Marked for Umar Adhamzoda
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Oct 2026
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Navbahor will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad19 Oct 2026
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad19 Oct 2026
A falling-out at Navbahor
Zabihillo O'rinboyev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match17 Oct 2026
Pakhtakor left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Benjamin Teidi
“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.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Jasur Abdullaev to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
Joel Kojo asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Squad19 Oct 2026
A booking nobody needed, on a night the game was already won. Navbahor lose a player for the most avoidable reason there is.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
Nobody at Navbahor is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad5 Oct 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 10 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at Navbahor
Benjamin Teidi 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.
Match3 Oct 2026
Whatever happens, Navbahor do not lose
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“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 Navbahor know it.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Wages swallow 229% of the Navbahor income
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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Loan watch5 Oct 2026
“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 Navbahor, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
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.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 15 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
In brief
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
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The dugout
The manager makes an example of Vanja Ilić
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Player ratings
Off the pace: Husain Norchayev
From our football correspondent
Steady
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 16 in, 11 out at Navbahor
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 16 arrived, 11 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Market7 Sep 2026
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Bukhara moved on, Isroiljon Tursunboyev reports back to Navbahor, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
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 Navbahor, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Joyce Katulondi has agreed terms with Lokomotiv for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at Navbahor
Saidazamat Mirsaidov 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.
Market7 Sep 2026
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Navbahor will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Market7 Sep 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Navbahor have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Navbahor than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.