Marked for Dzaky Asraf
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad30 Aug 2032
Jaloliddin Mirzaev damages knee ligaments — 75 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 75 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.
Boardroom30 Aug 2032
The scrutiny sharpens at Lokomotiv
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Lokomotiv is running low.
Market30 Aug 2032
Mashal come back empty-handed
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.
Match28 Aug 2032
No end in sight to Lokomotiv's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Lokomotiv has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad30 Aug 2032
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.
Squad30 Aug 2032
Words at Lokomotiv training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bakary Nimaga 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.
Squad30 Aug 2032
“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.
Match28 Aug 2032
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Boardroom30 Aug 2032
113% of the income goes out in wages at Lokomotiv
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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad16 Aug 2032
Jaloliddin Mirzaev damages knee ligaments — 89 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 89 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.
Squad16 Aug 2032
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad16 Aug 2032
Bakary Nimaga 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.
Squad16 Aug 2032
14 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Player ratings16 Aug 2032
Successful dribbles: 12. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match14 Aug 2032
Point won or two lost for Lokomotiv?
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Bukhara? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad9 Aug 2032
Jaloliddin Mirzaev damages knee ligaments — 96 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 96 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.
Boardroom9 Aug 2032
The numbers do not look good at Lokomotiv
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.
Market9 Aug 2032
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Lokomotiv have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad9 Aug 2032
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.
Squad9 Aug 2032
Bakary Nimaga 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.
Squad9 Aug 2032
“The easiest signature of my career.” Alexey Kozlov and Lokomotiv agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Match7 Aug 2032
Andijon left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings9 Aug 2032
Successful dribbles: 14. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market9 Aug 2032
The name of Muhriddin Zoirov keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Lokomotiv say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom17 Nov 2031
The scrutiny sharpens at Lokomotiv
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Lokomotiv is running low.
Squad17 Nov 2031
Bakary Nimaga 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.
Squad17 Nov 2031
Words at Lokomotiv training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Javohir Nabiyev 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad15 Sep 2031
17 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.
Squad15 Sep 2031
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Shodiyor Shodiboyev commits to Lokomotiv for another 3 years.
Squad15 Sep 2031
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.
Squad15 Sep 2031
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Bakary Nimaga, and the manager let it.
Match13 Sep 2031
Metallurg left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings15 Sep 2031
Dzaky Asraf could not find anything
5.52. Every footballer has these and most of them happen away from a full ground; his did not, and he will be aware of that all week.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad12 May 2031
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 28 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad12 May 2031
Suhrob Nurulloev 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.
Squad12 May 2031
“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.
Match10 May 2031
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad12 May 2031
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.
Player ratings12 May 2031
Successful dribbles: 13. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad17 Mar 2031
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 84 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad17 Mar 2031
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad17 Mar 2031
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Lokomotiv may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad17 Mar 2031
Bakary Nimaga 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.
Match15 Mar 2031
Bunyodkor left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings17 Mar 2031
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings17 Mar 2031
A mark of 5.44 tells the story without any need for embellishment. He will want the tape of this one quietly lost.
Player ratings17 Mar 2031
Marked 5.51. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
Player ratings17 Mar 2031
Marked 5.70, and generously at that. Nothing came off, and by the end the crowd had stopped expecting it to.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom10 Feb 2031
The scrutiny sharpens at Lokomotiv
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Lokomotiv is running low.
Squad10 Feb 2031
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 119 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad10 Feb 2031
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.
Squad10 Feb 2031
Shodiyor Shodiboyev 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.
Squad10 Feb 2031
“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.
Market10 Feb 2031
The best deals are the ones the accountants never notice. Dzaky Asraf arrives at Lokomotiv with his wages the only cost and something to prove the only clause.