It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Enzo Bianchi wants continental football; whether Torpedo Kutaisi can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nodar Lominadze was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Everybody at Torpedo Kutaisi 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.
“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 Torpedo Kutaisi know it.
Beka Dartsmelia 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.
Nobody at Torpedo Kutaisi 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.
Nodar Lominadze 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.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Enzo Bianchi 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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
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 Gianlucas is on it.
A call-up flatters the player and the club that produced him in the same breath. Torpedo Kutaisi would like him back in one piece and know they will not be consulted.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Torpedo Kutaisi 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 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 Torpedo Kutaisi know it.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Soares'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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Torpedo Kutaisi has been clear about where Alan Gobetti stands, which is more than many ever get.
Nobody at Torpedo Kutaisi 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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Kolkheti in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
“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 Torpedo Kutaisi know it.
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.
Enzo Bianchi 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: Gianlucas. 1‑0 against Guria, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Successful dribbles: 16. 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.
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.87 on the card, and the Torpedo Kutaisi support went home talking about one name.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Khvicha Gvelesiani, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
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 Warley is on it.
In brief
The dugoutMatej Šimić knocks on the manager's door
“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 Torpedo Kutaisi, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Torpedo Kutaisi have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Shota Shekiladze 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 general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tsotne Nadaraia 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 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 Torpedo Kutaisi know it.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Torpedo Kutaisi pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Samuele Vignato is in the works
“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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Torpedo Kutaisi can pretend not to have heard.
“I did not go to Dinamo Batumi to sit and watch. I want to come back to Torpedo Kutaisi and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 29 matches say the rest.
Marked 8.31 — 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.
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. Torpedo Kutaisi will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Dila keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
“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 Torpedo Kutaisi, and it is not being withdrawn.
Nodar Lominadze 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 Torpedo Kutaisi can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 23 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Torpedo Kutaisi will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Torpedo Kutaisi have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Torpedo Kutaisi can pretend not to have heard.
“I watch every Torpedo Kutaisi game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Dila runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 143 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Alan Gobetti: 2 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Gianlucas obliged against Merani. 1‑1 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Torpedo Kutaisi.
Successful dribbles: 32. 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.
12 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Torpedo Kutaisi had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
“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; Torpedo Kutaisi are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Gianlucas 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 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 Nodar Lominadze is on it.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Torpedo Kutaisi, another week without a signature from Warley.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Fernando Victor obliged against Shukura. 1‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Torpedo Kutaisi.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Torpedo Kutaisi scored in the 114th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
“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 Torpedo Kutaisi know it.
Gianlucas 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Torpedo Kutaisi have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Demetre Buliskeria will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Torpedo Kutaisi the goodbyes have quietly begun.
At 21 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Torpedo Kutaisi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Successful dribbles: 14. 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.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Torpedo Kutaisi can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Gianlucas 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 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 Nodar Lominadze is on it.
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Komnen Andrić has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
Kolkheti next, and one man in the Torpedo Kutaisi dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
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.
Torpedo Kutaisi asked and Kavala said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
18 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.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Gianlucas obliged against Sioni. 1‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Torpedo Kutaisi.
The offer from Dinamo Tbilisi for Felipe Pires 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Alan Gobetti has just signed for Torpedo Kutaisi, and for once the answer mattered.
The name of Mohamed Cherif has come up in conversations Torpedo Kutaisi were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental 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 Torpedo Kutaisi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.