It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Alashkert this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
6 goals in one match, Mômô Fanyé Touré on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Alashkert and Van.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at Alashkert training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Klaidher 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.
Successful dribbles: 35. 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
1 for Edgar Piloyan, marked 7.71, 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Davit Terteryan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Pyunik scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
4 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
A brace, and Edgar Piloyan takes the afternoon — 8.17
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Edgar Piloyan provided it, and the 8.17 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Karen Nalbandyan 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.
8 goals in one match, Mômô Fanyé Touré on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Alashkert and Gandzasar.
9.85. 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.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words at Alashkert training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Klaidher 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.
At 23 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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mômô Fanyé Touré provided it, and the 9.24 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Two goals and a mark of 8.79 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Karen Nalbandyan 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.
1 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
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.
At 23 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Gevorg Simonyan has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Alashkert this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He will be fined, he will apologise, and he will play on Saturday. The order of those three tells you everything about what a football club actually values.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Words at Alashkert training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Davit Terteryan 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.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Alashkert, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Daniel Aghbalyan’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Alashkert needing him to play as if none of it matters.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Alashkert will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Atyrau had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Cristopher Rumino and Alashkert agree another 3 years.
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 Mômô Fanyé Touré is on it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 26 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Karen Nalbandyan 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at Alashkert training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Klaidher 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.
Alashkert asked and Botev Vratsa said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Alashkert will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Alashkert will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Alashkert had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Fortaleza, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Karen Nalbandyan 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.
Alashkert asked and Merani said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The name of Kajally Drammeh has come up in conversations Alashkert were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at Alashkert training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Davit Terteryan 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.
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 40 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 3 arrived, 2 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The offer from AZAL for Kajally Drammeh 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Marcos Pacheco has just signed for Alashkert, and for once the answer mattered.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Alashkert this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words at Alashkert training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Klaidher 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.
Botev Vratsa have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Alashkert will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Alashkert asked and Apollon said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Giresunspor will make the call about Malik Odeyinka this week. Alashkert have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Philip Ejike was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Alashkert will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Alashkert had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at AGMK, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Karen Nalbandyan 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.
Nobody at Alashkert 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Alashkert, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Alashkert would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Alashkert will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
The offer from Shirak for Khalil Sammani 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.
Alashkert had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Pyunik, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Karen Nalbandyan 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. AEL have kept their man, and Alashkert go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Alashkert training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Philip Ejike 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.
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 Edgar Piloyan is on it.
“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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Alashkert this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Add another name to the list: Ermis have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Kajally Drammeh. The answer from Alashkert has not changed — yet.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words at Alashkert training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Philip Ejike 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.
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.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
In brief
BoardroomOpen for business: Alashkert enter the window
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.
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 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.
Nobody at Alashkert 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yaroslav Matyukhin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Serob Grigoryan 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.
Nobody at Alashkert 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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Alashkert. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Karen Nalbandyan 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Levon Karapetyan has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Levon Simonyan has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Philip Ejike was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Alashkert 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.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Karen Nalbandyan has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
In brief
SquadKaren Nalbandyan is training like a man with a point to make
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Alashkert this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Alashkert training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mômô Fanyé Touré 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.
Nobody at Alashkert 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.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Olawale Farayola has written the date down.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mômô Fanyé Touré was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
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 Mômô Fanyé Touré is on it.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Olawale Farayola has written the date down.
In brief
The dugoutDavid Idaiye knocks on the manager's door
Karen Nalbandyan 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Philip Ejike 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 Kajally Drammeh is on it.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Alashkert, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Karen Nalbandyan 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 Mômô Fanyé Touré was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Alashkert 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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Alashkert. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Alashkert this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Arman Sarkisov has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Narek Khachatryan has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
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.
“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; Alashkert are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Alashkert, and 0 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Khalil Sammani will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Alashkert the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
David Idaiye 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 Nov 2026
Words at Alashkert training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Philip Ejike 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.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Domi Jaurès Massoumou is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
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 Mômô Fanyé Touré is on it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Alashkert, and both men came out saying it was fine.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Karen Nalbandyan 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Alashkert training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mômô Fanyé Touré 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.
9 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Alashkert, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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 Kajally Drammeh is on it.
Karen Nalbandyan 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Philip Ejike 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.
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 Edgar Piloyan is on 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 Alashkert this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Alashkert will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Mkhitar Simonyan has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Philip Ejike was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Alashkert, another week without a signature from David Idaiye.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Olawale Farayola has written the date down.
A window away with the national side, and a shirt at Alashkert that briefly doubles as an advertisement. A call-up flatters the player and the club that built him in the same breath.
In brief
The dugoutDavid Idaiye knocks on the manager’s 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.
Karen Nalbandyan and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Alashkert training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mômô Fanyé Touré 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.
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.
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.
Karen Nalbandyan 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Alashkert training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yaroslav Matyukhin 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
9 new faces, and Alashkert 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.
In brief
The dugoutKajally Drammeh has become a man the manager trusts
Karen Nalbandyan 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 Philip Ejike was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Alashkert 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.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Alashkert would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
The words a physio says slowly. 20 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Alashkert had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Dinamo Batumi, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Edgar Hovhannisyan has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Hovhannes Barseghyan has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yaroslav Matyukhin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
David Idaiye 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.
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 Karen Nalbandyan is on it.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Alashkert are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
In brief
The dugoutArsen Sadoyan knocks on the manager's door
29 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Alashkert lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 19 arrived, 1 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
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.
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Alashkert training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yaroslav Matyukhin 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.
Dinamo Batumi have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Urartu have accepted the money. What Alashkert do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Edgar Piloyan did not need any: 7.81, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Karen Nalbandyan 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.
7 goals in one match, Mômô Fanyé Touré on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Alashkert and Noah.
Alashkert asked and Colón said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Edgar Piloyan obliged against Urartu. 3‑1 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Alashkert.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Shirak waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Alashkert is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at AGMK is saying, and nobody at Alashkert is enjoying the guessing.
Karen Nalbandyan 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Alashkert training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mômô Fanyé Touré 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Alashkert this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Alashkert that is a harder question to answer.
The phone has started ringing about Edgar Piloyan again, and this time the name on the line is BKMA. Alashkert are listening politely and promising nothing.
Alashkert had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Estudiantes, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Karen Nalbandyan 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.
Alashkert offered $420.0K; Noah 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. APOEL have kept their man, and Alashkert go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Arman Bayramyan has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Henrikh Hakobyan has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Alashkert asked and San Martín SJ said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Add another name to the list: Ararat have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Joseph Sabobo. The answer from Alashkert has not changed — yet.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Alashkert training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hakob Hakobyan 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.
Still no offer on the table, and Karen Nalbandyan’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
Alashkert have made the call to Estudiantes. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.