From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces23 Aug 2032
The mood at Metallurg 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.
Player ratings23 Aug 2032
Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Transfer targets23 Aug 2032
Everything agreed with Sogdiana, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad23 Aug 2032
A row about effort at Metallurg
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Branimir Jočić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad23 Aug 2032
Bekzod Sulaymonov 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.
Match21 Aug 2032
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad23 Aug 2032
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
The dugout23 Aug 2032
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Bekzod Sulaymonov, and the manager let it.
The dugout23 Aug 2032
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Transfer targets16 Aug 2032
Everything agreed with AGMK, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Transfer targets16 Aug 2032
No thanks: Islom Mirzaev rejects the move
Metallurg had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Pakhtakor, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Player ratings16 Aug 2032
Successful dribbles: 22. 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.
Squad16 Aug 2032
Words exchanged at Metallurg
Nedeljko Stojišić 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 Aug 2032
Branimir Jočić 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.
Match14 Aug 2032
Nasaf made Metallurg work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings16 Aug 2032
A performance of 8.09 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout16 Aug 2032
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Interim Coach on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Boardroom16 Aug 2032
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Metallurg now.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match7 Aug 2032
0‑5 to Pakhtakor, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Squad9 Aug 2032
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.
Squad9 Aug 2032
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Aziz Turg'unboyev and Metallurg agree another 2 years.
Squad9 Aug 2032
A row about effort at Metallurg
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jaloliddin Sodiqov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout9 Aug 2032
The manager makes an example of Branimir Jočić
“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.
Boardroom9 Aug 2032
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
The dugout9 Aug 2032
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑5, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Squad9 Aug 2032
5 saves does not settle the argument about whose fault it was, and the argument will run all week. Goalkeepers carry these scorelines whoever caused them.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2032
A loan enquiry to Pakhtakor: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings2 Aug 2032
Abbos G'ulomov, 34, rolls back the years — 8.23
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.23 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Player ratings2 Aug 2032
Successful dribbles: 25. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad2 Aug 2032
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metallurg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 Aug 2032
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Aziz Turg'unboyev and Metallurg agree another 2 years.
Transfer targets2 Aug 2032
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.
The terraces2 Aug 2032
He is 19 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Match31 Jul 2032
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Abbos G'ulomov. 2‑0 against Mashal, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad2 Aug 2032
A row about effort at Metallurg
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andreas Nicolaou was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets2 Aug 2032
A loan move for Jasur Akhmedov is in the works
Metallurg have made the call to Pakhtakor. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces26 Jul 2032
The mood at Metallurg 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.
Match24 Jul 2032
The wait goes on for Metallurg
4 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.
Squad26 Jul 2032
Abbos G'ulomov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings26 Jul 2032
Successful dribbles: 22. 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.
Squad26 Jul 2032
Words at Metallurg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jaloliddin Sodiqov 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.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2032
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.
Match24 Jul 2032
1‑2 to Shortan, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout26 Jul 2032
“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 dugout26 Jul 2032
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings19 Jul 2032
Successful dribbles: 42. 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.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2032
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Andijon keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad19 Jul 2032
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metallurg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match17 Jul 2032
The goals have deserted Metallurg
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Metallurg can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad19 Jul 2032
Words at Metallurg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jaloliddin Sodiqov 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.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2032
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Pakhtakor have kept their man, and Metallurg go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout19 Jul 2032
The manager makes an example of Rustam Elomonov
“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.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2032
A loan enquiry to Sogdiana: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Player ratings19 Jul 2032
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.41 on the card, and the Metallurg support went home talking about one name.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match10 Jul 2032
0‑3 to Navbahor, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Squad12 Jul 2032
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings12 Jul 2032
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad12 Jul 2032
Nedeljko Stojišić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Jul 2032
Words at Metallurg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andreas Nicolaou 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 dugout12 Jul 2032
“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.
Boardroom12 Jul 2032
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Squad12 Jul 2032
“The easiest signature of my career.” Jasur Fayzullaev and Metallurg agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout12 Jul 2032
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The dugout5 Jul 2032
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Metallurg may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market5 Jul 2032
Odil Akhmedov hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Metallurg can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings5 Jul 2032
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad5 Jul 2032
Words at Metallurg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jaloliddin Sodiqov 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.
Squad5 Jul 2032
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Metallurg can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Match3 Jul 2032
0‑1 to Bukhara, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad5 Jul 2032
“The easiest signature of my career.” Jasur Fayzullaev and Metallurg agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout5 Jul 2032
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Squad5 Jul 2032
Timur Komilov 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces28 Jun 2032
The mood at Metallurg 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.
Market28 Jun 2032
“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.
Match26 Jun 2032
10 matches without a win, and then this, against Andijon. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Squad28 Jun 2032
Nedeljko Stojišić 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.
Squad28 Jun 2032
Jaloliddin Sodiqov 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.
Match26 Jun 2032
It finished 1‑0, and it was Shahriyor Jabborov’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Metallurg.
Player ratings28 Jun 2032
Marked 8.01. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Metallurg.
Squad28 Jun 2032
100 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2032
Metallurg have made the call to AGMK. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match19 Jun 2032
The wait goes on for Metallurg
10 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.
Match16 Jun 2032
Bunyodkor ended it 0‑2. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Squad21 Jun 2032
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad21 Jun 2032
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metallurg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match19 Jun 2032
Metallurg cannot find the net
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Player ratings21 Jun 2032
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.
Squad21 Jun 2032
Words at Metallurg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andreas Nicolaou 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 dugout21 Jun 2032
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 dugout21 Jun 2032
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match12 Jun 2032
8 matches without a win for Metallurg
The run now stands at 8, and the questions being asked around Metallurg are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings14 Jun 2032
Successful dribbles: 22. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad14 Jun 2032
Nedeljko Stojišić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad14 Jun 2032
Words at Metallurg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jaloliddin Sodiqov 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.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2032
Metallurg asked and AGMK said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match14 Jun 2032
Metallurg at the halfway mark
Half the programme played, position 12, 15 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2032
Navbahor have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Player ratings14 Jun 2032
Marked 7.45. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Boardroom14 Jun 2032
Wages swallow 86% of the Metallurg income
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match5 Jun 2032
The wait goes on for Metallurg
7 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.
Market7 Jun 2032
Odil Akhmedov hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Metallurg can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets7 Jun 2032
Metallurg had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Andijon, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad7 Jun 2032
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Zafarbek Rahimjonov commits to Metallurg for another 4 years.
Squad7 Jun 2032
Words exchanged at Metallurg
Abbos G'ulomov 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.
Match5 Jun 2032
Metallurg leaking at the back
5 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Player ratings7 Jun 2032
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
Squad7 Jun 2032
A row about effort at Metallurg
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jaloliddin Sodiqov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets7 Jun 2032
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad31 May 2032
A knee injury of the worst kind for Aziz Turg'unboyev
14 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Metallurg lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The terraces31 May 2032
Supporters organise against the Metallurg 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.
Match29 May 2032
Nowhere to hide for Metallurg
0‑4 against AGMK, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Match29 May 2032
The wait goes on for Metallurg
6 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.
Squad31 May 2032
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Squad31 May 2032
Abbos G'ulomov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match29 May 2032
Metallurg leaking at the back
4 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Squad31 May 2032
Words at Metallurg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andreas Nicolaou 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.
Boardroom31 May 2032
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad24 May 2032
A knee injury of the worst kind for Aziz Turg'unboyev
21 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Metallurg lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match22 May 2032
Chastening afternoon for Metallurg
A 0‑3 beating by Bunyodkor was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Match22 May 2032
No end in sight to Metallurg's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Metallurg has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad24 May 2032
Words exchanged at Metallurg
Nedeljko Stojišić 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.
Player ratings24 May 2032
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad24 May 2032
Jaloliddin Sodiqov 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.
Boardroom24 May 2032
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
Squad24 May 2032
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Nedeljko Stojišić knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
The dugout24 May 2032
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad17 May 2032
Aziz Turg'unboyev damages knee ligaments — 28 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 28 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.
Match15 May 2032
The wait goes on for Metallurg
4 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.
Match15 May 2032
1‑3 to Neftchi, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad17 May 2032
Jaloliddin Sodiqov 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 dugout17 May 2032
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nedeljko Stojišić, and the manager let it.
Player ratings17 May 2032
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.13, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout17 May 2032
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑3, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Squad17 May 2032
Words exchanged at Metallurg
Timur Komilov 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.
Player ratings17 May 2032
Successful dribbles: 15. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 May 2032
A knee injury of the worst kind for Aziz Turg'unboyev
35 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Metallurg lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings10 May 2032
Two goals and a mark of 8.59 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad10 May 2032
At 19, Jasur Nematov is already the best thing here
An average of 6.59 in a first team he is several years too young for. Metallurg have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
Player ratings10 May 2032
Abbos G'ulomov, 33, rolls back the years — 8.72
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.72 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Market10 May 2032
“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.
Squad10 May 2032
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metallurg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 May 2032
“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; Metallurg are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Match8 May 2032
Late, late show earns Metallurg a point
Minute 95, against Sogdiana, 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.
The dugout10 May 2032
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 May 2032
Aziz Turg'unboyev damages knee ligaments — 42 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 42 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 terraces3 May 2032
The mood at Metallurg 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.
Squad3 May 2032
Abbos G'ulomov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings3 May 2032
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
Squad3 May 2032
“The easiest signature of my career.” Sardor Sadullayev and Metallurg agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 May 2032
A row about effort at Metallurg
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jaloliddin Sodiqov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout3 May 2032
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
The dugout3 May 2032
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
Match1 May 2032
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Nasaf defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Apr 2032
49 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Metallurg lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match24 Apr 2032
Beaten 0‑3 by Pakhtakor, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Squad26 Apr 2032
Words exchanged at Metallurg
Nedeljko Stojišić 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.
Squad26 Apr 2032
A row about effort at Metallurg
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jaloliddin Sodiqov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout26 Apr 2032
“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.
Boardroom26 Apr 2032
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout26 Apr 2032
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Interim Coach after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Boardroom26 Apr 2032
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
The dugout26 Apr 2032
Andreas Nicolaou has become a man the manager trusts
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad19 Apr 2032
A knee injury of the worst kind for Aziz Turg'unboyev
56 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Metallurg lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings19 Apr 2032
7.89, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Match17 Apr 2032
Metallurg make it 3 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Metallurg have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad19 Apr 2032
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.
Match17 Apr 2032
Three points for Metallurg, 3‑1 the final word against Mashal in a contest settled by the finer margins.
The terraces19 Apr 2032
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Nodir Hasanov has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Player ratings19 Apr 2032
Marked 8.32 — 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.
Player ratings19 Apr 2032
A performance of 8.20 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad19 Apr 2032
A row about effort at Metallurg
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andreas Nicolaou was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Apr 2032
A knee injury of the worst kind for Aziz Turg'unboyev
63 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Metallurg lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings12 Apr 2032
Age has not caught Abbos G'ulomov yet — 8.03
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.03 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market12 Apr 2032
“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.
Player ratings12 Apr 2032
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad12 Apr 2032
Words exchanged at Metallurg
Abbos G'ulomov 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.
Squad12 Apr 2032
A row about effort at Metallurg
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jaloliddin Sodiqov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match10 Apr 2032
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Abbos G'ulomov. 1‑0 against Shortan, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The dugout12 Apr 2032
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Rustam Elomonov, and the manager let it.
The dugout12 Apr 2032
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Interim Coach, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Apr 2032
Aziz Turg'unboyev damages knee ligaments — 70 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 70 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 terraces5 Apr 2032
Supporters organise against the Metallurg 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.
Squad5 Apr 2032
2 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Match31 Mar 2032
Metallurg through in the cup
A 0‑0 win over Nasaf, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Market5 Apr 2032
“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.
Squad5 Apr 2032
“The easiest signature of my career.” Branimir Jočić and Metallurg agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad5 Apr 2032
Nedeljko Stojišić 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.
Match3 Apr 2032
It had gone 6 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.
The terraces5 Apr 2032
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Andreas Nicolaou has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad29 Mar 2032
A knee injury of the worst kind for Aziz Turg'unboyev
77 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Metallurg lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match27 Mar 2032
No end in sight to Metallurg's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Metallurg has to find a result from somewhere.
Match27 Mar 2032
3 matches without a goal for Metallurg
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Player ratings29 Mar 2032
Successful dribbles: 20. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad29 Mar 2032
Words exchanged at Metallurg
Bekzod Sulaymonov 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.
Match27 Mar 2032
Navbahor left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout29 Mar 2032
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Branimir Jočić, and the manager let it.
Squad29 Mar 2032
Words at Metallurg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andreas Nicolaou 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 dugout29 Mar 2032
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad22 Mar 2032
84 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Metallurg lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match20 Mar 2032
The wait goes on for Metallurg
4 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.
Squad22 Mar 2032
Nedeljko Stojišić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad22 Mar 2032
Jaloliddin Sodiqov 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 Mar 2032
“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 dugout22 Mar 2032
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Looking ahead22 Mar 2032
The leaders are next for Metallurg
Navbahor top the table and they are coming into view. Nothing to lose, which is what every manager says before losing.
Player ratings22 Mar 2032
Successful dribbles: 12. 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.
Match20 Mar 2032
Point won or two lost for Metallurg?
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Bukhara? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad15 Mar 2032
91 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Metallurg lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad15 Mar 2032
Abbos G'ulomov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad15 Mar 2032
Branimir Jočić 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.
Player ratings15 Mar 2032
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.
Match13 Mar 2032
Andijon left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout15 Mar 2032
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Squad15 Mar 2032
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Eldor Hasanov and Metallurg agree another 3 years.
The dugout15 Mar 2032
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.
The dugout15 Mar 2032
Somebody else is better right now than Nodir Hasanov
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad8 Mar 2032
A knee injury of the worst kind for Aziz Turg'unboyev
98 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Metallurg lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The terraces8 Mar 2032
The mood at Metallurg 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.
Player ratings8 Mar 2032
Successful dribbles: 32. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market8 Mar 2032
“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.
Squad8 Mar 2032
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metallurg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom8 Mar 2032
9 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Squad8 Mar 2032
“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 Metallurg know it.
Market8 Mar 2032
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Eldor Tukhtasinov has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market8 Mar 2032
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Odil Akhmedov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad1 Mar 2032
Aziz Turg'unboyev damages knee ligaments — 105 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 105 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.
Squad1 Mar 2032
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.
Squad1 Mar 2032
A row about effort at Metallurg
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jaloliddin Sodiqov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout1 Mar 2032
“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.
Boardroom1 Mar 2032
The numbers do not look good at Metallurg
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Looking ahead1 Mar 2032
Qizilqum next, and one man in the Metallurg dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
The dugout1 Mar 2032
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Metallurg, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad1 Mar 2032
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Metallurg has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Market1 Mar 2032
Metallurg have made Eldor Ismailov available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad23 Feb 2032
Aziz Turg'unboyev damages knee ligaments — 112 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 112 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.
Squad23 Feb 2032
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metallurg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Feb 2032
Words at Metallurg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jaloliddin Sodiqov 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
Squad16 Feb 2032
A knee injury of the worst kind for Aziz Turg'unboyev
119 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Metallurg lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom16 Feb 2032
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Metallurg
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Match16 Feb 2032
Every point is an argument now for Metallurg
Position 14 and 14 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.
Squad16 Feb 2032
Nedeljko Stojišić 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.
Squad16 Feb 2032
Words at Metallurg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mustafo Abdumannopov 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.
Boardroom16 Feb 2032
The Metallurg production line keeps running
61 graduates out of an academy now rated 7 out of 20. Clubs this size survive on exactly that, and the town knows every name.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad9 Feb 2032
Aziz Turg'unboyev damages knee ligaments — 126 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 126 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 terraces9 Feb 2032
Anger at Metallurg 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.
Squad9 Feb 2032
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Nedeljko Stojišić commits to Metallurg for another 2 years.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad2 Feb 2032
Aziz Turg'unboyev damages knee ligaments — 133 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 133 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.
Boardroom2 Feb 2032
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Boardroom2 Feb 2032
The Metallurg 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.
Boardroom2 Feb 2032
Deadline passes with 2 signed and 2 gone
That is the business done at Metallurg until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Squad2 Feb 2032
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Nedeljko Stojišić and Metallurg agree another 2 years.
Squad2 Feb 2032
Nedeljko Stojišić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets2 Feb 2032
A loan enquiry to AGMK: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Squad2 Feb 2032
Metallurg are still strangers to each other
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.
Boardroom2 Feb 2032
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Metallurg now.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad26 Jan 2032
89 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Metallurg lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad26 Jan 2032
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metallurg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Jan 2032
“The easiest signature of my career.” Rustam Elomonov and Metallurg agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad19 Jan 2032
96 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Metallurg lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom19 Jan 2032
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Metallurg
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Match19 Jan 2032
Metallurg are in real trouble now
Position 14, 14 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Transfer targets19 Jan 2032
The deal with Nasaf 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.
Squad19 Jan 2032
Nedeljko Stojišić 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.
Squad19 Jan 2032
Words at Metallurg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jaloliddin Sodiqov 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.
Transfer targets19 Jan 2032
Metallurg asked and Bunyodkor said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad19 Jan 2032
“The easiest signature of my career.” Omadillo Abdubannobov and Metallurg agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout19 Jan 2032
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Metallurg. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces12 Jan 2032
Anger at Metallurg 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.
Squad12 Jan 2032
103 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Metallurg lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Transfer targets12 Jan 2032
Fee agreed, terms agreed, and a scan that said otherwise. He goes back to Pakhtakor; Metallurg go back to the market; and both will insist there is no story here.
Squad12 Jan 2032
Words exchanged at Metallurg
Abbos G'ulomov 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.
Squad12 Jan 2032
Words at Metallurg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jaloliddin Sodiqov 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.
Transfer targets12 Jan 2032
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. AGMK have kept their man, and Metallurg go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad12 Jan 2032
“The easiest signature of my career.” Omadillo Abdubannobov and Metallurg agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Transfer targets12 Jan 2032
A loan move for Nichita Misac is in the works
Metallurg have made the call to Bunyodkor. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets12 Jan 2032
A loan enquiry to Sogdiana: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad5 Jan 2032
Husniddin G'afurov damages knee ligaments — 110 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 110 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.
Boardroom5 Jan 2032
Interim Coach has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Metallurg can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Market5 Jan 2032
“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.
Squad5 Jan 2032
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Danil Baklanov commits to Metallurg for another 3 years.
Squad5 Jan 2032
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.
Boardroom5 Jan 2032
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Abdulla Ahmedov has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Metallurg have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Transfer targets5 Jan 2032
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.
Squad5 Jan 2032
A row about effort at Metallurg
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mustafo Abdumannopov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets5 Jan 2032
Neftchi have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad29 Dec 2031
117 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Metallurg lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad29 Dec 2031
Words exchanged at Metallurg
Nedeljko Stojišić 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.
Squad29 Dec 2031
A row about effort at Metallurg
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jaloliddin Sodiqov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad22 Dec 2031
Husniddin G'afurov damages knee ligaments — 124 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 124 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.
Boardroom22 Dec 2031
Pressure builds in the Metallurg boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Match22 Dec 2031
Metallurg sink to position 14
14 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Squad22 Dec 2031
Words at Metallurg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jaloliddin Sodiqov 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.
Squad22 Dec 2031
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metallurg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout22 Dec 2031
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Danil Baklanov has written the date down.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces15 Dec 2031
The mood at Metallurg 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.
Squad15 Dec 2031
32 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Metallurg lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad15 Dec 2031
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metallurg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom8 Dec 2031
Interim Coach has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Metallurg can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Squad8 Dec 2031
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.
Squad8 Dec 2031
“The easiest signature of my career.” Navro'zbek Iminjonov and Metallurg agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad8 Dec 2031
Words at Metallurg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jaloliddin Sodiqov 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.
Squad8 Dec 2031
17 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
The dugout8 Dec 2031
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market1 Dec 2031
“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.
Squad1 Dec 2031
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metallurg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Dec 2031
Jaloliddin Sodiqov 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 dugout1 Dec 2031
“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.
Squad1 Dec 2031
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 Dec 2031
The manager's exit leaves Danil Baklanov exposed
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Danil Baklanov is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom24 Nov 2031
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Metallurg
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Match24 Nov 2031
Metallurg are in real trouble now
Position 14, 14 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Squad24 Nov 2031
Abbos G'ulomov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 Nov 2031
A move Rustam Elomonov would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Rustam Elomonov is living that version at Metallurg, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad24 Nov 2031
Too much change too quickly at Metallurg
5 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.
Squad24 Nov 2031
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Mustafo Abdumannopov commits to Metallurg for another 3 years.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces17 Nov 2031
Anger at Metallurg 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.
The dugout17 Nov 2031
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad17 Nov 2031
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metallurg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Nov 2031
A row about effort at Metallurg
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jaloliddin Sodiqov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market17 Nov 2031
He is 19, and nobody at Metallurg signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Market17 Nov 2031
Talgat Tagybergen is 19, and Metallurg 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.
Squad17 Nov 2031
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Nodir Hasanov commits to Metallurg for another 3 years.
The dugout17 Nov 2031
Danil Baklanov 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 Danil Baklanov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad17 Nov 2031
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad10 Nov 2031
Nedeljko Stojišić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad10 Nov 2031
A row about effort at Metallurg
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jaloliddin Sodiqov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout10 Nov 2031
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 Jaloliddin Sodiqov is on it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom3 Nov 2031
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
The dugout3 Nov 2031
Dilshod Jo'rayev: 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.” Metallurg have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad3 Nov 2031
Words exchanged at Metallurg
Nedeljko Stojišić 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.
Squad3 Nov 2031
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jahongir Abdumo'minov and Metallurg agree another 2 years.
Squad3 Nov 2031
The captaincy has been taken off Abbos G'ulomov. Metallurg will call it a decision about the team; a dressing room reads it as a verdict on a man.
Squad3 Nov 2031
The table has started to be checked before the results are in, and that is always the tell. Nobody at Metallurg says the word out loud, and everybody in the building is thinking it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom27 Oct 2031
Pressure builds in the Metallurg boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Match27 Oct 2031
Metallurg are in real trouble now
Position 14, 14 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Squad27 Oct 2031
Nedeljko Stojišić 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.
Squad27 Oct 2031
Words at Metallurg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jaloliddin Sodiqov 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.
Boardroom27 Oct 2031
The Metallurg academy earns its keep
61 graduates, from a department now rated 7 out of 20. Nothing about the academy appears in a result, and nothing about the club’s future exists without it.
The dugout27 Oct 2031
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Nedeljko Stojišić has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces20 Oct 2031
Anger at Metallurg 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.
Squad20 Oct 2031
Words exchanged at Metallurg
Abbos G'ulomov 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.
Squad20 Oct 2031
Words at Metallurg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jaloliddin Sodiqov 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
Squad13 Oct 2031
Nedeljko Stojišić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad13 Oct 2031
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Muhammadjon Toirjonov commits to Metallurg for another 2 years.
The dugout13 Oct 2031
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 Jaloliddin Sodiqov is on it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom6 Oct 2031
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Squad6 Oct 2031
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Abbos G'ulomov commits to Metallurg for another 3 years.
Squad6 Oct 2031
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metallurg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad6 Oct 2031
Jaloliddin Sodiqov 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.
Boardroom6 Oct 2031
90% of the income goes out in wages at Metallurg
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.
Squad6 Oct 2031
A place in the month's best eleven for Aziz Tukhtasinov
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Aziz Tukhtasinov has come out of that comparison in the side, and Metallurg have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The dugout6 Oct 2031
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Dilshod Jo'rayev, and the manager let it.
The dugout6 Oct 2031
Danil Baklanov loses the manager who believed in him
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Danil Baklanov's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
The dugout6 Oct 2031
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Metallurg. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom29 Sep 2031
Pressure builds in the Metallurg boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Match29 Sep 2031
Every point is an argument now for Metallurg
Position 14 and 14 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.
Squad29 Sep 2031
Nedeljko Stojišić 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.
Squad29 Sep 2031
Words at Metallurg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jaloliddin Sodiqov 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 dugout29 Sep 2031
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Husniddin G'afurov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market29 Sep 2031
Contract settled, hands shaken, no fee changing hands. Jaloliddin Shomurodov leaves Metallurg the quiet way, and the wage bill breathes a little easier.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces22 Sep 2031
Supporters organise against the Metallurg 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.
Match20 Sep 2031
Beaten 1‑4 by Kokand 1912, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Match22 Sep 2031
The season ends: position 14 for Metallurg
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 14 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
Squad22 Sep 2031
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metallurg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout22 Sep 2031
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Danil Baklanov, and the manager let it.
Player ratings22 Sep 2031
Shahriyor Jabborov was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.26. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Boardroom22 Sep 2031
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
The dugout22 Sep 2031
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.
The dugout22 Sep 2031
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 1‑4 Interim Coach left the room before anybody could ask which.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match13 Sep 2031
20 matches without a win, and then this, against Lokomotiv. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Player ratings15 Sep 2031
Marked 7.74 at 17, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Squad15 Sep 2031
Nedeljko Stojišić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad15 Sep 2031
A row about effort at Metallurg
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jaloliddin Sodiqov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The terraces15 Sep 2031
He is 17 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Player ratings15 Sep 2031
Fazliddin Zuhriddinov was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.19. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Player ratings15 Sep 2031
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout15 Sep 2031
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Interim Coach could afford to be generous.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match6 Sep 2031
The wait goes on for Metallurg
20 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.
Squad8 Sep 2031
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Boardroom8 Sep 2031
Interim Coach has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Metallurg can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Match6 Sep 2031
Nowhere to hide for Metallurg
0‑3 against AGMK, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Squad8 Sep 2031
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Branimir Jočić commits to Metallurg for another 2 years.
Market8 Sep 2031
The shirt still fits. Danil Baklanov is back at Metallurg, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Squad8 Sep 2031
Words exchanged at Metallurg
Nedeljko Stojišić 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.
Squad8 Sep 2031
Words at Metallurg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jaloliddin Sodiqov 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.
Match6 Sep 2031
Metallurg leaking at the back
4 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match30 Aug 2031
The wait goes on for Metallurg
19 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.
Boardroom1 Sep 2031
Pressure builds in the Metallurg boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Match1 Sep 2031
Every point is an argument now for Metallurg
Position 14 and 11 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.
Boardroom1 Sep 2031
Window shuts: 7 in, 6 out at Metallurg
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 7 arrived, 6 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Squad1 Sep 2031
Abbos G'ulomov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match30 Aug 2031
0‑2 to Bunyodkor, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings1 Sep 2031
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout1 Sep 2031
“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.
Squad1 Sep 2031
“The easiest signature of my career.” Aziz Tukhtasinov and Metallurg agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match23 Aug 2031
18 matches without a win for Metallurg
The run now stands at 18, and the questions being asked around Metallurg are no longer polite ones.
The terraces25 Aug 2031
Anger at Metallurg 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.
Transfer targets25 Aug 2031
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Pakhtakor keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad25 Aug 2031
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metallurg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match23 Aug 2031
2‑3 to Neftchi, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad25 Aug 2031
A row about effort at Metallurg
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jaloliddin Sodiqov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout25 Aug 2031
The manager makes an example of Branimir Jočić
“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.
Squad25 Aug 2031
“The easiest signature of my career.” Aziz Tukhtasinov and Metallurg agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout25 Aug 2031
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 2‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match16 Aug 2031
The wait goes on for Metallurg
17 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.
Match16 Aug 2031
0‑3 to Sogdiana, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Market18 Aug 2031
“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.
Squad18 Aug 2031
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.
Player ratings18 Aug 2031
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match16 Aug 2031
Metallurg cannot find the net
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad18 Aug 2031
Jaloliddin Sodiqov 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 dugout18 Aug 2031
“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.
Boardroom18 Aug 2031
Nobody left the Metallurg dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match9 Aug 2031
16 matches without a win for Metallurg
The run now stands at 16, and the questions being asked around Metallurg are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings11 Aug 2031
Successful dribbles: 34. 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.
Market11 Aug 2031
Metallurg say no — this time
The offer from Qizilqum for Asilbek Tojiddinov 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.
Squad11 Aug 2031
Words exchanged at Metallurg
Nedeljko Stojišić 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.
Squad11 Aug 2031
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Bekzod Sulaymonov commits to Metallurg for another 3 years.
Match9 Aug 2031
Nasaf left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout11 Aug 2031
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout11 Aug 2031
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.
The dugout11 Aug 2031
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match2 Aug 2031
The wait goes on for Metallurg
15 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.
Boardroom4 Aug 2031
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.
Match2 Aug 2031
0‑3 to Pakhtakor, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Match4 Aug 2031
Every point is an argument now for Metallurg
Position 14 and 11 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.
Boardroom4 Aug 2031
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Metallurg
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Squad4 Aug 2031
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad4 Aug 2031
Nedeljko Stojišić 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.
Squad4 Aug 2031
Jaloliddin Sodiqov 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.
Player ratings4 Aug 2031
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match26 Jul 2031
No end in sight to Metallurg's wait for a win
14 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Metallurg has to find a result from somewhere.
The terraces28 Jul 2031
Supporters organise against the Metallurg 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.
Market28 Jul 2031
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Qizilqum waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Metallurg is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Squad28 Jul 2031
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metallurg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Jul 2031
Jaloliddin Sodiqov 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.
Transfer targets28 Jul 2031
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.
Player ratings28 Jul 2031
A performance of 8.19 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout28 Jul 2031
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Dilshod Jo'rayev, and the manager let it.
Match26 Jul 2031
Level with 89 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Metallurg had all but put away. Mashal will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match19 Jul 2031
No end in sight to Metallurg's wait for a win
13 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Metallurg has to find a result from somewhere.
Market21 Jul 2031
“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.
Player ratings21 Jul 2031
Abbos G'ulomov, 33, rolls back the years — 8.30
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.30 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad21 Jul 2031
Nedeljko Stojišić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match19 Jul 2031
Abbos G'ulomov scored, and precious little else went right: 2‑3 to Shortan, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Player ratings21 Jul 2031
Marked 8.20 — 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.
Looking ahead21 Jul 2031
Everything rides on Mashal
Both clubs in the mire, one fixture between them, and a ground that will be louder and more frightened than at any point in the season. Metallurg know what is at stake and so does everybody in the away end.
The dugout21 Jul 2031
“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 dugout21 Jul 2031
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 2‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match12 Jul 2031
12 matches without a win for Metallurg
The run now stands at 12, and the questions being asked around Metallurg are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings14 Jul 2031
Up for the corner, and Sardor Sadullayev delivers — 7.37
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Sardor Sadullayev scored, was marked 7.37, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Squad14 Jul 2031
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metallurg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Jul 2031
Words at Metallurg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jaloliddin Sodiqov 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.
Match12 Jul 2031
A bad afternoon for Metallurg against Obod
1‑2 to Obod, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings14 Jul 2031
Successful dribbles: 19. 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 dugout14 Jul 2031
“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 dugout14 Jul 2031
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Market14 Jul 2031
Javohir Rasulov is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Metallurg has been clear about where Javohir Rasulov stands, which is more than many ever get.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match5 Jul 2031
11 matches without a win for Metallurg
The run now stands at 11, and the questions being asked around Metallurg are no longer polite ones.
Match7 Jul 2031
Metallurg sink to position 14
10 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Squad7 Jul 2031
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.
Boardroom7 Jul 2031
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Metallurg
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Match5 Jul 2031
6 matches without a goal for Metallurg
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 6 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad7 Jul 2031
“The easiest signature of my career.” Nedeljko Stojišić and Metallurg agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad7 Jul 2031
Words exchanged at Metallurg
Nedeljko Stojišić 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.
Player ratings7 Jul 2031
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad7 Jul 2031
A row about effort at Metallurg
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jaloliddin Sodiqov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces30 Jun 2031
Anger at Metallurg 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.
Match28 Jun 2031
No end in sight to Metallurg's wait for a win
10 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Metallurg has to find a result from somewhere.
Match28 Jun 2031
The goals have deserted Metallurg
5 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Metallurg can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad30 Jun 2031
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.
Player ratings30 Jun 2031
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match28 Jun 2031
Bukhara left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout30 Jun 2031
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Looking ahead30 Jun 2031
Navbahor next, and one man in the Metallurg dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Squad30 Jun 2031
At 16 years old, Abdulla Masharipov became the latest name off the academy production line to be handed a senior shirt.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match21 Jun 2031
Beaten 0‑6 by Andijon, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Match21 Jun 2031
The wait goes on for Metallurg
9 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.
Match18 Jun 2031
Metallurg bow out of the cup
Bunyodkor go through and Metallurg go home, 0‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Squad23 Jun 2031
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match21 Jun 2031
The goals have deserted Metallurg
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Metallurg can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad23 Jun 2031
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metallurg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match21 Jun 2031
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Metallurg and Andijon, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad23 Jun 2031
Words at Metallurg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jaloliddin Sodiqov 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.
Transfer targets23 Jun 2031
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market16 Jun 2031
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Qizilqum had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Match14 Jun 2031
The wait goes on for Metallurg
7 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.
Squad16 Jun 2031
Nedeljko Stojišić 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.
Squad16 Jun 2031
A row about effort at Metallurg
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jaloliddin Sodiqov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets16 Jun 2031
Metallurg asked and AGMK said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Player ratings16 Jun 2031
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad16 Jun 2031
100 times in these colours, in all weathers and under four or five different managers. That kind of service is quietly disappearing from the game.
The dugout16 Jun 2031
“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.
Squad16 Jun 2031
“The easiest signature of my career.” Doniyor Ahmedov and Metallurg agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match9 Jun 2031
Every point is an argument now for Metallurg
Position 14 and 9 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.
Market9 Jun 2031
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market9 Jun 2031
“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.
Match7 Jun 2031
The wait goes on for Metallurg
6 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.
Transfer targets9 Jun 2031
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Metallurg have done the hard part with AGMK, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad9 Jun 2031
Words exchanged at Metallurg
Nedeljko Stojišić 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.
Transfer targets9 Jun 2031
Metallurg asked and Lokomotiv said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match7 Jun 2031
Kokand 1912 left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Match9 Jun 2031
Metallurg at the halfway mark
Half the programme played, position 14, 9 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces2 Jun 2031
Supporters organise against the Metallurg 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.
Market2 Jun 2031
“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.
Match31 May 2031
The wait goes on for Metallurg
5 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.
Squad2 Jun 2031
Nedeljko Stojišić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match31 May 2031
Metallurg leaking at the back
5 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Squad2 Jun 2031
A row about effort at Metallurg
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jaloliddin Sodiqov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets2 Jun 2031
Metallurg 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.
Match31 May 2031
Lokomotiv left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout2 Jun 2031
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Dilshod Jo'rayev, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad26 May 2031
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 20 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match24 May 2031
0‑3 to AGMK, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Squad26 May 2031
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Match24 May 2031
No end in sight to Metallurg's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Metallurg has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad26 May 2031
Words exchanged at Metallurg
Abbos G'ulomov 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.
Squad26 May 2031
A row about effort at Metallurg
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jaloliddin Sodiqov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match24 May 2031
No clean sheets in sight for Metallurg
4 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Player ratings26 May 2031
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.
Boardroom26 May 2031
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad19 May 2031
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Metallurg will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match17 May 2031
Nowhere to hide for Metallurg
0‑3 against Bunyodkor, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Squad19 May 2031
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad19 May 2031
Nedeljko Stojišić 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.
Squad19 May 2031
100 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
The dugout19 May 2031
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Sardor Sadullayev, and the manager let it.
Boardroom19 May 2031
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
The dugout19 May 2031
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑3, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout19 May 2031
The plan did not have a place for Dilshod Jo'rayev
Nobody at Metallurg is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad12 May 2031
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 34 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad12 May 2031
7 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.
Player ratings12 May 2031
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad12 May 2031
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metallurg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match10 May 2031
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad12 May 2031
Jaloliddin Sodiqov 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 dugout12 May 2031
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑3, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout12 May 2031
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Looking ahead12 May 2031
A test against the best for Metallurg
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Bunyodkor.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings5 May 2031
Successful dribbles: 40. 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 terraces5 May 2031
Anger at Metallurg 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.
Squad5 May 2031
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 41 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad5 May 2031
15 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Metallurg lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad5 May 2031
Nedeljko Stojišić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad5 May 2031
Jaloliddin Sodiqov 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.
Match3 May 2031
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout5 May 2031
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout5 May 2031
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Apr 2031
18 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Metallurg lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad28 Apr 2031
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Metallurg will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings28 Apr 2031
Successful dribbles: 29. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad28 Apr 2031
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metallurg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match26 Apr 2031
Three points for Metallurg, 1‑0 the final word against Nasaf in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings28 Apr 2031
A mark of 7.24, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout28 Apr 2031
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 1‑0, already talking about the next one.
The dugout28 Apr 2031
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
The dugout28 Apr 2031
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad21 Apr 2031
25 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Metallurg lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad21 Apr 2031
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Metallurg will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad21 Apr 2031
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Match19 Apr 2031
4 matches without a win for Metallurg
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Metallurg are no longer polite ones.
Squad21 Apr 2031
Nedeljko Stojišić 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.
Player ratings21 Apr 2031
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match19 Apr 2031
Pakhtakor left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout21 Apr 2031
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Looking ahead21 Apr 2031
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Nasaf in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Apr 2031
32 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Metallurg lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad14 Apr 2031
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Metallurg will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Player ratings14 Apr 2031
Successful dribbles: 33. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad14 Apr 2031
Words exchanged at Metallurg
Nedeljko Stojišić 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.
Squad14 Apr 2031
Jaloliddin Sodiqov 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.
Match12 Apr 2031
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout14 Apr 2031
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Interim Coach after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout14 Apr 2031
“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.
Market14 Apr 2031
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Metallurg has been clear about where Bekzod Sulaymonov stands, which is more than many ever get.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Apr 2031
A knee injury of the worst kind for Nedeljko Stojišić
39 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Metallurg lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The terraces7 Apr 2031
Anger at Metallurg 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.
Squad7 Apr 2031
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 69 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad7 Apr 2031
2 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
Match2 Apr 2031
Metallurg through in the cup
A 0‑0 win over Nasaf, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Player ratings7 Apr 2031
Successful dribbles: 28. 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.
Player ratings7 Apr 2031
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.87 at 38, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad7 Apr 2031
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.
Player ratings7 Apr 2031
20 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad31 Mar 2031
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Metallurg will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match29 Mar 2031
The drought breaks for Metallurg
13 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.
Player ratings31 Mar 2031
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Navro'zbek Iminjonov provided it, and the 8.67 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings31 Mar 2031
Successful dribbles: 25. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad31 Mar 2031
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metallurg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 Mar 2031
A row about effort at Metallurg
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jaloliddin Sodiqov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match29 Mar 2031
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Navro'zbek Iminjonov. 2‑0 against Obod, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad31 Mar 2031
23 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
The dugout31 Mar 2031
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 2‑0, already talking about the next one.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match22 Mar 2031
The wait goes on for Metallurg
13 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.
Squad24 Mar 2031
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 83 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Boardroom24 Mar 2031
The caretaker keeps it: Interim Coach confirmed
A month of looking elsewhere ended where it started. He already knows every name in the building; the rest of it he now has to prove in public.
Squad24 Mar 2031
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 10 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Squad24 Mar 2031
Abbos G'ulomov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 Mar 2031
Jaloliddin Sodiqov 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.
Player ratings24 Mar 2031
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings24 Mar 2031
Defensive actions: 16. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
The dugout24 Mar 2031
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Interim Coach was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Metallurg dressing room was either.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match15 Mar 2031
No end in sight to Metallurg's wait for a win
12 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Metallurg has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad17 Mar 2031
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Metallurg will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market17 Mar 2031
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Metallurg they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Player ratings17 Mar 2031
Successful dribbles: 22. 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.
Squad17 Mar 2031
Words exchanged at Metallurg
Nedeljko Stojišić 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.
Match15 Mar 2031
Bukhara left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout17 Mar 2031
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Interim Coach after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Player ratings17 Mar 2031
One lapse, one goal, and ninety minutes of honest work counting for nothing. That is the job at Metallurg, and it is a cruel one.
The dugout17 Mar 2031
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces10 Mar 2031
Supporters organise against the Metallurg 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.
Squad10 Mar 2031
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 97 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match8 Mar 2031
The wait goes on for Metallurg
11 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.
Squad10 Mar 2031
There were 8 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad10 Mar 2031
Shahriyor Jabborov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom10 Mar 2031
Metallurg still without a manager
9 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.
Squad10 Mar 2031
Words at Metallurg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jaloliddin Sodiqov 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.
Match8 Mar 2031
0‑2 to Andijon, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout10 Mar 2031
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom3 Mar 2031
The end came on a Tuesday, as these things usually do: a short meeting, a shorter statement, and Sherzod Shomurodov clearing his office by noon. Football’s cruellest ritual, performed to schedule.
Squad3 Mar 2031
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Metallurg will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match1 Mar 2031
No end in sight to Metallurg's wait for a win
10 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Metallurg has to find a result from somewhere.
Boardroom3 Mar 2031
An empty coaching office at Metallurg
There is nobody left to promote and nobody left to run a session. The board have brought in a name the supporters do not know, and the question of how a club gets here will outlast whoever answers it.
Squad3 Mar 2031
7 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.
Boardroom3 Mar 2031
“I am not thinking past Saturday, and I would advise nobody else to.” The caretaker’s first rule is to pretend the job is small; Interim Coach recited it perfectly.
Squad3 Mar 2031
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metallurg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom3 Mar 2031
5 academy graduates step up at Metallurg
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.
Squad3 Mar 2031
Jaloliddin Sodiqov 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad24 Feb 2031
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Metallurg will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad24 Feb 2031
Shahriyor Jabborov 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.
Squad24 Feb 2031
58 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad17 Feb 2031
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 118 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Boardroom17 Feb 2031
Pressure builds in the Metallurg boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market17 Feb 2031
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Metallurg is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad17 Feb 2031
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metallurg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout17 Feb 2031
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Shohruh Suyunov, and the manager let it.
Boardroom17 Feb 2031
The Metallurg academy earns its keep
56 graduates, from a department now rated 7 out of 20. Nothing about the academy appears in a result, and nothing about the club’s future exists without it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces10 Feb 2031
The mood at Metallurg 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.
Squad10 Feb 2031
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Metallurg will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The dugout10 Feb 2031
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Squad10 Feb 2031
Nedeljko Stojišić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout10 Feb 2031
The manager has not finished forgetting Abbos G'ulomov'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.
The dugout10 Feb 2031
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad3 Feb 2031
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Metallurg will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Boardroom3 Feb 2031
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Metallurg can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Match3 Feb 2031
Every point is an argument now for Metallurg
Position 14 and 22 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.
Boardroom3 Feb 2031
Deadline passes with 2 signed and 3 gone
That is the business done at Metallurg until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Market3 Feb 2031
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad3 Feb 2031
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Branimir Jočić and Metallurg agree another 2 years.
Squad3 Feb 2031
Words exchanged at Metallurg
Abbos G'ulomov 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 dugout3 Feb 2031
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The dugout3 Feb 2031
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nedeljko Stojišić trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad27 Jan 2031
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Metallurg will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad27 Jan 2031
Nedeljko Stojišić 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.
Transfer targets27 Jan 2031
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.
The dugout27 Jan 2031
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The dugout27 Jan 2031
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.
Market27 Jan 2031
Metallurg have let the market know Javohir Rasulov can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom20 Jan 2031
Pressure builds in the Metallurg boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad20 Jan 2031
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 76 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market20 Jan 2031
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Metallurg people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Squad20 Jan 2031
Words exchanged at Metallurg
Shahriyor Jabborov 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.
Transfer targets20 Jan 2031
Metallurg asked and Lokomotiv said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad20 Jan 2031
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ali Al Menhali and Metallurg agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad20 Jan 2031
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.
Market20 Jan 2031
Metallurg shop where it costs nothing
Ali Al Menhali signs, and the fee column stays empty. Deals like this look small in July and clever by March — or they are never mentioned again.
The dugout20 Jan 2031
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Metallurg. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces13 Jan 2031
Supporters organise against the Metallurg 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.
Squad13 Jan 2031
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Metallurg will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The dugout13 Jan 2031
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Squad13 Jan 2031
Nedeljko Stojišić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad13 Jan 2031
Jaloliddin Sodiqov 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.
Transfer targets13 Jan 2031
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. AGMK have kept their man, and Metallurg go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad13 Jan 2031
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Omadillo Abdubannobov commits to Metallurg for another 2 years.
The dugout13 Jan 2031
The manager has not finished forgetting Abbos G'ulomov'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.
Market13 Jan 2031
Beka Kakabadze is 18, and Metallurg 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad6 Jan 2031
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Metallurg will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Boardroom6 Jan 2031
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Sherzod Shomurodov has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Match6 Jan 2031
Metallurg are in real trouble now
Position 14, 22 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
The dugout6 Jan 2031
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Transfer targets6 Jan 2031
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.
Squad6 Jan 2031
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metallurg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad6 Jan 2031
Jaloliddin Sodiqov 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.
Transfer targets6 Jan 2031
Metallurg asked and Lokomotiv said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market6 Jan 2031
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Metallurg have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market30 Dec 2030
“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.
Squad30 Dec 2030
Abbos G'ulomov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad30 Dec 2030
Jaloliddin Sodiqov 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom23 Dec 2030
Pressure builds in the Metallurg boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad23 Dec 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metallurg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Dec 2030
A row about effort at Metallurg
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jaloliddin Sodiqov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad23 Dec 2030
The medical room confirms 14 days on the sidelines for Amir Ismailov, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
The dugout23 Dec 2030
Shohruh Suyunov asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Boardroom23 Dec 2030
The Metallurg production line keeps running
56 graduates out of an academy now rated 7 out of 20. Clubs this size survive on exactly that, and the town knows every name.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces16 Dec 2030
The mood at Metallurg 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.
The dugout16 Dec 2030
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Squad16 Dec 2030
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.
Squad16 Dec 2030
Jaloliddin Sodiqov 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 dugout16 Dec 2030
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.
The dugout16 Dec 2030
Nodir Akhmedov asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match9 Dec 2030
Metallurg are in real trouble now
Position 14, 22 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Squad9 Dec 2030
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Nedeljko Stojišić commits to Metallurg for another 2 years.
Squad9 Dec 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metallurg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Dec 2030
Words at Metallurg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jaloliddin Sodiqov 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 dugout9 Dec 2030
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Market9 Dec 2030
He is 18, and nobody at Metallurg signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom2 Dec 2030
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Metallurg can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Squad2 Dec 2030
“The easiest signature of my career.” Nedeljko Stojišić and Metallurg agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad2 Dec 2030
Shahriyor Jabborov 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.
Squad2 Dec 2030
Words at Metallurg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jaloliddin Sodiqov 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 dugout2 Dec 2030
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The dugout2 Dec 2030
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 Zafarbek Rahimjonov is on it.
Squad2 Dec 2030
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Metallurg will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Market2 Dec 2030
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Shohruh Suyunov has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Metallurg.
The dugout2 Dec 2030
Eldor Abdullaev without the man who signed him
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Eldor Abdullaev was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom25 Nov 2030
The scrutiny sharpens at Metallurg
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Metallurg is running low.
Squad25 Nov 2030
Words exchanged at Metallurg
Nedeljko Stojišić 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.
Squad25 Nov 2030
A row about effort at Metallurg
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jaloliddin Sodiqov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad25 Nov 2030
42 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad25 Nov 2030
41 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Market25 Nov 2030
He is 20, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces18 Nov 2030
Supporters organise against the Metallurg 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.
Squad18 Nov 2030
16 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Metallurg lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The dugout18 Nov 2030
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Squad18 Nov 2030
Shahriyor Jabborov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad18 Nov 2030
A move Eldor Abdullaev would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Eldor Abdullaev is living that version at Metallurg, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad18 Nov 2030
A row about effort at Metallurg
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jaloliddin Sodiqov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad11 Nov 2030
Dilshod Jo'rayev damages knee ligaments — 23 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 23 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.
Match11 Nov 2030
Metallurg sink to position 14
22 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Squad11 Nov 2030
“The easiest signature of my career.” Zafarbek Rahimjonov and Metallurg agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad11 Nov 2030
Words exchanged at Metallurg
Abbos G'ulomov 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.
Squad11 Nov 2030
Jaloliddin Sodiqov 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 dugout11 Nov 2030
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From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad4 Nov 2030
Dilshod Jo'rayev damages knee ligaments — 30 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 30 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.
Boardroom4 Nov 2030
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Metallurg can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Squad4 Nov 2030
Abbos G'ulomov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad4 Nov 2030
Words at Metallurg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jaloliddin Sodiqov 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 dugout4 Nov 2030
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Squad4 Nov 2030
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Javohir Rasulov commits to Metallurg for another 2 years.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad28 Oct 2030
Dilshod Jo'rayev damages knee ligaments — 37 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 37 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.
Boardroom28 Oct 2030
The scrutiny sharpens at Metallurg
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Metallurg is running low.
Squad28 Oct 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metallurg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Oct 2030
Words at Metallurg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jaloliddin Sodiqov 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 dugout28 Oct 2030
“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 dugout28 Oct 2030
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Asilbek Tojiddinov has written the date down.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces21 Oct 2030
Supporters organise against the Metallurg 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.
Squad21 Oct 2030
44 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Metallurg lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The dugout21 Oct 2030
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
The dugout21 Oct 2030
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Squad21 Oct 2030
Words exchanged at Metallurg
Nedeljko Stojišić 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.
Squad21 Oct 2030
Jaloliddin Sodiqov 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Oct 2030
51 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Metallurg lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match14 Oct 2030
Metallurg are in real trouble now
Position 14, 22 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Squad14 Oct 2030
Shahriyor Jabborov 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom7 Oct 2030
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Sherzod Shomurodov has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Market7 Oct 2030
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Metallurg can pretend not to have heard.
Squad7 Oct 2030
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Shahriyor Jabborov and Metallurg agree another 4 years.
Squad7 Oct 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Metallurg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Oct 2030
The medical room confirms 14 days on the sidelines for Zafarbek Rahimjonov, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad7 Oct 2030
Words at Metallurg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jaloliddin Sodiqov 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
Boardroom30 Sep 2030
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Metallurg
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Squad30 Sep 2030
Shahriyor Jabborov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad30 Sep 2030
A row about effort at Metallurg
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jaloliddin Sodiqov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.