Marked for Jaba Kankava
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad23 Nov 2026
Jaba Kankava and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alexis Steimbach was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Mikheil Makatsaria's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Nov 2026
Jaba Kankava 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 Dinamo Tbilisi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Numan Kurdić 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad9 Nov 2026
Jaba Kankava 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
Alexis Steimbach 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.
Loan watch9 Nov 2026
“I watch every Dinamo Tbilisi game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Spaeri runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
Numan Kurdić 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.
Market9 Nov 2026
2 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Dinamo Tbilisi money.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Róbson takes up the language
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Mikheil Makatsaria 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.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Irakli Siradze is on it.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Giorgi Loria keeps his manager's vote
The message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Giorgi Loria plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Oct 2026
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Alexis Steimbach 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Róbson remains an outsider
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 Dinamo Tbilisi would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Oct 2026
Jaba Kankava 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. Mikheil Makatsaria is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at Dinamo Tbilisi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexis Steimbach 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Dinamo Tbilisi are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Loan watch12 Oct 2026
“I watch every Dinamo Tbilisi game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Spaeri runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Dinamo Tbilisi, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market5 Oct 2026
Numan Kurdić has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Dinamo Tbilisi they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Jaba Kankava 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Giorgi Gvasalia is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Sep 2026
Jaba Kankava and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Dinamo Tbilisi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexis Steimbach is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Sep 2026
Jaba Kankava 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 Dinamo Tbilisi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alexis Steimbach was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets21 Sep 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad21 Sep 2026
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Market21 Sep 2026
At 38, he has seen every situation this season can produce, twice. The legs will be managed; the head is the purchase.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Numan Kurdić knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Numan Kurdić trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market14 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 Dinamo Tbilisi, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Wanderson arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Wanderson has, at Dinamo Tbilisi, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Market14 Sep 2026
Nobody at the club will say out loud who this signing is for, which is how you know exactly who it is for. Wanderson has been brought in to take a shirt somebody is still wearing.
Loan watch14 Sep 2026
“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 Dinamo Tbilisi, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad14 Sep 2026
The formation has left Wanderson behind
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Dinamo Tbilisi will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Lyes Houri has company in his position
The competition arrived without a word said to him about it. Lyes Houri keeps the shirt for now, at Dinamo Tbilisi's convenience rather than his own.
Market14 Sep 2026
4 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Dinamo Tbilisi could get for him.
Market14 Sep 2026
Dinamo Tbilisi opened the door and nobody walked through it. So Giorgi Gvasalia stays — listed, trained, and available — while both sides mark the days to January on the same calendar.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
The clubs have shaken hands with Godoy Cruz; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Market31 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.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Santos keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Dinamo Tbilisi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marios Pourzitidis 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.
Market31 Aug 2026
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Dinamo Tbilisi will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Mikheil Makatsaria's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
Irakli Siradze has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Dinamo Tbilisi will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Huracán have kept their man, and Dinamo Tbilisi go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market17 Aug 2026
The bid was some way short and Dinamo Tbilisi did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
The paperwork begins on Gui Negão
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Dinamo Tbilisi have done the hard part with Corinthians, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Jaba Kankava 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.
Market17 Aug 2026
Nobody at the club will say out loud who this signing is for, which is how you know exactly who it is for. Alexis Steimbach has been brought in to take a shirt somebody is still wearing.
Market17 Aug 2026
The phone has started ringing about Mikheil Makatsaria again, and this time the name on the line is Dila. Dinamo Tbilisi are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Marios Pourzitidis 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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Athletico Paranaense 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.
Market17 Aug 2026
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Dinamo Tbilisi has been clear about where Nikoloz Ugrekhelidze stands, which is more than many ever get.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The clubs have shaken hands with Gimnasia La Plata; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Mathew Gbomadu commits to Dinamo Tbilisi for another 4 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Jaba Kankava and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Athletico Paranaense have kept their man, and Dinamo Tbilisi go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Mikheil Kashia 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Jaba Gvelesiani has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Sandro Lobjanidze has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Sandro Arveladze 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 dugout10 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Mathew Gbomadu
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 Aug 2026
Andijon come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Dinamo Tbilisi did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Libertad have kept their man, and Dinamo Tbilisi go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Jaba Kankava commits to Dinamo Tbilisi for another 2 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Jaba Kankava 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Jaba Kankava stands down from international duty
“100 caps is more than I ever expected, and it is time somebody else had them.” At 40 he is finished with his country and nowhere near finished with Dinamo Tbilisi.
Squad3 Aug 2026
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. Dinamo Tbilisi will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Market3 Aug 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Market3 Aug 2026
The clock runs on Nikoloz Ninua's contract
49 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.