29 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Pyunik lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Successful dribbles: 26. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Mikhail Kovalenko 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.
Position 3 and 11 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Squad1 May 2028
Words at Pyunik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gustavo Sangaré 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.
Mikhail Kovalenko 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.
11 combined actions and 7.47. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
12 goals in 8 games at Lernayin Artsakh — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Pyunik updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Gustavo Sangaré scored, was marked 7.94, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
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.
Mikhail Kovalenko 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.
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings10 Apr 2028
Witi 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Pyunik can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Henrikh Mkhitaryan on a 3‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 16 combined actions and a mark of 6.89, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Yelisey Yemeljanov has, at Pyunik, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hovhannes Harutyunyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Mikhail Kovalenko 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gustavo Sangaré was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Pyunik, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hovhannes Harutyunyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pyunik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
8 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.
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 Witi is on it.
53 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Pyunik lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Pyunik have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Pyunik had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Ararat-Armenia, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
The name of Sargis Metoyan has come up in conversations Pyunik were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
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 kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Pyunik had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Pyunik can pretend not to have heard.
The shirt still fits. Mikhail Kovalenko is back at Pyunik, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Mikhail Kovalenko 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.
Add another name to the list: Araks Ararat have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Gevorg Tarakhchyan. The answer from Pyunik has not changed — yet.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Momo Yansané was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Momo Yansané has his answer from Pyunik; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
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.
10 combined actions and 6.83. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
Minute 88, against Andranik, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout23 Aug 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Ararat Hakobyan was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Pyunik-2 dressing room was either.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pyunik-2 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 13 combined actions and a mark of 7.13, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Marked 8.16 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
A point taken on 92 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 2‑2 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
9 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.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Shirak had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
“If we are going to be beaten, let it not be because somebody in here could not be bothered.” He stood up and said it in front of everybody, which is a thing a squad remembers about a man for years.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Pyunik-2 they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The offer from Shirak for Stanislav Buchnev was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
It needed Levon Petrosyan to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Syunik, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout2 Aug 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Ararat Hakobyan was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Pyunik-2 dressing room was either.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Pyunik-2 than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
Successful dribbles: 8. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“If we are going to be beaten, let it not be because somebody in here could not be bothered.” He stood up and said it in front of everybody, which is a thing a squad remembers about a man for years.
Position 14 and 10 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
7.88, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Ararat Hakobyan after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
5 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Mikhail Kovalenko 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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
A new face in his position, and Hayk Tatosyan suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. Pyunik-2 have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.
0‑5 against Sardarapat, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Hayk Tatosyan 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑5, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Successful dribbles: 8. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“If we are going to be beaten, let it not be because somebody in here could not be bothered.” He stood up and said it in front of everybody, which is a thing a squad remembers about a man for years.
0‑5 to Mika, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Successful dribbles: 22. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Pyunik-2, another week without a signature from Hayk Tatosyan.
The dugout14 Jun 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑5 Ararat Hakobyan left the room before anybody could ask which.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Pyunik-2 has been clear about where Stanislav Buchnev stands, which is more than many ever get.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Pyunik-2 they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Pyunik-2 will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Ararat Hakobyan on a 3‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
“I am not asking anybody to be better than they are. I am asking everybody to be as good as they are, every week.” Said out loud, in front of everybody, and the room at Pyunik-2 was different afterwards.
A side in position 8 visits next. The result will not make anybody’s season and it could quietly break the shape of one, which is why the manager has been watching the video since Sunday.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Ararat-Armenia-2? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Hayk Tatosyan’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Pyunik-2 needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Hayk Tatosyan had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Van-2 were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
Player ratings24 May 2027
A brace, and Hayk Tatosyan takes the afternoon — 6.18
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Hayk Tatosyan provided it, and the 6.18 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Ararat Hakobyan after the 2‑2 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Two goals and a mark of 8.35 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Ararat Hakobyan could afford to be generous.
Chances created: 11. Nothing on the scoresheet and everything in the match: the pass before the pass, over and over, until the defence stopped guessing right.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
“If we are going to be beaten, let it not be because somebody in here could not be bothered.” He stood up and said it in front of everybody, which is a thing a squad remembers about a man for years.
18 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.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 8 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
The terraces3 May 2027
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 3 of the 3 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
Match1 May 2027
Nobody could stop scoring
14 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Pyunik-2 and Hayq in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 7 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑4 defeat, delivered by Ararat Hakobyan to a room that had heard them before.
“If we are going to be beaten, let it not be because somebody in here could not be bothered.” He stood up and said it in front of everybody, which is a thing a squad remembers about a man for years.
6 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Pyunik-2 can tell you which week it ends in.
6 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Match17 Apr 2027
Nobody could stop scoring
11 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Pyunik-2 and Syunik in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑11 defeat, delivered by Ararat Hakobyan to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
Hayk Tatosyan is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
15 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.
0‑8 to Noah-2, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
5 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Pyunik-2 can tell you which week it ends in.
4 saves does not settle the argument about whose fault it was, and the argument will run all week. Goalkeepers carry these scorelines whoever caused them.
5 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Match10 Apr 2027
Nobody could stop scoring
8 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Pyunik-2 and Noah-2 in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 29 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 18 goals between Pyunik-2 and Lernayin Artsakh, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 11 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Pyunik-2 is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Match20 Mar 2027
Nobody could stop scoring
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Pyunik-2 and Urartu in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Pyunik-2 can tell you which week it ends in.
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑6 Ararat Hakobyan left the room before anybody could ask which.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Hayk Tatosyan's mistake
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 22 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
12 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.
0‑10 to Bentonit Ijevan, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Match13 Mar 2027
Nobody could stop scoring
10 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Pyunik-2 and Bentonit Ijevan in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Ararat Hakobyan after 0‑10, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 15 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
11 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.
Beaten 0‑7 by Sardarapat, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Match6 Mar 2027
Nobody could stop scoring
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Pyunik-2 and Sardarapat in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑7 Ararat Hakobyan left the room before anybody could ask which.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
1 error, one goal, and a night in front of the same three seconds. He will see it tonight, tomorrow and probably in February, and everybody who has played knows exactly which frame he keeps stopping on.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Hayk Tatosyan trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
In brief
Player ratingsHayk Tatosyan beats them one at a time
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Pyunik-2 than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 58 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hovhannes Harutyunyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Flamengo have kept their man, and Pyunik go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pyunik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 Alemão is on it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hovhannes Harutyunyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Mikhail Kovalenko is on it.
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 Pyunik 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 offer from Ararat-Armenia for Edgar Malakyan was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
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.
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 Sead Islamović is on it.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Pyunik. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Pyunik would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Pyunik spent a month trying to move him and nobody rang back. He trains with a squad that has told him where he stands, and both sides start counting down to the next one.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Pyunik can pretend not to have heard.
The bid was some way short and Pyunik did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Pyunik close the window on a squad of their own making
20 in and 34 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
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 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
10 new faces, and Pyunik are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Alemão has moved up it.
Nobody at Pyunik 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 hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Isah Yahaya Buhari did not need any: 7.75, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
1 for Mikhail Kovalenko, marked 7.98, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Brasil de Pelotas is saying, and nobody at Pyunik is enjoying the guessing.
6 goals in one match, Gevorg Tarakhchyan on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Pyunik and Sardarapat.