The Qizilqum Chronicle
Squad30 Dec 2030
A fracture rules Martin Žukov out for 107 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Qizilqum will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad30 Dec 2030
Muhammadaziz Ibrohimov 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.
Squad30 Dec 2030
Eldar Parkinashvili in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Qizilqum this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout30 Dec 2030
The manager makes an example of Muhammadbobur Karimov
“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 dugout30 Dec 2030
Farhod Rahmatov knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Farhod Rahmatov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout30 Dec 2030
When it matters, Veljko Ivic plays
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
In brief
- Market The shop window has Eldar Parkinashvili in it
- The dugout A door opens for Azizxon Isaqov
- Squad Eldor Shomurodov is fit again