0‑3 to BKMA, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
The dugout1 May 2028
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 0‑3 defeat, delivered by Grigor Grigoryan to a room that had heard them before.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Saba Sidamonidze was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Narek Baroyan 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.
Marked 8.02 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
There was one mistake and it ended in the net. Defenders are judged on the worst thing they did rather than on the eighty-nine minutes either side of it, which is unfair and is also the job.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gabriel Passos 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.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Vahe Muradyan
Position 10 and 2 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Narek Baroyan 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.
“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 Van know it.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Harutyun Asatryan, and the manager let it.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Grigor Grigoryan was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Van dressing room was either.
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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Ivan Dias
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Van and Alashkert in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 37 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
“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 Van know it.
Jeremias 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Hunan Gyurjinyan and Van agree another 3 years.
The dugout3 Apr 2028
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 1‑5 defeat, delivered by Grigor Grigoryan to a room that had heard them before.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aleks Galstyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Alashkert next, and one man in the Van dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Danila Bokov signs something — a contract at Van or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Van would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
In brief
MarketThe clock does Narek Baroyan’s negotiating for him
Level with 87 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Van had all but put away. Noah will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Saba Sidamonidze was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
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.
Jeremias 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.
“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 Van know it.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Grigor Grigoryan after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
5 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.
0‑3 to Pyunik, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Marked 6.76 on 16 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
4 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
3 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.
Jeremias 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Hovhannes 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. David 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.
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.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 37 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Van is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Saba Sidamonidze was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Pele van Anholt arrives at 37 with nothing left to prove and plenty left to pass on. Legs are a young man's currency; knowing where to stand never ages.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Danila Bokov signs something — a contract at Van or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Van has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gabriel Passos 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Van are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Van, and both men came out saying it was fine.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Van has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Jeremias 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.
7 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aleks Galstyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Giannis Chatzivasilis.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
“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.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Van close the window on a squad of their own making
2 in and 3 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.
$460.0K on the table at Urartu. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Ivan Dias is a Van player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Jeremias 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.
Van ran out of time with BKMA. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
“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.
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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Van can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gabriel Passos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Danila Bokov signs something — a contract at Van or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
$15.0K on the table at Syunik. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yuri Martirosyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Allef signs something — a contract at Van or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“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.
The offer went to Noah this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
The shirt still fits. Harutyun Asatryan is back at Van, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Jeremias 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yuri Martirosyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
5 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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Van will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
“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.
Van have gone to Urartu 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.
$14.0K on the table at Syunik. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Jeremias 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Van can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Van has been clear about where Matthijs van Nispen stands, which is more than many ever get.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Van has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Grigor Grigoryan has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
“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.
Jeremias 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yuri Martirosyan 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Van has been clear about where Allef stands, which is more than many ever get.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Van will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Allef's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Van will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Jeremias 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 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 24 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gabriel Passos 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Van will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yuri Martirosyan 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 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.
14 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Van lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Van can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
“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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Van will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Jeremias 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yuri Martirosyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Giannis Chatzivasilis arrives at 37 with nothing left to prove and plenty left to pass on. Legs are a young man's currency; knowing where to stand never ages.
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Hovhannes Kirakosyan is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
22 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Van lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Jeremias 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.
“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; Van are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gabriel Passos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Van has been clear about where Ezéckiel Zola Ngundu stands, which is more than many ever get.
29 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Van lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.
36 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Van lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yuri Martirosyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Van, and 14 appearances in 42 say he has earned the hearing.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Van would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
45 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Van lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Jeremias 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.
“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 Van know it.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gabriel Passos 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.
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Brian Oddei is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
52 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Van lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Jeremias 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gabriel Passos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Brian Oddei is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Van would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
59 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Van lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yuri Martirosyan 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.
Artur Kartashyan 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Molik Khan
Squad5 new faces, and Van are still learning each other
66 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Van lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gabriel Passos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Van, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Jonel Désirè signs something — a contract at Van or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
74 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Van lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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.
Jeremias 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.
At 39, 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.
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.
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 words a physio says slowly. 81 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.
“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.
Jeremias 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yuri Martirosyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Jeremias is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Yuri Martirosyan trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
88 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Van lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
8 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 words a physio says slowly. 95 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.
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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ezéckiel Zola Ngundu is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yuri Martirosyan 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 list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Yuri Martirosyan may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
103 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Van lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Jeremias 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.
Van 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.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Molik Khan 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Melvin de Leeuw trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“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.
Van had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Noah, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 11 signed and 8 gone
That is the business done at Van 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.
The offer went to Urartu this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
“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 Van know it.
Yuri Martirosyan 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 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Van will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The offer from Shirak for Petros Avetisyan 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Van have done the hard part with Alashkert, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 87 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
$470.0K on the table at Urartu. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yuri Martirosyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Araks Ararat have kept their man, and Van go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Van will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Narek Baroyan has, at Van, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Jeremias 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Van, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nobody at Van 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 bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Van will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“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.
The offer went to Urartu this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yuri Martirosyan 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.
Araks Ararat 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 108 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Van offered $460.0K; Urartu 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.
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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Van will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
$460.0K on the table at Urartu. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Molik Khan 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Van, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Off the academy pitches and onto a senior team sheet at 16. The debut is the easy part; the second appearance is the one every young player has to earn.
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 Ivan Dias is on it.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Van will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The deal with Alashkert 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.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Paulo Vitor has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yuri Martirosyan 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.
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.
Off the academy pitches and onto a senior team sheet at 15. The debut is the easy part; the second appearance is the one every young player has to earn.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Van will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Position 7 on 20 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
“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.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Noah keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Jeremias 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Molik Khan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Van can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 9 actions, 7.21, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
“I watch every Van game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Gandzasar runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
In brief
The dugoutThe view from the dugout
SquadGabriel Passos falls out with a teammate over standards
Successful dribbles: 26. 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.
The deal with Pyunik 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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yuri Martirosyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Van have made the call to Ararat-Armenia. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 11 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yuri Martirosyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
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.
5 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Ararat-Armenia were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Jeremias 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 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 dugout14 Jun 2027
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 Grigor Grigoryan left the room before anybody could ask which.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gabriel Passos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
20 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Van lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yuri Martirosyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
27 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Van lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ivan Dias provided it, and the 8.36 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Van have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
Artur Kartashyan 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.
He is 23 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.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.60 for the rest of it.
“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; Van are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Jeremias 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.
Goalkeepers do not get to make mistakes; they get to make goals. He made one, he knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Grigor Grigoryan after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gabriel Passos 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 dugout24 May 2027
Danila Bokov is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Gabriel Passos
“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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Jeremias provided it, and the 8.34 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Thiago Gabriel scored, was marked 7.17, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yuri Martirosyan 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.
He is 23 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.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Jeremias had Van level again within 3 minutes, and Ararat never got to play with a lead at all.
In brief
BoardroomNobody left the Van dressing room in a hurry
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Javier Torres was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Half the programme played, position 5, 11 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
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.
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout10 May 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Grigor Grigoryan chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Van, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
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.
“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 Van know it.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Van, and 6 appearances in 14 say he has earned the hearing.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
In brief
Looking aheadVan take on the side everybody is chasing
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Van will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Jeremias 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.
Player ratings26 Apr 2027
Allef was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.67. 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.
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.
Successful dribbles: 15. 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 21 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Position 9 and 6 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Jeremias 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Javier Torres was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Van will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
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.
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 dugout12 Apr 2027
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 Grigor Grigoryan to a room that had heard them before.
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 37 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and William Ovalle obliged against Sardarapat. 3‑1 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Van.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. William Ovalle provided it, and the 8.09 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yuri Martirosyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
2 goals inside twenty minutes with William Ovalle in the middle of it, and Sardarapat unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Van will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
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.
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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Van can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“I watch every Van game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Gandzasar runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Van will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Jeremias 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Petros Avetisyan. 1‑0 against Alashkert, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Grigor Grigoryan could afford to be generous.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Yuri Martirosyan trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Loris Armati 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Van will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yuri Martirosyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Artur Kartashyan 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Grigor Grigoryan after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“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 Matthijs van Nispen.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Van will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
“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 Van know it.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Armen 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Grigor 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Van will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“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; Van are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Jeremias 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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Van, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Loris Armati 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Van will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yuri Martirosyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 91 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Petros Avetisyan 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Javier Torres was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Van will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Melvin de Leeuw 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.
“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 Yuri Martirosyan.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Loris Armati was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 107 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Van close the window on a squad of their own making
3 in and 1 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Loris Armati has, at Van, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Van know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Jeremias 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. Van will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
“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 Gabriel Passos.
A new face in his position and a shirt he thought he owned suddenly up for discussion. Van have promised nothing, which is what clubs promise at this stage.
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.
The offer from Ararat for Yuri Martirosyan 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.
Everybody at Van saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 39 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.
“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 Yuri Martirosyan.
5 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Thiago Gabriel is living that version at Van, and it tends to show in the first month.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Van, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Van know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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.
Melvin de Leeuw 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Hovhannes Gevorgyan has just signed for Van, and for once the answer mattered.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Van are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Khosrov Ghazaryan is 19, and Van have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Van are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Yuri Martirosyan trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Jeremias 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.
Jeremias 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.
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.
Artur Kartashyan 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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Van, and 2 appearances in 14 say he has earned the hearing.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Javier Torres trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Van the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
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.
7 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Van, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and William Ovalle has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Van, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Van than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
Gualberto 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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Van, and 0 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Van, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Van, and 2 appearances in 10 say he has earned the hearing.
3 goals in 7 games at Araks Ararat — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Van updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Jeremias 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.
Everybody at Van saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 38 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.
“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; Van are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
In brief
Squad14 new faces, and Van are still learning each other
Jeremias 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.
At 37, 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.
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.
A new face in his position and a shirt he thought he owned suddenly up for discussion. Van have promised nothing, which is what clubs promise at this stage.
Petros Avetisyan 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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Van, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Javier Torres trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Gualberto 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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Van, and 1 appearances in 6 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
“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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
13 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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Van, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Van will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Van would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Van close the window on a squad of their own making
21 in and 23 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.
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.
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.
“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 Yuri Martirosyan.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Sarp Yavrucu has just signed for Van, and for once the answer mattered.
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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Van are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
0‑4 against Alashkert, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
A cup hiding at Alashkert leaves Van explaining themselves
0-4, 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Botafogo-PB have kept their man, and Van go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout24 Aug 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 0‑4 defeat, delivered by Grigor Grigoryan to a room that had heard them before.
Jeremias 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.
Add another name to the list: Syunik have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Kevin Pereira. The answer from Van has not changed — yet.
Signings arrive with a picture of the club in their head, and this one’s picture was bigger than the building. He will play well and he will be gone, in that order, and everybody knows it.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Van will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
8 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.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Petros Avetisyan 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 offer from Sardarapat for Kevin Pereira 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.
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.
The name of Hollman McCormick has come up in conversations Van were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
He will be fined, he will apologise, and he will play on Saturday. The order of those three tells you everything about what a football club actually values.