It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pakhtakor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Nov 2028
Words at Pakhtakor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bashar Resan 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.
Nobody at Pakhtakor 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.
4 goals in 30 games at Kokand 1912 — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Pakhtakor updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Pakhtakor know which stage they are at.
29 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Pakhtakor lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
This is not rotation. Bashar Resan has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Pakhtakor is pretending otherwise.
Squad16 Oct 2028
Words at Pakhtakor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bashar Resan 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.
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.
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 Sherzod Nasrullayev is on it.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Pakhtakor. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Going 2 down does something to a side, and what it usually does is finish them. Not here. Pakhtakor rebuilt the afternoon goal by goal, and Neftchi had no answer to any of it.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
The deal that would have taken Bashar Resan to Shortan has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Pakhtakor with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
The name of Jonathan Dellarossa has come up in conversations Pakhtakor were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
In brief
BoardroomPakhtakor close the window on a squad of their own making
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
12 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Words at Pakhtakor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bashar Resan 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.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Marked 6.91 on 9 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Pakhtakor people have started saying his name in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pakhtakor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Add another name to the list: Bukhara have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Ibrohim Ibragimov. The answer from Pakhtakor has not changed — yet.
Marked 9.22 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
“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 Pakhtakor, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Flamarion 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.
Shahzod Azmiddinov 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.
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Pakhtakor will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pakhtakor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dostonbek Hamdamov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Pakhtakor 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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Shortan in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Pakhtakor arrived with $4.1M and left with the best player in the building. The board will call it business; the queue at the ticket office will use other words.
“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 Navbahor, and it is not being withdrawn.
Joel Kojo has gone, the accounts have $4.1M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Navbahor told Zabihillo O'rinboyev something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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 Ruslanbek Jiyanov is on it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Navbahor, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Position 2, 54 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
The offer from Omonoia for Rustam Turdimurodov was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The deal that would have taken Dilshod Saitov to Obod has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Pakhtakor with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
The terraces17 Jan 2028
Pakhtakor spend $4.1M on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $4.1M for Joel Kojo, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Flamarion 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.
Kingsley Sokari 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 phone has started ringing about Joyce Katulondi again, and this time the name on the line is Kokand 1912. Pakhtakor are listening politely and promising nothing.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Navbahor can pretend not to have heard.
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 Navbahor have had the benefit of it.
The phone has started ringing about Vanja Ilić again, and this time the name on the line is Shortan. Navbahor are listening politely and promising nothing.
Doston Abdulxayev 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.
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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Navbahor know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
In brief
BoardroomOpen for business: Navbahor enter the window
The dugoutKosta Rakonić asks for a word with the manager
“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 Pakhtakor, and it is not being withdrawn.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Pakhtakor will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
The name of Dilshod Saitov has come up in conversations Pakhtakor were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
27 appearances and 1 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
Muhammadqodir Hamroaliyev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Words at Pakhtakor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dostonbek Hamdamov 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.
“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 Pakhtakor know it.
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.
Doston Abdulxayev 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.
“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; Navbahor are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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 Joel Kojo is on it.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Navbahor, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Navbahor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Aleksandar Kozhuharov is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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 demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Jasurbek Jaloliddinov is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Nobody at Navbahor 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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Navbahor know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
14 appearances and 5 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Navbahor, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Words at Navbahor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aleksandar Kozhuharov 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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
17 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Two goals and a mark of 8.88 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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 Navbahor have had the benefit of it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Isroiljon Tursunboyev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Navbahor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alex Fernandes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Saidazamat Mirsaidov 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.
Nobody at Navbahor 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aleksandar Kozhuharov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Something was said to Doston Abdulxayev and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Navbahor, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Navbahor know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
A call-up flatters the player and the club that produced him in the same breath. Navbahor would like him back in one piece and know they will not be consulted.
A call-up flatters the player and the club that produced him in the same breath. Navbahor would like him back in one piece and know they will not be consulted.
Saidazamat Mirsaidov 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.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Zabihillo O'rinboyev has his answer from Navbahor; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
“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; Navbahor are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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.
The dugout1 Nov 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Anri Chichinadze's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Zabihillo O'rinboyev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Husain Norchayev signs something — a contract at Navbahor or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Navbahor would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alex Fernandes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Navbahor will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
“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 Navbahor know it.
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.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Vanja Ilić's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Pakhtakor in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Navbahor know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Navbahor is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Navbahor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 Navbahor, and it is not being withdrawn.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 15 actions, 7.09, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Words at Navbahor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alex Fernandes 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.
Minute 95, against Qizilqum, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 85th, and Pakhtakor spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
15 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
The terraces13 Sep 2027
Navbahor are 1 in the table and the town has noticed
65 points, a place near the top and a ground that has begun to enjoy itself. Nobody will say the word out loud, which is the surest indication that everybody is thinking it.
The offer from Andijon for Isroiljon Tursunboyev was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Involvement in 2 goals, from a player who spent the ninety minutes doing the thing a manager actually wants: being where the ball was going to end up. 7.87 beside his name.
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.
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Lokomotiv the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Navbahor will enjoy reviewing.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Navbahor can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Navbahor they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Navbahor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Words at Navbahor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alex Fernandes 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.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Bunyodkor will make the call about Zabihillo O'rinboyev this week. Navbahor have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
In brief
Player ratingsAlex Fernandes was on a different afternoon to everybody else
15 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Navbahor lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The offer from Andijon for Isroiljon Tursunboyev was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Shahzod Azmiddinov 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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
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 Alex Fernandes is on it.
The dugout16 Aug 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Akmal Nematov chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
37 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Navbahor lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Joel Kojo provided it, and the 8.69 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
5 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
The offer from Kokand 1912 for Isroiljon Tursunboyev was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
“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 Navbahor, and it is not being withdrawn.
11 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Navbahor they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Valijon Rahimov reports back to Navbahor with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
“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 Navbahor know it.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Qizilqum waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Navbahor is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Navbahor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I watch every Navbahor game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Torpedo Kutaisi runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Navbahor can pretend not to have heard.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 11 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Navbahor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dilshodjon Komilov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 9 combined actions and a mark of 6.91, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
It needed Husain Norchayev to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Kokand 1912, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Navbahor they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Shahzod Azmiddinov 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.
10 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
27 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.87 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
9 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Navbahor can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Navbahor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Husain Norchayev. 2‑0 against Bunyodkor, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Every club in football 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 somebody has tried it.
Four weeks in which nobody in the division did his job better. The award goes on a shelf and the player goes back into the side, which is the order Navbahor prefer.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Giorgi Jgerenaia is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
8 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Navbahor can pretend not to have heard.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Joel Kojo provided it, and the 8.51 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Successful dribbles: 14. 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.
7 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Joel Kojo provided it, and the 8.50 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Navbahor is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Joel Kojo. 2‑0 against Sogdiana, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Match17 Apr 2027
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for Navbahor. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Navbahor, and 2 appearances in 11 say he has earned the hearing.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Akmal Nematov could afford to be generous.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Navbahor will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
6 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Husain Norchayev 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.
“I watch every Navbahor game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Nasaf runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Shahzod Azmiddinov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Navbahor will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Navbahor have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
5 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Alex Fernandes 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.
Successful dribbles: 20. 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Joel Kojo. 1‑0 against Metallurg, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“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; Navbahor are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Navbahor will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Shahzod Azmiddinov 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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Metallurg in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Husain Norchayev signs something — a contract at Navbahor or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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 Islombek Mamatkazin is on it.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Navbahor that is a harder question to answer.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Islombek Mamatkazin trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Navbahor. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
They sit in position 12 and they will be waiting. Away form is where a season shows its true character, and this side has a point to make about its own.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Navbahor will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Navbahor is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Shahzod Azmiddinov 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Joel Kojo. 3‑1 against Mashal, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Akmal Nematov on a 3‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 48 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Navbahor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
“I watch every Navbahor game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Nasaf runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Navbahor will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Joel Kojo provided it, and the 8.51 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Diyor Xolmatov 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.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
6 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Obod were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Navbahor can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Joel Kojo. 2‑0 against Obod, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Navbahor will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sogdiana have kept their man, and Navbahor go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Ruslanbek Jiyanov is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Navbahor will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Navbahor have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Navbahor can pretend not to have heard.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Mashal have kept their man, and Navbahor go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Navbahor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Diyor Xolmatov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
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.