From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market22 Sep 2031
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Sargis Sarkisov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ararat the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad22 Sep 2031
Tempers go at Ararat
Yaya Sogodogo 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.
Boardroom22 Sep 2031
The numbers do not look good at Ararat
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Squad22 Sep 2031
A row about effort at Ararat
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zhirayr Shaghoyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market22 Sep 2031
“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 Dejan Suhovršnik.
The dugout22 Sep 2031
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Dejan Suhovršnik trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout22 Sep 2031
Billy Blacker gets picked when it counts
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 Billy Blacker is on it.
Market22 Sep 2031
2 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Ararat could get for him.
Boardroom22 Sep 2031
Ararat keep producing them
63 graduates from an academy now rated 9 out of 20. A club this size does not survive any other way, and every name on that list is known in the town.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match15 Sep 2031
Ararat up to position 3
36 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Market15 Sep 2031
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.
The dugout15 Sep 2031
Ararat Sarkisov: 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.
Squad15 Sep 2031
Tempers go at Ararat
Gonçalo Gregório 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 Sep 2031
Words at Ararat training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zhirayr Shaghoyan 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 dugout15 Sep 2031
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 Divine Ukadike is on it.
Squad15 Sep 2031
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Ararat has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Market15 Sep 2031
The name of Nikita Lobusov keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Ararat say nothing, which says plenty.
Market15 Sep 2031
4 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Ararat money.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market8 Sep 2031
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.
The dugout8 Sep 2031
Hayk Karapetyan: 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.
Squad8 Sep 2031
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.
Squad8 Sep 2031
Nikita Glushkov 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.
Squad8 Sep 2031
21 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
The dugout8 Sep 2031
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.
Market8 Sep 2031
2 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Ararat money.
Market8 Sep 2031
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Zhirayr Shaghoyan signs something — a contract at Ararat or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Squad8 Sep 2031
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Ararat would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match27 Aug 2031
Ararat out of the cup
Noah ended it 0‑1. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Squad1 Sep 2031
15 goals and a season average of 7.45. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Boardroom1 Sep 2031
Deadline passes with 22 signed and 21 gone
That is the business done at Ararat until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Market1 Sep 2031
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.
Squad1 Sep 2031
A falling-out at Ararat
Gonçalo Gregório and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad1 Sep 2031
Words at Ararat training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zhirayr Shaghoyan 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.
Match27 Aug 2031
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 4 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Market1 Sep 2031
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
The dugout1 Sep 2031
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad25 Aug 2031
Words exchanged at Ararat
Gonçalo Gregório 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.
Boardroom25 Aug 2031
Ararat counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Ararat now.
Squad25 Aug 2031
A row about effort at Ararat
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zhirayr Shaghoyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout25 Aug 2031
“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.
The dugout25 Aug 2031
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 Volodya Samsonyan is on it.
The dugout25 Aug 2031
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.
Market25 Aug 2031
3 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Ararat could get for him.
Market25 Aug 2031
Contract settled, hands shaken, no fee changing hands. Levon Adamyan leaves Ararat the quiet way, and the wage bill breathes a little easier.
Boardroom25 Aug 2031
The Ararat production line keeps running
63 graduates out of an academy now rated 9 out of 20. Clubs this size survive on exactly that, and the town knows every name.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad18 Aug 2031
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 16 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market18 Aug 2031
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Urartu waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Ararat is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Match18 Aug 2031
Ararat are in among the leaders
Position 3 and 36 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Market18 Aug 2031
Žan Majer 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.
Market18 Aug 2031
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Volodya Samsonyan will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ararat the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad18 Aug 2031
Tempers go at Ararat
Gonçalo Gregório 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 Aug 2031
Nikita Glushkov 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.
The dugout18 Aug 2031
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.
Market18 Aug 2031
The name of Nikita Lobusov keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Ararat say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad11 Aug 2031
23 days out for Gonçalo Gregório after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Ararat will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market11 Aug 2031
Yaya Sogodogo has one foot out of the door
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.
Market11 Aug 2031
“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.
Boardroom11 Aug 2031
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Yaya Sogodogo has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Squad11 Aug 2031
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 Aug 2031
Zhirayr Shaghoyan 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.
Squad11 Aug 2031
49 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
The dugout11 Aug 2031
“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.
The dugout11 Aug 2031
Nikita Lobusov has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Ararat 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad4 Aug 2031
30 days out for Gonçalo Gregório after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Ararat will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The dugout4 Aug 2031
Narek Alaverdyan: 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.
Squad4 Aug 2031
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.
Squad4 Aug 2031
Bohdan Sobol gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Bohdan Sobol has just signed for Ararat, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad4 Aug 2031
A row about effort at Ararat
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zhirayr Shaghoyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom4 Aug 2031
Wages swallow 104% of the Ararat income
Every club 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 it has been tried.
The dugout4 Aug 2031
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Market4 Aug 2031
He is 19, and nobody at Ararat signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
The dugout4 Aug 2031
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad28 Jul 2031
A fracture rules Gonçalo Gregório out for 37 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Ararat will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market28 Jul 2031
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Ararat have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market28 Jul 2031
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.
Squad28 Jul 2031
Words exchanged at Ararat
Gonçalo Gregório 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.
Boardroom28 Jul 2031
Ararat counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Ararat now.
Squad28 Jul 2031
Words at Ararat training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikita Glushkov 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.
Transfer targets28 Jul 2031
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ararat-Armenia have kept their man, and Ararat go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market28 Jul 2031
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Volodya Samsonyan has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Ararat.
The dugout28 Jul 2031
Volodya Samsonyan has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Ararat 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad21 Jul 2031
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 44 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market21 Jul 2031
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Noah waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Ararat is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Match21 Jul 2031
Ararat refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 36 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Transfer targets21 Jul 2031
Everything agreed with Alashkert, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad21 Jul 2031
Tempers go at Ararat
Gonçalo Gregório 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.
Squad21 Jul 2031
A row about effort at Ararat
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zhirayr Shaghoyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets21 Jul 2031
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Cerro have kept their man, and Ararat go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market21 Jul 2031
Add another name to the list: Shirak have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Ararat Sarkisov. The answer from Ararat has not changed — yet.
The dugout21 Jul 2031
Divine Ukadike has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Ararat 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad14 Jul 2031
51 days out for Gonçalo Gregório after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Ararat will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market14 Jul 2031
“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.
Squad14 Jul 2031
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.
Squad14 Jul 2031
A row about effort at Ararat
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zhirayr Shaghoyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets14 Jul 2031
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.
The dugout14 Jul 2031
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.
The dugout14 Jul 2031
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Christos Sielis trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market14 Jul 2031
“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 Clinton Dombila.
Market14 Jul 2031
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Zhirayr Shaghoyan signs something — a contract at Ararat or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad7 Jul 2031
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.
Market7 Jul 2031
“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.
Squad7 Jul 2031
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.
Squad7 Jul 2031
Words at Ararat training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikita Glushkov 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.
Transfer targets7 Jul 2031
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.
Market7 Jul 2031
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Boardroom7 Jul 2031
Wages eat 103% 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.
Squad7 Jul 2031
The award goes to Dejan Suhovršnik, and nobody around here is inclined to argue with the choice.
Boardroom7 Jul 2031
Ararat sign 7 boys into the academy
None of them will be seen by anybody outside the training ground for three years, most of them will never play a senior match, and one of them might change the club. That is the whole proposition, and it is why academies exist.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad30 Jun 2031
A fracture rules Gonçalo Gregório out for 65 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Ararat will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match30 Jun 2031
Full time on the season at Ararat
Position 3 on 36 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
Market30 Jun 2031
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Shirak waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Ararat is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Boardroom30 Jun 2031
The numbers do not look good at Ararat
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Match28 Jun 2031
Ararat cannot stop winning
4 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.
Squad30 Jun 2031
Defences have started doubling up on Zhirayr Shaghoyan
15 goals and a season average of 7.45 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Market30 Jun 2031
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Sargis Sarkisov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ararat the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad30 Jun 2031
Tempers go at Ararat
Gonçalo Gregório 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.
Squad30 Jun 2031
Zhirayr Shaghoyan 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad23 Jun 2031
72 days out for Gonçalo Gregório after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Ararat will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match18 Jun 2031
Cup progress for Ararat
A 3‑2 win over Ararat-Armenia, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Match21 Jun 2031
No mercy from Ararat
Shirak will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Ararat were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Squad23 Jun 2031
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad23 Jun 2031
The match ball belongs to Dejan Suhovršnik, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Match23 Jun 2031
Ararat refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 33 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Player ratings23 Jun 2031
Sargis Sarkisov, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.72
A mark of 7.72 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Market23 Jun 2031
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Volodya Samsonyan will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ararat the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match21 Jun 2031
Ararat make it 3 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Ararat have 3 straight wins of it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad16 Jun 2031
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 79 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings16 Jun 2031
A brace, and Dejan Suhovršnik takes the afternoon — 9.10
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Dejan Suhovršnik provided it, and the 9.10 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market16 Jun 2031
“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.
Market16 Jun 2031
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Ararat people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The dugout16 Jun 2031
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad16 Jun 2031
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.
Match14 Jun 2031
A 3‑2 win over Gandzasar, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad16 Jun 2031
A row about effort at Ararat
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nikita Glushkov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets16 Jun 2031
Ararat asked and Ararat-Armenia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad9 Jun 2031
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 86 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market9 Jun 2031
“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.
Market9 Jun 2031
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Noah waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Ararat is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Squad9 Jun 2031
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.
Squad9 Jun 2031
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Gonçalo Gregório and Ararat agree another 2 years.
Squad9 Jun 2031
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 ratings9 Jun 2031
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.18, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout9 Jun 2031
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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Daniel Michel to a room that had heard them before.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad2 Jun 2031
93 days out for Gonçalo Gregório after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Ararat will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market2 Jun 2031
“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.
Boardroom2 Jun 2031
Belts tighten at Ararat
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
Squad2 Jun 2031
Defences have started doubling up on Zhirayr Shaghoyan
15 goals and a season average of 7.46 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad2 Jun 2031
“The easiest signature of my career.” Gonçalo Gregório and Ararat agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad2 Jun 2031
Tempers go at Ararat
Gonçalo Gregório 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.
Match31 May 2031
A bad afternoon for Ararat against BKMA
1‑2 to BKMA, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Market2 Jun 2031
The phone has started ringing about Sargis Sarkisov again, and this time the name on the line is Shirak. Ararat are listening politely and promising nothing.
Looking ahead2 Jun 2031
The big one: Alashkert come into view
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Ararat will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad26 May 2031
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 100 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad26 May 2031
A season average of 7.45 with 14 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Match24 May 2031
7 unbeaten for Ararat
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 7 matches without defeat is a foundation Ararat did not have in the autumn.
Squad26 May 2031
Words exchanged at Ararat
Gonçalo Gregório 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 May 2031
Words at Ararat training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikita Glushkov 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.
Match24 May 2031
Noah made Ararat work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings26 May 2031
Ninety minutes of Zhirayr Shaghoyan at his very best
Marked 8.72. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Ararat.
Player ratings26 May 2031
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.37, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout26 May 2031
Žan Majer gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad19 May 2031
A fracture rules Gonçalo Gregório out for 107 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Ararat will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match17 May 2031
3 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Zhirayr Shaghoyan will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Ararat escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Market19 May 2031
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.
Squad19 May 2031
The match ball belongs to Zhirayr Shaghoyan, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Market19 May 2031
“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.
The dugout19 May 2031
Toby Bower: 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.
Squad19 May 2031
Defences have started doubling up on Zhirayr Shaghoyan
13 goals and a season average of 7.39 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad19 May 2031
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.
Match17 May 2031
Still nobody has beaten Ararat
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match12 May 2031
Ararat are in among the leaders
Position 3 and 23 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Player ratings12 May 2031
Successful dribbles: 21. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad12 May 2031
A row about effort at Ararat
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gonçalo Gregório was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad12 May 2031
Tempers go at Ararat
Narek Alaverdyan 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.
Squad12 May 2031
A season average of 7.28 with 10 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Match10 May 2031
Van made Ararat work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings12 May 2031
Ninety minutes of Zhirayr Shaghoyan at his very best
Marked 8.18. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Ararat.
Market12 May 2031
Žan Majer is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Ararat has been clear about where Žan Majer stands, which is more than many ever get.
Squad12 May 2031
A goalkeeper's career is counted in the games nobody scored in, and Nikita Lobusov now has 25 of them across 137 appearances. Nothing about that number was luck.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings5 May 2031
A brace, and Zhirayr Shaghoyan takes the afternoon — 9.68
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Zhirayr Shaghoyan provided it, and the 9.68 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market5 May 2031
“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.
Match3 May 2031
Cruel end for Urartu as Ararat pounce
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Ararat scored in the 92th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Player ratings5 May 2031
At 35 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.68, and nobody on the pitch better.
Squad5 May 2031
Tempers go at Ararat
Gonçalo Gregório 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.
Match3 May 2031
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Zhirayr Shaghoyan. 3‑2 against Urartu, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad5 May 2031
A row about effort at Ararat
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nikita Glushkov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad5 May 2031
A season average of 7.24 with 9 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad5 May 2031
A place in the month's best eleven for Abdoul Djire
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Abdoul Djire has come out of that comparison in the side, and Ararat have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
In brief
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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The dugout
Caio Amaral knocks on the manager's door
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The dugout
A promise honoured at Ararat
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings28 Apr 2031
Successful dribbles: 25. 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.
Squad28 Apr 2031
Tempers go at Ararat
Yaya Sogodogo 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.
Squad28 Apr 2031
Words at Ararat training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gonçalo Gregório 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 dugout28 Apr 2031
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nikita Lobusov, and the manager let it.
Player ratings28 Apr 2031
Marked 8.14 — 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.
Match28 Apr 2031
Ararat at the halfway mark
Half the programme played, position 4, 17 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
Match26 Apr 2031
Level with 93 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Ararat had all but put away. Pyunik will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
Match26 Apr 2031
Honours even between Ararat and Pyunik
2‑2, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Player ratings28 Apr 2031
Ten men and a goalkeeper behind him, and it still finished in the net. He knew before anybody told him, and nobody at Ararat needed to.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market21 Apr 2031
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Zhirayr Shaghoyan will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ararat the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market21 Apr 2031
“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.
Squad21 Apr 2031
Words exchanged at Ararat
Nikita Lobusov 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.
Squad21 Apr 2031
A row about effort at Ararat
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gonçalo Gregório was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match19 Apr 2031
Ararat get the job done against Shirak
A 1‑0 win over Shirak, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings21 Apr 2031
Ninety minutes of Zhirayr Shaghoyan at his very best
Marked 8.05. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Ararat.
Player ratings21 Apr 2031
Defensive actions: 16. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
The dugout21 Apr 2031
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Daniel Michel, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Boardroom21 Apr 2031
Ararat have to sell first
The manager has a list and the board has a condition attached to it. That is not a crisis — half of football works this way — but it decides which of the two of them gets his way in August.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match12 Apr 2031
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 6‑0 against Gandzasar, and it could have been more.
Player ratings14 Apr 2031
Two goals and a mark of 10.00 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market14 Apr 2031
“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.
Squad14 Apr 2031
3 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.
Squad14 Apr 2031
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 ratings14 Apr 2031
Zhirayr Shaghoyan was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.92. 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.
Match12 Apr 2031
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Ararat and Gandzasar, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad14 Apr 2031
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Abdoul Djire commits to Ararat for another 4 years.
Squad14 Apr 2031
Words at Ararat training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikita Glushkov 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Boardroom7 Apr 2031
“I have supported clubs like this one. I know what a bad Saturday feels like here.” The new man starts with nothing behind him and everything in front of him.
Squad7 Apr 2031
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Market7 Apr 2031
Žan Majer 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.
Squad7 Apr 2031
“The easiest signature of my career.” Malick Berté and Ararat agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad7 Apr 2031
A row about effort at Ararat
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gonçalo Gregório was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad7 Apr 2031
Words exchanged at Ararat
Žan Majer 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.
Match5 Apr 2031
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Market7 Apr 2031
“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 Zhirayr Shaghoyan.
The dugout7 Apr 2031
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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Daniel Michel to a room that had heard them before.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market31 Mar 2031
“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.
Match29 Mar 2031
Ararat win it in stoppage time
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 91th minute. BKMA will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Squad31 Mar 2031
Tempers go at Ararat
Yaya Sogodogo 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.
Squad31 Mar 2031
A row about effort at Ararat
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gonçalo Gregório was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match29 Mar 2031
It finished 1‑0, and it was Dejan Suhovršnik’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Ararat.
Player ratings31 Mar 2031
Marked 7.66 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Ararat had the best player on the pitch.
Player ratings31 Mar 2031
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout31 Mar 2031
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Daniel Michel kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The dugout31 Mar 2031
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Toby Bower, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market24 Mar 2031
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.
Player ratings24 Mar 2031
At 35 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.04, and nobody on the pitch better.
Squad24 Mar 2031
A falling-out at Ararat
Gonçalo Gregório and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 Mar 2031
A row about effort at Ararat
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nikita Glushkov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad24 Mar 2031
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Ararat can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Player ratings24 Mar 2031
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.
The dugout24 Mar 2031
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Dejan Suhovršnik, and the manager let it.
Squad24 Mar 2031
5 new faces, and Ararat 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.
Match22 Mar 2031
Ararat share the spoils with Noah
A 1‑1 draw with Noah leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
In brief
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Boardroom
Nobody arrives at Ararat until somebody leaves
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
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Market
Still no signature from Zhirayr Shaghoyan
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market17 Mar 2031
“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.
The dugout17 Mar 2031
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Ararat may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad17 Mar 2031
A falling-out at Ararat
Yaya Sogodogo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad17 Mar 2031
Zhirayr Shaghoyan 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.
Match15 Mar 2031
Ararat-Armenia left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings17 Mar 2031
Malick Berté ran the middle of the pitch — 6.90
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 11 combined actions and a mark of 6.90, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
The dugout17 Mar 2031
No hiding place for Žan Majer
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Žan Majer, and the manager let it.
The dugout17 Mar 2031
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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout17 Mar 2031
Caio Amaral 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
Steady
Player ratings10 Mar 2031
A brace, and Zhirayr Shaghoyan takes the afternoon — 9.25
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Zhirayr Shaghoyan provided it, and the 9.25 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market10 Mar 2031
“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.
Market10 Mar 2031
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad10 Mar 2031
Words exchanged at Ararat
Yaya Sogodogo 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.
Squad10 Mar 2031
A row about effort at Ararat
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zhirayr Shaghoyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom10 Mar 2031
Ararat still without a manager
9 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.
Match8 Mar 2031
It finished 2‑0, and it was Zhirayr Shaghoyan’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Ararat.
Squad10 Mar 2031
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Akim Belokhonov and Ararat agree another 3 years.
Market10 Mar 2031
“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 Zhirayr Shaghoyan.
In brief
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Player ratings
Narek Alaverdyan beats them one at a time
-
The dugout
The view from the dugout
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The dugout
Caio Amaral asks for a word with the manager
From our football correspondent
Steady
Boardroom3 Mar 2031
Ararat run out of patience with the manager
The end came on a Tuesday, as these things usually do: a short meeting, a shorter statement, and the manager clearing his office by noon. Football’s cruellest ritual, performed to schedule.
Match1 Mar 2031
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Market3 Mar 2031
Moussa Kanté 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.
Boardroom3 Mar 2031
An empty coaching office at Ararat
There is nobody left to promote and nobody left to run a session. The board have brought in a name the supporters do not know, and the question of how a club gets here will outlast whoever answers it.
Player ratings3 Mar 2031
Two goals and a mark of 9.06 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Boardroom3 Mar 2031
“Somebody picks the team on Saturday. This week it is me, and that is as far as I have thought.” No promises were made in either direction, which is how these usually begin.
Player ratings3 Mar 2031
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.16 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad3 Mar 2031
Words exchanged at Ararat
Gonçalo Gregório 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.
Boardroom3 Mar 2031
Graduation day at Ararat
6 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market24 Feb 2031
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.
Squad24 Feb 2031
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.
Squad24 Feb 2031
Zhirayr Shaghoyan 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.
Market24 Feb 2031
The name of Sargis Sarkisov has come up in conversations Ararat were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad24 Feb 2031
6 new faces, and Ararat 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.
The dugout24 Feb 2031
The manager makes an example of Billy Blacker
“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.
Boardroom24 Feb 2031
Ararat have to sell first
The manager has a list and the board has a condition attached to it. That is not a crisis — half of football works this way — but it decides which of the two of them gets his way in August.
The dugout24 Feb 2031
Abdoul Djire gets picked when it counts
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 Abdoul Djire is on it.
The dugout24 Feb 2031
Abdoul Djire knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Abdoul Djire trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom17 Feb 2031
Pressure builds in the Ararat boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market17 Feb 2031
“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.
Match17 Feb 2031
Ararat refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 32 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Squad17 Feb 2031
Words at Ararat training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zhirayr Shaghoyan 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.
Squad17 Feb 2031
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.
The dugout17 Feb 2031
Clinton Dombila has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Ararat 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.
Squad17 Feb 2031
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
The dugout17 Feb 2031
Abdoul Djire 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.
The dugout17 Feb 2031
The manager makes Caio Amaral a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Ararat. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad10 Feb 2031
Tempers go at Ararat
Gonçalo Gregório 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.
Squad10 Feb 2031
A muscle injury sidelines Divine Ukadike for 17 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Ararat will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad10 Feb 2031
Words at Ararat training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikita Glushkov 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 dugout10 Feb 2031
Malick Berté gets picked when it counts
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 Malick Berté is on it.
The dugout10 Feb 2031
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Dejan Suhovršnik trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market10 Feb 2031
The name of Nikita Lobusov keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Ararat say nothing, which says plenty.
Market10 Feb 2031
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Market10 Feb 2031
11 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
Market10 Feb 2031
5 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Ararat could get for him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom3 Feb 2031
Ararat spell it out for the manager
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. the manager has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Market3 Feb 2031
Moussa Kanté 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.
Boardroom3 Feb 2031
Crisis meeting at Ararat
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Market3 Feb 2031
Ararat say no — this time
The offer from Noah for Yaya Sogodogo 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.
Boardroom3 Feb 2031
Window shuts: 9 in, 9 out at Ararat
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 9 arrived, 9 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Squad3 Feb 2031
Zhirayr Shaghoyan 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.
Squad3 Feb 2031
Tempers go at Ararat
Žan Majer 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.
Squad3 Feb 2031
Žan Majer has outgrown this division
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Ararat know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
The dugout3 Feb 2031
Zhirayr Shaghoyan has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Ararat 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market27 Jan 2031
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.
Market27 Jan 2031
“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.
Market27 Jan 2031
The name of Yaya Sogodogo has come up in conversations Ararat were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Market27 Jan 2031
Ararat say no — this time
The offer from Shakhter for Ararat Sarkisov 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.
Boardroom27 Jan 2031
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Squad27 Jan 2031
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.
Squad27 Jan 2031
Zhirayr Shaghoyan 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.
Squad27 Jan 2031
Too much change too quickly at Ararat
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Boardroom27 Jan 2031
Ararat have to sell first
The manager has a list and the board has a condition attached to it. That is not a crisis — half of football works this way — but it decides which of the two of them gets his way in August.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom20 Jan 2031
Pressure builds in the Ararat boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market20 Jan 2031
Yaya Sogodogo 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.
Match20 Jan 2031
Ararat are in among the leaders
Position 3 and 32 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Squad20 Jan 2031
Akim Belokhonov arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Akim Belokhonov has, at Ararat, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Boardroom20 Jan 2031
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Hayk Adamyan has agreed terms with BKMA for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad20 Jan 2031
A falling-out at Ararat
Yaya Sogodogo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad20 Jan 2031
A row about effort at Ararat
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nikita Glushkov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets20 Jan 2031
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Inter have kept their man, and Ararat go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market20 Jan 2031
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Artak Khachatryan 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market13 Jan 2031
“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.
Squad13 Jan 2031
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 Jan 2031
Words at Ararat training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zhirayr Shaghoyan 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.
Transfer targets13 Jan 2031
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.
Market13 Jan 2031
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Squad13 Jan 2031
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Ararat will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
The dugout13 Jan 2031
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 Clinton Dombila is on it.
The dugout13 Jan 2031
The manager makes an example of Timothy Robert
“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.
The dugout13 Jan 2031
“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
Boardroom6 Jan 2031
Ararat put the manager on notice
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.
Market6 Jan 2031
“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.
Market6 Jan 2031
“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.
Squad6 Jan 2031
Tempers go at Ararat
Yaya Sogodogo 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.
Squad6 Jan 2031
Words at Ararat training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gonçalo Gregório 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.
Transfer targets6 Jan 2031
Ararat asked and Ararat-Armenia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market6 Jan 2031
“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 Zhirayr Shaghoyan.
Squad6 Jan 2031
Sabino wants to go home
“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 Ararat know it.
Transfer targets6 Jan 2031
A loan move for Orkhan Nazarov is in the works
Ararat have made the call to Inter. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout30 Dec 2030
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Ararat may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad30 Dec 2030
A falling-out at Ararat
Gonçalo Gregório and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad30 Dec 2030
A row about effort at Ararat
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nikita Glushkov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad30 Dec 2030
Sabino wants one last season at home
Every long career reaches the week the last one is thought about. He would like it to be where he started, and Ararat know now that the thought has arrived.
The dugout30 Dec 2030
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.
The dugout30 Dec 2030
Abdoul Djire 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
Market23 Dec 2030
Yaya Sogodogo 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.
Boardroom23 Dec 2030
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Ararat
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Match23 Dec 2030
Ararat are in among the leaders
Position 3 and 32 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Squad23 Dec 2030
A falling-out at Ararat
Yaya Sogodogo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad23 Dec 2030
A row about effort at Ararat
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zhirayr Shaghoyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom23 Dec 2030
Nobody arrives at Ararat until somebody leaves
The club is not barred from spending; it simply has nothing to spend that it has not first raised. Every name linked with Ararat this window arrives with a name leaving in the same sentence.
The dugout23 Dec 2030
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.
The dugout23 Dec 2030
The manager makes Caio Amaral a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Ararat. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Market23 Dec 2030
Ararat and Ruan Lima are talking past each other
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market16 Dec 2030
Lamine Fofana 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.
Squad16 Dec 2030
Zhirayr Shaghoyan 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.
Squad16 Dec 2030
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.
The dugout16 Dec 2030
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 Clinton Dombila is on it.
Market16 Dec 2030
The name of Nikita Lobusov keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Ararat say nothing, which says plenty.
Market16 Dec 2030
“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 Billy Blacker.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market9 Dec 2030
“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.
Squad9 Dec 2030
Words exchanged at Ararat
Gonçalo Gregório 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.
Squad9 Dec 2030
Words at Ararat training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikita Glushkov 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 dugout9 Dec 2030
Malick Berté gets picked when it counts
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 Malick Berté is on it.
Squad9 Dec 2030
No place for Ruan Lima in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Ararat are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Market9 Dec 2030
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Ararat know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Squad9 Dec 2030
The competition arrived without a word said to him about it. Gonçalo Gregório keeps the shirt for now, at Ararat's convenience rather than his own.
Market9 Dec 2030
Ararat shop where it costs nothing
Ruan Lima signs, and the fee column stays empty. Deals like this look small in July and clever by March — or they are never mentioned again.
The dugout9 Dec 2030
“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
Boardroom2 Dec 2030
Ararat put the manager on notice
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 Dec 2030
“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 Dec 2030
Zhirayr Shaghoyan 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.
Squad2 Dec 2030
Words exchanged at Ararat
Narek Alaverdyan and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Market2 Dec 2030
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
The dugout2 Dec 2030
Zhirayr Shaghoyan has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Ararat 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 dugout2 Dec 2030
Caio Amaral 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.
Market2 Dec 2030
7 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Ararat could get for him.
Boardroom2 Dec 2030
Ararat keep producing them
53 graduates from an academy now rated 9 out of 20. A club this size does not survive any other way, and every name on that list is known in the town.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom25 Nov 2030
The scrutiny sharpens at Ararat
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Ararat is running low.
Match25 Nov 2030
Ararat up to position 3
32 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Squad25 Nov 2030
Tempers go at Ararat
Nikita Lobusov 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.
Squad25 Nov 2030
Words at Ararat training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zhirayr Shaghoyan 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.
Boardroom25 Nov 2030
Ararat can only buy what they sell
Nobody has barred the club from spending; it simply has nothing to spend that it has not first raised. Every incoming name comes with an outgoing one attached.
The dugout25 Nov 2030
Yaya Sogodogo 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
Squad18 Nov 2030
Tempers go at Ararat
Gonçalo Gregório 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 Nov 2030
Nikita Glushkov 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.
The dugout18 Nov 2030
Yaya Sogodogo 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.
The dugout18 Nov 2030
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.
Market18 Nov 2030
The name of Nikita Lobusov keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Ararat say nothing, which says plenty.
Squad18 Nov 2030
He goes off to be somebody else’s player for a fortnight. Ararat lose him for the window and would like him returned in the condition he left.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market11 Nov 2030
“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.
Squad11 Nov 2030
Tempers go at Ararat
Yaya Sogodogo 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.
Squad11 Nov 2030
Zhirayr Shaghoyan 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.
Market11 Nov 2030
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
The dugout11 Nov 2030
Malick Berté has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Ararat 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.
Market11 Nov 2030
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Ararat know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout11 Nov 2030
The manager makes Caio Amaral a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Ararat. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Squad11 Nov 2030
A wage question at Ararat
Caio Amaral has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
The dugout11 Nov 2030
Billy Blacker knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Billy Blacker trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom4 Nov 2030
Ararat put the manager on notice
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.
Market4 Nov 2030
“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.
Squad4 Nov 2030
“The easiest signature of my career.” Gonçalo Gregório and Ararat agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad4 Nov 2030
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.
Squad4 Nov 2030
A row about effort at Ararat
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zhirayr Shaghoyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market4 Nov 2030
“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 Zhirayr Shaghoyan.
Squad4 Nov 2030
Sabino wants to go home
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Ararat can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout4 Nov 2030
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 Zhirayr Shaghoyan is on it.
The dugout4 Nov 2030
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Kristófer Orri Pétursson was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom28 Oct 2030
The scrutiny sharpens at Ararat
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Ararat is running low.
Match28 Oct 2030
Ararat refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 32 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Squad28 Oct 2030
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 Oct 2030
A row about effort at Ararat
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nikita Glushkov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom28 Oct 2030
Ararat can only buy what they sell
Nobody has barred the club from spending; it simply has nothing to spend that it has not first raised. Every incoming name comes with an outgoing one attached.
The dugout28 Oct 2030
Abdoul Djire gets picked when it counts
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 Abdoul Djire is on it.
The dugout28 Oct 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Hayk Karapetyan, and the manager let it.
The dugout28 Oct 2030
Khalil Sammani 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.
Market28 Oct 2030
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Khalil Sammani may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Oct 2030
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.
Squad21 Oct 2030
Zhirayr Shaghoyan 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.
The dugout21 Oct 2030
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 Clinton Dombila is on it.
Market21 Oct 2030
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Ararat know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout21 Oct 2030
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.
The dugout21 Oct 2030
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mikhail Pykhcheev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market14 Oct 2030
“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.
Squad14 Oct 2030
A row about effort at Ararat
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zhirayr Shaghoyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad14 Oct 2030
Words exchanged at Ararat
Narek Alaverdyan 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.
Squad14 Oct 2030
A quiet fortnight at Ararat
With 4 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like one.
The dugout14 Oct 2030
Malick Berté gets picked when it counts
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 Malick Berté is on it.
The dugout14 Oct 2030
Abdoul Djire knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Abdoul Djire trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Oct 2030
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 14 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market7 Oct 2030
“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.
Squad7 Oct 2030
Words exchanged at Ararat
Gonçalo Gregório 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.
Squad7 Oct 2030
A row about effort at Ararat
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nikita Glushkov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout7 Oct 2030
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.
The dugout7 Oct 2030
Caio Amaral 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
Squad30 Sep 2030
A fracture rules Gonçalo Gregório out for 23 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Ararat will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The dugout30 Sep 2030
Malick Berté: 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.
Match30 Sep 2030
Ararat refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 32 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Boardroom30 Sep 2030
Pressure builds in the Ararat boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad30 Sep 2030
Tempers go at Ararat
Gonçalo Gregório 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.
Squad30 Sep 2030
Zhirayr Shaghoyan 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.
The dugout30 Sep 2030
The manager makes an example of Billy Blacker
“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.
Boardroom30 Sep 2030
Ararat have to sell first
The manager has a list and the board has a condition attached to it. That is not a crisis — half of football works this way — but it decides which of the two of them gets his way in August.
The dugout30 Sep 2030
Caio Amaral knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Caio Amaral trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad23 Sep 2030
31 days out for Gonçalo Gregório after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Ararat will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad23 Sep 2030
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.
Squad23 Sep 2030
A row about effort at Ararat
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zhirayr Shaghoyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout23 Sep 2030
“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.
The dugout23 Sep 2030
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 Clinton Dombila is on it.
Market23 Sep 2030
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Ararat know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Sep 2030
A fracture rules Gonçalo Gregório out for 39 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Ararat will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market16 Sep 2030
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.
Market16 Sep 2030
“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.
Squad16 Sep 2030
A falling-out at Ararat
Gonçalo Gregório and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad16 Sep 2030
Words at Ararat training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikita Glushkov 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 dugout16 Sep 2030
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.
The dugout16 Sep 2030
“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.
Market16 Sep 2030
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Khalil Sammani may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Market16 Sep 2030
3 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Ararat money.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad9 Sep 2030
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 47 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market9 Sep 2030
“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.
The dugout9 Sep 2030
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Ararat may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad9 Sep 2030
Words exchanged at Ararat
Gonçalo Gregório 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.
Squad9 Sep 2030
Zhirayr Shaghoyan 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.
The dugout9 Sep 2030
Zhirayr Shaghoyan has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Ararat 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.
Market9 Sep 2030
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Ararat know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Squad9 Sep 2030
Volodya Samsonyan joins up with his country. Ararat lose him for the window and would like him back in one piece.
Market9 Sep 2030
Ararat have let the market know Volodya Samsonyan can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
In brief
-
The dugout
Khalil Sammani knocks on the manager's door
-
Market
The window shut and Umut Dilek is still in the building
-
Boardroom
The Ararat academy earns its keep
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market2 Sep 2030
Terms done: Umut Dilek is going
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and BKMA waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Ararat is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Match2 Sep 2030
Ararat refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 32 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Boardroom2 Sep 2030
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Ararat
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Boardroom2 Sep 2030
Deadline passes with 19 signed and 18 gone
That is the business done at Ararat until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Market2 Sep 2030
The deal that would have taken Khalil Sammani to Shirak has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Ararat with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Squad2 Sep 2030
Words exchanged at Ararat
Yaya Sogodogo 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.
Squad2 Sep 2030
A row about effort at Ararat
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gonçalo Gregório was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad2 Sep 2030
Sabino wants to go home
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Ararat can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Boardroom2 Sep 2030
Nobody arrives at Ararat until somebody leaves
The club is not barred from spending; it simply has nothing to spend that it has not first raised. Every name linked with Ararat this window arrives with a name leaving in the same sentence.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market26 Aug 2030
Khalil Sammani has one foot out of the door
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.
Squad26 Aug 2030
A falling-out at Ararat
Yaya Sogodogo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom26 Aug 2030
Belts tighten at Ararat
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
Squad26 Aug 2030
A row about effort at Ararat
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gonçalo Gregório was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market26 Aug 2030
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Ararat will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
The dugout26 Aug 2030
Clinton Dombila has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Ararat 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market19 Aug 2030
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Shirak waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Ararat is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The dugout19 Aug 2030
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market19 Aug 2030
“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.
Squad19 Aug 2030
A falling-out at Ararat
Gonçalo Gregório and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Aug 2030
A row about effort at Ararat
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zhirayr Shaghoyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets19 Aug 2030
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.
The dugout19 Aug 2030
Malick Berté gets picked when it counts
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 Malick Berté is on it.
The dugout19 Aug 2030
Abdoul Djire knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Abdoul Djire trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market19 Aug 2030
“Ambitious players need ambitious projects. Draw your own conclusions.” Zhirayr Shaghoyan’s representative said it with a smile, and made sure everyone wrote it down.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market12 Aug 2030
“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.
Squad12 Aug 2030
Tempers go at Ararat
Yaya Sogodogo 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.
Squad12 Aug 2030
Words at Ararat training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gonçalo Gregório 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.
Transfer targets12 Aug 2030
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Khazar have kept their man, and Ararat go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout12 Aug 2030
Zhirayr Shaghoyan has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Ararat 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 dugout12 Aug 2030
Caio Amaral 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.
Squad12 Aug 2030
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Squad12 Aug 2030
Nikita Glushkov has seen what the next man earns
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 Ararat that is a harder question to answer.
Market12 Aug 2030
Umut Dilek linked with a move away
The name of Umut Dilek keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Ararat say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match5 Aug 2030
Ararat refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 32 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Boardroom5 Aug 2030
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Ararat
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Squad5 Aug 2030
Words exchanged at Ararat
Yaya Sogodogo 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.
Squad5 Aug 2030
Hayk Grigoryan gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Hayk Grigoryan has just signed for Ararat, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad5 Aug 2030
“The easiest signature of my career.” Umut Dilek and Ararat agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad5 Aug 2030
A row about effort at Ararat
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gonçalo Gregório was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets5 Aug 2030
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Bunyodkor have kept their man, and Ararat go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market5 Aug 2030
“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 Moussa Kanté.
The dugout5 Aug 2030
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market29 Jul 2030
The Shirak deal is off
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Khalil Sammani reports back to Ararat with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Squad29 Jul 2030
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.
Boardroom29 Jul 2030
The numbers do not look good at Ararat
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Squad29 Jul 2030
A row about effort at Ararat
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zhirayr Shaghoyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets29 Jul 2030
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.
Transfer targets29 Jul 2030
A loan enquiry to Gimnasia y Tiro: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout29 Jul 2030
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.
Market29 Jul 2030
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Ararat know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Market29 Jul 2030
Umut Dilek runs his contract down
1 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Ararat money.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market22 Jul 2030
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Ararat have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market22 Jul 2030
“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.
Market22 Jul 2030
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.
Squad22 Jul 2030
A falling-out at Ararat
Gonçalo Gregório and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad22 Jul 2030
Words at Ararat training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zhirayr Shaghoyan 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.
Transfer targets22 Jul 2030
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.
The dugout22 Jul 2030
Malick Berté has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Ararat 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.
Market22 Jul 2030
The name of Zhirayr Shaghoyan keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Ararat say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout22 Jul 2030
“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
Market15 Jul 2030
“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.
Squad15 Jul 2030
Words exchanged at Ararat
Gonçalo Gregório and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Transfer targets15 Jul 2030
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.
Market15 Jul 2030
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Narek Hakobyan is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market15 Jul 2030
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Levon Adamyan is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market15 Jul 2030
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Armen Karapetyan 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.
Squad15 Jul 2030
A row about effort at Ararat
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nikita Glushkov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout15 Jul 2030
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.
Squad15 Jul 2030
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 Ararat would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match8 Jul 2030
Ararat up to position 3
32 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Market8 Jul 2030
“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.
Market8 Jul 2030
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.
Transfer targets8 Jul 2030
The deal with Gimnasia y Tiro is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Squad8 Jul 2030
Words exchanged at Ararat
Yaya Sogodogo 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.
Squad8 Jul 2030
Words at Ararat training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zhirayr Shaghoyan 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.
Transfer targets8 Jul 2030
Ararat asked and Bunyodkor said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Boardroom8 Jul 2030
Wages swallow 100% of the Ararat income
Every club 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 it has been tried.
Transfer targets8 Jul 2030
A loan move for Augusto Levrand is in the works
Ararat have made the call to Gimnasia y Esgrima. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market1 Jul 2030
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Ararat have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Match1 Jul 2030
Ararat finish in position 3
32 points, and the season has a number on it. Whatever it felt like from the inside, this is what it will look like in a book.
Match29 Jun 2030
No end in sight to Ararat's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Ararat has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad1 Jul 2030
A falling-out at Ararat
Yaya Sogodogo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom1 Jul 2030
The numbers do not look good at Ararat
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Squad1 Jul 2030
Words at Ararat training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zhirayr Shaghoyan 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.
Transfer targets1 Jul 2030
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ararat-Armenia have kept their man, and Ararat go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match29 Jun 2030
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad1 Jul 2030
Home is on Sabino's mind
“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
Match19 Jun 2030
Ararat bow out of the cup
Ararat-Armenia go through and Ararat go home, 1‑3 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Squad24 Jun 2030
7 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Market24 Jun 2030
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.
Squad24 Jun 2030
A falling-out at Ararat
Gonçalo Gregório and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings24 Jun 2030
Successful dribbles: 21. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad24 Jun 2030
100 times in these colours, in all weathers and under four or five different managers. That kind of service is quietly disappearing from the game.
Squad24 Jun 2030
Nikita Glushkov falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Transfer targets24 Jun 2030
A loan move for Pavel Popov is in the works
Ararat have made the call to Ararat-Armenia. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout24 Jun 2030
Malick Berté has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Ararat 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market17 Jun 2030
“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 Jun 2030
Words exchanged at Ararat
Gonçalo Gregório 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.
Player ratings17 Jun 2030
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad17 Jun 2030
A row about effort at Ararat
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zhirayr Shaghoyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets17 Jun 2030
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.
Player ratings17 Jun 2030
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.11, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match15 Jun 2030
A point taken on 93 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.
Squad17 Jun 2030
Billy Blacker pulls a muscle — 15 days out
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 15 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Match15 Jun 2030
It finished 2‑2, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad10 Jun 2030
10 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Market10 Jun 2030
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Player ratings10 Jun 2030
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.80, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Match10 Jun 2030
Ararat up to position 3
30 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Market10 Jun 2030
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Sargis Sarkisov had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Market10 Jun 2030
“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 Jun 2030
Khalil Sammani has one foot out of the door
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.
Squad10 Jun 2030
15 goals and a season average of 7.44. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Match8 Jun 2030
Ararat cannot stop winning
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.
In brief
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Squad
Tempers go at Ararat
-
Player ratings
Nothing got past Caio Amaral
-
Squad
Words at Ararat training over how hard people work
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Boardroom3 Jun 2030
Ararat counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Ararat now.
Market3 Jun 2030
“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.
Squad3 Jun 2030
13 goals and a season average of 7.38. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad3 Jun 2030
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.
Transfer targets3 Jun 2030
Ararat asked and Ararat-Armenia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match1 Jun 2030
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Zhirayr Shaghoyan. 1‑0 against BKMA, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Market3 Jun 2030
The name of Sargis Sarkisov has come up in conversations Ararat were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Looking ahead3 Jun 2030
The big one: Alashkert come into view
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Ararat will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
Player ratings3 Jun 2030
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
In brief
-
Player ratings
Zhirayr Shaghoyan takes the honours
-
Squad
Words at Ararat training over how hard people work
-
Boardroom
Wages eat 92% of everything Ararat earn
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market27 May 2030
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.
Squad27 May 2030
A falling-out at Ararat
Gonçalo Gregório and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad27 May 2030
Defences have started doubling up on Zhirayr Shaghoyan
12 goals and a season average of 7.36 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad27 May 2030
A row about effort at Ararat
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zhirayr Shaghoyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match25 May 2030
It finished 1‑0, and it was Zhirayr Shaghoyan’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Ararat.
Player ratings27 May 2030
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.29, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings27 May 2030
Successful dribbles: 16. 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.
The dugout27 May 2030
A satisfied the manager
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, the manager could afford to be generous.
The dugout27 May 2030
Clinton Dombila has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Ararat 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad20 May 2030
8 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Squad20 May 2030
Tempers go at Ararat
Yaya Sogodogo 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.
Squad20 May 2030
Words at Ararat training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zhirayr Shaghoyan 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.
Looking ahead20 May 2030
Top-of-the-table clash for Ararat
Noah next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
Match18 May 2030
It needed Moussa Kanté to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Ararat-Armenia, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout20 May 2030
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.
The dugout20 May 2030
the manager: “We have to be better”
“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.
The dugout20 May 2030
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
The dugout20 May 2030
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match13 May 2030
Ararat refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 20 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Market13 May 2030
“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.
Market13 May 2030
Only the photograph left for Khalil Sammani
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Khalil Sammani will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ararat the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Player ratings13 May 2030
Successful dribbles: 25. 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.
Squad13 May 2030
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.
Match11 May 2030
Ararat come up short against Van
Van left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad13 May 2030
A row about effort at Ararat
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nikita Glushkov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout13 May 2030
the manager faces the questions
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” the manager after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout13 May 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Khalil Sammani, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings6 May 2030
A brace, and Zhirayr Shaghoyan takes the afternoon — 9.28
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Zhirayr Shaghoyan provided it, and the 9.28 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Match4 May 2030
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 87th, and Urartu spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
Boardroom6 May 2030
The numbers do not look good at Ararat
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Market6 May 2030
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 May 2030
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.
Squad6 May 2030
Defences have started doubling up on Zhirayr Shaghoyan
11 goals and a season average of 7.36 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Match4 May 2030
Whatever happens, Ararat do not lose
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad6 May 2030
A row about effort at Ararat
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zhirayr Shaghoyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match4 May 2030
Ararat get the job done against Urartu
A 2‑1 win over Urartu, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
In brief
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Match
Another one collected away from home
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Boardroom
94% of the income goes out in wages at Ararat
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The dugout
A satisfied the manager
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings29 Apr 2030
A brace, and Zhirayr Shaghoyan takes the afternoon — 8.95
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Zhirayr Shaghoyan provided it, and the 8.95 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings29 Apr 2030
Gonçalo Gregório, 34, rolls back the years — 7.97
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.97 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Market29 Apr 2030
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.
Player ratings29 Apr 2030
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad29 Apr 2030
A falling-out at Ararat
Gonçalo Gregório and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad29 Apr 2030
Words at Ararat training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zhirayr Shaghoyan 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.
Squad29 Apr 2030
Defences have started doubling up on Zhirayr Shaghoyan
9 goals and a season average of 7.26 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad29 Apr 2030
Sabino wants to go home
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Ararat can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Match29 Apr 2030
Halfway: Ararat sit in position 3
17 points at the turn. The first half of a season is a promise; the second is a bill, and the town is about to find out which of the two this one was.
In brief
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Match
Ararat share the spoils with Pyunik
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The dugout
the manager: “We have to be better”
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The dugout
Clinton Dombila gets picked when it counts
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings22 Apr 2030
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.27, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings22 Apr 2030
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.64 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Match20 Apr 2030
Ararat make it 3 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Ararat have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad22 Apr 2030
Words exchanged at Ararat
Gonçalo Gregório 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.
Match20 Apr 2030
It finished 3‑1, and it was Zhirayr Shaghoyan’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Ararat.
The terraces22 Apr 2030
He is 23 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.
Squad22 Apr 2030
Nikita Glushkov 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.
The dugout22 Apr 2030
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” the manager kept it short after the 3‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The dugout22 Apr 2030
Zhirayr Shaghoyan has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Ararat 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match13 Apr 2030
No mercy from Ararat
Gandzasar will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Ararat were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
The terraces15 Apr 2030
Anger at Ararat spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Match15 Apr 2030
Ararat refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 13 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Player ratings15 Apr 2030
Gonçalo Gregório, 34, rolls back the years — 8.18
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.18 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Market15 Apr 2030
Only the photograph left for Khalil Sammani
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Khalil Sammani will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ararat the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad15 Apr 2030
Tempers go at Ararat
Gonçalo Gregório 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 Apr 2030
A row about effort at Ararat
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zhirayr Shaghoyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings15 Apr 2030
Zhirayr Shaghoyan was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.09. 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.
Player ratings15 Apr 2030
A performance of 8.30 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
In brief
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Player ratings
Yaya Sogodogo was unplayable
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The dugout
the manager: “That is the standard”
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Boardroom
Ararat have to sell first
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings8 Apr 2030
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.22, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad8 Apr 2030
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
The dugout8 Apr 2030
Ararat Sarkisov: 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.
Market8 Apr 2030
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.
Squad8 Apr 2030
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.
Squad8 Apr 2030
Zhirayr Shaghoyan 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.
Squad8 Apr 2030
“The easiest signature of my career.” Narek Alaverdyan and Ararat agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Match6 Apr 2030
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Zhirayr Shaghoyan. 2‑1 against Alashkert, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Boardroom8 Apr 2030
91% 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.
In brief
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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The dugout
Malick Berté has become a man the manager trusts
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Looking ahead
Nikita Lobusov faces his old club
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad1 Apr 2030
A knee injury of the worst kind for Volodya Samsonyan
22 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ararat lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings1 Apr 2030
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.81 for the rest of it.
Market1 Apr 2030
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.
Squad1 Apr 2030
A falling-out at Ararat
Gonçalo Gregório and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match30 Mar 2030
Level with 93 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Ararat had all but put away. BKMA will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
Player ratings1 Apr 2030
Successful dribbles: 15. 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.
Squad1 Apr 2030
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Nikita Glushkov is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Squad1 Apr 2030
Ararat are still strangers to each other
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Match30 Mar 2030
Honours even between Ararat and BKMA
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad25 Mar 2030
A knee injury of the worst kind for Volodya Samsonyan
32 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ararat lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad25 Mar 2030
7 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Squad25 Mar 2030
A falling-out at Ararat
Nikita Lobusov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad25 Mar 2030
A row about effort at Ararat
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zhirayr Shaghoyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match23 Mar 2030
Ararat come up short against Noah
Noah left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout25 Mar 2030
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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by the manager to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout25 Mar 2030
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 Zhirayr Shaghoyan is on it.
Looking ahead25 Mar 2030
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against BKMA in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Market25 Mar 2030
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Nikita Lobusov signs something — a contract at Ararat or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad18 Mar 2030
A knee injury of the worst kind for Volodya Samsonyan
42 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ararat lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The terraces18 Mar 2030
The mood at Ararat has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Player ratings18 Mar 2030
A brace, and Zhirayr Shaghoyan takes the afternoon — 8.97
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Zhirayr Shaghoyan provided it, and the 8.97 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market18 Mar 2030
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.
Squad18 Mar 2030
Tempers go at Ararat
Gonçalo Gregório 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 Mar 2030
Toby Bower arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Toby Bower has, at Ararat, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad18 Mar 2030
A row about effort at Ararat
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zhirayr Shaghoyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match16 Mar 2030
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Zhirayr Shaghoyan. 2‑0 against Ararat-Armenia, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings18 Mar 2030
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
In brief
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The dugout
the manager: “That is the standard”
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Boardroom
Ararat can only buy what they sell
-
Looking ahead
A test against the best for Ararat
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad11 Mar 2030
A knee injury of the worst kind for Volodya Samsonyan
49 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ararat lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings11 Mar 2030
At 34 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.13, and nobody on the pitch better.
Market11 Mar 2030
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.
Squad11 Mar 2030
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.
Market11 Mar 2030
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Gevorg Spertsyan 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.
Market11 Mar 2030
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Tigran Bayramyan 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.
Market11 Mar 2030
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Robert Hakobyan is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Match9 Mar 2030
It finished 1‑0, and it was Gonçalo Gregório’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Ararat.
Player ratings11 Mar 2030
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
In brief
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
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The dugout
Khalil Sammani gets it from the manager
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The dugout
Malick Berté gets picked when it counts
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad4 Mar 2030
A knee injury of the worst kind for Volodya Samsonyan
59 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ararat lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The dugout4 Mar 2030
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market4 Mar 2030
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.
Squad4 Mar 2030
A falling-out at Ararat
Gonçalo Gregório and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom4 Mar 2030
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Ararat
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Squad4 Mar 2030
Zhirayr Shaghoyan 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.
Market4 Mar 2030
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Armen 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.
Market4 Mar 2030
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Petros Adamyan is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market4 Mar 2030
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Edgar Hovhannisyan 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad25 Feb 2030
68 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Ararat lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market25 Feb 2030
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.
Squad25 Feb 2030
Words exchanged at Ararat
Gonçalo Gregório 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.
Squad25 Feb 2030
A row about effort at Ararat
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zhirayr Shaghoyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad25 Feb 2030
Sabino wants to go home
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Ararat can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout25 Feb 2030
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 Zhirayr Shaghoyan is on it.
Market25 Feb 2030
Ararat have made Aboubacar Ouattara available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
Market25 Feb 2030
Umut Dilek linked with a move away
The name of Umut Dilek keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Ararat say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout25 Feb 2030
“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
The terraces18 Feb 2030
The mood at Ararat has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Squad18 Feb 2030
A knee injury of the worst kind for Volodya Samsonyan
75 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ararat lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match18 Feb 2030
Ararat are in real trouble now
Position 8, 19 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.
Market18 Feb 2030
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.
Squad18 Feb 2030
Tempers go at Ararat
Gonçalo Gregório 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 Feb 2030
The medical room confirms 16 days on the sidelines for Aboubacar Ouattara, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad18 Feb 2030
Billy Blacker 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.
The dugout18 Feb 2030
“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.
The dugout18 Feb 2030
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad11 Feb 2030
86 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Ararat lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Boardroom11 Feb 2030
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Ararat
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market11 Feb 2030
The BKMA deal is off
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Umut Dilek reports back to Ararat with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Squad11 Feb 2030
A falling-out at Ararat
Gonçalo Gregório and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad11 Feb 2030
A move Vladyslav Babanin would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Vladyslav Babanin is living that version at Ararat, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad11 Feb 2030
Zhirayr Shaghoyan 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.
Market11 Feb 2030
Everyone has stopped pretending: Shirak will make the call about Khalil Sammani this week. Ararat have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Boardroom11 Feb 2030
86% 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.
The dugout11 Feb 2030
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad4 Feb 2030
93 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Ararat lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Boardroom4 Feb 2030
Ararat put the manager on notice
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.
Boardroom4 Feb 2030
Crisis meeting at Ararat
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Boardroom4 Feb 2030
Ararat close the window on a squad of their own making
2 in and 5 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.
Market4 Feb 2030
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Sargis Sarkisov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ararat the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad4 Feb 2030
Tempers go at Ararat
Nikita Lobusov 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.
Squad4 Feb 2030
Words at Ararat training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zhirayr Shaghoyan 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 dugout4 Feb 2030
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.
The dugout4 Feb 2030
Nikita Glushkov without the man who signed him
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Nikita Glushkov was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Jan 2030
A knee injury of the worst kind for Volodya Samsonyan
102 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ararat lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market28 Jan 2030
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Ararat have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market28 Jan 2030
Sabino 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.
Market28 Jan 2030
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.
Squad28 Jan 2030
Tempers go at Ararat
Gonçalo Gregório 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.
Squad28 Jan 2030
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Kristófer Orri Pétursson has, at Ararat, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces21 Jan 2030
Anger at Ararat spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Squad21 Jan 2030
A knee injury of the worst kind for Volodya Samsonyan
112 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ararat lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match21 Jan 2030
Ararat are in real trouble now
Position 8, 19 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.
Market21 Jan 2030
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Ararat people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market21 Jan 2030
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 Jan 2030
Words exchanged at Ararat
Gonçalo Gregório 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.
Squad21 Jan 2030
A row about effort at Ararat
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zhirayr Shaghoyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad21 Jan 2030
The formation has left Tyler Young behind
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Ararat will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
The dugout21 Jan 2030
Abdoul Djire gets picked when it counts
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 Abdoul Djire is on it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom14 Jan 2030
Pressure builds in the Ararat boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market14 Jan 2030
“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.
Market14 Jan 2030
Tskhinvali come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Ararat did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market14 Jan 2030
“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.
Squad14 Jan 2030
A falling-out at Ararat
Gonçalo Gregório and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom14 Jan 2030
Belts tighten at Ararat
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
Squad14 Jan 2030
Nikita Glushkov 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.
Market14 Jan 2030
No place for Sabino in the plan
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Sabino has his answer from Ararat; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout14 Jan 2030
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom7 Jan 2030
Ararat spell it out for the manager
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. the manager has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Boardroom7 Jan 2030
Crisis meeting at Ararat
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Market7 Jan 2030
“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.
Market7 Jan 2030
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Shirak waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Ararat is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Squad7 Jan 2030
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.
Squad7 Jan 2030
A row about effort at Ararat
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Clinton Dombila was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market7 Jan 2030
Shirak are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Ararat will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Market7 Jan 2030
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
The dugout7 Jan 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Khalil Sammani, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout31 Dec 2029
Khalil Sammani: 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.
Market31 Dec 2029
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.
Squad31 Dec 2029
Tempers go at Ararat
Gonçalo Gregório 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.
Squad31 Dec 2029
A row about effort at Ararat
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zhirayr Shaghoyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom31 Dec 2029
Wages swallow 93% of the Ararat income
Every club 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 it has been tried.
The dugout31 Dec 2029
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 Zhirayr Shaghoyan is on it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces24 Dec 2029
The mood at Ararat has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Match24 Dec 2029
Every point is an argument now for Ararat
Position 8 and 19 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.
Market24 Dec 2029
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.
Squad24 Dec 2029
Words exchanged at Ararat
Gonçalo Gregório 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 dugout24 Dec 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Gonçalo Gregório, and the manager let it.
Squad24 Dec 2029
Narek Hovhannisyan 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.
Squad24 Dec 2029
Home is on Sabino's mind
“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.
The dugout24 Dec 2029
Abdoul Djire gets picked when it counts
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 Abdoul Djire is on it.
Market24 Dec 2029
Umut Dilek linked with a move away
The name of Umut Dilek keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Ararat say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom17 Dec 2029
The scrutiny sharpens at Ararat
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Ararat is running low.
Market17 Dec 2029
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.
Squad17 Dec 2029
A falling-out at Ararat
Gonçalo Gregório and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad17 Dec 2029
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 18 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Boardroom17 Dec 2029
Belts tighten at Ararat
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
Squad17 Dec 2029
A row about effort at Ararat
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Clinton Dombila was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout17 Dec 2029
Gonçalo Gregório 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.
The dugout17 Dec 2029
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 Clinton Dombila is on it.
Market17 Dec 2029
The name of Zhirayr Shaghoyan keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Ararat say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market10 Dec 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.
Market10 Dec 2029
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.
Squad10 Dec 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 Ararat this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Dec 2029
A row about effort at Ararat
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zhirayr Shaghoyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout10 Dec 2029
Malick Berté has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Ararat 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.
Market10 Dec 2029
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Ararat know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Market10 Dec 2029
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Boardroom10 Dec 2029
The Ararat production line keeps running
40 graduates out of an academy now rated 9 out of 20. Clubs this size survive on exactly that, and the town knows every name.
The dugout10 Dec 2029
The manager plants his flag on Nikita Lobusov
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Nikita Lobusov’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom3 Dec 2029
the manager 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.
The dugout3 Dec 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Ararat may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Boardroom3 Dec 2029
Emergency meeting at Ararat
The whole football department in one room on a weekday morning. Nothing was announced afterwards, which is what a board announces when it has run out of patience.
Market3 Dec 2029
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.
Squad3 Dec 2029
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Nikita Glushkov commits to Ararat for another 3 years.
Squad3 Dec 2029
Tempers go at Ararat
Gonçalo Gregório 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.
Squad3 Dec 2029
Words at Ararat training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zhirayr Shaghoyan 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.
Market3 Dec 2029
“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 Gonçalo Gregório.
Boardroom3 Dec 2029
Wages swallow 89% of the Ararat income
Every club 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 it has been tried.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces26 Nov 2029
Anger at Ararat spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Squad26 Nov 2029
20 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Ararat lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match26 Nov 2029
Every point is an argument now for Ararat
Position 8 and 19 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.
Market26 Nov 2029
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.
Squad26 Nov 2029
Words exchanged at Ararat
Gonçalo Gregório 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 Nov 2029
Nikita Glushkov 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Nov 2029
28 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Ararat lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Boardroom19 Nov 2029
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Ararat
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market19 Nov 2029
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.
Boardroom19 Nov 2029
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Martim Barradas has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Squad19 Nov 2029
A falling-out at Ararat
Gonçalo Gregório and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom19 Nov 2029
Belts tighten at Ararat
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
Squad19 Nov 2029
A row about effort at Ararat
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zhirayr Shaghoyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout19 Nov 2029
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.
Market19 Nov 2029
1 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Ararat could get for him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Nov 2029
Vahan Grigoryan damages knee ligaments — 37 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 37 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.
Market12 Nov 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 Ararat, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad12 Nov 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 Ararat this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Nov 2029
Zhirayr Shaghoyan 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.
The dugout12 Nov 2029
Malick Berté has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Ararat 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.
Market12 Nov 2029
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Market12 Nov 2029
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Umut Dilek’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout12 Nov 2029
“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.
Market12 Nov 2029
The clock does Kirill Kistenev’s negotiating for him
4 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Ararat could ask drops and the wages Kirill Kistenev can ask rise.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom5 Nov 2029
the manager 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.
Market5 Nov 2029
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Sargis Sarkisov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ararat the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad5 Nov 2029
Tempers go at Ararat
Gonçalo Gregório 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.
Squad5 Nov 2029
Words at Ararat training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikita Glushkov 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.
Boardroom5 Nov 2029
Wages swallow 89% of the Ararat income
Every club 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 it has been tried.
The dugout5 Nov 2029
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.
Market5 Nov 2029
The name of Nikita Lobusov keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Ararat say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout5 Nov 2029
Billy Blacker knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Billy Blacker trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Boardroom5 Nov 2029
A squad written off a fortnight ago has closed ranks. Whatever was said behind that door, it has held so far.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces29 Oct 2029
Anger at Ararat spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Match29 Oct 2029
Ararat are in real trouble now
Position 8, 19 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.
Market29 Oct 2029
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.
Squad29 Oct 2029
Words exchanged at Ararat
Gonçalo Gregório 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.
Squad29 Oct 2029
Zhirayr Shaghoyan 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.
The dugout29 Oct 2029
Abdoul Djire gets picked when it counts
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 Abdoul Djire is on it.
Market29 Oct 2029
Ararat have made Umut Dilek available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
The dugout29 Oct 2029
Billy Blacker knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Billy Blacker trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad29 Oct 2029
Questions about Narek Hovhannisyan on the training pitch
The standards have slipped, and in a building where everybody watches everybody it has not gone unremarked. This is how a player loses a place before he loses one.