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.
Position 2, 25 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Saidumarxon Saidnurullayev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Pakhtakor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
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.
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.
Marked 7.83 on 14 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Flamarion. 3‑1 against Qizilqum, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Qizilqum spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
Player ratings10 May 2027
Akmal Mozgovoy was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.34. 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.
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.
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.
100 for the club now, each one filed in somebody’s memory with a date and a scoreline. Numbers like this are what supporters argue about in twenty years.
Squad3 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: Flamarion. 2‑0 against Metallurg, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“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 Oybek Bozorov.
In brief
SquadA place in the month's best eleven for Bashar Resan
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.
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.
Marked 6.94 on 13 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Mirzo Ismailov kept it short after the 3‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
“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.
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.
1 for Akmal Mozgovoy, marked 7.85, 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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑1, Mirzo Ismailov could afford to be generous.
In brief
The dugoutBashar Resan has become a man the manager trusts
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.
Squad12 Apr 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.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 5 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Pakhtakor, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Akmal Mozgovoy provided it, and the 8.38 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
5 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
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.
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.
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.
“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.
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.
“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 3 appearances in 10 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
Aziz Hasanov is 15, and for one weekend he was the best of everybody his age in the division. Nobody should build a career on it and everybody quietly does.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Sardor Sobirxo'jaev’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.
“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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Saidumarxon Saidnurullayev provided it, and the 8.85 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
Aziz Hasanov, 15, plays like he has been here for years — 8.39
A mark of 8.39 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 15-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Saidumarxon Saidnurullayev 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. Muhammadrasul Abdumajidov is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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.
6 goals in one match, Saidumarxon Saidnurullayev on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Pakhtakor and AGMK.
A mark of 9.82 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
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.
Squad15 Mar 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.
At 21 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Mirzo Ismailov on a 5‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
1 for Abdurauf Bo'riev, marked 7.94, 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.
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.
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.
Zaid Tahseen 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.
At 15 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Sardor Ismailov has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Farhod Abdullaev is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
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.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Pakhtakor are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Oybek Bozorov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Saidumarxon Saidnurullayev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Pakhtakor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Vladimir Nazarov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad22 Feb 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.
“I watch every Pakhtakor game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Neftchi runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Flamarion signs something — a contract at Pakhtakor or anywhere else — this column belongs to 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.
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 asked and Sochi said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Pakhtakor would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
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.
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 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.
Pakhtakor asked and Spartak Kostroma said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Abdulvohid G'ulomov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
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 year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Pakhtakor would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Pakhtakor will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
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 interest is real enough to have reached print. Pakhtakor have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 2 signed and 3 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.
Squad1 Feb 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Lokomotiv Moscow have kept their man, and Pakhtakor go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Dinamo Moscow have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
A loan enquiry to Spartak Kostroma: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
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.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Dostonbek Hamdamov had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The offer from Siah Jamegan 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.
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.
Pakhtakor have made the call to Navbahor. 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 Akmal Mozgovoy trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Lokomotiv had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
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.
“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.
Neftchi have accepted the money. What Pakhtakor do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
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.
Zaid Tahseen 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 Bashar Resan is on it.
In brief
The dugoutOybek Bozorov knocks on the manager’s door
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Neftchi waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Pakhtakor is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
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.
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.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Lokomotiv will make the call about Vladimir Nazarov this week. Pakhtakor have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Squad11 Jan 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. AGMK have kept their man, and Pakhtakor go back to a list with one name crossed off 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.
In brief
The dugoutOybek Bozorov asks for a word with the manager
“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 offer from Gostaresh Foulad for Rustam Turdimurodov was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
At 19 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.
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 phone has started ringing about Dilshod Saitov again, and this time the name on the line is Bukhara. Pakhtakor are listening politely and promising nothing.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Mashal have kept their man, and Pakhtakor go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
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.
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.
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.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Pakhtakor will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
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.
Hojiakbar Alijonov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad21 Dec 2026
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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Akmal Tukhtasinov has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Dostonbek Fayzullaev has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Akmal Mirzaev is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Ulugbek Tukhtasinov has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
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.
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.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Abdurauf Bo'riev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Muhammadali G'iyosov has written the date down.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
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.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Muhammadrasul Abdumajidov is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“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.
Muhammadrasul Abdumajidov 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Navbahor go through and Pakhtakor go home, 0‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
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.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Sardor Sobirxo'jaev will call it something else in private.
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, terms agreed, medical booked. Hojimat Erkinov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Pakhtakor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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 Flamarion 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.
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.
The message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Dostonbek Hamdamov plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.
The word out of the training ground is that he has been the sharpest man there all week. It is the quietest story a paper carries and it usually runs the week before somebody's run in the side begins.
Sherzod Nasrullayev was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad9 Nov 2026
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.
With 8 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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
A 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 Shohruz Norxonov has written the date down.
“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.
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.
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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Pakhtakor told Hojiakbar Alijonov something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Flamarion has come out of that comparison in the side, and Pakhtakor have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
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.
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Shahzod Azmiddinov has moved up it.
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.
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.
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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Davron To'laganov is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad19 Oct 2026
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.
Successful dribbles: 18. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
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.
16 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.
Shahzod Azmiddinov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
7 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Pakhtakor, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
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 team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Navbahor.
“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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Navbahor in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
25 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
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 8 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.
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.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Neftchi tried to reorganise, Pakhtakor did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
Marked 8.15 — 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.
16 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.
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.
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.
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 dugout28 Sep 2026
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 0‑2 Mirzo Ismailov left the room before anybody could ask which.
Something was said to Sardor Sobirxo'jaev and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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.
24 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.
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.
7.95, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
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.
At 19 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.
Marked 8.21. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Pakhtakor.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Mirzo Ismailov kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
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.
32 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.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Saidumarxon Saidnurullayev had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
8 matches without defeat, and then Andijon. Nobody at the ground pretended it would go on forever; nobody expected it to stop here either.
Squad14 Sep 2026
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.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 40 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Taraz had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
“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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Pakhtakor close the window on a squad of their own making
14 in and 3 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 clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Gimnasia La Plata keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
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.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Shakhter had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
“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 hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Saidumarxon Saidnurullayev did not need any: 7.86, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
The offer from Irtysh 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 cover and nobody is pretending it is. $1.4M has been paid because Muhammadali G'iyosov is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
The offer went to Andijon 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.
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Muhammadali G'iyosov from Navbahor for $1.4M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
In brief
SquadWords at Pakhtakor training over how hard people work
Squad8 Pakhtakor players away with their countries
The clubs have shaken hands with Navbahor; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Hojimat Erkinov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Pakhtakor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The phone has started ringing about Flamarion again, and this time the name on the line is Omonoia. Pakhtakor are listening politely and promising nothing.
Pakhtakor asked and Andijon said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.42 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $1.4M — a club that wants Muhammadali G'iyosov enough to be asked twice.
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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
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.
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Kokand 1912 the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Pakhtakor will enjoy reviewing.
The offer from Metallurg for Hojimat Erkinov 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 had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at NK Celje, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Hojimat Erkinov 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.
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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Jasur Mirzaev has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Timur Masharipov has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Saidumarxon Saidnurullayev provided it, and the 8.84 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Shohruz Norxonov is living that version at Pakhtakor, and it tends to show in the first month.
The offer from Arouca for Flamarion 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.
Successful dribbles: 28. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Hojiakbar Alijonov and Pakhtakor agree another 4 years.
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.
Pakhtakor asked and Orenburg said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
He is 21 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.