From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad9 Nov 2026
Tempers go at Van
Hrayr Mkoyan 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 Van training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Celsinho 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
7 new faces, and Van 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
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 Van this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at Van training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gor Manukyan 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.
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 Van, another week without a signature from Dmitriy Fedortsov.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Oct 2026
Tempers go at Van
Hayk Tatosyan 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
Gor Manukyan 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
No hiding place for Allef
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Allef, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Oct 2026
Hrayr Mkoyan 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 Van this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Valentin Dimitrov is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad19 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
Uneasy
Squad12 Oct 2026
Tempers go at Van
Hrayr Mkoyan 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
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Hunan Gyurjinyan is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Gor Manukyan 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.
In brief
-
Squad
9 new faces, and Van are still learning each other
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Oct 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Gualberto commits to Van for another 2 years.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Hrayr Mkoyan 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 Van this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Van training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gor Manukyan 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.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Wages eat 112% of everything Van 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
This league is too small for Gualberto
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. Van will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Market5 Oct 2026
Van bring in an old head
Gualberto is 36 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
In brief
-
Market
Claudemir brings the grey hairs Van lacked
-
Market
Experience through the door at Van
-
Market
Experience through the door at Van
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Sep 2026
Tempers go at Van
Hrayr Mkoyan 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
No hiding place for Allef
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Allef, and the manager let it.
Squad28 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Sep 2026
Hrayr Mkoyan 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 Van this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Van training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gor Manukyan 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
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Matvey Burlakov, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 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.
Squad14 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.
Market14 Sep 2026
The window shut and Harutyun Asatryan is still in the building
Van spent a month trying to move him and nobody rang back. He trains with a squad that has told him where he stands, and both sides start counting down to the next one.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
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 Van, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The armband comes off Allef
Van will explain it as a decision about the team, and it may well be one. A dressing room has never once read it that way.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
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 Van can pretend not to have heard.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Van
Hayk Tatosyan 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
Allef 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match19 Aug 2026
Van bow out of the cup
Pyunik go through and Van 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 team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
A cup hiding at Pyunik leaves Van explaining themselves
0-3, and long before the end the away end had switched from encouragement to something considerably more pointed. Nobody rings a phone-in about losing narrowly.
Market24 Aug 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.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 5 of the 24 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Hrayr Mkoyan 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 Van this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Hrayr Mkoyan 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.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
Doors closed at Van
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Van pick somebody else ahead of Allef
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad17 Aug 2026
Gor Manukyan is the hero from the spot
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Gor Manukyan: 2 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Match12 Aug 2026
Van march on in the cup
Shirak are out and Van go through, 1‑1 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 0 on the scoresheet, 7.35 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
No sign of nerves from Sousa at 21 — 8.46
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Sousa did not need any: 8.46, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Van
Hrayr Mkoyan 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 terraces17 Aug 2026
The crowd has taken to Sousa
At 21 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.
Market17 Aug 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
The plan did not have a place for Hrayr Mkoyan
Nobody at Van 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.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 12. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Javier Torres and Van agree another 3 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Van
Hrayr Mkoyan 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
The manager makes an example of Javier Torres
“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.
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 Van, another week without a signature from Dmitriy Fedortsov.
Market10 Aug 2026
48 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
Market10 Aug 2026
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Hunan Gyurjinyan has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Van.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Hrayr Mkoyan commits to Van for another 2 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Hrayr Mkoyan 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 Van this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market3 Aug 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Van, another week without a signature from Hrayr Mkoyan.
Market3 Aug 2026
Still no offer on the table, and Hayk Tatosyan’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
Market3 Aug 2026
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Van has been clear about where Harutyun Asatryan stands, which is more than many ever get.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Javier Torres 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.