“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 The request is on a desk at Sapovnela, and it is not being withdrawn.
Quentin Bena 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words at Sapovnela training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdelhakim Omrani 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.
Quentin Bena 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 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.
Still no offer on the table, and Quentin Bena’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
Daniel Vicencio arrives at 34 with nothing left to prove and plenty left to pass on. Legs are a young man's currency; knowing where to stand never ages.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sapovnela can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sapovnela this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Jesús Rueda 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Sapovnela training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maximiliano Rodríguez 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.
Roland Paku 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sapovnela this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Sapovnela scored in the 94th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
At 39 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.14 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Sören Dutoit 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Sapovnela training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maximiliano Rodríguez 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Jesús Rueda. 1‑0 against Zugdidi, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Sfundo Shezi scored in the 85th minute, Saburtalo had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Sapovnela took the lot.
Jesús Rueda 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.
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Sapovnela training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maximiliano Rodríguez 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Sfundo Shezi has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
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.
Nobody sells a season ticket on a signing like this. Every manager who has been through a bad October wants one anyway, and Sapovnela have gone and got theirs early.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sapovnela this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Sapovnela training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdelhakim Omrani 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.
“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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
17 new faces, and Sapovnela 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.