Marked for Stepan Obryvkov
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad30 Mar 2037
A fracture rules Henri Avagyan out for 89 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Pyunik will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The terraces30 Mar 2037
Anger at Pyunik spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Match28 Mar 2037
No clean sheets in sight for Pyunik
5 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Squad30 Mar 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pyunik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match28 Mar 2037
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings30 Mar 2037
Mathys Houdayer was on a different afternoon to everybody else
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.
Squad30 Mar 2037
The manager makes an example of Stepan Obryvkov
“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 ratings30 Mar 2037
Successful dribbles: 14. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad30 Mar 2037
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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad16 Feb 2037
A fracture rules Henri Avagyan out for 139 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Pyunik will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market16 Feb 2037
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alexandre Gricourt will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Pyunik the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad16 Feb 2037
Tempers go at Pyunik
Daniil Kulikov 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.
Boardroom16 Feb 2037
Pyunik cannot sign anybody
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
Squad16 Feb 2037
Mathys Houdayer 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.
Squad16 Feb 2037
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
Upbeat
Squad19 Jan 2037
Artak Haroyan: 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.” Pyunik have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad19 Jan 2037
Tempers go at Pyunik
Alexandre Gricourt was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad19 Jan 2037
Daniil Kulikov 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.
Boardroom19 Jan 2037
No signings allowed at Pyunik
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
Market19 Jan 2037
Everyone has stopped pretending: BKMA will make the call about Petros Khachatryan this week. Pyunik have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Squad19 Jan 2037
Denis Bogomolov has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Pyunik 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
Upbeat
The terraces8 Dec 2036
The mood at Pyunik has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Market8 Dec 2036
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Pyunik can pretend not to have heard.
Squad8 Dec 2036
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Pyunik may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market8 Dec 2036
Only the photograph left for Artak Haroyan
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Artak Haroyan will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Pyunik the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad8 Dec 2036
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Denys Nahnoinyi commits to Pyunik for another 2 years.
Squad8 Dec 2036
Tempers go at Pyunik
Alexandre Gricourt 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad8 Sep 2036
Daniil Kulikov damages knee ligaments — 55 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 55 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 Sep 2036
“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.
Squad8 Sep 2036
225 appearances across 14 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.
Squad8 Sep 2036
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Pyunik may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market8 Sep 2036
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Pyunik they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad8 Sep 2036
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Valerii Sad and Pyunik agree another 2 years.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match19 Nov 2035
Every point is an argument now for Pyunik
Position 8 and 17 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Squad19 Nov 2035
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. Pyunik will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Market19 Nov 2035
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Pyunik they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad19 Nov 2035
Eric Ocansey in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pyunik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Nov 2035
17 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad19 Nov 2035
Aarón Romero 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad10 Sep 2035
Tempers go at Pyunik
Eric Ocansey 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.
Squad10 Sep 2035
Words at Pyunik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniil Kulikov 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.
Boardroom10 Sep 2035
Pyunik are $41.5M in the red
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
Market10 Sep 2035
He is 19, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
Squad10 Sep 2035
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
Market10 Sep 2035
The Momo Yansané talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Pyunik know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match9 Jun 2035
No mercy from Pyunik
Ararat-Armenia will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Pyunik were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings11 Jun 2035
A brace, and Denis Bogomolov takes the afternoon — 8.96
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Denis Bogomolov provided it, and the 8.96 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings11 Jun 2035
A brace, and Denys Nahnoinyi takes the afternoon — 8.77
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Denys Nahnoinyi provided it, and the 8.77 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad11 Jun 2035
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.
Squad11 Jun 2035
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Pyunik may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad11 Jun 2035
Tempers go at Pyunik
Alexandre Gricourt 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 Jun 2035
Daniil Kulikov 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.
Player ratings11 Jun 2035
Marked 8.71. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Pyunik.
Boardroom11 Jun 2035
No signings allowed at Pyunik
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.