Henri Avagyan 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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Pyunik will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
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 Witi is on it.
Done, and with games to spare. Next season has floodlit nights against clubs from other countries in it, and the accounts have a line they did not have last year.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Pyunik have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Henri Avagyan 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.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Pyunik pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
The dugout16 Nov 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 0‑1 Sargis Movsisyan left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Yegor Baburin
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.
Chances created: 9. Nothing on the scoresheet and everything in the match: the pass before the pass, over and over, until the defence stopped guessing right.
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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Artur 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Tigran Khachatryan 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Pyunik can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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 Javi Moreno is on it.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Pyunik. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
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.
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.
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 Marius Noubissi is on it.
The least glamorous thing a foreign signing ever does and the one that decides most of them. A player who can hear the shout behind him is a different footballer from one who cannot.
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Nikos Kainourgios’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
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 Witi is on it.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Pyunik. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
A manager forgives a bad Saturday far more readily than a bad Tuesday, because one of them he can explain and the other one he chose. The reports this week have not been good.
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Hovhannes Hakobyan 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Arman Movsisyan 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.
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 Javi Moreno is on it.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Pyunik, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
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.
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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
10 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.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Momo Yansané signs something — a contract at Pyunik or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
The coaching staff have set Robert Darbinyan something separate to do. Whether it is a weakness being addressed or a strength being sharpened, nobody outside the building will know until it shows up on a Saturday.
Henri Avagyan 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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Pyunik. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Sead Islamović trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Henri Avagyan has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
Daniil Kulikov 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.
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.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Daniil Kulikov has written the date down.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Pyunik, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Hayk Sarkisov 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Hakob 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.
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 Javi Moreno is on it.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Pyunik would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 22 arrived, 2 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. NK Maribor have kept their man, and Pyunik go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Pyunik, another week without a signature from Yegor Baburin.
Squad7 Sep 2026
10 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.
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 Marius Noubissi is on it.
Nobody sells a season ticket on a signing like this. Every manager who has been through a bad October wants one anyway, and Pyunik have gone and got theirs early.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Marius Noubissi obliged against Urartu. 1‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Pyunik.
The offer from Ararat-Armenia for Momo Yansané 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.
Pyunik offered $1.0M; Ararat-Armenia said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Pyunik had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Almirante Brown, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Pyunik will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
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.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Astana had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Pyunik have done the hard part with Almirante Brown, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Estudiantes is saying, and nobody at Pyunik is enjoying the guessing.
Sargis Metoyan 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.
He is 22 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.
“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.
Everything agreed with Estudiantes, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Stanislav Buchnev has his answer from Pyunik; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
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.
A season-long audition: Almirante Brown still own him, but the shirt and the minutes are Pyunik's to give. A loan is a bet both clubs believe they are winning.
The deal with Almirante Brown 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.
Henri Avagyan 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 shirt still fits. Henri Avagyan is back at Pyunik, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Narek Mkhitaryan 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.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Pyunik know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
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.
Pyunik asked and Temperley said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Pyunik know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Still no offer on the table, and Hovhannes Harutyunyan’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sead Islamović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Pyunik have made the call to Almirante Brown. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.