Marked for Samvel Zakaryan
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
Araks Ararat had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Urartu, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad8 Feb 2027
João Vigário 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 Araks Ararat this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
Araks 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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at Araks Ararat training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mamadou Diarra 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.
Market8 Feb 2027
“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.
Market8 Feb 2027
He signed expecting a bigger stage than the one he found. It has not taken long, and it has not taken the dressing room long to notice either.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
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.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
Ashot Kocharyan 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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
A new face in his position, and Ashot Kocharyan suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. Araks Ararat have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad25 Jan 2027
Ben Thompson 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.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
Araks Ararat asked and Syunik said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at Araks Ararat training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mamadou Diarra 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.
Boardroom25 Jan 2027
Wages eat 142% of everything Araks Ararat earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
“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 dugout25 Jan 2027
Miguel Silva 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 Araks Ararat, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad25 Jan 2027
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Araks Ararat has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Araks Ararat. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Squad25 Jan 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Dec 2026
João Vigário 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 Araks Ararat this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“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.
Market14 Dec 2026
“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 Dec 2026
He signed expecting a bigger stage than the one he found. It has not taken long, and it has not taken the dressing room long to notice either.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
Narek Baroyan 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 Narek Baroyan is on it.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
Miguel Silva 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad31 Aug 2026
5 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Match29 Aug 2026
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 10‑1 against Ararat-Armenia-2, and it could have been more.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.44, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad31 Aug 2026
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Hollman McCormick, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.22
A mark of 8.22 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Market31 Aug 2026
“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 ratings31 Aug 2026
Aram Loretsyan, 33, rolls back the years — 8.04
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.04 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Vladimir Khozin 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match19 Aug 2026
Ararat-Armenia go through and Araks Ararat go home, 0‑4 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
0-4, 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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Narek Baroyan, 21, steals the show — 8.05
Marked 8.05 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Vladimir Khozin 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.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Isah Yahaya Buhari has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Match22 Aug 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Grigor Hovhannisyan. 2‑0 against Van-2, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Ivan Markelov
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.16, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
Samvel Zakaryan faces a manager he fell out with
They have worked together before and it did not end well. Nobody at Araks Ararat expects the new manager to have forgotten, least of all Samvel Zakaryan.