Petros Avetisyan 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 had been thinking. Molik Khan 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.
Artur Kartashyan 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 had been thinking. Molik Khan 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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Van, and 0 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
Kadir Seven 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 Molik Khan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every Van game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Shirak runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad2 Nov 2026
5 new faces, and Van 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.
Artur Kartashyan 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 had been thinking. Molik Khan 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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Van, and 0 appearances in 11 say he has earned the hearing.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Molik Khan 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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Van, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Van this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Molik Khan 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 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.
In brief
Squad12 new faces, and Van are still learning each other
Artur Kartashyan was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Van, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Jonel Désirè 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.
Petros Avetisyan 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 Molik Khan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Van asked and Ararat-Armenia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Molik Khan 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.
Sarp Yavrucu 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 watch every Van game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Gandzasar runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Van, and both men came out saying it was fine.
That is the business done at Van 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Van this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Yusuf Mannase is living that version at Van, and it tends to show in the first month.
12 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 shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Van will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Nobody sells a season ticket on a signing like this. Every manager who has been through a bad October wants one anyway, and Van have gone and got theirs early.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Van people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Sarp Yavrucu has just signed for Van, and for once the answer mattered.
The deal with Gandzasar 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.
Artur Kartashyan 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 Molik Khan 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 Van can pretend not to have heard.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Van have done the hard part with Urartu, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Artur Kartashyan 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 now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ararat-Armenia have kept their man, and Van go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Van would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
The standards have slipped, and in a building where everybody watches everybody it has not gone unremarked. This is how a player loses a place before he loses one.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Ararat is saying, and nobody at Van is enjoying the guessing.
Artur Kartashyan 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 no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Hovhannes Haroyan 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. Mkhitar Karapetyan is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Artur Hovhannisyan is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Van this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Oleg Tyulkov has just signed for Van, and for once the answer mattered.
Add another name to the list: Gandzasar have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Sousa. The answer from Van has not changed — yet.
Squad3 Aug 2026
7 new faces, and Van 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Van, another week without a signature from Molik Khan.
In brief
The dugoutJavier Torres asks for a word with the manager