Marked for Anton Yevdokymov
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom2 Apr 2029
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Market2 Apr 2029
Only the photograph left for Nemanja Gavrić
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nemanja Gavrić will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around NK Zavrc the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market2 Apr 2029
“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.
Squad2 Apr 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at NK Zavrc this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 Apr 2029
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and NK Zavrc know it.
Market2 Apr 2029
8 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
Boardroom2 Apr 2029
$1.1M taken back off the NK Zavrc table
What was available in the summer has quietly gone. Upstairs nobody will call it a change of ambition; downstairs nobody will call it anything else.
Market2 Apr 2029
4 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what NK Zavrc could get for him.
Squad2 Apr 2029
Nerves in the NK Zavrc squad
Anton Yevdokymov has been around long enough to know what the spring feels like when it goes wrong, and he can feel it. A dressing room that is frightened plays like one.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match12 Mar 2029
NK Zavrc sink to position 10
6 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Squad12 Mar 2029
33 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad12 Mar 2029
Stifensón Pérez 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match12 Feb 2029
Every point is an argument now for NK Zavrc
Position 10 and 6 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.
Market12 Feb 2029
Iker Banda hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what NK Zavrc can pretend not to have heard.
Squad12 Feb 2029
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” NK Zavrc have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom22 Jan 2029
The scrutiny sharpens at NK Zavrc
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at NK Zavrc is running low.
Market22 Jan 2029
“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 NK Zavrc, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad22 Jan 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at NK Zavrc this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match15 Jan 2029
NK Zavrc are in real trouble now
Position 10, 6 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Market15 Jan 2029
Iker Banda hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what NK Zavrc can pretend not to have heard.
Squad15 Jan 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” NK Zavrc may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad15 Jan 2029
92 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Ethan Moore 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.
Squad15 Jan 2029
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jhonesy Vásquez and NK Zavrc agree another 3 years.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market18 Dec 2028
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Aleksandr Aleksanyan will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ararat the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad18 Dec 2028
Tempers go at Ararat
Karen Muradyan 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.
Squad18 Dec 2028
109 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market11 Dec 2028
Gor Lulukyan hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ararat can pretend not to have heard.
Squad11 Dec 2028
Luis Morgillo: 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.” Ararat have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market11 Dec 2028
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kalifala Doumbia will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ararat the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad11 Dec 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ararat this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Dec 2028
“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.
Boardroom11 Dec 2028
100% of the income goes out in wages at Ararat
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad20 Nov 2028
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Ararat will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Market20 Nov 2028
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Aleksandr Aleksanyan will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ararat the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad20 Nov 2028
143 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match8 Nov 2028
Ararat bow out of the cup
Noah go through and Ararat go home, 0‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Market13 Nov 2028
“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 Ararat, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market13 Nov 2028
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kalifala Doumbia will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ararat the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad13 Nov 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Ararat may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Realdo Fili 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 Ararat this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 Nov 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Clinton Dombila, and the manager let it.
Player ratings13 Nov 2028
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.
Boardroom13 Nov 2028
Wages eat 97% of everything Ararat 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.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Defences have started doubling up on Emil Hansson
4 goals and a season average of 7.23 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom6 Nov 2028
Arman Grigoryan has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Ararat can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Market6 Nov 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Ararat is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Tempers go at Ararat
Karen Muradyan 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.
Market6 Nov 2028
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Ararat, another week without a signature from Antonio González.
Squad6 Nov 2028
“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.
Boardroom6 Nov 2028
Ararat counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Ararat now.
Market6 Nov 2028
At 37, he has seen every situation this season can produce, twice. The legs will be managed; the head is the purchase.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Beka Dartsmelia 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.
Market6 Nov 2028
2 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
In brief
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Squad
“I want to play”: Kaveh Rad speaks
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Boardroom
Ararat were not finished after all
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Boardroom
Ararat keep producing them
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market16 Oct 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.
Market16 Oct 2028
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kalifala Doumbia will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ararat the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad16 Oct 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ararat this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Oct 2028
The manager makes an example of Moussa Kanté
“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.
Boardroom16 Oct 2028
98% of the income goes out in wages at Ararat
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Squad16 Oct 2028
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Ararat are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad18 Sep 2028
Beka Dartsmelia: 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.” Ararat have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market18 Sep 2028
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Ararat they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad18 Sep 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ararat this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market21 Aug 2028
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market21 Aug 2028
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Ararat they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Tempers go at Ararat
Realdo Fili 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.
Market21 Aug 2028
Add another name to the list: BKMA have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Patrick Handzongo. The answer from Ararat has not changed — yet.
Boardroom21 Aug 2028
Wages eat 112% of everything Ararat 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.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Joacim Holtan 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 Ararat, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
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.
Squad17 Jul 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ararat this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Moussa Kanté 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
Market10 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.
Market10 Jul 2028
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Tempers go at Ararat
Realdo Fili 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.
Market10 Jul 2028
Ararat-Armenia paid $570.0K and Ararat took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad10 Jul 2028
14 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad10 Jul 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Anton Yevdokymov, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match14 Jun 2028
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Patrick Handzongo obliged against Urartu. 2‑1 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Ararat.
Market19 Jun 2028
“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 Ararat, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings19 Jun 2028
Successful dribbles: 28. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings19 Jun 2028
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 27 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Player ratings19 Jun 2028
Defensive actions: 25, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Realdo Fili 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 Ararat this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings19 Jun 2028
A performance of 9.24 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad19 Jun 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Abdoul Djire, and the manager let it.
Match17 Jun 2028
A 1‑0 win over Gandzasar, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Jun 2028
Yaya Sogodogo: 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.” Ararat have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market5 Jun 2028
“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 Ararat, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad5 Jun 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ararat this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings5 Jun 2028
A performance of 8.69 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad5 Jun 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Moussa Kanté, and the manager let it.
Squad5 Jun 2028
No place for Abdoul Djire on the big day
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Ararat pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Player ratings5 Jun 2028
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match3 Jun 2028
Ararat share the spoils with BKMA
A 1‑1 draw with BKMA leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Player ratings5 Jun 2028
5.62 on the card. Some afternoons a footballer looks like a man who has only just been introduced to the game, and this was one of them.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Feb 2028
Emil Hansson 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 Ararat this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Feb 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.
Market28 Feb 2028
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Anton Yevdokymov may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad31 Jan 2028
Realdo Fili 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 Ararat this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market31 Jan 2028
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Ararat will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Karen Muradyan 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 Ararat, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Jan 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Karen Muradyan and Ararat agree another 2 years.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Tempers go at Ararat
Realdo Fili 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.
Market3 Jan 2028
The phone has started ringing about Kleyder Barreto again, and this time the name on the line is Noah. Ararat are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad3 Jan 2028
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Antonio González trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market3 Jan 2028
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Artur Kartashyan has his answer from Ararat; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Squad3 Jan 2028
The competition arrived without a word said to him about it. Karen Muradyan keeps the shirt for now, at Ararat's convenience rather than his own.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market2 Aug 2027
“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.
Match31 Jul 2027
8 matches without a win for UCSA
The run now stands at 8, and the questions being asked around UCSA are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings2 Aug 2027
Defensive actions: 23, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Market2 Aug 2027
As if he never left: Ihor Shevchuk returns
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Ihor Shevchuk is a UCSA player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Market2 Aug 2027
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Pavlo Karavayev is a UCSA player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Market2 Aug 2027
The shirt still fits. Stanislav Tymoschuk is back at UCSA, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Tempers go at UCSA
Pablo Castro 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.
Squad2 Aug 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Yevhenii Profatylo, and the manager let it.
Player ratings2 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.