Marked for Antônio Marcos
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom23 Oct 2028
Pressure builds in the Ararat boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad23 Oct 2028
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Ararat can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad23 Oct 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 Ararat this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Oct 2028
Words at Ararat training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Antônio Marcos 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 dugout23 Oct 2028
Malick Berté has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Ararat 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.
The dugout23 Oct 2028
Malick Berté 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.
Market23 Oct 2028
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Brian Oddei may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Market23 Oct 2028
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Petros Alekyan’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Squad23 Oct 2028
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Ararat will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match26 Jul 2028
The cup run ends for Ararat
0‑0 against Ararat-Armenia, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Market31 Jul 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.
Boardroom31 Jul 2028
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Ararat
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
The dugout31 Jul 2028
This is not rotation. Aleksandr Aleksanyan has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Ararat is pretending otherwise.
Squad31 Jul 2028
A row about effort at Ararat
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Joseph Sabobo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Words exchanged at Ararat
Yaya Sogodogo 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 dugout31 Jul 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Joseph Sabobo, and the manager let it.
Player ratings31 Jul 2028
Twelve yards and the whole ground holding its breath, and it did not go in. He will put his name down for the next one, which is the only thing to do.
Squad31 Jul 2028
5 new faces, and Ararat 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad13 Mar 2028
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.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Words at Ararat training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Léo Duarte 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.
Match11 Mar 2028
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
“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 dugout13 Mar 2028
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Market13 Mar 2028
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.
Market13 Mar 2028
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Malick Berté has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Ararat.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
Brian Oddei gets picked when it counts
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 Brian Oddei is on it.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Albert Khachumyan trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout6 Mar 2028
Kurban Rasulov: 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.
Player ratings6 Mar 2028
A brace, and Brian Oddei takes the afternoon — 8.47
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Brian Oddei provided it, and the 8.47 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market6 Mar 2028
Only the photograph left for Lamine Fofana
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Lamine Fofana will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ararat the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Transfer targets6 Mar 2028
Everything agreed with another club, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Tempers go at Ararat
Albert Khachumyan 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.
Boardroom6 Mar 2028
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Ararat
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
The dugout6 Mar 2028
This is not rotation. Lamine Fofana has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Ararat is pretending otherwise.
Market6 Mar 2028
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Karen Grigoryan has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market6 Mar 2028
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Hakob Ghazaryan has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.