Marked for Jonathan Marshall
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad28 Jun 2038
There were 9 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.
Boardroom28 Jun 2038
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Urartu
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Player ratings28 Jun 2038
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.49 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Market28 Jun 2038
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.
Match26 Jun 2038
Urartu make it 3 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Urartu have 3 straight wins of it.
Match26 Jun 2038
Alashkert made Urartu work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings28 Jun 2038
Jonathan Marshall was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.09. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Boardroom28 Jun 2038
Urartu are $47.0M in the red
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
Player ratings28 Jun 2038
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad25 Jan 2038
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 15 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market25 Jan 2038
Mathis Mout has one foot out of the door
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.
Squad25 Jan 2038
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Urartu have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market25 Jan 2038
“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 Jan 2038
Artemy Gunko 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 Urartu this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom25 Jan 2038
Urartu cannot sign anybody
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad16 Mar 2037
Sandro Kulenović: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Urartu have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad16 Mar 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Urartu this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Mar 2037
A muscle injury sidelines Guillaume Denis for 15 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Urartu will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad16 Mar 2037
“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.
Boardroom16 Mar 2037
Wages eat 132% of everything Urartu 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.
Player ratings16 Mar 2037
A performance of 8.03 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings16 Mar 2037
Successful dribbles: 14. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings16 Mar 2037
8 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.