Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Jonnathan Lima has, at Araks Ararat, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Jonnathan Lima and Araks Ararat agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vitaly Shakhov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is doing his job and he is not settling. Araks Ararat were supposed to be a step up in his own reckoning, and his own reckoning has been adjusted since he arrived.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Araks Ararat, and both men came out saying it was fine.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Araks Ararat have had the benefit of 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 Araks Ararat this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Hayk Ghukasyan has, at Araks Ararat, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Araks Ararat training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vitaly Shakhov 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Araks Ararat can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Araks Ararat this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 35 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Araks Ararat is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Two goals and a mark of 9.68 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Vladimir Khozin 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Phelipe has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Ararat-2 will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Araks Ararat were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Two goals and a mark of 9.01 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Rômulo 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 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Artak Adamyan on a 3‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Araks Ararat this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Araks Ararat training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vitaly Shakhov 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.
He is 18 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.36, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Mher Sahakyan was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.03. 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.
4 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Araks Ararat this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Urartu have kept their man, and Araks Ararat go back to a list with one name crossed off it.