Marked for Gabriel Varanda
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces1 Apr 2030
The mood at Van 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.
Market1 Apr 2030
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Van can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom1 Apr 2030
Pressure builds in the Van boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Match30 Mar 2030
A bad afternoon for Van against Shirak
1‑3 to Shirak, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad1 Apr 2030
Words at Van training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniel Tarazona 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 Apr 2030
“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.
Squad1 Apr 2030
Tempers go at Van
Narek Manukyan 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.
Market1 Apr 2030
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Van, another week without a signature from Gor Manukyan.
Player ratings1 Apr 2030
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match11 Feb 2030
Van sink to position 10
12 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Squad11 Feb 2030
Tempers go at Van
Hayk Tatosyan 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 Feb 2030
Yegor Baranov 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.
In brief
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Squad
Gor Manukyan has become a man the manager trusts
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Squad
Nerves in the Van squad
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Boardroom
Van keep producing them
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Market
Window shut, Gabriel Varanda still here
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match14 Jan 2030
Van are in real trouble now
Position 10, 12 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Market14 Jan 2030
“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.
Squad14 Jan 2030
Tempers go at Van
Juan Pablo Perrotta 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.
Squad14 Jan 2030
Sergei Baranov gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Sergei Baranov has just signed for Van, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad14 Jan 2030
Words at Van training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniel Tarazona 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.
Squad14 Jan 2030
Gor Manukyan has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Van 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
Crisis
Match17 Dec 2029
Van sink to position 10
12 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market17 Dec 2029
“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.
Market17 Dec 2029
Archie Taylor has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Van they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad17 Dec 2029
Tempers go at Van
Juan Pablo Perrotta 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 Dec 2029
Words at Van training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniel Tarazona 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 Dec 2029
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
Crisis
Boardroom4 Dec 2028
Interim Coach has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Van can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Boardroom4 Dec 2028
The Van board call everybody in
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Market4 Dec 2028
“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.
Market4 Dec 2028
Allef is on his way
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Van is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad4 Dec 2028
A move Gabriel Varanda 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. Gabriel Varanda is living that version at Van, and it tends to show in the first month.
Boardroom4 Dec 2028
Van counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Van now.
Squad4 Dec 2028
Daniel Tarazona 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.
Squad4 Dec 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Van this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market4 Dec 2028
“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.