Marked for Eldor Suyunov
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market26 Jun 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 The request is on a desk at Mashal, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout26 Jun 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Mashal may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market26 Jun 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Mashal is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Player ratings26 Jun 2028
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match24 Jun 2028
7 unbeaten for Mashal
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 7 matches without defeat is a foundation Mashal did not have in the autumn.
Squad26 Jun 2028
A falling-out at Mashal
Humoyun Murtozaev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Jun 2028
A row about effort at Mashal
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Muhammadali Aliqulov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout26 Jun 2028
“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 dugout26 Jun 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Abdulla Shomurodov was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Mashal dressing room was either.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad27 Mar 2028
44 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Mashal lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad27 Mar 2028
50 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Words exchanged at Mashal
Humoyun Murtozaev and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Words at Mashal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Muhammadali Aliqulov is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Mashal, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Looking ahead27 Mar 2028
Obod next, and one man in the Mashal dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Market27 Mar 2028
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Humoyun Murtozaev’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Market27 Mar 2028
4 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Mashal money.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market1 Mar 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 Mashal, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market1 Mar 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Elnurbek Saitmurodov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Mashal the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad1 Mar 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mashal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Words at Mashal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ergash Ismoilov 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.
Market1 Mar 2027
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Shoxmalik Komilov has moved up it.
Squad1 Mar 2027
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Roman Khadjiev, and the manager let it.
Looking ahead1 Mar 2027
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Nuriddin Nuriddinov’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Mashal needing him to play as if none of it matters.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad22 Feb 2027
14 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Mashal lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market22 Feb 2027
Only the photograph left for Anvar Murodov
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Anvar Murodov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Mashal the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad22 Feb 2027
A falling-out at Mashal
Humoyun Murtozaev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Samandar Ochilov 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.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Market22 Feb 2027
Eldor Suyunov is 15, and Mashal 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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Eldor Suyunov and Mashal agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nuriddin Nuriddinov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market22 Feb 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Humoyun Murtozaev signs something — a contract at Mashal or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.