Marked for Kamronbek Hamroyev
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match22 May 2028
Position 15, 22 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Market22 May 2028
“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 The request is on a desk at Chalkanoras Idaliou, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market22 May 2028
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Valter Zacarias will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Chalkanoras Idaliou the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom22 May 2028
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Valter Zacarias 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.
Squad22 May 2028
Ítalo Henrique 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 dugout22 May 2028
This is not rotation. Alen Harbas has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Chalkanoras Idaliou is pretending otherwise.
Squad22 May 2028
Pavlos Correa 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.
Squad22 May 2028
24 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad22 May 2028
“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 Chalkanoras Idaliou know it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match27 Mar 2028
Position 15 and 19 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.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Ítalo Henrique 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 dugout27 Mar 2028
This is not rotation. Alen Harbas has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Chalkanoras Idaliou is pretending otherwise.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Words at Chalkanoras Idaliou training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pavlos Correa 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.
Squad27 Mar 2028
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Chalkanoras Idaliou can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
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 dugout27 Mar 2028
Valter Zacarias 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.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
Something was said to Iakovos Laos and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Looking ahead27 Mar 2028
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Michalis Koumouris’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Chalkanoras Idaliou needing him to play as if none of it matters.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad8 Feb 2027
64 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at Mashal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Muhammadali Aliqulov 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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
A falling-out at Mashal
Islom Sharipov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad8 Feb 2027
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Mashal will quote 16 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
The dugout8 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 Humoyun Murtozaev is on it.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
“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.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
“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.
Market8 Feb 2027
A season-long audition: Navbahor still own him, but the shirt and the minutes are Mashal's to give. A loan is a bet both clubs believe they are winning.
Market8 Feb 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Vlatko Stojanovski’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market18 Jan 2027
Mashal say no — this time
The offer from Obod for Kamronbek Hamroyev 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words exchanged at Mashal
Humoyun Murtozaev 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Muhammadali Aliqulov 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.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
Mashal asked and Andijon said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
Nasaf have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
The manager makes an example of Anvar Murodov
“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 dugout18 Jan 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 Dostonbek To'xtaboyev is on it.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market11 Jan 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Mashal can pretend not to have heard.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words exchanged at Mashal
Muhammadali Aliqulov 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
At 34, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Shortan have kept their man, and Mashal go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad11 Jan 2027
A row about effort at Mashal
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Samandar Ochilov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market11 Jan 2027
The name of Kamronbek Hamroyev has come up in conversations Mashal were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
Nasaf have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
“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.
The dugout11 Jan 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 Humoyun Murtozaev is on it.