Marked for Daniel Aghbalyan
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market6 Aug 2029
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Alashkert heard it as anything else.
Squad6 Aug 2029
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.
Squad6 Aug 2029
Klaidher 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.
Transfer targets6 Aug 2029
Alashkert asked and Feyenoord said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad6 Aug 2029
“The easiest signature of my career.” Hakob Hakobyan and Alashkert agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad6 Aug 2029
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Daniel Aghbalyan is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Transfer targets6 Aug 2029
A loan enquiry to Qarabag: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets6 Aug 2029
A loan move for Niko Ivanković is in the works
Alashkert have made the call to Koper. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout6 Aug 2029
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 Olawale Farayola is on it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings21 May 2029
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.25, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Match19 May 2029
There were 86 minutes on the clock and Pyunik had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Alashkert did not stop to explain themselves.
Match19 May 2029
Alashkert cannot stop winning
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Squad21 May 2029
Defences have started doubling up on Miguel Pereira
12 goals and a season average of 7.45 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad21 May 2029
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.
Squad21 May 2029
Karen Nalbandyan 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.
Match19 May 2029
Pyunik made Alashkert work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
The dugout21 May 2029
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Player ratings21 May 2029
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.52, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad29 Jan 2029
Daniel Aghbalyan damages knee ligaments — 18 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 18 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.
Market29 Jan 2029
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Alashkert people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market29 Jan 2029
“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.
Squad29 Jan 2029
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.
Transfer targets29 Jan 2029
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.
Market29 Jan 2029
The name of Seryozha Urushanyan has come up in conversations Alashkert were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad29 Jan 2029
Words at Alashkert training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Karen Nalbandyan 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.
Squad29 Jan 2029
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Zak Baker and Alashkert agree another 3 years.
Transfer targets29 Jan 2029
Inter 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad22 Jan 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Daniel Aghbalyan
27 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.
Match22 Jan 2029
Alashkert are in among the leaders
Position 2 and 37 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Transfer targets22 Jan 2029
The clubs have shaken hands with Ararat; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Market22 Jan 2029
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Seryozha Urushanyan will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Alashkert the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market22 Jan 2029
Olawale Farayola wants to know where this is going
“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 Alashkert hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Market22 Jan 2029
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Alashkert have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad22 Jan 2029
Words exchanged at Alashkert
Karen Nalbandyan 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.
Transfer targets22 Jan 2029
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ternana have kept their man, and Alashkert go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad22 Jan 2029
Words at Alashkert training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Davit Terteryan 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad15 Jan 2029
35 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Alashkert lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market15 Jan 2029
“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.
Boardroom15 Jan 2029
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Edgar Piloyan 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.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Words at Alashkert training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Karen Nalbandyan 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.
Transfer targets15 Jan 2029
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ararat-Armenia have kept their man, and Alashkert go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Transfer targets15 Jan 2029
A loan enquiry to Ternana: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets15 Jan 2029
A loan move for Joseph Cowan is in the works
Alashkert have made the call to Grimsby Town. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout15 Jan 2029
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad8 Jan 2029
Daniel Aghbalyan damages knee ligaments — 43 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 43 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.
Market8 Jan 2029
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market8 Jan 2029
“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.
Transfer targets8 Jan 2029
Everything agreed with Ararat-Armenia, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Transfer targets8 Jan 2029
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Ararat-Armenia keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad8 Jan 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Alashkert this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad8 Jan 2029
A row about effort at Alashkert
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Karen Nalbandyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad8 Jan 2029
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Lucca Caramico commits to Alashkert for another 5 years.
Market8 Jan 2029
He is 19, and nobody at Alashkert signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad1 Jan 2029
51 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Alashkert lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad1 Jan 2029
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Alashkert will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Market1 Jan 2029
Zsolt Doktor hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Alashkert can pretend not to have heard.
Squad1 Jan 2029
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.
Squad1 Jan 2029
Davit Terteryan 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 dugout1 Jan 2029
The manager makes an example of Arsen Sadoyan
“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.
The dugout1 Jan 2029
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 dugout1 Jan 2029
Malik Odeyinka 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 Malik Odeyinka trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market1 Jan 2029
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Alashkert know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad25 Dec 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Daniel Aghbalyan
61 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.
Match25 Dec 2028
37 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Squad25 Dec 2028
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.
Squad25 Dec 2028
A row about effort at Alashkert
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Karen Nalbandyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad25 Dec 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Joseph Sabobo commits to Alashkert for another 4 years.
The dugout25 Dec 2028
The manager makes an example of Lucca Caramico
“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.
The dugout25 Dec 2028
Mômô Fanyé Touré has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Alashkert 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.
Market25 Dec 2028
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Mômô Fanyé Touré’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout25 Dec 2028
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad18 Dec 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 14 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Squad18 Dec 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Daniel Aghbalyan
68 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.
Match12 Dec 2028
Alashkert come up short in Europe
2‑3 away to the standard of Estrela da Amadora. Nobody will pretend this was a scandal; the gap is real, it is measurable, and closing it is a project rather than a team talk.
Player ratings18 Dec 2028
A brace, and Miguel Pereira takes the afternoon — 8.94
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Miguel Pereira provided it, and the 8.94 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad18 Dec 2028
Edgar Piloyan 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.
Squad18 Dec 2028
Karen Nalbandyan 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 dugout18 Dec 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Malik Odeyinka, and the manager let it.
The dugout18 Dec 2028
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 2‑3 defeat, delivered by Henrikh Movsisyan to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout18 Dec 2028
Karen Nalbandyan has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Alashkert 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad11 Dec 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Daniel Aghbalyan
76 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.
Market11 Dec 2028
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market11 Dec 2028
“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.
Squad11 Dec 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Alashkert this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Dec 2028
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Alashkert can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad11 Dec 2028
Davit Terteryan 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 dugout11 Dec 2028
“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.
The dugout11 Dec 2028
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 dugout11 Dec 2028
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Alashkert, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad4 Dec 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Daniel Aghbalyan
83 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.
Match28 Nov 2028
Alashkert come up short in Europe
2‑4 away to the standard of Sturm Graz. Nobody will pretend this was a scandal; the gap is real, it is measurable, and closing it is a project rather than a team talk.
The dugout4 Dec 2028
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad4 Dec 2028
Jack Griffin arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Jack Griffin has, at Alashkert, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Market4 Dec 2028
“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.
Squad4 Dec 2028
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.
Match28 Nov 2028
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Alashkert and Sturm Graz in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad4 Dec 2028
A row about effort at Alashkert
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Karen Nalbandyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad27 Nov 2028
Daniel Aghbalyan damages knee ligaments — 91 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 91 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.
Match27 Nov 2028
37 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Squad27 Nov 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Alashkert this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Nov 2028
A row about effort at Alashkert
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Karen Nalbandyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout27 Nov 2028
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 Mômô Fanyé Touré is on it.
The dugout27 Nov 2028
“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.
Market27 Nov 2028
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Mômô Fanyé Touré’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout27 Nov 2028
Renato Guimarães asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Squad27 Nov 2028
The training reports on João Mendes are not good
A bad Saturday is forgiven; a bad Tuesday is chosen. Standards have slipped and in a building where everybody watches everybody, it has been noticed.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad20 Nov 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Daniel Aghbalyan
99 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.
Boardroom20 Nov 2028
Qualification is done, and next season the floodlights come on for something bigger. A stage for the players, oxygen for the accounts and a passport for everybody else.
Squad20 Nov 2028
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Alashkert have had the benefit of it.
Market20 Nov 2028
“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.
Squad20 Nov 2028
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.
Squad20 Nov 2028
Words at Alashkert training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Davit Terteryan is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The dugout20 Nov 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Malik Odeyinka, and the manager let it.
The dugout20 Nov 2028
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 dugout20 Nov 2028
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad13 Nov 2028
Daniel Aghbalyan damages knee ligaments — 107 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 107 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.
Match7 Nov 2028
Alashkert do the business in Europe
1‑0. Continental football is where a club finds out what it actually is, and Alashkert came through the finding-out well against Mouscron.
Match8 Nov 2028
The small margins put Alashkert out
Out, 1‑4 to Noah, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Match7 Nov 2028
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Miguel Pereira scored in the 85th minute, Mouscron had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Alashkert took the lot.
The terraces13 Nov 2028
A cup hiding at Noah leaves Alashkert explaining themselves
1-4, and long before the end the away end had switched from encouragement to something considerably more pointed. Nobody rings a phone-in about losing narrowly.
Market13 Nov 2028
“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.
Player ratings13 Nov 2028
Successful dribbles: 25. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout13 Nov 2028
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad13 Nov 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Alashkert this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad6 Nov 2028
Daniel Aghbalyan damages knee ligaments — 114 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 114 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.
Squad6 Nov 2028
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.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Words at Alashkert training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Karen Nalbandyan is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The dugout6 Nov 2028
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 dugout6 Nov 2028
Rafael Jesus gets it from the manager
“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.
Market6 Nov 2028
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Alashkert know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad30 Oct 2028
121 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Alashkert lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match24 Oct 2028
A European night to remember for Alashkert
1‑0 against Mouscron, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
Match30 Oct 2028
Alashkert are in among the leaders
Position 2 and 37 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Squad30 Oct 2028
Words exchanged at Alashkert
Karen Nalbandyan 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.
Squad30 Oct 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Yaroslav Matyukhin commits to Alashkert for another 4 years.
Squad30 Oct 2028
A season average of 7.27 with 11 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Player ratings30 Oct 2028
Miguel Pereira was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.17. 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.
Player ratings30 Oct 2028
Successful dribbles: 16. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout30 Oct 2028
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Malik Odeyinka will call it something else in private.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad23 Oct 2028
128 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Alashkert lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad23 Oct 2028
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.
Squad23 Oct 2028
A row about effort at Alashkert
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Karen Nalbandyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad23 Oct 2028
A muscle injury sidelines João Mendes for 14 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Alashkert will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
The dugout23 Oct 2028
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 Karen Nalbandyan is on it.
The dugout23 Oct 2028
The manager makes an example of Levon Darbinyan
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Oct 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Daniel Aghbalyan
136 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.
Market16 Oct 2028
Olawale Farayola wants to know where this is going
“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 Alashkert hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad16 Oct 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Alashkert this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Oct 2028
A row about effort at Alashkert
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Karen Nalbandyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad16 Oct 2028
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Alashkert can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout16 Oct 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Daniel Aghbalyan, and the manager let it.
Market16 Oct 2028
Serob Grigoryan is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Alashkert has been clear about where Serob Grigoryan stands, which is more than many ever get.
The dugout16 Oct 2028
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.
Market16 Oct 2028
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Olawale Farayola’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad9 Oct 2028
Daniel Aghbalyan damages knee ligaments — 144 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 144 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.
Squad9 Oct 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 11 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Match3 Oct 2028
Alashkert beaten on the continent
2‑4 against Estrela da Amadora, and an evening that measured the gap rather than the ninety minutes. Nothing about it was a disgrace and nothing about it was close.
Player ratings9 Oct 2028
Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad9 Oct 2028
Karen Nalbandyan 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 Oct 2028
Defences have started doubling up on Miguel Pereira
11 goals and a season average of 7.33 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Player ratings9 Oct 2028
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.21, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout9 Oct 2028
Mômô Fanyé Touré 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match2 Oct 2028
Alashkert are in among the leaders
Position 2 and 37 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Squad2 Oct 2028
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.
Squad2 Oct 2028
Words at Alashkert training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Karen Nalbandyan is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The dugout2 Oct 2028
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 dugout2 Oct 2028
“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.
The dugout2 Oct 2028
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 Lucca Caramico has written the date down.
Market2 Oct 2028
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Vlad Chatunts signs something — a contract at Alashkert or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout2 Oct 2028
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Levon Darbinyan trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad2 Oct 2028
Questions about Philip Ejike on the training pitch
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market21 Feb 2028
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Miguel Pereira had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Karen Nalbandyan 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.
Market21 Feb 2028
Add another name to the list: Ural have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Malik Odeyinka. The answer from Alashkert has not changed — yet.
Squad21 Feb 2028
A row about effort at Alashkert
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Klaidher was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
Karen Nalbandyan has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Alashkert will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
The manager makes an example of Rodion Pechura
“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.
Squad21 Feb 2028
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Alashkert are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Market21 Feb 2028
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Alashkert know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Squad21 Feb 2028
A wage question at Alashkert
Daniel Aghbalyan has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match14 Feb 2028
44 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Market14 Feb 2028
Sogdiana come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Alashkert did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market14 Feb 2028
The name of Miguel Pereira has come up in conversations Alashkert were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Market14 Feb 2028
Olawale Farayola wants to know where this is going
“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 Alashkert hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad14 Feb 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Alashkert this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Feb 2028
At 21, Malik Odeyinka is already the best thing here
An average of 7.07 in a first team he is several years too young for. Alashkert have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Lorenzo Schietroma has, at Alashkert, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad14 Feb 2028
A row about effort at Alashkert
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Karen Nalbandyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets14 Feb 2028
The clock did what Ararat-Armenia would not, and ended it. Supporters who watched the countdown will spend the next window doing it again.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Transfer targets7 Feb 2028
Alashkert and Ararat-Armenia have settled on $510.0K. 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 dugout7 Feb 2028
“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.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Deadline passes with 3 signed and 4 gone
That is the business done at Alashkert 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.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Karen Nalbandyan and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad7 Feb 2028
A row about effort at Alashkert
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Klaidher was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad7 Feb 2028
8 new faces, and Alashkert 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.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
The dugout7 Feb 2028
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 dugout7 Feb 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Hakob Hakobyan's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Transfer targets10 Jan 2028
Alashkert had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Ararat-Armenia, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Market10 Jan 2028
“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.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Karen Nalbandyan and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad10 Jan 2028
17 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad10 Jan 2028
A row about effort at Alashkert
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Klaidher was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets10 Jan 2028
Corinthians 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.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Alashkert are still strangers to each other
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout10 Jan 2028
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout10 Jan 2028
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market27 Dec 2027
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Alashkert heard it as anything else.
Squad27 Dec 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Alashkert this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Words at Alashkert training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Klaidher is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The dugout27 Dec 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.
The dugout27 Dec 2027
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 Karen Nalbandyan is on it.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Klaidher has company in his position
The competition arrived without a word said to him about it. Klaidher keeps the shirt for now, at Alashkert's convenience rather than his own.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match20 Dec 2027
Alashkert refuse to drop out of the race
Position 2, 44 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 dugout20 Dec 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Alashkert may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Karen Nalbandyan 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.
Squad20 Dec 2027
He is 21, he is averaging 7.07, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Klaidher 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 dugout20 Dec 2027
The manager makes an example of Hakob Hakobyan
“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.
The dugout20 Dec 2027
Edgar Piloyan has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Alashkert 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.
Market20 Dec 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Alashkert know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Alashkert have no good answer.