From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market7 Sep 2026
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Sargis Metoyan had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Pyunik close the window on a squad of their own making
16 in and 0 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.
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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
This league is too small for Artem Poliarus
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. Pyunik will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Squad7 Sep 2026
James slips down the pecking order
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. James is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Too much change too quickly at Pyunik
6 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match26 Aug 2026
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Marius Noubissi obliged against Noah. 1‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Pyunik.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Market31 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Pyunik have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Pyunik had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Palermo, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Pyunik asked and Almirante Brown said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The terraces31 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.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
Javi Moreno 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 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.” Sargis Karapetyan, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
Marius Noubissi has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Pyunik 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
Triumph
Match19 Aug 2026
Pyunik march on in the cup
Gandzasar are out and Pyunik go through, 5‑2 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
A brace, and Gevorg Tarakhchyan takes the afternoon — 8.47
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Gevorg Tarakhchyan provided it, and the 8.47 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market24 Aug 2026
Shakhter come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Pyunik did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
$1.0M was the most the club would pay and Ararat-Armenia were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Pyunik had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Cardiff City, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Match19 Aug 2026
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Pyunik and Gandzasar, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. San Martín SJ have kept their man, and Pyunik go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Ninety minutes of Iman Griffith at his very best
Marked 8.27. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Pyunik.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Ninety minutes of Witi at his very best
Marked 8.13. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Pyunik.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Everything agreed with Cardiff City, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Transfer targets17 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Pyunik
Sargis Metoyan and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Aug 2026
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Sargis Metoyan had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Market10 Aug 2026
Pyunik say no — this time
The offer from Ararat-Armenia for Javi Moreno 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 targets10 Aug 2026
Barracas Central wanted more than $4.5M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Porto is saying, and nobody at Pyunik is enjoying the guessing.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Pyunik
Sargis Metoyan 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Edgar Simonyan has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Karen Hakobyan has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Pyunik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sead Islamović 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
6 new faces, and Pyunik 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Pyunik have gone to Barracas Central with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Market3 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: Aktobe have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Sargis Metoyan. The answer from Pyunik has not changed — yet.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Marius Noubissi and Pyunik agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 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 Pyunik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market3 Aug 2026
As if he never left: Henri Avagyan returns
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Henri Avagyan is a Pyunik player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Pyunik asked and Patronato said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad3 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 Pyunik know which stage they are at.
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.