From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad2 Nov 2026
55 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Mika lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Mika may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 25 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Tempers go at Mika
Florian Brügmann was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Emerson Nike 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.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
Wages eat 272% of everything Mika 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
“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.
Market2 Nov 2026
“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 dugout2 Nov 2026
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 Anushavan Tarverdyan is on it.
In brief
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The dugout
Robert Mandrysz knocks on the manager's door
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Market
Experience through the door at Mika
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Oct 2026
62 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Mika lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 32 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at Mika
Emerson Nike 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad19 Oct 2026
The words a physio says slowly. 70 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.
Match17 Oct 2026
4 matches without a win for Mika
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Mika are no longer polite ones.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at Mika
Dave Bulthuis 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 36 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Mika is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Squad19 Oct 2026
A row about effort at Mika
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vardan Arzoyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match17 Oct 2026
A bad afternoon for Mika against Sardarapat
0‑2 to Sardarapat, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout19 Oct 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.
Boardroom19 Oct 2026
Nobody left the Mika dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Oct 2026
77 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Mika lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad12 Oct 2026
A falling-out at Mika
Dave Bulthuis and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Time is catching up with Emerson Nike
Everybody at Mika saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 34 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at Mika training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emerson Nike 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 dugout12 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Alen Karapetyan
“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.
Market12 Oct 2026
“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
Squad5 Oct 2026
84 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Mika lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
At 33 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 7.86, and nobody on the pitch better.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“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; Mika are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad5 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 Mika this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Oct 2026
At 36, 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.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
322% of the income goes out in wages at Mika
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 dugout5 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Vardan Arzoyan
“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.
Market5 Oct 2026
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Sep 2026
91 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Mika lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at Mika
Emerson Nike 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 dugout28 Sep 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.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Alik Arakelyan was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.17. 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Mika are still strangers to each other
23 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
Match26 Sep 2026
A 1‑1 draw with Ararat-2 leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout28 Sep 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.
In brief
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
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The dugout
Vardan Arzoyan asks for a word with the manager
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Looking ahead
Hayk Tatosyan faces his old club
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad21 Sep 2026
The words a physio says slowly. 99 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at Mika
Hayk Tatosyan 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 Sep 2026
Emerson Nike 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 Sep 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
Mika come up short against Syunik
Syunik left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Sargis Sarkisov to a room that had heard them before.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad21 Sep 2026
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 dugout21 Sep 2026
The plan did not have a place for Vahan Adloyan
Nobody at Mika is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Sep 2026
107 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Mika lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Two goals and a mark of 9.04 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Emerson Nike 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 Mika this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Suren Arakelyan 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.
Match12 Sep 2026
Noah-2 made Mika work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Match12 Sep 2026
Mika end the wait against Noah-2
It had gone 5 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Dmitry Nechaev
“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: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad14 Sep 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 Mika know which stage they are at.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Sep 2026
The words a physio says slowly. 115 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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 35 signed and 26 gone
That is the business done at Mika 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.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Everything agreed with Pyunik, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A falling-out at Mika
Emerson Nike and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
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
“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.
Market7 Sep 2026
“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 Sep 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“Ask me in the summer. I will know before anybody else does.” He is 36 with 172 appearances behind him, and Mika have to plan for both answers.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match29 Aug 2026
The wait goes on for Mika
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Match29 Aug 2026
The goals have deserted Mika
5 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Mika can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Mika
Vaspurak Minasyan 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Emerson Nike 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 dugout31 Aug 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Mika 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.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
A loan move for Leo Reis is in the works
Mika have made the call to Gandzasar. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout31 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.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Sargis Sarkisov was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Mika dressing room was either.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match19 Aug 2026
Mika bow out of the cup
Pyunik go through and Mika go home, 0‑3 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 31. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
Mika are taken apart by Pyunik — and the town wants answers
It finished 0-3. A cup exit is a disappointment; this was a public dismantling, and the difference between the two is the number of people who will still be talking about it in August.
Match22 Aug 2026
No end in sight to Mika's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Mika has to find a result from somewhere.
Match22 Aug 2026
Mika cannot find the net
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad24 Aug 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 Mika this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets24 Aug 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Mika training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emerson Nike 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
Squad17 Aug 2026
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Anushavan Tarverdyan: 2 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Match12 Aug 2026
Cup progress for Mika
A 0‑0 win over Sardarapat, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Match15 Aug 2026
Nowhere to hide for Mika
0‑3 against Andranik, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Emerson Nike 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 Mika this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Urartu have kept their man, and Mika go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout17 Aug 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.
Market17 Aug 2026
A stepping stone, not a home, for Aram Loretsyan
He is doing his job and he is not settling. Mika were supposed to be a step up in his own reckoning, and his own reckoning has been adjusted since he arrived.
Squad17 Aug 2026
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Mika are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
In brief
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Squad
Emerson Nike has outgrown this division
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Boardroom
Nobody left the Mika dressing room in a hurry
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Player ratings
The kick that got away from Hamlet Asoyan
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match8 Aug 2026
Vladimir Yeremyan wins it after the whistle should have gone
90 minutes played. Vladimir Yeremyan found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Hayq went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Alen Karapetyan gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Alen Karapetyan has just signed for Mika, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Vladimir Yeremyan and Mika agree another 3 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Mika
Vaspurak Minasyan 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 targets10 Aug 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Mika training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emerson Nike 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.
Match8 Aug 2026
It finished 2‑1, and it was Vladimir Yeremyan’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Mika.
The terraces10 Aug 2026
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Armen Movsisyan 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad3 Aug 2026
Alik Arakelyan 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. Alik Arakelyan has, at Mika, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Vladimir Yeremyan commits to Mika for another 3 years.
Market3 Aug 2026
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Market3 Aug 2026
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Sergey Kochkanyan 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.
Match1 Aug 2026
Shirak-2 left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad3 Aug 2026
The formation has left Dmitry Nechaev behind
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Mika will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Market3 Aug 2026
“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 dugout3 Aug 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Sargis Sarkisov after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.