Marked for Arman Ghazaryan
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market23 Oct 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.
Squad23 Oct 2028
João Bravim 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 dugout23 Oct 2028
The manager makes an example of Michel Ayvazyan
“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.
The dugout23 Oct 2028
Arayik Eloyan 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 Arayik Eloyan is on it.
Market23 Oct 2028
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Ararat-Armenia know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout23 Oct 2028
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Market23 Oct 2028
Contract settled, hands shaken, no fee changing hands. Rafael Carioca leaves Ararat-Armenia the quiet way, and the wage bill breathes a little easier.
Squad23 Oct 2028
The least glamorous thing a foreign signing ever does and the one that decides most of them. A player who can hear the shout behind him is a different footballer from one who cannot.
Squad23 Oct 2028
A welcome sight on the training pitch: Arman Ghazaryan has come through recovery and is pushing for a place again.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad2 Oct 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Arman Ghazaryan
17 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ararat-Armenia lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad2 Oct 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Market2 Oct 2028
“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 The request is on a desk at Ararat-Armenia, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad2 Oct 2028
A move Albert Naniev 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. Albert Naniev is living that version at Ararat-Armenia, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad2 Oct 2028
Rafinha Potiguar 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.
Boardroom2 Oct 2028
120% of the income goes out in wages at Ararat-Armenia
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
The dugout2 Oct 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Maxence Carlier's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The dugout2 Oct 2028
Rob Nizet has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Ararat-Armenia 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 dugout2 Oct 2028
The manager makes an example of Adam Huskić
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad25 Sep 2028
24 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Ararat-Armenia lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market25 Sep 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.
Squad25 Sep 2028
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad25 Sep 2028
30 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad25 Sep 2028
João Bravim 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 dugout25 Sep 2028
Arayik Eloyan 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 Arayik Eloyan is on it.
The dugout25 Sep 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.
Market25 Sep 2028
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Ararat-Armenia know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout25 Sep 2028
Adam Huskić has been promised minutes
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Adam Huskić has written the date down.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market8 Nov 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.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Karen Muradyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Daniil Zhitnikov 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.
Squad8 Nov 2027
A place in the month's best eleven for Arman Ghazaryan
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Arman Ghazaryan has come out of that comparison in the side, and Ararat-Armenia have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The dugout8 Nov 2027
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 Juan David Moreno is on it.
Squad8 Nov 2027
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Ararat-Armenia would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad18 Oct 2027
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Kamo Hovhannisyan 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.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Karen Muradyan 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.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Juan Balanta's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The dugout18 Oct 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.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Maxence Carlier has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
Daniil Zhitnikov 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.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Arthur Coneglian has written the date down.
Market18 Oct 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with França’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad27 Sep 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match27 Sep 2027
Ararat-Armenia refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 34 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Market27 Sep 2027
Only the photograph left for Luis Felipe
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Luis Felipe will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ararat-Armenia the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Karen Muradyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad27 Sep 2027
França 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 dugout27 Sep 2027
Rob Nizet has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Ararat-Armenia 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.
Loan watch27 Sep 2027
7 shut-outs in 11 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Arman Nersesyan has been having a lot of them.
Market27 Sep 2027
Ararat-Armenia have let the market know Hugo Oliveira can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
Market27 Sep 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Karen Muradyan signs something — a contract at Ararat-Armenia or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market13 Sep 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-Armenia, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad13 Sep 2027
João Bravim 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.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Words at Ararat-Armenia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alwyn Luheni Tera 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 dugout13 Sep 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 dugout13 Sep 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Luis Felipe, and the manager let it.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Off the academy pitches and onto a senior team sheet at 15. The debut is the easy part; the second appearance is the one every young player has to earn.
Market13 Sep 2027
The João Bravim talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Ararat-Armenia know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout13 Sep 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Alexandros Malis trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Zaven Khudaverdyan has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.