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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Javohir Rasulov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nika Kacharava trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
4 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Metallurg could ask drops and the wages Javohir Rasulov can ask rise.
The deal that would have taken Hasanboy Tojiboyev to Shortan has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Metallurg with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Abbos G'ulomov 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 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.
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
The dugout3 Jul 2028
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Mirzo Ganiev left the room before anybody could ask which.
None of them will be seen by anybody outside the training ground for three years, most of them will never play a senior match, and one of them might change the club. That is the whole proposition, and it is why academies exist.
“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 The request is on a desk at Metallurg, and it is not being withdrawn.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Metallurg have done the hard part with Pakhtakor, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Vladan Elesin 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Bunyodkor have kept their man, and Metallurg go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
The dugout26 Jun 2028
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑3 Mirzo Ganiev left the room before anybody could ask which.
Metallurg and Neftchi have settled on $910.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Azimjon Ahmedov 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 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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Successful dribbles: 13. 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.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Eldor Mirzaev, 16, is the weekend’s best young player
Measured against every other kid in the division and first among them. The senior award is where Metallurg would like this to lead.
Nobody at Metallurg 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.