Marked for Serob Grigoryan
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market24 Jan 2028
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.
Market24 Jan 2028
“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.
Market24 Jan 2028
The fee is $97.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Lernayin Artsakh drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Market24 Jan 2028
The fee is $110.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Lernayin Artsakh drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Transfer targets24 Jan 2028
Urartu offered $260.0K; Pyunik said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Okazie Ebenezer 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 targets24 Jan 2028
Urartu have made the call to Torres. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Too much change too quickly at Urartu
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The dugout24 Jan 2028
No hiding place for Bruninho
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Bruninho, and the manager let it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market10 Jan 2028
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Urartu people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Transfer targets10 Jan 2028
The clubs have shaken hands with Pyunik; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Market10 Jan 2028
The name of Bruno Michel has come up in conversations Urartu were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad10 Jan 2028
A falling-out at Urartu
Gor Matinyan and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets10 Jan 2028
The offer went to Pyunik 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.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Serob Grigoryan gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Serob Grigoryan has just signed for Urartu, and for once the answer mattered.
Transfer targets10 Jan 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Unionistas have kept their man, and Urartu go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad10 Jan 2028
A row about effort at Urartu
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Khariton Ayvazyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout10 Jan 2028
Gor Matinyan 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 Urartu, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market2 Aug 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Alashkert people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market2 Aug 2027
Philip Ejike has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Alashkert they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Felipe Aguirre 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 targets2 Aug 2027
Alashkert asked and Zbrojovka Brno said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad2 Aug 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Aleksandar Glišić and Alashkert agree another 2 years.
Squad2 Aug 2027
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Arsen Beglaryan has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Words exchanged at Alashkert
Serob Grigoryan 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.
Market2 Aug 2027
Luiz Carvalho is 20, and Alashkert have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
The dugout2 Aug 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market28 Jun 2027
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Alashkert have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market28 Jun 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 Alashkert, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market28 Jun 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Alashkert is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market28 Jun 2027
The name of Yaroslav Matyukhin has come up in conversations Alashkert were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Match26 Jun 2027
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 8 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Words exchanged at Alashkert
Mômô Fanyé Touré 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 targets28 Jun 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. AS Trencin have kept their man, and Alashkert go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match26 Jun 2027
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout28 Jun 2027
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.