Marked for Aboubacar Ouattara
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Aug 2027
“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.
Squad16 Aug 2027
The medical room confirms 33 days on the sidelines for Arthur Coneglian, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Tempers go at Ararat
Dani Figueira 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Aug 2027
88 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Market16 Aug 2027
Shirak say no — this time
The offer from Petrojet for Din Sula 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.
Market16 Aug 2027
“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.
Market16 Aug 2027
The paperwork is done: Aboubacar Ouattara joins from Ararat in a deal worth $170.0K. Now comes the harder part.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Tempers go at Shirak
Gonçalo Silva 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.
Market16 Aug 2027
Arman Karapetyan is 17, and Shirak have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad22 Feb 2027
Tempers go at Ararat
Yaya Sogodogo 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.
Loan watch22 Feb 2027
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Ararat, and 1 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad22 Feb 2027
The manager plants his flag on Gor Lulukyan
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Gor Lulukyan’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market1 Feb 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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Tempers go at Ararat
Diego Diellos 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 Feb 2027
Adel Anzimati has left for Alashkert in a $92.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Diego Diellos has outgrown this division
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Ararat know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Market1 Feb 2027
Experience through the door at Ararat
Diego Diellos 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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Ararat would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad18 Jan 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.
Market18 Jan 2027
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Ararat has been clear about where Aboubacar Ouattara stands, which is more than many ever get.
Market18 Jan 2027
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Ernest Kacou may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.