Marked for Jhow
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Jul 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 24 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market19 Jul 2027
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Alashkert have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market19 Jul 2027
“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 The request is on a desk at Alashkert, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market19 Jul 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Mômô Fanyé Touré and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Arsen Sadoyan 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.
Squad19 Jul 2027
“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 Alashkert know it.
The dugout19 Jul 2027
Alex Santana is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
The dugout19 Jul 2027
No hiding place for Jhow
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jhow, and the manager let it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match3 Jul 2027
No end in sight to Alashkert's wait for a win
11 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Alashkert has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings5 Jul 2027
Successful dribbles: 33. 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.
Market5 Jul 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Match3 Jul 2027
The goals have deserted Alashkert
5 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Alashkert can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Mômô Fanyé Touré 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.
Market5 Jul 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Alashkert have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad5 Jul 2027
A row about effort at Alashkert
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Daniel Aghbalyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Home is on Jhow's mind
“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; Alashkert are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The dugout5 Jul 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings31 May 2027
Successful dribbles: 52. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad31 May 2027
Olawale Farayola damages knee ligaments — 41 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 41 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Market31 May 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
The dugout31 May 2027
Silvano keeps the receipts
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Alashkert may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match29 May 2027
No end in sight to Alashkert's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Alashkert has to find a result from somewhere.
Match29 May 2027
Alashkert cannot find the net
5 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad31 May 2027
Words exchanged at Alashkert
Mômô Fanyé Touré 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.
Match29 May 2027
0‑2 to Pyunik, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad31 May 2027
A row about effort at Alashkert
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Arsen Sadoyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
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Boardroom
103% of the income goes out in wages at Alashkert
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
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The dugout
No hiding place for Jhow
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad22 Mar 2027
Olawale Farayola damages knee ligaments — 115 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 115 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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Alashkert will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
Alex Santana: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Alashkert have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
Alex Santana goes up and wins it — 7.65
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 7.65 for the rest of it.
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 23. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad22 Mar 2027
“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; Alashkert are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Silvano 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.
Match20 Mar 2027
1‑2 to Pyunik, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad11 Jan 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Serob Grigoryan
121 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Alashkert lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
The deal with Corinthians is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Squad11 Jan 2027
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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Mômô Fanyé Touré 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 Jan 2027
The decline has begun for Alef
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 33 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Alashkert is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
Alashkert have made the call to Dinamo Tbilisi. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
Edgar Piloyan gets picked when it counts
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 Edgar Piloyan is on it.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
David Nduka knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and David Nduka trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Alashkert. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.