Marked for Gor Matinyan
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad1 Mar 2027
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Urartu will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Words exchanged at Urartu
Serhiy Kryvtsov 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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Words at Urartu training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gor Lulukyan 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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
A muscle injury and 16 days out for Artemy Gunko
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Urartu will quote 16 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
The manager makes an example of Petik Manukyan
“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.
Looking ahead1 Mar 2027
BKMA-2 next, and one man in the Urartu dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
The dugout1 Mar 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 Narek Aghasaryan is on it.
Market1 Mar 2027
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
Miguel Velosa 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 Miguel Velosa trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
In brief
-
Market
Gor Matinyan linked with a move away
-
Looking ahead
Looking ahead: the trip to BKMA-2
-
The dugout
The manager comes out for Alef
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad1 Feb 2027
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Urartu will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Urartu close the window on a squad of their own making
4 in and 0 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.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
Urartu had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Bendel Insurance, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words exchanged at Urartu
Serhiy Kryvtsov 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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Gor Lulukyan 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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
The dugout1 Feb 2027
Gor Lulukyan 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.
The dugout1 Feb 2027
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
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
The deal with Bayelsa United 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Everybody at Urartu saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 36 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Tempers go at Urartu
Miguel Velosa 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Okazie Ebenezer and Urartu agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
A loan move for Kammonke Willie is in the works
Urartu have made the call to Ikorodu City. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Market4 Jan 2027
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Miguel Velosa has his answer from Urartu; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words at Urartu training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artemy Gunko 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 dugout4 Jan 2027
Narek Aghasaryan has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Urartu 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.
Boardroom4 Jan 2027
Open for business: Urartu enter the window
The registration window is open and the phone has started. Between now and the deadline this club will be linked with forty players and sign three, which is the usual ratio.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Boardroom7 Dec 2026
It is over: Urartu are relegated
The arithmetic ran out, and everybody could see it coming from a distance. The hard summer starts now, and next season's fixtures will be full of unfamiliar names.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words exchanged at Urartu
Serhiy Kryvtsov 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Urartu training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gor Lulukyan 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 dugout7 Dec 2026
Narek Aghasaryan has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Urartu 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.
Market7 Dec 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Market7 Dec 2026
The name of Gor Matinyan keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Urartu say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad9 Nov 2026
19 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad9 Nov 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Urartu this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Loan watch9 Nov 2026
“I did not go to Lernayin Artsakh to sit and watch. I want to come back to Urartu and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 13 matches say the rest.
Squad9 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Urartu
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Erik Piloyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Zhirayr Margaryan joins up with his country. Urartu lose him for the window and would like him back in one piece.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Oct 2026
Edgar Movsisyan damages knee ligaments — 20 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 20 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at Urartu
Serhiy Kryvtsov 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 Oct 2026
49 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad12 Oct 2026
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 38 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Loan watch12 Oct 2026
“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 Urartu, and 0 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
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
Squad14 Sep 2026
61 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Urartu lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
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 Sep 2026
The medical room confirms 78 days on the sidelines for Artem Poliarus, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad14 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Urartu
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gor Lulukyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad14 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Urartu this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Loan watch14 Sep 2026
“I did not go to Lernayin Artsakh to sit and watch. I want to come back to Urartu and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“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 dugout14 Sep 2026
Gor Lulukyan 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 Gor Lulukyan trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
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
Squad31 Aug 2026
77 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Urartu lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match26 Aug 2026
The cup run ends for Urartu
1‑3 against Alashkert, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Mura keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Urartu asked and Doncaster Rovers said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad31 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Urartu
Okazie Ebenezer and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout31 Aug 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 1‑3 Grigor Haroyan left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad31 Aug 2026
5 new faces, and Urartu 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.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Gor Matinyan
“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
Squad17 Aug 2026
Andrija Dragojević damages knee ligaments — 93 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 93 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.
Market17 Aug 2026
The name of Mikayel Mirzoyan has come up in conversations Urartu were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad17 Aug 2026
The medical room confirms 39 days on the sidelines for Hayk Mkhitaryan, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad17 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Urartu this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Gor Lulukyan 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 targets17 Aug 2026
A loan move for Julian Geerts is in the works
Urartu have made the call to Helmond Sport. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.