Marked for Sargis Khachatryan
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces31 Jul 2028
The mood at BKMA has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Market31 Jul 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.
Market31 Jul 2028
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Gandzasar waiting with a shirt. Nobody at BKMA is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Boardroom31 Jul 2028
The silence upstairs is getting loud at BKMA
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market31 Jul 2028
Van come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and BKMA did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets31 Jul 2028
Everything agreed with Alashkert, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Tempers go at BKMA
Rudik Mkrtchyan 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 targets31 Jul 2028
Urartu have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Zé Bruno 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market17 Jul 2028
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. BKMA have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market17 Jul 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.
Market17 Jul 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at BKMA is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Transfer targets17 Jul 2028
The offer went to Gandzasar this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Words exchanged at BKMA
Mikayel Mirzoyan 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.
Transfer targets17 Jul 2028
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Gadji Budunov 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.
Transfer targets17 Jul 2028
A loan enquiry to Alashkert: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout17 Jul 2028
Mikayel Mirzoyan 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
Uneasy
Market27 Mar 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.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Words exchanged at BKMA
Mikayel Mirzoyan 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.
Squad27 Mar 2028
15 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
“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.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Zé Bruno 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 dugout27 Mar 2028
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.
Looking ahead27 Mar 2028
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Ararat-Armenia in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Market27 Mar 2028
The name of Narek Hovhannisyan keeps appearing in other people's back pages. BKMA say nothing, which says plenty.
Market27 Mar 2028
4 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs BKMA money.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The dugout6 Mar 2028
“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.
Match4 Mar 2028
The wait goes on for BKMA
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Boardroom6 Mar 2028
5 academy players handed senior numbers at BKMA
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Words exchanged at BKMA
Rudik Mkrtchyan 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.
Market6 Mar 2028
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Artur Barseghyan has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market6 Mar 2028
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Aram Khachatryan is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market6 Mar 2028
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Sargis Khachatryan has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market6 Mar 2028
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Ararat Hovhannisyan has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Match4 Mar 2028
Alashkert left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.