Marked for Hamidullo Abdunabiyev
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad22 Feb 2027
19 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Tempers go at AGMK
Giorgi Papava 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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
A row about effort at AGMK
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abubakr-Rizo Turdialiyev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
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 Mirjamol Qosimov is on it.
Market22 Feb 2027
The Uroš Kojić story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Uroš Kojić signs something — a contract at AGMK or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Miloš Rošević wants to know why he earns less
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and AGMK have no good answer.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market1 Feb 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Mashal waiting with a shirt. Nobody at AGMK is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market1 Feb 2027
“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.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Window shuts: 0 in, 2 out at AGMK
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 0 arrived, 2 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Market1 Feb 2027
Lokomotiv come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and AGMK did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words exchanged at AGMK
Giorgi Papava 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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
A row about effort at AGMK
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Siavash Haghnazari was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The dugout1 Feb 2027
“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 dugout1 Feb 2027
Nobody at AGMK 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad28 Dec 2026
Tempers go at AGMK
Giorgi Papava 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Siavash Haghnazari 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.
Boardroom28 Dec 2026
Wages swallow 175% of the AGMK 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Time is catching up with Mirian Jikia
Everybody at AGMK saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 36 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at AGMK, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
Mirjamol Qosimov has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at AGMK 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.