Marked for Niko Tišljarić
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad19 Nov 2040
A fracture rules Aleksa Todorović out for 55 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Shirak will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match19 Nov 2040
Shirak are in real trouble now
Position 9, 14 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.
Match14 Nov 2040
Shirak bow out of the cup
Ararat go through and Shirak go home, 1‑4 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Market19 Nov 2040
“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.
The terraces19 Nov 2040
A cup hiding at Ararat leaves Shirak explaining themselves
1-4, and long before the end the away end had switched from encouragement to something considerably more pointed. Nobody rings a phone-in about losing narrowly.
Squad19 Nov 2040
Tempers go at Shirak
Luan Freitas 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.
Squad19 Nov 2040
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Shirak will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Player ratings19 Nov 2040
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad19 Nov 2040
Words at Shirak training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrius Valskis 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom2 Jul 2040
The statement thanked him for his efforts and wished him well, in that order and in about that many words. The search begins immediately.
Squad2 Jul 2040
Rafik Misakyan damages knee ligaments — 70 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 70 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Match2 Jul 2040
Shirak are in real trouble now
Position 9, 14 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.
Squad2 Jul 2040
A fracture rules Giorgos Agapakis out for 26 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Shirak will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match30 Jun 2040
Chastening afternoon for Shirak
A 1‑4 beating by Urartu was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Market2 Jul 2040
“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.
Boardroom2 Jul 2040
Shirak have nobody left to take training
Not an interim appointment — an institution with an empty coaching office. Somebody unfamiliar will run the sessions this week, and the question of how a club gets into this state is one the board will be asked and will not answer.
Boardroom2 Jul 2040
The Shirak 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.
Squad2 Jul 2040
Karen Bayramyan: 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.” Shirak have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad11 Jun 2040
Rafik Misakyan damages knee ligaments — 93 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 93 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad11 Jun 2040
A fracture rules Giorgos Agapakis out for 47 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Shirak will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad11 Jun 2040
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Shirak may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market11 Jun 2040
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Shirak can pretend not to have heard.
Squad11 Jun 2040
Tempers go at Shirak
Luan Freitas 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.
Match9 Jun 2040
Shirak leaking at the back
5 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Match9 Jun 2040
Niko Tišljarić scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Noah, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Market11 Jun 2040
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Filippo Cecchini has his answer from Shirak; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Player ratings11 Jun 2040
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad4 Jun 2040
Rafik Misakyan damages knee ligaments — 100 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 100 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad4 Jun 2040
A fracture rules Giorgos Agapakis out for 54 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Shirak will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match4 Jun 2040
Shirak are in real trouble now
Position 8, 11 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.
Market4 Jun 2040
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Shirak can pretend not to have heard.
Market4 Jun 2040
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Shirak they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad4 Jun 2040
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Maxim Shnaptsev commits to Shirak for another 2 years.
Player ratings4 Jun 2040
Jordy Weghorst scored one and made one — 7.86
Two of the goals had his name somewhere on them, which is the afternoon a manager wants from anybody asked to both create and finish. 7.86, and 2 involvements.
Squad4 Jun 2040
Luan Freitas in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shirak this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match2 Jun 2040
Shirak come up short against Van
Van left with the points after a 2‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
In brief
-
Match
Shirak are shipping goals every week
-
Market
No place for Jesse Akila in the plan
-
Boardroom
Nobody left the Shirak dressing room in a hurry
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 May 2040
A knee injury of the worst kind for Rafik Misakyan
108 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Shirak lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad28 May 2040
A fracture rules Giorgos Agapakis out for 61 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Shirak will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Boardroom28 May 2040
The scrutiny sharpens at Shirak
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Shirak is running low.
Market28 May 2040
“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.
Player ratings28 May 2040
A brace, and Niko Tišljarić takes the afternoon — 8.00
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Niko Tišljarić provided it, and the 8.00 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad28 May 2040
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 May 2040
Rafik Misakyan damages knee ligaments — 123 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 123 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad14 May 2040
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 23 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad14 May 2040
A last season at home is what Luan Freitas is after
It is sentimental, it is completely genuine, and it is the beginning of a departure nobody has announced. The club can be gracious about it or it can pretend not to have heard.
Squad14 May 2040
Tempers go at Shirak
Luan Freitas 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.
Match12 May 2040
Karlo Zulfić scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to BKMA, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Match12 May 2040
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Karlo Zulfić had Shirak level again within 1 minutes, and BKMA never got to play with a lead at all.
Player ratings14 May 2040
Successful dribbles: 12. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market14 May 2040
“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.
Market14 May 2040
The clock does Giorgos Agapakis’s negotiating for him
7 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Shirak could ask drops and the wages Giorgos Agapakis can ask rise.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad30 Apr 2040
Rafik Misakyan damages knee ligaments — 137 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 137 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad30 Apr 2040
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 39 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Boardroom30 Apr 2040
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Shirak
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Match28 Apr 2040
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Niko Tišljarić scored in the 88th minute, Urartu had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Shirak took the lot.
Player ratings30 Apr 2040
Yme Bruinsma, 34, rolls back the years — 8.35
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.35 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad30 Apr 2040
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Shirak may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market30 Apr 2040
“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.
Squad30 Apr 2040
Tempers go at Shirak
Luan Freitas 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.
Match28 Apr 2040
Urartu made Shirak work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad23 Apr 2040
A fracture rules Filippo Cecchini out for 47 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Shirak will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match21 Apr 2040
Niko Tišljarić had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Ararat were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
Market23 Apr 2040
Fredrik Riise hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Shirak can pretend not to have heard.
Match21 Apr 2040
No end in sight to Shirak's wait for a win
8 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Shirak has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings23 Apr 2040
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 7.95, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad23 Apr 2040
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Shirak may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad23 Apr 2040
Luan Freitas in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shirak this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Apr 2040
Andrius Valskis 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.
Match21 Apr 2040
Honours even between Shirak and Ararat
2‑2, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad26 Mar 2040
A fracture rules Filippo Cecchini out for 77 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Shirak will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad26 Mar 2040
Fredrik Riise: 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.” Shirak have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match24 Mar 2040
No end in sight to Shirak's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Shirak has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad26 Mar 2040
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shirak this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Mar 2040
Jesse Akila 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.
Match24 Mar 2040
A bad afternoon for Shirak against Pyunik
1‑3 to Pyunik, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad2 Jan 2040
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Shirak have had the benefit of it.
Market2 Jan 2040
The phone has started ringing about Bas Frimpong again, and this time the name on the line is BKMA. Shirak are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad2 Jan 2040
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shirak this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad26 Dec 2039
The medical room confirms 14 days on the sidelines for Rafik Misakyan, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad26 Dec 2039
Tempers go at Shirak
Rafik Misakyan 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.
Squad26 Dec 2039
A move Niko Tišljarić 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. Niko Tišljarić is living that version at Shirak, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad26 Dec 2039
Words at Shirak training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luca Bolletta 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.
Market26 Dec 2039
1 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Shirak could get for him.
Market26 Dec 2039
No fee and no drama: Niko Tišljarić has signed at Shirak, and the wage bill is the only line that moved.