Marked for Daniel Costa
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad23 Nov 2026
Jemal Tabidze 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
A row about effort at Saburtalo
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Phillip Čančar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad23 Nov 2026
10 new faces, and Saburtalo 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.
Market23 Nov 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Beka Dartsmelia’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
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.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
Guram Kakabadze 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Guram Kakabadze: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Saburtalo have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad16 Nov 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Saburtalo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Saburtalo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bruno Paulo 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
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The dugout
Giorgi Kutsia is still being punished for one mistake
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The dugout
Kauã knocks on the manager’s door
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The dugout
The manager makes Daniel Costa a promise
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Squad
Rogerinho starts on the language
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Saburtalo
Jemal Tabidze 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Saburtalo
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Phillip Čančar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market2 Nov 2026
Saburtalo and Danny are talking past each other
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Squad2 Nov 2026
“I will know when it is time. I am not there yet.” Daniel Costa is 36, with 1 appearances behind him, and Saburtalo will have to plan for whichever answer comes.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
A door opens for Léo
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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
A season on the outside for Danny
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Saburtalo has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match3 Oct 2026
The wait goes on for Saburtalo
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Rogerinho and Saburtalo agree another 2 years.
Match3 Oct 2026
The goals have deserted Saburtalo
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Saburtalo can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at Saburtalo
Jemal Tabidze 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
Time is catching up with Daniel Costa
Everybody at Saburtalo saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 36 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.
Squad5 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; Saburtalo are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
Rafael Broetto dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.