“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Urartu can pretend not to have heard.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Nobody at Urartu 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.40 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“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 The request is on a desk at Urartu, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Urartu they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Nobody at Urartu 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.
Squad12 Mar 2035
Words at Urartu training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Simon Smith 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Urartu can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Urartu is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
In brief
SquadSimon Smith falls out with a teammate over standards
“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 The request is on a desk at Urartu, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Urartu they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
Nobody at Urartu 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.
“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 Urartu, and it is not being withdrawn.
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Urartu now.
Squad15 Jan 2035
Bobby Kamwa 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 name of David Sallai has come up in conversations Urartu were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Nobody at Urartu 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 words a physio says slowly. 26 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.
“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 Urartu, and it is not being withdrawn.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 20 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 Urartu, and it is not being withdrawn.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 48 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 Oct 2034
Donát Pálfi 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Urartu can pretend not to have heard.
21 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Urartu lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Urartu will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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.
Squad11 Sep 2034
Words at Urartu training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zhirayr Margaryan 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Urartu know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
58 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Urartu lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Urartu can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Urartu is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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 phone has started ringing about Artak Haroyan again, and this time the name on the line is Gandzasar. Urartu are listening politely and promising nothing.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Sargis Haroyan will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Urartu the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad17 Apr 2034
Words at Urartu training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zhirayr Margaryan 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.
David Sallai 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.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Donát Pálfi signs something — a contract at Urartu or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.