Marked for Eldor Akhmedov
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market29 Jul 2030
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Al-Nahda they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Transfer targets29 Jul 2030
Fee agreed, terms agreed, and a scan that said otherwise. He goes back to Al-Jeel; Al-Nahda go back to the market; and both will insist there is no story here.
Transfer targets29 Jul 2030
Everything agreed with Hajer, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad29 Jul 2030
Eldor Akhmedov 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.
Transfer targets29 Jul 2030
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Fateh have kept their man, and Al-Nahda go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Boardroom29 Jul 2030
Wages swallow 128% of the Al-Nahda 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market22 Jul 2030
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Al-Nahda people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Transfer targets22 Jul 2030
The clubs have shaken hands with Al-Jeel; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Squad22 Jul 2030
“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; Al-Nahda are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad22 Jul 2030
Words exchanged at Al-Nahda
Eldor Akhmedov 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.
Transfer targets22 Jul 2030
Al-Nahda asked and Al-Shabab 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 targets22 Jul 2030
A loan move for Mukhtar Barnawi is in the works
Al-Nahda have made the call to Al-Hazem. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom15 Jul 2030
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Al-Nahda
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
The terraces15 Jul 2030
Supporters organise against the Al-Nahda board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Transfer targets15 Jul 2030
The clubs have shaken hands with Al-Riyadh; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Market15 Jul 2030
“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 Al-Nahda, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets15 Jul 2030
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Al-Nahda have done the hard part with Al-Hazem, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Transfer targets15 Jul 2030
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Al-Mojzel keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad15 Jul 2030
A falling-out at Al-Nahda
Eldor Akhmedov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets15 Jul 2030
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Khaleej have kept their man, and Al-Nahda go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout15 Jul 2030
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Hassan Al-Solan trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom8 Jul 2030
Hamad Al-Enezi has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Al-Nahda can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Market8 Jul 2030
“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 Al-Nahda, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom8 Jul 2030
Crisis meeting at Al-Nahda
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Market8 Jul 2030
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Transfer targets8 Jul 2030
Al-Nahda had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Al-Riyadh, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad8 Jul 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 Al-Nahda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets8 Jul 2030
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Khaleej have kept their man, and Al-Nahda go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Transfer targets8 Jul 2030
A loan enquiry to Al-Qadisiyah: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets8 Jul 2030
Al-Nahda have made the call to Al-Taawoun. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad1 Jul 2030
A falling-out at Al-Nahda
Mohammed Al-Zaid and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets1 Jul 2030
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.
Market1 Jul 2030
Signings arrive with a picture of the club in their head, and this one’s picture was bigger than the building. He will play well and he will be gone, in that order, and everybody knows it.
Boardroom1 Jul 2030
Wages swallow 117% of the Al-Nahda 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.
Market1 Jul 2030
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Al-Nahda, another week without a signature from Eldor Akhmedov.
Squad1 Jul 2030
The formation has left Ali Al-Salem behind
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Al-Nahda will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Transfer targets1 Jul 2030
Al-Nahda have made the call to Al-Mojzel. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Market1 Jul 2030
Ali Al-Salem is 20, and Al-Nahda 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.
Squad1 Jul 2030
6 new faces, and Al-Nahda are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Jan 2030
The words a physio says slowly. 21 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.
Market7 Jan 2030
“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 Kokand 1912, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets7 Jan 2030
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Kokand 1912 have done the hard part with Nasaf, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Transfer targets7 Jan 2030
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Nasaf keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad7 Jan 2030
Javohir Sidiqov 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.
Squad7 Jan 2030
A move Islom Ismailov 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. Islom Ismailov is living that version at Kokand 1912, and it tends to show in the first month.
Market7 Jan 2030
Javohir Sidiqov is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Kokand 1912 has been clear about where Javohir Sidiqov stands, which is more than many ever get.
Squad7 Jan 2030
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ulugbek Tukhtasinov and Kokand 1912 agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Transfer targets7 Jan 2030
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market7 Jan 2030
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Neftchi had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Market7 Jan 2030
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Nasaf people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market7 Jan 2030
“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 Nasaf, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad7 Jan 2030
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Nasaf have had the benefit of it.
Squad7 Jan 2030
Tempers go at Nasaf
Alejandro Solís 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.
Squad7 Jan 2030
A row about effort at Nasaf
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oybek Bozorov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market7 Jan 2030
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Nasaf have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
The dugout7 Jan 2030
Nobody at Nasaf 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.
The dugout7 Jan 2030
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Umarbek Eshmurodov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market17 Dec 2029
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Nasaf they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad17 Dec 2029
Words exchanged at Nasaf
Ljupce Doriev 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.
Squad17 Dec 2029
Words at Nasaf training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oybek Bozorov 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.
Squad17 Dec 2029
“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 Nasaf know it.
The dugout17 Dec 2029
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 Eldor Shomurodov is on it.
The dugout17 Dec 2029
“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 dugout17 Dec 2029
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Nasaf told Samandar Muratboyev something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Market17 Dec 2029
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Stefan Čolović’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Squad17 Dec 2029
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings18 Sep 2028
Successful dribbles: 40. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Market18 Sep 2028
“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.
Market18 Sep 2028
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Kokand 1912 they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad18 Sep 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kokand 1912 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets18 Sep 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Botev Plovdiv have kept their man, and Kokand 1912 go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match16 Sep 2028
0‑1 to Mashal, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout18 Sep 2028
“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 dugout18 Sep 2028
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Inomjon Abdumajidov 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match9 Sep 2028
25 matches without a win for Obod
The run now stands at 25, and the questions being asked around Obod are no longer polite ones.
Match9 Sep 2028
Chastening afternoon for Obod
A 0‑3 beating by Qizilqum was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Match9 Sep 2028
No clean sheets in sight for Obod
9 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Market11 Sep 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Obod is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The dugout11 Sep 2028
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Obod have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market11 Sep 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 Obod, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom11 Sep 2028
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Shahzod Turopov 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.
The dugout11 Sep 2028
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Squad11 Sep 2028
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Baktiyor Nuserbayev has just signed for Obod, and for once the answer mattered.