From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad23 Nov 2026
Mariano Ahouangbo 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Rok Kidrič keeps his manager's vote
The message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Rok Kidrič plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Nov 2026
João Nóbrega in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gandzasar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Mariano Ahouangbo 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 Nov 2026
When it matters, Hagai Katoh plays
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
Steady
Squad9 Nov 2026
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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Mariano Ahouangbo 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Gandzasar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ethan Lizalda 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
Squad2 Nov 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 21 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad2 Nov 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gandzasar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
282% of the income goes out in wages at Gandzasar
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Oct 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 28 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad26 Oct 2026
João Nóbrega 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Gandzasar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mariano Ahouangbo 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
Squad19 Oct 2026
A fracture rules Martin Grigoryan out for 36 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Gandzasar will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad19 Oct 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gandzasar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Ethan Lizalda 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
Steady
Squad12 Oct 2026
Mariano Ahouangbo 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 Oct 2026
Nikita Lobusov has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Gandzasar 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
In brief
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Squad
Questions about Jerzino on the training pitch
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Oct 2026
João Nóbrega in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gandzasar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Mariano Ahouangbo 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.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Wages eat 489% of everything Gandzasar 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Sep 2026
Mariano Ahouangbo 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 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Rok Kidrič, and the manager let it.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Gandzasar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ethan Lizalda 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
Squad21 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gandzasar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Sep 2026
When it matters, Hagai Katoh plays
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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Nobody writes a headline about a tutor. Nobody has to be told, either, what happens to a signing who spends two years being the man nobody can talk to at lunch.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Gandzasar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mariano Ahouangbo 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Hagai Katoh in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gandzasar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Nikita Lobusov has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Gandzasar 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
Market7 Sep 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Gandzasar can pretend not to have heard.
Squad7 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gandzasar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Wages eat 285% of everything Gandzasar 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market31 Aug 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Gandzasar can pretend not to have heard.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Mariano Ahouangbo 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 Aug 2026
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
Steady
Squad24 Aug 2026
Nikita Lobusov decides it from twelve yards
2 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Match19 Aug 2026
The cup run ends for Gandzasar
0‑0 against Pyunik, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
A defender's afternoon for João Nóbrega
Defensive actions: 34. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Market24 Aug 2026
“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 Gandzasar, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad24 Aug 2026
João Nóbrega in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gandzasar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
21 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Mariano Ahouangbo 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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad24 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Arwin Javad
“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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match12 Aug 2026
Gandzasar through in the cup
A 3‑2 win over BKMA, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.56 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
Gandzasar sell a favourite for $330.0K
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Patvakan Avetisyan was one of the reasons people came, and $330.0K does not replace that by itself.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Mariano Ahouangbo 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.
Market17 Aug 2026
BKMA paid $330.0K and Gandzasar took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Martin Grigoryan was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.00. 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.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Ismail Ben Diyad has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Rok Kidrič 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Gandzasar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ethan Lizalda 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
Market10 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Mariano Ahouangbo 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 Aug 2026
This league is too small for Nasko Milev
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Gandzasar will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Market10 Aug 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Gandzasar, another week without a signature from Nikita Lobusov.
Market10 Aug 2026
Everyone has stopped pretending: BKMA will make the call about Patvakan Avetisyan this week. Gandzasar have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Market10 Aug 2026
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Gandzasar has been clear about where Patvakan Avetisyan stands, which is more than many ever get.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 Aug 2026
Shirak come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Gandzasar did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” João Nóbrega and Gandzasar agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
João Nóbrega in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gandzasar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Mariano Ahouangbo 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
The phone has started ringing about Martin Grigoryan again, and this time the name on the line is Shirak. Gandzasar are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Rok Kidrič 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. Gandzasar know it, and so does everybody who watches him.