Marked for Dane McCowatt
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad20 Sep 2032
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 26 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market20 Sep 2032
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Navbahor is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad20 Sep 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 Navbahor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match18 Sep 2032
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Navbahor did not have in the autumn.
Squad20 Sep 2032
Words at Navbahor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Saidazamat Mirsaidov 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.
Player ratings20 Sep 2032
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad20 Sep 2032
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Umar Adhamzoda will call it something else in private.
Player ratings20 Sep 2032
Marked 7.67 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Navbahor had the best player on the pitch.
Match18 Sep 2032
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Bukhara came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad13 Sep 2032
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 33 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match11 Sep 2032
3‑0, and Shoxmalik Komilov took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Navbahor tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings13 Sep 2032
Age has not caught Vanja Ilić yet — 7.90
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.90 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Player ratings13 Sep 2032
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad13 Sep 2032
O'tkir Yusupov 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.
Squad13 Sep 2032
Words at Navbahor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dilshodjon Komilov 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.
Player ratings13 Sep 2032
Marked 8.28. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Navbahor.
Player ratings13 Sep 2032
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.05, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Market13 Sep 2032
Pejman Moharrami is 19, and Navbahor have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad6 Sep 2032
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 40 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Boardroom6 Sep 2032
The numbers do not look good at Navbahor
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.
Market6 Sep 2032
Obod come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Navbahor did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad6 Sep 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 Navbahor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad6 Sep 2032
Words at Navbahor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Saidazamat Mirsaidov 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.
Squad6 Sep 2032
“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; Navbahor are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Player ratings6 Sep 2032
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings6 Sep 2032
7.17, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Navbahor had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
Match4 Sep 2032
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Qizilqum will be the happier side with the point.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad23 Aug 2032
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 56 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market23 Aug 2032
Only the photograph left for Dane McCowatt
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Dane McCowatt will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Navbahor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market23 Aug 2032
Masoud Vafaei hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Navbahor can pretend not to have heard.
Match21 Aug 2032
No end in sight to Navbahor's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Navbahor has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad23 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 Navbahor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match21 Aug 2032
Navbahor cannot find the net
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad23 Aug 2032
Dilshodjon Komilov 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.
Player ratings23 Aug 2032
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market23 Aug 2032
Everyone has stopped pretending: Andijon will make the call about Rustam Mirzaev this week. Navbahor have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Aug 2032
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 63 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad16 Aug 2032
O'tkir Yusupov 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
Saidazamat Mirsaidov 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.
Match14 Aug 2032
3 matches without a goal for Navbahor
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.
Squad16 Aug 2032
The team sheet said everything about Umar Adhamzoda
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 Umar Adhamzoda.
Player ratings16 Aug 2032
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.39 on the card, and the Navbahor support went home talking about one name.
Player ratings16 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.
Market16 Aug 2032
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Navbahor will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Match14 Aug 2032
Navbahor and AGMK cancel each other out
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. AGMK came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad9 Aug 2032
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 70 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad9 Aug 2032
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Navbahor may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Boardroom9 Aug 2032
The numbers do not look good at Navbahor
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
Rustam Mirzaev has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Navbahor they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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 Navbahor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Aug 2032
Words at Navbahor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Saidazamat Mirsaidov 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.
Match7 Aug 2032
0‑1 to Bunyodkor, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Market9 Aug 2032
The Dane McCowatt conversation is coming
Everyone has stopped pretending: Obod will make the call about Dane McCowatt this week. Navbahor have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Player ratings9 Aug 2032
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Jul 2032
A fracture rules Diyor Xolmatov out for 92 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Navbahor will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market19 Jul 2032
Only the photograph left for Dane McCowatt
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Dane McCowatt will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Navbahor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market19 Jul 2032
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Navbahor can pretend not to have heard.
Squad19 Jul 2032
O'tkir Yusupov 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.
Squad19 Jul 2032
Saidazamat Mirsaidov 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.
Squad19 Jul 2032
“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.
Player ratings19 Jul 2032
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match17 Jul 2032
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Nasaf will be the happier side with the point.
Market19 Jul 2032
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Zabihillo O'rinboyev signs something — a contract at Navbahor or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad5 Jul 2032
A fracture rules Diyor Xolmatov out for 106 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Navbahor will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match5 Jul 2032
Navbahor up to position 2
37 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Player ratings5 Jul 2032
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Navro'zbek Iminjonov provided it, and the 8.68 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market5 Jul 2032
The deal that would have taken Dane McCowatt to Obod has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Navbahor with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Market5 Jul 2032
Omar Abdullah has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Navbahor they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad5 Jul 2032
O'tkir Yusupov 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.
Squad5 Jul 2032
“The easiest signature of my career.” Anri Chichinadze and Navbahor agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad5 Jul 2032
Saidazamat Mirsaidov 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.
Match3 Jul 2032
Mashal made Navbahor work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Jun 2032
A fracture rules Diyor Xolmatov out for 122 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Navbahor will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match19 Jun 2032
Obod will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Navbahor were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Match16 Jun 2032
Neftchi ended it 0‑1. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Player ratings21 Jun 2032
At 37 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.36 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad21 Jun 2032
O'tkir Yusupov 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.
Squad21 Jun 2032
Words at Navbahor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dilshodjon Komilov 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.
Player ratings21 Jun 2032
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings21 Jun 2032
Marked 8.59 — 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.
Player ratings21 Jun 2032
Marked 8.39. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Navbahor.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match5 Jun 2032
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 15 matches without defeat is a foundation Navbahor did not have in the autumn.
Match5 Jun 2032
3‑0, and Dane McCowatt took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Navbahor tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Match7 Jun 2032
Navbahor are in among the leaders
Position 2 and 30 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Squad7 Jun 2032
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 57 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings7 Jun 2032
Successful dribbles: 31. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad7 Jun 2032
The match ball belongs to Dane McCowatt, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Squad7 Jun 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.
Player ratings7 Jun 2032
At 33 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.
Squad7 Jun 2032
“The easiest signature of my career.” O'tkir Yusupov and Navbahor agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match22 May 2032
Still nobody has beaten Navbahor
The unbeaten run reaches 13. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad24 May 2032
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 71 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad24 May 2032
O'tkir Yusupov 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.
Squad24 May 2032
Saidazamat Mirsaidov 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.
Match22 May 2032
Navbahor make home a hard place to visit
8 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Player ratings24 May 2032
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad24 May 2032
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ridho Syuhada and Navbahor agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Player ratings24 May 2032
Marked 7.37 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Navbahor had the best player on the pitch.
Match22 May 2032
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Qizilqum came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match8 May 2032
Whatever happens, Navbahor do not lose
11 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.
Player ratings10 May 2032
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad10 May 2032
O'tkir Yusupov 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.
Squad10 May 2032
Words at Navbahor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dilshodjon Komilov 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.
Squad10 May 2032
“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.
Squad10 May 2032
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Camilo Ordóñez and Navbahor agree another 2 years.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings26 Apr 2032
Successful dribbles: 39. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market26 Apr 2032
“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 Apr 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.
Match24 Apr 2032
Still nobody has beaten Navbahor
The unbeaten run reaches 9. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Market26 Apr 2032
Only the photograph left for Ridho Syuhada
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ridho Syuhada will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Navbahor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad26 Apr 2032
O'tkir Yusupov 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.
Squad26 Apr 2032
Saidazamat Mirsaidov 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.
Squad26 Apr 2032
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Dilshodjon Komilov, and the manager let it.
Match24 Apr 2032
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Boardroom19 Apr 2032
The numbers do not look good at Navbahor
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.
Player ratings19 Apr 2032
Abbos G'ulomov, 33, rolls back the years — 7.93
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.93 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Match17 Apr 2032
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 8 matches without defeat is a foundation Navbahor did not have in the autumn.
Squad19 Apr 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 Navbahor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Apr 2032
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 15 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Squad19 Apr 2032
Dilshodjon Komilov 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.
Match17 Apr 2032
It finished 2‑0, and it was Abbos G'ulomov’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Navbahor.
Squad19 Apr 2032
“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.
Market19 Apr 2032
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Zabihillo O'rinboyev’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match31 Mar 2032
Navbahor march on in the cup
Metallurg are out and Navbahor go through, 5‑1 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Player ratings5 Apr 2032
Two goals and a mark of 8.50 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad5 Apr 2032
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Match3 Apr 2032
Navbahor cannot stop winning
6 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.
Squad5 Apr 2032
398 appearances across 12 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
Player ratings5 Apr 2032
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.05 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad5 Apr 2032
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Zabihillo O'rinboyev and Navbahor agree another 2 years.
Squad5 Apr 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 Navbahor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match31 Mar 2032
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Navbahor and Metallurg in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match27 Mar 2032
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Metallurg, and it could have been more.
Squad29 Mar 2032
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Market29 Mar 2032
“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.
Match27 Mar 2032
Nobody wants to play Navbahor right now
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.
Market29 Mar 2032
Only the photograph left for Ridho Syuhada
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ridho Syuhada will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Navbahor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad29 Mar 2032
O'tkir Yusupov 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.
Player ratings29 Mar 2032
A performance of 9.37 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad29 Mar 2032
Words at Navbahor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dilshodjon Komilov 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.
Match27 Mar 2032
Navbahor keep winning on the road
3 away wins in a row. Travelling support is the truest kind, and this season it is being repaid in the only currency that counts.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match20 Mar 2032
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 85th, and Mashal spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
Boardroom22 Mar 2032
The numbers do not look good at Navbahor
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.
Market22 Mar 2032
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Navbahor they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Match20 Mar 2032
Navbahor cannot stop winning
3 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.
Squad22 Mar 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 Navbahor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Mar 2032
Words at Navbahor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Saidazamat Mirsaidov 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.
Match20 Mar 2032
Mashal made Navbahor work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings22 Mar 2032
A performance of 8.09 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad22 Mar 2032
O'tkir Yusupov has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Navbahor 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
Squad15 Mar 2032
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 19 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad15 Mar 2032
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Squad15 Mar 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 Navbahor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings15 Mar 2032
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad15 Mar 2032
Words at Navbahor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Saidazamat Mirsaidov 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.
Match13 Mar 2032
A 3‑1 win over Shortan, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings15 Mar 2032
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.13, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Market15 Mar 2032
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Navbahor know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Market15 Mar 2032
2 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Navbahor money.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad1 Mar 2032
A fracture rules Anri Chichinadze out for 34 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Navbahor will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market1 Mar 2032
“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.
Market1 Mar 2032
Ridho Syuhada has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Navbahor they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad1 Mar 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 Navbahor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Mar 2032
Words at Navbahor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Saidazamat Mirsaidov 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.
Squad1 Mar 2032
“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; Navbahor are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Feb 2032
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 49 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market16 Feb 2032
“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.
Squad16 Feb 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 Navbahor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Feb 2032
A move Masoud Vafaei would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Masoud Vafaei is living that version at Navbahor, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad16 Feb 2032
Words at Navbahor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yoav Hofmeister 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.
Market16 Feb 2032
Masoud Vafaei is 18, and Navbahor have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad9 Feb 2032
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 56 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad9 Feb 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.
Market9 Feb 2032
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Navbahor can pretend not to have heard.
Squad9 Feb 2032
O'tkir Yusupov 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.
Squad9 Feb 2032
Saidazamat Mirsaidov 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.
Market9 Feb 2032
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Navbahor know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Jan 2032
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 77 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market19 Jan 2032
“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.
Squad19 Jan 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 Navbahor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Jan 2032
Words at Navbahor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Saidazamat Mirsaidov 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.
Market19 Jan 2032
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Navbahor will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Squad19 Jan 2032
O'tkir Yusupov has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Navbahor 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
Steady
Squad12 Jan 2032
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.
Market12 Jan 2032
“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.
Squad12 Jan 2032
O'tkir Yusupov 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 Jan 2032
Saidazamat Mirsaidov 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.
Squad12 Jan 2032
Nobody at Navbahor 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.
Market12 Jan 2032
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Navbahor will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad29 Dec 2031
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 98 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Boardroom29 Dec 2031
Navbahor counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Navbahor now.
Market29 Dec 2031
“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.
Squad29 Dec 2031
O'tkir Yusupov 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.
Squad29 Dec 2031
Saidazamat Mirsaidov 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.
Squad29 Dec 2031
“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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad15 Sep 2031
A fracture rules Umar Adhamzoda out for 100 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Navbahor will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad15 Sep 2031
A knee injury of the worst kind for Bobur Akhmedov
28 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Navbahor lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match15 Sep 2031
Navbahor up to position 2
58 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Market15 Sep 2031
“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.
Market15 Sep 2031
Ridho Syuhada has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Navbahor they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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 Navbahor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Sep 2031
Words at Navbahor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Saidazamat Mirsaidov 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.
Player ratings15 Sep 2031
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match13 Sep 2031
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Shohruhbek Abdurahmonov. 1‑0 against Bukhara, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match30 Aug 2031
Still nobody has beaten Navbahor
The unbeaten run reaches 37. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad1 Sep 2031
A fracture rules Umar Adhamzoda out for 116 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Navbahor will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad1 Sep 2031
Bobur Akhmedov damages knee ligaments — 43 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 43 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.
Market1 Sep 2031
“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.
Market1 Sep 2031
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Navbahor they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad1 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 Navbahor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Sep 2031
Words at Navbahor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yoav Hofmeister 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.
Player ratings1 Sep 2031
Nobody could get near Vanja Ilić
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings1 Sep 2031
Marked 7.43 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Navbahor had the best player on the pitch.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match23 Aug 2031
Whatever happens, Navbahor do not lose
36 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.
Squad25 Aug 2031
A fracture rules Umar Adhamzoda out for 123 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Navbahor will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match23 Aug 2031
18 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Market25 Aug 2031
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Navbahor can pretend not to have heard.
Squad25 Aug 2031
O'tkir Yusupov 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.
Market25 Aug 2031
Only the photograph left for Marco Smith
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Marco Smith will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Navbahor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Player ratings25 Aug 2031
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad25 Aug 2031
Saidazamat Mirsaidov 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.
Squad25 Aug 2031
“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; Navbahor are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match16 Aug 2031
Still nobody has beaten Navbahor
The unbeaten run reaches 35. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad18 Aug 2031
Umar Adhamzoda breaks a bone — 131 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 131 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match18 Aug 2031
Navbahor up to position 2
53 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Market18 Aug 2031
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Navbahor can pretend not to have heard.
Squad18 Aug 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 Navbahor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Aug 2031
A move Oybek Shomurodov would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Oybek Shomurodov is living that version at Navbahor, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad18 Aug 2031
Words at Navbahor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Saidazamat Mirsaidov 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.
Player ratings18 Aug 2031
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match16 Aug 2031
A 1‑0 win over Lokomotiv, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match9 Aug 2031
Still nobody has beaten Navbahor
The unbeaten run reaches 34. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad11 Aug 2031
Umar Adhamzoda breaks a bone — 138 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 138 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match9 Aug 2031
Navbahor make home a hard place to visit
17 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Player ratings11 Aug 2031
Successful dribbles: 25. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market11 Aug 2031
“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.
Squad11 Aug 2031
O'tkir Yusupov 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.
Boardroom11 Aug 2031
Navbahor counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Navbahor now.
Squad11 Aug 2031
Yoav Hofmeister 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.
Market11 Aug 2031
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Navbahor have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match2 Aug 2031
Still nobody has beaten Navbahor
The unbeaten run reaches 33. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad4 Aug 2031
Umar Adhamzoda breaks a bone — 145 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 145 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market4 Aug 2031
“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.
Player ratings4 Aug 2031
Successful dribbles: 29. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market4 Aug 2031
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market4 Aug 2031
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Navbahor is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad4 Aug 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 Navbahor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad4 Aug 2031
“The easiest signature of my career.” Vanja Ilić and Navbahor agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad4 Aug 2031
Words at Navbahor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Saidazamat Mirsaidov 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
Steady
Match28 Jun 2031
Whatever happens, Navbahor do not lose
28 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.
Player ratings30 Jun 2031
Successful dribbles: 43. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad30 Jun 2031
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 25 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad30 Jun 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 Navbahor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market30 Jun 2031
Only the photograph left for Marco Smith
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Marco Smith will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Navbahor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad30 Jun 2031
“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.
Market30 Jun 2031
The phone has started ringing about Rustam Mirzaev again, and this time the name on the line is Kokand 1912. Navbahor are listening politely and promising nothing.
Boardroom30 Jun 2031
138% of the income goes out in wages at Navbahor
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.
Player ratings30 Jun 2031
Marked 7.32. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match26 Apr 2031
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 19 matches without defeat is a foundation Navbahor did not have in the autumn.
Squad28 Apr 2031
A fracture rules Anri Chichinadze out for 91 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Navbahor will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match28 Apr 2031
Navbahor refuse to drop out of the race
Position 2, 19 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Market28 Apr 2031
Rustam Mirzaev has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Navbahor they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad28 Apr 2031
O'tkir Yusupov 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 Apr 2031
“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; Navbahor are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Match26 Apr 2031
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ruslanbek Jiyanov. 1‑0 against AGMK, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings28 Apr 2031
A performance of 8.19 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings28 Apr 2031
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match8 Mar 2031
The 86th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Dane McCowatt decided nobody was going anywhere. Shortan had no time left to answer.
Match8 Mar 2031
Whatever happens, Navbahor do not lose
11 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.
Squad10 Mar 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 Navbahor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market10 Mar 2031
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Navbahor is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Player ratings10 Mar 2031
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad10 Mar 2031
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Amirali Khorrami has just signed for Navbahor, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad10 Mar 2031
Words at Navbahor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Saidazamat Mirsaidov 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.
Match8 Mar 2031
Navbahor are at home on the road
3 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
Match8 Mar 2031
Shortan made Navbahor work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match1 Mar 2031
7‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Squad3 Mar 2031
The match ball belongs to Dane McCowatt, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Player ratings3 Mar 2031
Two goals and a mark of 8.14 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Match1 Mar 2031
Still nobody has beaten Navbahor
The unbeaten run reaches 10. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Market3 Mar 2031
Only the photograph left for Rustam Mirzaev
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Rustam Mirzaev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Navbahor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad3 Mar 2031
He will be fined, he will apologise, and he will play on Saturday. The order of those three tells you everything about what a football club actually values.
Squad3 Mar 2031
O'tkir Yusupov 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.
Match1 Mar 2031
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Navbahor and Obod in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Boardroom3 Mar 2031
10 academy players handed senior numbers at Navbahor
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 Feb 2031
“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.
Market17 Feb 2031
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Navbahor they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad17 Feb 2031
O'tkir Yusupov 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 Feb 2031
Behruz Islomov gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Behruz Islomov has just signed for Navbahor, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad17 Feb 2031
Saidazamat Mirsaidov 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.
Squad17 Feb 2031
“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; Navbahor are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Dec 2030
Umar Adhamzoda damages knee ligaments — 17 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 17 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.
Market16 Dec 2030
Only the photograph left for Rustam Mirzaev
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Rustam Mirzaev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Navbahor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad16 Dec 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Navbahor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.