Marked for Divine Ukadike
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Oct 2026
Tempers go at Ararat
Vini Locatelli 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Ararat know it.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Wages swallow 86% of the Ararat income
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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Benik Hovhannisyan has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Loan watch5 Oct 2026
The goals keep arriving from Ernest Kacou’s exile
6 goals in 7 games at Hayq — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Ararat updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Loan watch5 Oct 2026
6 appearances away from home and 5 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Sep 2026
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at Ararat
Albert Khachumyan 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.
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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Ararat know which stage they are at.
Market14 Sep 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Ararat has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market7 Sep 2026
Ararat say no — this time
The offer from Bentonit Ijevan for Albert Khachumyan was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 17 in, 25 out at Ararat
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 17 arrived, 25 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Fortaleza keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Tempers go at Ararat
Vini Locatelli 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 targets7 Sep 2026
Ararat asked and Athletico Paranaense said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market7 Sep 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Ararat, another week without a signature from Miguel Rajani.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The captaincy has been taken off Moussa Kanté. Ararat will call it a decision about the team; a dressing room reads it as a verdict on a man.
Market7 Sep 2026
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Albert Khachumyan may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.