić 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 was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Lokomotiv has been clear about where Asadbek Sobirjonov stands, which is more than many ever get.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
The words a physio says slowly. 18 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.
Aleksandar Šušnjar 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 Ewerton was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The words a physio says slowly. 40 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Muhammed Habibullayev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Lokomotiv the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Lokomotiv can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad10 Dec 2029
Jovan Nišić 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.
Asadbek Sobirjonov 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.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
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 Uroš Ćuk is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Jovan Nišić signs something — a contract at Lokomotiv or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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 Rustambek Fomin has written the date down.
47 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Lokomotiv lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Aleksandar Šušnjar commits to Lokomotiv for another 2 years.
Squad3 Dec 2029
Words at Lokomotiv training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ewerton 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 is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Mirkomil Murodov has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Lokomotiv, another week without a signature from Abdulloh Yo'ldoshev.
In brief
The dugoutNikola Tasić knocks on the manager's door
54 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Lokomotiv lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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.
Squad26 Nov 2029
Jovan Nišić 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.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 12 actions, 6.91, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
The first defeat in 4 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Navbahor; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
The words a physio says slowly. 64 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.
Not a month, not a run of form — a whole season of being the best 20-year-old anybody in this division could put on a pitch. This is the honour that gets mentioned for the rest of his career.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Lokomotiv they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jovan Nišić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Lokomotiv, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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 Valijon Rahimov has written the date down.
The words a physio says slowly. 71 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Lokomotiv have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Lokomotiv they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Aleksandar Šušnjar and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Nov 2029
Words at Lokomotiv training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ewerton 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 Lokomotiv can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Nobody at Lokomotiv 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.
95 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Lokomotiv lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Lokomotiv they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lokomotiv 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 Ewerton was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
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.
110 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Lokomotiv lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.81 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Lokomotiv can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Ewerton 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.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
125 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Lokomotiv lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings24 Sep 2029
A brace, and Asilbek Aliev takes the afternoon — 8.65
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Asilbek Aliev provided it, and the 8.65 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lokomotiv can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Abdulloh Yo'ldoshev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Lokomotiv the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lokomotiv this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Sep 2029
Jovan Nišić 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.
Going 2 down does something to a side, and what it usually does is finish them. Not here. Lokomotiv rebuilt the afternoon goal by goal, and Shortan had no answer to any of it.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Muhriddin Zoirov provided it, and the 8.65 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Muhammed Habibullayev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Lokomotiv the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lokomotiv this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A 3‑2 win over Shortan, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad17 Sep 2029
Words at Lokomotiv training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jovan Nišić 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.
Aleksandar Šušnjar 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.
Squad10 Sep 2029
Words at Lokomotiv training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ewerton 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 is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
“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 Lokomotiv know it.
“I watch every Lokomotiv game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Sepahan runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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 every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Lokomotiv know which stage they are at.
Aleksandar Šušnjar and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad20 Aug 2029
Words at Lokomotiv training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ewerton 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.
8.06. 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.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Asadbek Sobirjonov.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Lokomotiv has been clear about where Asadbek Samariddinov 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 Asadbek Sobirjonov is on it.
In brief
MarketThe clock does Oybek Rustamov’s negotiating for him
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Lokomotiv is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Lokomotiv will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Rustambek Fomin 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.
The phone has started ringing about Sahob Rashidov again, and this time the name on the line is Obod. Lokomotiv are listening politely and promising nothing.
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 dugout13 Aug 2029
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Dostonbek Hasanov was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Lokomotiv dressing room was either.
0‑3 to Qizilqum, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Lokomotiv will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Sahob Rashidov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Lokomotiv the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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 Lokomotiv know it.
“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.
Squad6 Aug 2029
Words at Lokomotiv training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Uroš Ćuk 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 club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
Kokand 1912 will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Lokomotiv were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Lokomotiv will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Lokomotiv have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Abdulloh Yo'ldoshev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Lokomotiv the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lokomotiv this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Jul 2029
Words at Lokomotiv training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ewerton 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 is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Bahodir Halilov 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.
“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 Lokomotiv, and it is not being withdrawn.
Jovan Nišić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad23 Jul 2029
Words at Lokomotiv training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ewerton 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 were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Dostonbek Hasanov after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Everything agreed with Lokomotivi, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
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 name of Sahob Rashidov has come up in conversations Lokomotiv were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Obod waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Lokomotiv is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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 Lokomotiv, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Lokomotiv is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lokomotiv this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 Lokomotiv know it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ewerton was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Rustambek Fomin. 2‑1 against Neftchi, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Shakhter waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Lokomotiv is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lokomotiv 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 Uroš Ćuk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Ewerton knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
The dugout25 Jun 2029
The manager has not finished forgetting Ewerton'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.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Sahob Rashidov obliged against Mashal. 2‑1 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Lokomotiv.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Lokomotiv have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Lokomotiv is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad18 Jun 2029
Words at Lokomotiv training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ewerton 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 Lokomotiv this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Mirkomil Murodov 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 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 Lokomotiv 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 Lokomotiv this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Lokomotiv, and 0 appearances in 18 say he has earned the hearing.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Shortan the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Lokomotiv will enjoy reviewing.
Player ratings28 May 2029
A brace, and Jovan Nišić takes the afternoon — 8.33
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Jovan Nišić provided it, and the 8.33 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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 Lokomotiv this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
8.34. 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.
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
The dugout28 May 2029
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 2‑3 defeat, delivered by Dostonbek Hasanov to a room that had heard them before.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Abdulloh Yo'ldoshev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Lokomotiv the goodbyes have quietly begun.
6 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Obod were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ewerton was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Uroš Ćuk 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.
He is 20 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Position 14 and 6 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ewerton was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Aleksandar Šušnjar, and the manager let it.
Player ratings7 May 2029
Jovan Nišić was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.15. 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.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Suhrob Nurulloev at his very best
Loan watchNikita Shevchenko is tired of being somebody else's player
Ewerton 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 have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Lokomotiv can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad30 Apr 2029
Nikola Tasić 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 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 hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Asilbek Aliev did not need any: 7.65, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Lokomotiv they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“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.
Squad23 Apr 2029
Words at Lokomotiv training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Uroš Ćuk 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 one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Lokomotiv they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lokomotiv 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 version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.38, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout16 Apr 2029
Somebody else is better right now than Nikola Tasić
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.
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.
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.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Ikromjon Aliboev obliged against Qizilqum. 3‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Lokomotiv.
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.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Mirkomil Murodov did not need any: 7.62, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.06 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Abdulloh Yo'ldoshev scored, was marked 7.93, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
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.
At 19 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Lokomotiv have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The instruction came from the boardroom and the dugout did not agree with it. Somebody will go, the fee will be called good business, and the manager will spend the season rebuilding around the space.
“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; Lokomotiv are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Lokomotiv, and 0 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad2 Apr 2029
Words at Lokomotiv training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Uroš Ćuk 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.
David Oliveira 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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Ikromjon Aliboev has his answer from Lokomotiv; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nikola Tasić trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
In brief
The dugoutMilan Kovačev has become a man the manager trusts
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Lokomotiv is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ewerton was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
100 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
The dugout26 Mar 2029
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 Dostonbek Hasanov to a room that had heard them before.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Oybek Rustamov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Lokomotiv the goodbyes have quietly begun.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Oybek Rustamov has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Ewerton and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Mar 2029
Nikola Tasić 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.
33 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
The dugout19 Mar 2029
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Dostonbek Hasanov left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout19 Mar 2029
Somebody else is better right now than Nikola Tasić
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.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad12 Mar 2029
Words at Lokomotiv training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Uroš Ćuk 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 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.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
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.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Asilbek Aliev scored in the 88th minute, Sogdiana had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Lokomotiv took the lot.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Asilbek Aliev did not need any: 7.64, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
3 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.
Aleksandar Šušnjar 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.
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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Lokomotiv can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Lokomotiv they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The offer from Aktobe for Mirkomil Murodov 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.
He is 20, he is averaging 7.03, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
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 Lokomotiv 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.
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 Xurshid G'iyosov has written the date down.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of 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.
Uroš Ćuk and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Feb 2029
5 new faces, and Lokomotiv 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 at Lokomotiv 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.
Ronny Taperaçu is 33 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Asilbek Aliev signs something — a contract at Lokomotiv or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Lokomotiv, another week without a signature from Bilol Tupliyev.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Lokomotiv they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
A season average of 7.03 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Lokomotiv know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
“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; Lokomotiv 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 Lokomotiv 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. Nasaf have kept their man, and Lokomotiv go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad29 Jan 2029
Words at Lokomotiv training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Uroš Ćuk 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 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.