Marked for Ethan Lizalda
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad9 Nov 2026
Mariano Ahouangbo 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 Nov 2026
Words at Gandzasar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ethan Lizalda 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.
Market9 Nov 2026
The Din Sula story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Din Sula signs something — a contract at Gandzasar or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Hamza Güreler is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad19 Oct 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 Gandzasar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Too much change too quickly at Gandzasar
7 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Sep 2026
Mariano Ahouangbo 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Gandzasar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ethan Lizalda 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Uroš Đerić takes up the language
The least glamorous thing a foreign signing ever does and the one that decides most of them. A player who can hear the shout behind him is a different footballer from one who cannot.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market7 Sep 2026
“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.
Squad7 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 Gandzasar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Annan Mensah pulls a muscle — 14 days out
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match12 Aug 2026
BKMA ended it 0‑2. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Mariano Ahouangbo 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nikita Lobusov, and the manager let it.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Gandzasar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ethan Lizalda 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Market17 Aug 2026
The Din Sula story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Din Sula signs something — a contract at Gandzasar or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.