The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Pakhtakor is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hojiakbar Alijonov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match14 Apr 2029
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for Pakhtakor. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Pakhtakor know it.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Sardor Ismailov provided it, and the 8.52 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings9 Apr 2029
Ulugbek Fayzullaev could not have asked for more on his first appearance — 7.24
Debuts are survived rather than enjoyed. This one was enjoyed: 7.24, 0 goals, and a manager already being asked whether he starts again next week.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Sherzod Nasrullayev and Pakhtakor agree another 3 years.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pakhtakor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad9 Apr 2029
Words at Pakhtakor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hojiakbar Alijonov 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.
He is 16 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Pakhtakor have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Sherzod Nasrullayev and Pakhtakor agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad2 Apr 2029
Words at Pakhtakor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ibrohim Ibragimov 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pakhtakor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Pakhtakor has been clear about where Muhammadali G'iyosov stands, which is more than many ever get.
The award is a small thing with a heavy meaning: for four weeks nobody in this division did his job better. Pakhtakor have the trophy on a shelf and the player in the side.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Pakhtakor know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Successful dribbles: 32. 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.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.06 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
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.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
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.
Qizilqum will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Humoyunshoh Sayyotov has pre-agreed a move to Pakhtakor, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Javohir Husanov 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 kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Abdurauf Bo'riev provided it, and the 8.03 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 Pakhtakor they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
Eldorbek Suyunov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad19 Mar 2029
Words at Pakhtakor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hojiakbar Alijonov is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I watch every Pakhtakor game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Sogdiana runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pakhtakor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ibrohim Ibragimov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
3 goals inside twenty minutes with Rustam Turdimurodov in the middle of it, and Obod unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Pakhtakor moved before anybody else could: a new deal for Mirzo Ismailov, agreed quietly and announced loudly. Boards extend managers for many reasons; the good one is the one this looks like.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Miloš Soprenić is a Pakhtakor player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
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.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Ognjen Ristić has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Pakhtakor have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Abdulla Ismailov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Position 2, 58 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.
Eldorbek Suyunov 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 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.
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 Muhammadali G'iyosov is on it.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Pakhtakor will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
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 Eldorbek Suyunov has written the date down.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Pakhtakor is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Eldorbek Suyunov 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 version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Nikoloz Abuladze is living that version at Pakhtakor, and it tends to show in the first month.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ibrohim Ibragimov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Ibrohim Ibragimov is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Abdurauf Bo'riev signs something — a contract at Pakhtakor or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Pakhtakor. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Javohir Husanov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Feb 2029
5 new faces, and Pakhtakor 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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Sherzod Nasrullayev is on it.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
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.
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 Sherzodbek Abduraimov has written the date down.
The competition arrived without a word said to him about it. Sardor Sobirxo'jaev keeps the shirt for now, at Pakhtakor's convenience rather than his own.
Pakhtakor spent a month trying to move him and nobody rang back. He trains with a squad that has told him where he stands, and both sides start counting down to the next one.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Pakhtakor people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Ahmadullo Muqumjonov had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Pakhtakor, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom5 Feb 2029
Pakhtakor close the window on a squad of their own making
0 in and 7 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 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Andijon have kept their man, and Pakhtakor 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 Pakhtakor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Pakhtakor people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Pakhtakor they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Eldorbek Suyunov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad29 Jan 2029
Words at Pakhtakor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ibrohim Ibragimov is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Qizilqum will make the call about Muhammadali G'iyosov this week. Pakhtakor have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Pakhtakor people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Pakhtakor, and it is not being withdrawn.
Eldorbek Suyunov 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.
Pakhtakor have made the call to Qizilqum. 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Saidumarxon Saidnurullayev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Abdurauf Bo'riev signs something — a contract at Pakhtakor or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Pakhtakor. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Pakhtakor that is a harder question to answer.
In brief
BoardroomThe Pakhtakor production line keeps running
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Obod waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Pakhtakor is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Dilshod Abdullayev has gone, the accounts have $500.0K in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Rustam Turdimurodov and Pakhtakor agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Abdurauf Bo'riev 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 paid $500.0K and Pakhtakor took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Words at Pakhtakor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ibrohim Ibragimov 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.
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Zaid Tahseen's mistake
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Mashal waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Pakhtakor is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The name of Nurjahon Muzaffarov has come up in conversations Pakhtakor were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ibrohim Ibragimov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Pakhtakor, and both men came out saying it was fine.
In brief
BoardroomOpen for business: Pakhtakor enter the window
Position 2, 58 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Pakhtakor can pretend not to have heard.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Pakhtakor had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Eldorbek Suyunov 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.
Squad1 Jan 2029
Words at Pakhtakor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zaid Tahseen 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.
Something was said to Aziz Turg'unboyev and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Pakhtakor, and both men came out saying it was fine.
17 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Pakhtakor lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Pakhtakor is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ibrohim Ibragimov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Javohir Husanov 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.
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.
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 Ibrohim Ibragimov is on it.
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.
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.
8 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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Sherzod Nasrullayev is on it.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
A 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 Muhammadali G'iyosov has written the date down.
31 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Pakhtakor lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ibrohim Ibragimov and Pakhtakor agree another 4 years.
Eldorbek Suyunov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad11 Dec 2028
Words at Pakhtakor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zaid Tahseen is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Pakhtakor has been clear about where Behruzbek Asqarov 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 Hojiakbar Alijonov 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 Pakhtakor, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Pakhtakor, another week without a signature from Nuriddin Nuriddinov.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Pakhtakor know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
39 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Pakhtakor lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Javohir Husanov has just signed for Pakhtakor, and for once the answer mattered.
Eldorbek Suyunov 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.
29 appearances and 3 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Muhammadali G'iyosov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Pakhtakor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Ibrohim Ibragimov is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Muhammadqodir Hamroaliyev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Pakhtakor. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Pakhtakor the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
Qualification is done, and next season the floodlights come on for something bigger. A stage for the players, oxygen for the accounts and a passport for everybody else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pakhtakor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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.
Squad20 Nov 2028
Words at Pakhtakor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zaid Tahseen 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 Sherzod Nasrullayev is on it.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Akmal Mozgovoy signs something — a contract at Pakhtakor or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Lazar Balević’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Pakhtakor have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Rustam Turdimurodov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 4 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Pakhtakor know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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 Eldorbek Suyunov has written the date down.
A call-up flatters the player and the club that produced him in the same breath. Pakhtakor would like him back in one piece and know they will not be consulted.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pakhtakor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aziz Turg'unboyev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ibrohim Ibragimov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Pakhtakor they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Eldorbek Suyunov 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 pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Rustam Turdimurodov, and the manager let it.
Squad30 Oct 2028
Zaid Tahseen falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
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 Pakhtakor will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pakhtakor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 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 dugout23 Oct 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Zaid Tahseen's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Akmal Mozgovoy signs something — a contract at Pakhtakor or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Sharpest man there all week, by every account. It is the quietest line on this page and it usually runs the week before somebody’s run in the side begins.
Lazar Balević and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad16 Oct 2028
Words at Pakhtakor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aziz Turg'unboyev is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Nobody at Pakhtakor will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Pakhtakor, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Pakhtakor know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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 Sherzodbek Abduraimov has written the date down.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Pakhtakor have no good answer.
Position 2 on 58 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
Position 2, 58 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Aziz Turg'unboyev and Pakhtakor agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Lazar Balević 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 chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
“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.
Squad9 Oct 2028
Words at Pakhtakor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zaid Tahseen 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.
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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Pakhtakor is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Aziz Turg'unboyev and Pakhtakor agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aziz Turg'unboyev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
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.
Rustam Turdimurodov 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 oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Nurjahon Muzaffarov and Pakhtakor agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
The dugout25 Sep 2028
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Mirzo Ismailov left the room before anybody could ask which.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
In brief
The dugoutZaid Tahseen is still being punished for one mistake
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Pakhtakor, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Rustam Turdimurodov 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ibrohim Ibragimov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
9 combined actions and 7.65. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Sherzodbek Abduraimov will call it something else in private.
Eldorbek Suyunov 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.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Words at Pakhtakor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aziz Turg'unboyev is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Nobody at Pakhtakor will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Sogdiana next, and one man in the Pakhtakor dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Abdurauf Bo'riev signs something — a contract at Pakhtakor or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
The dugoutAziz Hasanov asks for a word with the manager
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Muhammadali G'iyosov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Pakhtakor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom4 Sep 2028
Pakhtakor close the window on a squad of their own making
14 in and 16 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 easiest signature of my career.” Sherzodbek Abduraimov and Pakhtakor agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Eldorbek Suyunov 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 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.
A brace, and Bashar Resan takes the afternoon — 8.83
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Bashar Resan provided it, and the 8.83 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Shahzod Azmiddinov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Pakhtakor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Lazar Balević and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Words at Pakhtakor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bashar Resan is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Nasaf tried to reorganise, Pakhtakor did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
Marked 8.28 — 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Morteza Pouraliganji will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Pakhtakor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The name of Shahzod Azmiddinov has come up in conversations Pakhtakor were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pakhtakor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Pakhtakor asked and Navbahor said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
Boardroom21 Aug 2028
Nobody left the Pakhtakor dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Position 2, 49 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.
Eldorbek Suyunov 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.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Words at Pakhtakor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bashar Resan is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Metallurg spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Pakhtakor pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pakhtakor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Bashar Resan falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Pakhtakor asked and Púchov said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Lazar Balević is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
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.
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 Hojiakbar Alijonov 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 Pakhtakor can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Pakhtakor they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Abdurauf Bo'riev was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“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, terms agreed, medical booked. Morteza Pouraliganji will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Pakhtakor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The name of Shahzod Azmiddinov has come up in conversations Pakhtakor were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pakhtakor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Bashar Resan falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Pakhtakor asked and Bilje said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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 Pakhtakor will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
Position 2, 41 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Pakhtakor is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Eldorbek Suyunov 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.
Add another name to the list: Obod have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Morteza Pouraliganji. The answer from Pakhtakor has not changed — yet.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Words at Pakhtakor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bashar Resan is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
8.47. 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.
A defender's mistake gets tidied up by somebody else; a goalkeeper's ends up in the net. He knew before the ball crossed the line, and so did everybody in the ground.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Pakhtakor have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Lazar Balević 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 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.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout10 Jul 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 Mirzo Ismailov to a room that had heard them before.
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.
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 offer from Obod for Morteza Pouraliganji 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 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 Pakhtakor hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
The name of Muhammadali G'iyosov has come up in conversations Pakhtakor were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bashar Resan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Three points for Pakhtakor, 1‑0 the final word against Obod in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings3 Jul 2028
Akmal Mozgovoy was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.30. 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Pakhtakor can pretend not to have heard.
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 Pakhtakor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ibrohim Ibragimov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Obod waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Pakhtakor is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Pakhtakor is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The offer from Irtysh for Muhammadqodir Hamroaliyev 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.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Abdurauf Bo'riev scored, was marked 7.13, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Everything agreed with Cukaricki, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Shahzod Azmiddinov has agreed terms with Navbahor 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 Pakhtakor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bashar Resan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Vojvodina have kept their man, and Pakhtakor go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Pakhtakor will quote 14 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Navbahor next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Saidumarxon Saidnurullayev provided it, and the 8.89 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bashar Resan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Neftchi have kept their man, and Pakhtakor go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Saidumarxon Saidnurullayev. 2‑1 against Bukhara, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Neftchi next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
In brief
SquadA muscle injury sidelines Sardor Mirzaev for 14 days
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Rustam Turdimurodov provided it, and the 8.73 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pakhtakor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match27 May 2028
Another one collected away from home
4 on the bounce on the road for Pakhtakor. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Squad29 May 2028
Words at Pakhtakor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aziz Turg'unboyev is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Pakhtakor has been clear about where Hojimat Erkinov stands, which is more than many ever get.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
15 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
27 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Squad22 May 2028
Bashar Resan falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Successful dribbles: 19. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Pakhtakor know it.
Ahmadullo Muqumjonov 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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Abdurauf Bo'riev provided it, and the 8.14 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.
Squad15 May 2028
Words at Pakhtakor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bashar Resan is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
He is 23 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.
Match13 May 2028
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for Pakhtakor. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
14 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Pakhtakor can pretend not to have heard.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.66 for the rest of it.
Rustam Turdimurodov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad8 May 2028
Words at Pakhtakor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aziz Turg'unboyev 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 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.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Abdurauf Bo'riev scored, was marked 7.83, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Sherzod Nasrullayev 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.
Squad1 May 2028
Words at Pakhtakor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bashar Resan is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Something was said to Aziz Turg'unboyev and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
13 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
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.
Rustam Turdimurodov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Bashar Resan falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ibrohim Ibragimov. 1‑0 against Kokand 1912, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
The dugout24 Apr 2028
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.” Mirzo Ismailov, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
In brief
The dugoutBashar Resan has become a man the manager trusts
Eldorbek Suyunov 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.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Words at Pakhtakor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bashar Resan is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
8.09. 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.
Successful dribbles: 17. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“I watch every Pakhtakor 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.
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 dugout17 Apr 2028
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.” Mirzo Ismailov, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Aziz Hasanov obliged against Shortan. 3‑2 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Pakhtakor.
Going 2 down does something to a side, and what it usually does is finish them. Not here. Pakhtakor rebuilt the afternoon goal by goal, and Shortan had no answer to any of it.
Player ratings10 Apr 2028
Aziz Hasanov, 16, plays like he has been here for years — 9.47
A mark of 9.47 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 16-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
12 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Pakhtakor have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Eldorbek Suyunov is a Pakhtakor player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Pakhtakor did not have in the autumn.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Words at Pakhtakor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bashar Resan is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Shahzod Azmiddinov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Rustam Turdimurodov has his answer from Pakhtakor; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The award is a small thing with a heavy meaning: for four weeks nobody in this division did his job better. Pakhtakor have the trophy on a shelf and the player in the side.
“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.
Rustam Turdimurodov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Bashar Resan falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
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.
Nobody at Pakhtakor will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Sherzodbek Abduraimov’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Pakhtakor needing him to play as if none of it matters.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Pakhtakor, and it is not being withdrawn.
10 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pakhtakor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Words at Pakhtakor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bashar Resan is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Pakhtakor can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
In brief
Player ratingsIbrohim Ibragimov was on a different afternoon to everybody else
Hojiakbar Alijonov 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.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Words at Pakhtakor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bashar Resan is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Islom Tukhtasinov and Pakhtakor agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
“I watch every Pakhtakor 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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑0, Mirzo Ismailov 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 Hojiakbar Alijonov is on it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Pakhtakor have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Two goals and a mark of 8.22 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The board have signed the man in the dugout to a longer contract, which says more than any statement of support. Stability is easy to promise and costly to keep.
Rustam Turdimurodov 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.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Pakhtakor and Bunyodkor in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Bashar Resan. 4‑2 against Bunyodkor, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Boardroom6 Mar 2028
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Pakhtakor
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.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Bashar Resan falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bashar Resan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
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 Bashar Resan is on it.
Position 2, 65 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bashar Resan 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 Pakhtakor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
13 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 Pakhtakor, and 0 appearances in 6 say he has earned the hearing.
Nobody at Pakhtakor will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
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 Rustam Turdimurodov has written the date down.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bashar Resan 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 Pakhtakor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 Pakhtakor, and 0 appearances in 5 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 Hojiakbar Alijonov is on it.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Pakhtakor know which stage they are at.
A season-long audition: Bukhara still own him, but the shirt and the minutes are Pakhtakor's to give. A loan is a bet both clubs believe they are winning.
A new face in his position and a shirt he thought he owned suddenly up for discussion. Pakhtakor have promised nothing, which is what clubs promise at this stage.
Pakhtakor opened the door and nobody walked through it. So Shahzod Azmiddinov stays — listed, trained, and available — while both sides mark the days to January on the same calendar.
BoardroomThe Pakhtakor production line keeps running
BoardroomThe Pakhtakor board put their names to it
80Edition
The Pakhtakor Sentinel
7 Feb 2028
From our football correspondentSteady
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Deadline passes with 6 signed and 9 gone
That is the business done at Pakhtakor 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.
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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Pakhtakor heard it as anything else.
Rustam Turdimurodov 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 Morteza Pouraliganji again, and this time the name on the line is Obod. Pakhtakor are listening politely and promising nothing.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bashar Resan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Sherzod Nasrullayev is on it.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Vanja Ilić has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Pakhtakor, and it is not being withdrawn.
Vladimir Nazarov 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.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Words at Pakhtakor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bashar Resan is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Pakhtakor asked and Nasaf 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Rustam Turdimurodov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Pakhtakor know which stage they are at.
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.
Position 2, 65 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.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Pakhtakor, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pakhtakor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aziz Turg'unboyev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad24 Jan 2028
10 new faces, and Pakhtakor 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Rustam Turdimurodov 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 Ibrohim Ibragimov is on it.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Pakhtakor know which stage they are at.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Bukhara waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Pakhtakor is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The offer from Navbahor for Shahzod Azmiddinov 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.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Pakhtakor, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pakhtakor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nasaf paid $360.0K and Pakhtakor took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bashar Resan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Pakhtakor will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Pakhtakor know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Pakhtakor people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
The 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 phone has started ringing about Morteza Pouraliganji again, and this time the name on the line is Obod. Pakhtakor are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Words at Pakhtakor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bashar Resan is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Pakhtakor know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Pakhtakor, and it is not being withdrawn.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Pakhtakor had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
The name of Dilshod Saitov has come up in conversations Pakhtakor were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
23 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sogdiana have kept their man, and Pakhtakor go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zaid Tahseen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 19 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Oybek Bozorov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Pakhtakor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Bashar Resan falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pakhtakor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
9 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Pakhtakor will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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.
Vladimir Nazarov 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bashar Resan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Something was said to Muhammadqodir Hamroaliyev and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 34 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Pakhtakor they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Vladimir Nazarov 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Zaid Tahseen falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Abdurauf Bo'riev signs something — a contract at Pakhtakor or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Pakhtakor will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Muhammadrasul Abdumajidov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Pakhtakor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Hojiakbar Alijonov 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.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Bashar Resan falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Ibrohim Ibragimov is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Pakhtakor told Sherzod Nasrullayev something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Nobody at Pakhtakor will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Rustam Turdimurodov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 50 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Oybek Bozorov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Pakhtakor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Words at Pakhtakor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bashar Resan is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
16 games, 2 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at Pakhtakor now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
13 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.
Edmond Engibaryan 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.
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 Oybek Bozorov is on it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Pakhtakor will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Qualification is secured, and next season the big floodlit nights are continental ones. For the players it is a stage; for the accounts it is a lifeline; for the supporters it is passports.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Pakhtakor will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Vladimir Nazarov 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 one award nobody else on the pitch can win goes to Vladimir Nazarov, on 13 clean sheets across the season. Keepers wait a career for a season like 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 64 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Qualification is done, and next season the floodlights come on for something bigger. A stage for the players, oxygen for the accounts and a passport for everybody else.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Davron To'laganov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Pakhtakor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Ahmadullo Muqumjonov has, at Pakhtakor, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
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.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Hojimat Erkinov has his answer from Pakhtakor; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Nobody at Pakhtakor will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 72 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
With 7 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like one.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Words at Pakhtakor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zaid Tahseen 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.
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 Muhammadqodir Hamroaliyev signs something — a contract at Pakhtakor or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Hojimat Erkinov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Pakhtakor will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Oybek Bozorov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Pakhtakor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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 Pakhtakor hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pakhtakor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Pakhtakor told Dostonbek Hamdamov something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Oybek Bozorov is on it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 87 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Vladimir Nazarov 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.
Squad25 Oct 2027
5 new faces, and Pakhtakor 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.
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 Hojiakbar Alijonov is on it.
5 goals in 17 games at Sogdiana — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Pakhtakor updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Pakhtakor will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Position 2 on 65 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Davron To'laganov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Pakhtakor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Vladimir Nazarov 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.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Words at Pakhtakor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zaid Tahseen is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Every club 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.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Bashar Resan will call it something else in private.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Sherzod Nasrullayev is on it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 104 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Navbahor next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Zaid Tahseen falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Pakhtakor, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Pakhtakor 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.” Pakhtakor have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pakhtakor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Akmal Mozgovoy. 3‑1 against Neftchi, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
6 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.
Neftchi next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Words at Pakhtakor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zaid Tahseen 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 were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Mirzo Ismailov after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer 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 is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Pakhtakor told Abdulvohid G'ulomov something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Pakhtakor will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
1 for Dilshod Saitov, marked 7.95, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Neftchi is saying, and nobody at Pakhtakor is enjoying the guessing.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Davron To'laganov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Pakhtakor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Davron To'laganov is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Abdurauf Bo'riev. 3‑1 against Sogdiana, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“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.
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
Akmal Mozgovoy was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.25. 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.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Abdurauf Bo'riev at his very best
Boardroom86% of the income goes out in wages at Pakhtakor
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 23 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pakhtakor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Lokomotiv have kept their man, and Pakhtakor go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
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 Bashar Resan is on it.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Pakhtakor, another week without a signature from Muhammadrasul Abdumajidov.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 31 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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.
Position 2, 57 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Pakhtakor is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
199 appearances across 11 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 7 arrived, 16 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Lokomotiv keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Pakhtakor will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Pakhtakor, and it is not being withdrawn.
Vladimir Nazarov 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.
A season average of 7.26 with 14 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Words at Pakhtakor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Flamarion 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.
Add another name to the list: Metallurg have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Muhammadali G'iyosov. The answer from Pakhtakor has not changed — yet.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Flamarion. 1‑0 against Nasaf, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
In brief
Player ratingsFlamarion was on a different afternoon to everybody else
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Pakhtakor will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Neftchi is saying, and nobody at Pakhtakor is enjoying the guessing.
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 Flamarion.
Boardroom23 Aug 2027
Nobody left the Pakhtakor dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Bilolxon Toshmirzayev 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Pakhtakor will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Metallurg waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Pakhtakor 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: Andijon keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Edmond Engibaryan is living that version at Pakhtakor, and it tends to show in the first month.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Flamarion was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Pakhtakor will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Muhammadqodir Hamroaliyev had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Pakhtakor can pretend not to have heard.
Position 2, 51 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 Pakhtakor they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Pakhtakor and Neftchi have settled on $160.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Lokomotiv keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
The phone has started ringing about Dostonbek Hamdamov again, and this time the name on the line is Obod. Pakhtakor are listening politely and promising nothing.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Oybek Bozorov has agreed terms with Navbahor for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Pakhtakor will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Qizilqum had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Flamarion provided it, and the 8.81 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Pakhtakor and Andijon have settled on $240.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
The name of Muhammadqodir Hamroaliyev has come up in conversations Pakhtakor were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“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 Pakhtakor hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
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.
Pakhtakor offered $600.0K; Lokomotiv 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 77 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The offer from Obod for Dostonbek Hamdamov 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.
Pakhtakor have gone to Lokomotiv 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.
Pakhtakor asked and Neftchi said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Words at Pakhtakor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Flamarion 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.
Muhammadqodir Hamroaliyev 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.
8.07. 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 84 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Pakhtakor have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The offer from Irtysh for Muhammadrasul Abdumajidov 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Neftchi is saying, and nobody at Pakhtakor is enjoying the guessing.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Flamarion was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 92 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Metallurg had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The name of Dostonbek Hamdamov has come up in conversations Pakhtakor were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Dilshod Abdullayev 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pakhtakor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Pakhtakor will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about 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 Pakhtakor can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Flamarion was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 13 actions, 7.13, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Marked 8.56 — 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Pakhtakor will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Pakhtakor can pretend not to have heard.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Pakhtakor have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Bunyodkor keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Pakhtakor asked and Neftchi said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Words at Pakhtakor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Flamarion 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.
Muhammadqodir Hamroaliyev 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 know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Qizilqum had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Neftchi is saying, and nobody at Pakhtakor is enjoying the guessing.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Pakhtakor is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
$600.0K on the table at Lokomotiv. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
At 20 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Muhammadali G'iyosov. 2‑1 against Navbahor, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Pakhtakor people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The name of Dostonbek Hamdamov has come up in conversations Pakhtakor were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The offer went to Neftchi this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Flamarion falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
With 7 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like one.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Pakhtakor people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Two goals and a mark of 8.52 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Pakhtakor had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Neftchi, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $84.1K — a club that wants Joyce Katulondi enough to be asked twice.
The offer went to Navbahor this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Words at Pakhtakor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Flamarion 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.
Muhammadqodir Hamroaliyev 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 was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Pakhtakor has been clear about where Flamarion stands, which is more than many ever get.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Vladimir Nazarov 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 paperwork is done long before the player is. Joyce Katulondi has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Pakhtakor have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
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.
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout31 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.” Mirzo Ismailov chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Muhammadrasul Abdumajidov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Pakhtakor is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad24 May 2027
Flamarion falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Akmal Mozgovoy. 2‑0 against Andijon, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
A performance of 8.43 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings24 May 2027
Akmal Mozgovoy was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.31. 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Pakhtakor has been clear about where Sardor Sobirxo'jaev stands, which is more than many ever get.