45 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Navbahor have done the hard part with Kokand 1912, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; O'tkir Yusupov will call it something else in private.
Márk Hodonicki 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.
In brief
Boardroom89% of the income goes out in wages at Navbahor
The dugoutO'tkir Yusupov dropped after a run of poor form
“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.
Match5 Aug 2028
Joel Kojo wins it after the whistle should have gone
90 minutes played. Joel Kojo found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Neftchi went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Navbahor can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Navbahor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dilshodjon Komilov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Navbahor asked and Kokand 1912 said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Two goals and a mark of 9.03 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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.
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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Navbahor is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Saidazamat Mirsaidov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“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.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
6 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.
38 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Words at Navbahor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dilshodjon Komilov 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Otabek Nematov on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Joel Kojo is on it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Navbahor can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Shoxmalik Komilov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Navbahor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dilshodjon Komilov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Navbahor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 8.35. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Navbahor.
The dugout10 Jul 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Otabek Nematov kept it short after the 3‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Obod waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Navbahor is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Player ratings3 Jul 2028
A brace, and Stipe Perica takes the afternoon — 8.98
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Stipe Perica provided it, and the 8.98 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Navbahor, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Marked 8.03 — 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.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Navbahor, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Navbahor is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Successful dribbles: 23. 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dilshodjon Komilov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Navbahor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
AGMK go through and Navbahor go home, 2‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. AGMK kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Navbahor will be asked about the last half hour all week.
29 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with O'tkir Yusupov: 1 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Navbahor know it.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Words at Navbahor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dilshodjon Komilov 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of O'tkir Yusupov
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Navbahor have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The chase for Abbos Ergashboyev ended with $260.0K changing hands and Shortan out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Abbos Ergashboyev has just signed for Navbahor, and for once the answer mattered.
Husain Norchayev 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 terraces12 Jun 2028
Navbahor spend $1.2M on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $1.2M for Vladimir Nazarov, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Obod waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Navbahor is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Navbahor, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have shaken hands with Pakhtakor; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Saidazamat Mirsaidov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Márk Hodonicki has just signed for Navbahor, and for once the answer mattered.
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.
AGMK will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Rian Islomov has pre-agreed a move to Navbahor, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
“I watch every Navbahor game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Bunyodkor runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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 Dilshodjon Komilov is on it.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Otabek Nematov after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Dilshodjon Komilov’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Navbahor needing him to play as if none of it matters.
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.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Navbahor, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Navbahor they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Two of the goals had his name somewhere on them, which is the afternoon a manager wants from anybody asked to both create and finish. 7.88, and 2 involvements.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Navbahor know it.
Everybody at Navbahor saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 35 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
8.00. 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.
Level with 85 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Navbahor had all but put away. Kokand 1912 will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Navbahor they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Navbahor have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Navbahor hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Successful dribbles: 15. 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.
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.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Navbahor, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.31 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Benjamin Teidi 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Anri Chichinadze, and the manager let it.
The dugout1 May 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Otabek Nematov kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
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 Saidazamat Mirsaidov is on it.
AGMK next, and one man in the Navbahor dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 93th minute. Neftchi will replay every second of the added time for a week.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Husain Norchayev provided it, and the 9.17 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Navbahor they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Husain Norchayev was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Otabek Nematov on a 3‑2 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Asadbek Rahimjonov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Navbahor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Navbahor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Navbahor are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Benjamin Teidi is on it.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Otabek Nematov chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.19 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The first defeat in 8 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Nasaf; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
It is sentimental, it is completely genuine, and it is the beginning of a departure nobody has announced. The club can be gracious about it or it can pretend not to have heard.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Navbahor told Benjamin Teidi something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout10 Apr 2028
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 Otabek Nematov to a room that had heard them before.
19 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Navbahor lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Anri Chichinadze 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Navbahor has been clear about where Shoxmalik Komilov stands, which is more than many ever get.
27 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Navbahor lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Shoxmalik Komilov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Navbahor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Navbahor heard it as anything else.
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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Metallurg in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Navbahor know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Navbahor, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The words a physio says slowly. 34 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Asadbek Rahimjonov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Navbahor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Navbahor are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The goal that put Mashal ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Navbahor equalised, 4 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
The words a physio says slowly. 41 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.
Benjamin Teidi 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Asilbek Aliev 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.
Marked 8.05 — 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.
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
49 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Navbahor lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Successful dribbles: 29. 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Asilbek Aliev is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Joel Kojo 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.
Boardroom6 Mar 2028
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Navbahor
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Odil Ganiev 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Rustam Shomurodov 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Aziz Akhmedov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The words a physio says slowly. 58 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Shoxmalik Komilov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Navbahor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Husain Norchayev was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
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 Diyor Xolmatov is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Saidazamat Mirsaidov signs something — a contract at Navbahor or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
66 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Navbahor lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Navbahor, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Navbahor is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
8 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.
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 Saidazamat Mirsaidov is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Joel Kojo signs something — a contract at Navbahor or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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 Benjamin Teidi has written the date down.
Nobody writes a headline about a tutor. Nobody has to be told, either, what happens to a signing who spends two years being the man nobody can talk to at lunch.
73 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Navbahor lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
58 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
The name of Asadbek Rahimjonov has come up in conversations Navbahor were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Navbahor can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Estudiantes have kept their man, and Navbahor go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Anri Chichinadze 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.
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 Dilshodjon Komilov is on it.
The words a physio says slowly. 80 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Obod waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Navbahor is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Deadline passes with 3 signed and 5 gone
That is the business done at Navbahor 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.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Anri Chichinadze 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.
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.
In brief
The dugoutJoel Kojo has become a man the manager trusts
The words a physio says slowly. 87 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.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Navbahor, and it is not being withdrawn.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Majed Al-Ghamdi has, at Navbahor, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Qizilqum have kept their man, and Navbahor go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Navbahor know it.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Saidazamat Mirsaidov signs something — a contract at Navbahor or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
94 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Navbahor lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Navbahor people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Husain Norchayev and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The phone has started ringing about Hamidullo Abdunabiyev again, and this time the name on the line is Andijon. Navbahor are listening politely and promising nothing.
8 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.
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.
101 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Navbahor lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Pakhtakor have kept their man, and Navbahor go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Navbahor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The name of Asadbek Rahimjonov has come up in conversations Navbahor were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Nueva Chicago 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.
Navbahor have made the call to Lokomotiv. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
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.
108 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Navbahor lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Navbahor can pretend not to have heard.
Navbahor have gone to Pakhtakor with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Navbahor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Jasurbek Jaloliddinov has his answer from Navbahor; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Navbahor know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
In brief
The dugoutJoel Kojo has become a man the manager trusts
116 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Navbahor lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Navbahor had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Navbahor can pretend not to have heard.
The phone has started ringing about Islombek Mamatkazin again, and this time the name on the line is Nasaf. Navbahor are listening politely and promising nothing.
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 Diyor Xolmatov is on it.
In brief
The dugoutBenjamin Teidi asks for a word with the manager
The words a physio says slowly. 123 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.
Anri Chichinadze 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.
7 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Benjamin Teidi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
131 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Navbahor lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
58 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
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 Dilshodjon Komilov is on it.
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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Azizbek Erimbetov has, at Navbahor, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Navbahor can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Navbahor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Navbahor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Asadbek Rahimjonov and Navbahor agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 35 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Asadbek Rahimjonov is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
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.
26 appearances and 0 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
9 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Asadbek Rahimjonov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
58 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Navbahor will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Husain Norchayev and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Navbahor are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Navbahor. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The competition arrived without a word said to him about it. Dilshodjon Komilov keeps the shirt for now, at Navbahor's convenience rather than his own.
This is the season the town will measure the next twenty against. The trophy travels home with the squad, and the route through the streets was agreed days ago.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Navbahor can pretend not to have heard.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Joel Kojo is on it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Navbahor, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Navbahor would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Navbahor will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
Saidazamat Mirsaidov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Joel Kojo has come out of that comparison in the side, and Navbahor have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Nobody at Navbahor will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Navbahor, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Navbahor has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
A call-up flatters the player and the club that produced him in the same breath. Navbahor would like him back in one piece and know they will not be consulted.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Navbahor hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Saidazamat Mirsaidov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I did not go to Metallurg to sit and watch. I want to come back to Navbahor and fight for my place.” 12 appearances in 38 matches say the rest.
Squad1 Nov 2027
5 new faces, and Navbahor are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Nobody at Navbahor will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
28 appearances at Lokomotiv and the goals have stopped going in. Navbahor lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Navbahor would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Husain Norchayev and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Navbahor told Anri Chichinadze something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Nobody at Navbahor will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
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 Islombek Mamatkazin has written the date down.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Navbahor can pretend not to have heard.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 58 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Navbahor know it.
Alex Fernandes 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.
200 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.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Navbahor pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Navbahor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Islombek Mamatkazin and Navbahor agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Navbahor know it.
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Navbahor will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Navbahor has been clear about where Giorgi Jgerenaia stands, which is more than many ever get.
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 Diyor Xolmatov is on it.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Pakhtakor in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Jasurbek Jaloliddinov is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
“Three loans in three years. At some point a club has to decide if I am their player or their asset.” The spell at Andijon continues; the message travels home.
7 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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Navbahor, and 11 appearances in 34 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout4 Oct 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Otabek Nematov kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Navbahor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Hamidullo Abdunabiyev will call it something else in private.
Successful dribbles: 15. 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.
Nobody at Navbahor will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Navbahor told Benjamin Teidi something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
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 Otabek Nematov to a room that had heard them before.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Joel Kojo is on it.
7 clean sheets from 26 appearances at Lokomotiv. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
Bunyodkor go through and Navbahor go home, 2‑3 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
A brace, and Stipe Perica takes the afternoon — 8.41
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Stipe Perica provided it, and the 8.41 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Hamidullo Abdunabiyev and Navbahor agree another 4 years.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Otabek Nematov after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Nobody at Navbahor will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 11 arrived, 21 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Everything agreed with another club, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
“I watch every Navbahor game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Metallurg runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
6 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.
Nobody at Navbahor will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
95 minutes played. Husain Norchayev found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Lokomotiv went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Navbahor have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Alex Fernandes and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Husain Norchayev was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Navbahor pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑1, Otabek Nematov could afford to be generous.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Joel Kojo is on it.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Navbahor are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Navbahor, and it is not being withdrawn.
The shape has not worked since the summer and the reason was never a mystery. Sahob Rashidov comes in from Sogdiana to be the missing piece, which is a flattering description and a heavy one.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Navbahor will quote 14 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Nobody at Navbahor will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Navbahor are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Neftchi moved on, Valijon Rahimov reports back to Navbahor, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Navbahor know it.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Neftchi have kept their man, and Navbahor go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
Asilbek Jumayev 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Neftchi waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Navbahor is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Navbahor can pretend not to have heard.
Position 1 with 43 on the board, and the queues outside the ticket office are the part of a promotion push that never shows up in a table. The town has decided this one is real.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Valijon Rahimov has agreed terms with Lokomotiv for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Navbahor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Navbahor have paid $230.0K for Stipe Perica, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Lokomotiv have kept their man, and Navbahor go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Marked 8.27 — 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.
Navbahor have made the call to Lokomotiv. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Otabek Nematov on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Navbahor know which stage they are at.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Navbahor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Rapid Wien have kept their man, and Navbahor go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Level with 86 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Navbahor had all but put away. Metallurg will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Otabek Nematov after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Successful dribbles: 27. 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Mashal have kept their man, and Navbahor go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Saidazamat Mirsaidov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The first defeat in 6 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Mashal; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Navbahor, and 7 appearances in 22 say he has earned the hearing.
In brief
The dugoutThe view from the dugout
The dugoutJoel Kojo has become a man the manager trusts
6 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Navbahor, and it is not being withdrawn.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Abbos G'ulomov was one of the reasons people came, and $740.0K does not replace that by itself.
Husain Norchayev 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.
Navbahor offered $170.0K; Pakhtakor said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Shortan had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
5 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Ruslanbek Jiyanov was one of the reasons people came, and $4.7M does not replace that by itself.
Successful dribbles: 26. 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Lokomotiv Moscow have kept their man, and Navbahor go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
He is 22 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.
In brief
BoardroomWages swallow 101% of the Navbahor income
The offer from Nasaf for Benjamin Teidi was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Navbahor have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Navbahor, and it is not being withdrawn.
Marked 9.78 — 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.
The name of Abbos G'ulomov has come up in conversations Navbahor were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Vojvodina had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Navbahor people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Navbahor can pretend not to have heard.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Zabihillo O'rinboyev was one of the reasons people came, and $390.0K does not replace that by itself.
Saidazamat Mirsaidov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Navbahor people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Navbahor, and it is not being withdrawn.
The phone has started ringing about Ruslanbek Jiyanov again, and this time the name on the line is Vojvodina. Navbahor are listening politely and promising nothing.
Successful dribbles: 24. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Navbahor know it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Navbahor they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Joyce Katulondi has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Husain Norchayev was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Otabek Nematov after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Navbahor is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Sherzod G'ulomjonov has agreed terms with Nasaf for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Navbahor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
6 goals in one match, Alex Fernandes on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Navbahor and Kokand 1912.
Benjamin Teidi 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Otabek Nematov after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Nobody at Navbahor will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Navbahor can pretend not to have heard.
“I watch every Navbahor game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Metallurg runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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 dugout10 May 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Otabek Nematov chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Successful dribbles: 36. 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.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Navbahor, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Islombek Mamatkazin will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Navbahor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
The dugout3 May 2027
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.” Otabek Nematov, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Husain Norchayev will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Navbahor escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Husain Norchayev provided it, and the 8.84 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Mahmudu Bajo and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 2‑2, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
95 minutes played. Husain Norchayev found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Sogdiana went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
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.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.22, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Otabek Nematov kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Husain Norchayev was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Navbahor, and 1 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
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 Dilshodjon Komilov is on it.
“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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Navbahor can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Navbahor they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Husain Norchayev 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.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Navbahor are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Marked 8.05 — 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.
Marked 8.03 — 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Navbahor can pretend not to have heard.
Benjamin Teidi 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.
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 Saidazamat Mirsaidov is on it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Navbahor, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Zabihillo O'rinboyev’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Navbahor needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Navbahor know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Navbahor, and 3 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
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 Benjamin Teidi is on it.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Otabek Nematov was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Navbahor dressing room was either.
A window away with the national side, and a shirt at Navbahor that briefly doubles as an advertisement. A call-up flatters the player and the club that built him in the same breath.
Joel Kojo wins it after the whistle should have gone
93 minutes played. Joel Kojo found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Shortan went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Navbahor, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Otabek Nematov kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Navbahor have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Navbahor they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Navbahor can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
3 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Ruslanbek Jiyanov had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Navbahor know it.
Every long career reaches the week the last one is thought about. He would like it to be where he started, and Navbahor know now that the thought has arrived.
Mahmudu Bajo 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.
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Ruslanbek Jiyanov has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Navbahor.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Words at Navbahor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Shohruhbek Abdurahmonov is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Every 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 Saidazamat Mirsaidov is on it.
Position 3, 18 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Navbahor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at Navbahor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Shohruhbek Abdurahmonov 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.
5 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.
In brief
The dugoutBenjamin Teidi has become a man the manager trusts
The dugoutBenjamin Teidi asks for a word with the manager
Husain Norchayev was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Joel Kojo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Zabihillo O'rinboyev is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Saidazamat Mirsaidov signs something — a contract at Navbahor or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Islombek Mamatkazin will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Navbahor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Navbahor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at Navbahor will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Navbahor has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
His past walked in ahead of him. Players who have been where he has been get a hearing in a dressing room before they have earned one, and he has it for as long as his form does.
Navbahor spent the window trying to move Ruslanbek Jiyanov on and nobody came. He trains with a squad that has already told him he is not part of it, and both sides now wait for the next one.
The words a physio says slowly. 36 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.
“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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Kokand 1912 waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Navbahor is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Navbahor close the window on a squad of their own making
2 in and 4 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
The offer from Obod for Islombek Mamatkazin was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Cortulua keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Shortan moved on, Shoxmalik Komilov reports back to Navbahor, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Benjamin Teidi 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.
43 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Navbahor lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Zabihillo O'rinboyev had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Obod waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Navbahor is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Neftchi keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Navbahor is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The words a physio says slowly. 50 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.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Andijon had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The offer from Foolad for Husain Norchayev 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Qizilqum waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Navbahor is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The clubs have shaken hands with AGMK; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Navbahor asked and Sogdiana said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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 words a physio says slowly. 57 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 last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Navbahor have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The offer from Levadiakos for Ruslanbek Jiyanov 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Navbahor can pretend not to have heard.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Muslimbek Habibullayev is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Navbahor have made the call to Crvena Zvezda. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
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 Dilshodjon Komilov is on it.
The words a physio says slowly. 16 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 offer from Pakhtakor for Zabihillo O'rinboyev was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The name of Ruslanbek Jiyanov has come up in conversations Navbahor were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Navbahor will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Qizilqum will make the call about Asadbek Rahimjonov this week. Navbahor have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
The words a physio says slowly. 24 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.
Position 3, 18 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Navbahor they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Navbahor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Nobody at Navbahor will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Navbahor, and both men came out saying it was fine.
31 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Navbahor lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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 Zabihillo O'rinboyev is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Saidazamat Mirsaidov signs something — a contract at Navbahor or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Zabihillo O'rinboyev’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
39 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Navbahor lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Nobody at Navbahor will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Navbahor, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Navbahor. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Muhammadali Usmonov and Navbahor agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Anri Chichinadze is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Nobody at Navbahor will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
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 Quvondiq Ro'ziyev has written the date down.
A new face in his position, and Valijon Rahimov suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. Navbahor have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Navbahor can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Navbahor they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Navbahor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Navbahor know it.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Nobody at Navbahor will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Navbahor, and both men came out saying it was fine.
This is the season the town will measure the next twenty against. The trophy travels home with the squad, and the route through the streets was agreed days ago.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Zabihillo O'rinboyev obliged against Pakhtakor. 1‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Navbahor.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Navbahor have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Giorgi Jgerenaia.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Navbahor have had the benefit of it.
Husain Norchayev and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Joel Kojo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Benjamin Teidi has written the date down.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Navbahor is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
10 shut-outs in 11 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Shukron Yo'ldoshev has been having a lot of them.
Nobody at Navbahor will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
A call-up flatters the player and the club that produced him in the same breath. Navbahor would like him back in one piece and know they will not be consulted.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Navbahor can pretend not to have heard.
Position 3, 18 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Shoxmalik Komilov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Navbahor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Zabihillo O'rinboyev has come out of that comparison in the side, and Navbahor have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
9 shut-outs in 10 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Shukron Yo'ldoshev has been having a lot of them.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Navbahor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 O'tkir Yusupov is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Saidazamat Mirsaidov signs something — a contract at Navbahor or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Navbahor have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Otabek Nematov after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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 Dilshodjon Komilov is on it.
8 appearances at Siah Jamegan and the goals have stopped going in. Navbahor lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Muhammadali Usmonov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Navbahor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Dilshodjon Komilov and Navbahor agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Navbahor will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
17 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.
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 Saidazamat Mirsaidov is on it.
Somebody watched every match in the division at the weekend and decided he was the best thing in any of them. A small honour, and most careers end without one.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Isroiljon Tursunboyev has his answer from Navbahor; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Navbahor, and it is not being withdrawn.
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Navbahor they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Saidazamat Mirsaidov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Navbahor know it.
Husain Norchayev was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
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.
A mark of 7.82, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Otabek Nematov kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Joel Kojo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 13 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
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.
Successful dribbles: 29. 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.
Husain Norchayev 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.
Marked 8.00 — 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.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Otabek Nematov kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Ruslanbek Jiyanov may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Nobody at Navbahor will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.