Marked for Eliot Boudet
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market18 Oct 2027
“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 The request is on a desk at Ararat, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad18 Oct 2027
A row about effort at Ararat
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lucas Souza was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad18 Oct 2027
A falling-out at Ararat
Alexandros Malis and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market18 Oct 2027
No place for Eliot Boudet in the plan
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Eliot Boudet has his answer from Ararat; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
İbrahim Yılmaz knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Ararat, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market18 Oct 2027
The Moussa Kanté talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Ararat know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Market18 Oct 2027
2 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Ararat could get for him.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
Kaio César has been promised minutes
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 Kaio César has written the date down.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Nobody writes a headline about a tutor. Nobody has to be told, either, what happens to a signing who spends two years being the man nobody can talk to at lunch.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The dugout23 Aug 2027
İbrahim Yılmaz: 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.” Ararat have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market23 Aug 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ararat can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets23 Aug 2027
No thanks: André rejects the move
Ararat had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Corinthians, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad23 Aug 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 Ararat this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Aug 2027
A row about effort at Ararat
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Moussa Kanté was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets23 Aug 2027
Door shut on Kayke
Ararat asked and Botafogo said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Transfer targets23 Aug 2027
Botafogo 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.
The dugout23 Aug 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Eliot Boudet, and the manager let it.
The dugout23 Aug 2027
Kaio César 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 Kaio César trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market16 Aug 2027
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Urartu had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Squad16 Aug 2027
A row about effort at Ararat
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lucas Souza was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets16 Aug 2027
Ararat asked and Pyunik said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad16 Aug 2027
A falling-out at Ararat
Narek Alaverdyan and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets16 Aug 2027
Pyunik 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.
The dugout16 Aug 2027
Kader Koné 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.
The dugout16 Aug 2027
Kaio César knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Ararat, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market16 Aug 2027
Ararat have made Adama Méïté available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
Market16 Aug 2027
The Realdo Fili talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Ararat know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad15 Feb 2027
34 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ararat lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad15 Feb 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 Ararat this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Feb 2027
A move Kader Koné would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Kader Koné is living that version at Ararat, and it tends to show in the first month.
Transfer targets15 Feb 2027
Ararat asked and Ararat-Armenia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Moussa Kanté 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.
Market15 Feb 2027
He is 20, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
Market15 Feb 2027
Experience through the door at Ararat
Bence Batik arrives at 33 with nothing left to prove and plenty left to pass on. Legs are a young man's currency; knowing where to stand never ages.
Market15 Feb 2027
The Moussa Kanté talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Ararat know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Market15 Feb 2027
No fee and no drama: Kader Koné has signed at Ararat, and the wage bill is the only line that moved.