Marked for Amir Ismailov
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market29 Jan 2029
“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.
Transfer targets29 Jan 2029
Obod have gone to Sogdiana with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Squad29 Jan 2029
A falling-out at Obod
Doniyor Ismailov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad29 Jan 2029
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Obod will quote 17 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Transfer targets29 Jan 2029
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Navbahor have kept their man, and Obod go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout29 Jan 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 dugout29 Jan 2029
This is not rotation. Timur Nematov has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Obod is pretending otherwise.
Market29 Jan 2029
The Aziz Mirzaev story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Aziz Mirzaev signs something — a contract at Obod or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Market29 Jan 2029
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Amir Ismailov may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces25 Dec 2028
Supporters organise against the Obod 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.
Squad25 Dec 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Rustam Ganiev
31 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Obod lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad25 Dec 2028
The medical room confirms 47 days on the sidelines for Doniyor Ismailov, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
The dugout25 Dec 2028
This is not rotation. Igor has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Obod is pretending otherwise.
Squad25 Dec 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 Obod this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market25 Dec 2028
Obod have made Ilhomjon Kenjayev available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad11 Dec 2028
45 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Obod lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad11 Dec 2028
Words exchanged at Obod
Doniyor Ismailov 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.
The dugout11 Dec 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Asilbek Tojiddinov, and the manager let it.
Squad11 Dec 2028
Igor wants to go home
“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 Obod know it.
Squad11 Dec 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Iskandar Soliyev and Obod agree another 3 years.
Market11 Dec 2028
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Aziz Mirzaev’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad30 Oct 2028
Rustam Ganiev damages knee ligaments — 87 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 87 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.
The terraces30 Oct 2028
Anger at Obod spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Market30 Oct 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.
The dugout30 Oct 2028
This is not rotation. Igor has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Obod is pretending otherwise.
Squad30 Oct 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 Obod this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout30 Oct 2028
The manager makes an example of Amir Ismailov
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom23 Oct 2028
Pressure builds in the Obod boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Match23 Oct 2028
Obod sink to position 16
14 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
The dugout23 Oct 2028
Sulton Rahmatov: that is not what I was promised
“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.
Squad23 Oct 2028
Tempers go at Obod
Abdulla Suyunov 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 dugout23 Oct 2028
This is not rotation. Azizbek Odilov has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Obod is pretending otherwise.
Squad23 Oct 2028
A row about effort at Obod
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ilhomjon Kenjayev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The dugout16 Oct 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Obod may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad16 Oct 2028
Words exchanged at Obod
Doniyor Ismailov 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.
Squad16 Oct 2028
A row about effort at Obod
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ilhomjon Kenjayev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market16 Oct 2028
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Hasanboy Tojiboyev has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Obod.
The dugout16 Oct 2028
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ibroxim Numonov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market16 Oct 2028
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Aziz Mirzaev’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Market16 Oct 2028
Obod have let the market know Ilhomjon Kenjayev can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
The dugout16 Oct 2028
The message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Otabek Nematov plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.
Squad16 Oct 2028
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
In brief
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Boardroom
The Obod academy earns its keep
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Squad
Filip Jović is training like a man with a point to make
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market11 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.
Transfer targets11 Sep 2028
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Obod will try again when the window opens; Bunyodkor may not be selling by then.
Transfer targets11 Sep 2028
Obod offered $28.0K; Sogdiana said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Ilhomjon Kenjayev 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.
Looking ahead11 Sep 2028
A six-pointer for Obod
Kokand 1912 next, and both sides can do the sum. Win and the table looks different; lose and it looks the way everybody has been fearing.
Squad11 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 Obod this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Loan watch11 Sep 2028
“I did not go to AGMK to sit and watch. I want to come back to Obod and fight for my place.” 1 appearances in 9 matches say the rest.
The dugout11 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.
Looking ahead11 Sep 2028
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Ibroxim Numonov’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Obod needing him to play as if none of it matters.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Emergency meeting at Obod
The whole football department in one room on a weekday morning. Nothing was announced afterwards, which is what a board announces when it has run out of patience.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Obod close the window on a squad of their own making
1 in and 0 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Market7 Feb 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.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Tempers go at Obod
Doniyor Ismailov 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 dugout7 Feb 2028
Umid Hasanov faces a manager he fell out with
They have worked together before and it did not end well. Nobody at Obod expects the new manager to have forgotten, least of all Umid Hasanov.
Transfer targets7 Feb 2028
Obod asked and Navbahor 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 targets7 Feb 2028
The clock did what Metallurg would not, and ended it. Supporters who watched the countdown will spend the next window doing it again.
The dugout7 Feb 2028
This is not rotation. Timur Nematov has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Obod is pretending otherwise.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Transfer targets31 Jan 2028
Everything agreed with Nasaf, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad31 Jan 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 Obod this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout31 Jan 2028
Umid Hasanov faces a manager he fell out with
They have worked together before and it did not end well. Nobody at Obod expects the new manager to have forgotten, least of all Umid Hasanov.
Transfer targets31 Jan 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Pakhtakor have kept their man, and Obod go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad31 Jan 2028
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 35 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Words at Obod training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ilhomjon Kenjayev 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
Boardroom6 Dec 2027
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Abdulla Komilov has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Squad6 Dec 2027
61 days out for Amir Shomurodov after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Obod will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Boardroom6 Dec 2027
The Obod board call everybody in
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Market6 Dec 2027
The shirt still fits. Humoyun Abdualimov is back at Obod, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Amir Ismailov is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Tempers go at Obod
Doniyor Ismailov 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 dugout6 Dec 2027
Umid Hasanov faces a manager he fell out with
They have worked together before and it did not end well. Nobody at Obod expects the new manager to have forgotten, least of all Umid Hasanov.
Squad6 Dec 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Bobur Masharipov and Obod agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout6 Dec 2027
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Ibrohim G'anixonov is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces1 Nov 2027
The mood at Obod has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Bobur Hasanov breaks a bone — 99 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 99 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The dugout1 Nov 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Obod may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Words exchanged at Obod
Doniyor Ismailov 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.
The dugout1 Nov 2027
Umid Hasanov faces a manager he fell out with
They have worked together before and it did not end well. Nobody at Obod expects the new manager to have forgotten, least of all Umid Hasanov.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Too much change too quickly at Obod
6 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad20 Sep 2027
46 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Obod lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad20 Sep 2027
A fracture rules Bobur Hasanov out for 141 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Obod will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match18 Sep 2027
No end in sight to Obod's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Obod has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad20 Sep 2027
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Amir Ismailov is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Transfer targets20 Sep 2027
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Obod will try again when the window opens; Kokand 1912 may not be selling by then.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
This is not rotation. Timur Nematov has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Obod is pretending otherwise.
The dugout20 Sep 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 dugout20 Sep 2027
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Jahongir Abdumo'minov will call it something else in private.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match3 Jul 2027
The wait goes on for Obod
22 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Match5 Jul 2027
Every point is an argument now for Obod
Position 16 and 4 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.
Boardroom5 Jul 2027
The scrutiny sharpens at Obod
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Obod is running low.
Market5 Jul 2027
“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.
Squad5 Jul 2027
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Obod can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad5 Jul 2027
At 20 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad5 Jul 2027
A falling-out at Obod
Jahongir Abdumo'minov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
Obod asked and Pakhtakor said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match3 Jul 2027
A bad afternoon for Obod against Pakhtakor
0‑1 to Pakhtakor, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match5 Jun 2027
18 matches without a win for Obod
The run now stands at 18, and the questions being asked around Obod are no longer polite ones.
Squad7 Jun 2027
22 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Obod lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match7 Jun 2027
Obod sink to position 16
4 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market7 Jun 2027
“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.
Transfer targets7 Jun 2027
The deal with Pakhtakor is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Amir Ismailov is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Transfer targets7 Jun 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad7 Jun 2027
A falling-out at Obod
Abdulla Suyunov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings7 Jun 2027
Successful dribbles: 17. 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.