From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad2 Nov 2026
60 days out for Radim Řezník after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Hayq will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market2 Nov 2026
“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 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Hayq
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Davit Petrosyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
Wages eat 226% of everything Hayq 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.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ashot Mkrtchyan, and the manager let it.
Market2 Nov 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Hayq, another week without a signature from Khalid Shakhtiev.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Khalid Shakhtiev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad2 Nov 2026
“I will play as long as the body lets me and stop the day it does not.” He is 35, with 1 appearances behind him, and the club has to plan for a decision that is not yet made.
Market2 Nov 2026
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Petros Manukyan signs something — a contract at Hayq or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad26 Oct 2026
A fracture rules Radim Řezník out for 67 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Hayq will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad26 Oct 2026
A falling-out at Hayq
Dénis Duarte and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Hayq training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Davit Petrosyan 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Hayq are still strangers to each other
21 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.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
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.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“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 Oct 2026
74 days out for Radim Řezník after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Hayq will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
At 34 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.10, and nobody on the pitch better.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Dénis Duarte 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 Hayq this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Anthony Mossi
“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.
Match17 Oct 2026
Hayq get the job done against Shirak-2
A 1‑0 win over Shirak-2, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad19 Oct 2026
At 35, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Squad19 Oct 2026
A season average of 7.21 with 9 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 1‑0, already talking about the next one.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 12. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad12 Oct 2026
A fracture rules Radim Řezník out for 81 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Hayq will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market12 Oct 2026
“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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“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 Hayq know it.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Gor Ghukasyan is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Tempers go at Hayq
Dénis Duarte was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Hayq keep their word to Sousa
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.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Paulo Vitor
“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 dugout12 Oct 2026
Michał Bojdys 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 dugout12 Oct 2026
Samvel Ghukasyan has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Hayq 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
Squad5 Oct 2026
88 days out for Radim Řezník after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Hayq will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market5 Oct 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 Hayq, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at Hayq
Dénis Duarte 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.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
295% of the income goes out in wages at Hayq
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.
Match3 Oct 2026
0‑2 to Araks Ararat, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Victor
“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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Hayq training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aboubacar Ouattara 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Davit Petrosyan is the division's best young player this month
At 21 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Hayq will try very hard not to make too much of it.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad28 Sep 2026
Radim Řezník breaks a bone — 95 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 95 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match26 Sep 2026
4‑0, and Aleksandar Glišić took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Hayq tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.60, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Davit Petrosyan, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.31
A mark of 8.31 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.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
At 35 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 7.97, and nobody on the pitch better.
Match26 Sep 2026
Hayq make it 3 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Hayq have 3 straight wins of it.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Tempers go at Hayq
Radim Řezník was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The terraces28 Sep 2026
He is 20 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad21 Sep 2026
A fracture rules Radim Řezník out for 102 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Hayq will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad21 Sep 2026
The match ball belongs to Aleksandar Glišić, whose 4 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Match19 Sep 2026
No mercy from Hayq
Ararat-Armenia-2 will want this one forgotten quickly: 5‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Hayq were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 10.00 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
No sign of nerves from Davit Petrosyan at 21 — 7.65
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Davit Petrosyan did not need any: 7.65, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Hayq training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Davit Petrosyan 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Hayq are still strangers to each other
20 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.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
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.” Vahan Bayramyan, on a 5‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad14 Sep 2026
A fracture rules Radim Řezník out for 109 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Hayq will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match12 Sep 2026
4‑0, and Aleksandar Glišić took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Hayq tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.90 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Sousa, 21, steals the show — 7.73
Marked 7.73 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Squad14 Sep 2026
A falling-out at Hayq
Aboubacar Ouattara and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad14 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Hayq
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Davit Petrosyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The terraces14 Sep 2026
He is 21 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.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Sep 2026
Radim Řezník breaks a bone — 116 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 116 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market7 Sep 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 Hayq, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 31 signed and 31 gone
That is the business done at Hayq 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at Hayq
Dénis Duarte 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 targets7 Sep 2026
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 dugout7 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ashot Mkrtchyan, and the manager let it.
Market7 Sep 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Hayq, another week without a signature from Khalid Shakhtiev.
Market7 Sep 2026
11 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Hayq have started building around Sousa
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad31 Aug 2026
124 days out for Radim Řezník after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Hayq will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Hayq
Dénis Duarte and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad31 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Hayq
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Davit Petrosyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match29 Aug 2026
0‑2 to Bentonit Ijevan, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
Victor 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.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Vahan Bayramyan left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Spartak Hayrapetyan
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Squad31 Aug 2026
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Hayq are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 Aug 2026
A fracture rules Radim Řezník out for 131 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Hayq will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Dénis Duarte 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 Hayq this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Hayq asked and Urartu said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match22 Aug 2026
Sardarapat made Hayq work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Marked 7.94. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Squad24 Aug 2026
19 new faces, and Hayq 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 Aug 2026
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.” Vahan Bayramyan kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
Anthony Mossi 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 Anthony Mossi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 Aug 2026
138 days out for Radim Řezník after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Hayq will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match12 Aug 2026
The small margins put Hayq out
Out, 0‑0 to Araks Ararat, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Match15 Aug 2026
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Pyunik-2, and it could have been more.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Paulo Vitor could not have asked for more on his first appearance — 7.10
Debuts are survived rather than enjoyed. This one was enjoyed: 7.10, 1 goals, and a manager already being asked whether he starts again next week.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Victor decides it from twelve yards
1 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.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
At 33 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.46, and nobody on the pitch better.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
A hand in 3 of them from Ashot Hambaryan — 7.91
Marked 7.91. There is a kind of forward whose value only shows up when you count what he was involved in rather than what he finished, and this is the day that argument makes itself.
Market17 Aug 2026
Hayq say no — this time
The offer from Voždovac for Aleksandar Glišić 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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
No thanks: Leo Reis rejects the move
Hayq had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Gandzasar, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market10 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 Hayq, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad10 Aug 2026
A move Davit Petrosyan 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. Davit Petrosyan is living that version at Hayq, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Dénis Duarte commits to Hayq for another 2 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Hayq
Radim Řezník 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.
Match8 Aug 2026
Mika take the points off Hayq
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Levon Khachatryan is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. David Grigoryan 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Ararat Spertsyan 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Hayq know which stage they are at.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Aleksandar Glišić and Hayq agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Hayq
Aleksandar Glišić 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.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Hayq have made the call to Shirak. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Van have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Van: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Hayq training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ezequiel Straccia 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 dugout3 Aug 2026
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Match1 Aug 2026
Point won or two lost for Hayq?
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Syunik? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 11. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.