Marked for Alisson Taddei
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match5 Jul 2027
34 points and nobody above them. The word is not being said around the ground yet, and it is being thought in every seat.
Market5 Jul 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Lokomotivi waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Samgurali Tskaltubo is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Match3 Jul 2027
14 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Squad5 Jul 2027
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
The dugout5 Jul 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Samgurali Tskaltubo may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Samgurali Tskaltubo have done the hard part with Colegiales, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Bruno Leonardo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Words at Samgurali Tskaltubo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luiz Fernando 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.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match19 Jun 2027
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 7‑0 against Lokomotivi, and it could have been more.
Squad21 Jun 2027
4 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Match21 Jun 2027
Position 2 and 30 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Squad21 Jun 2027
The match ball belongs to Alisson Taddei, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Match19 Jun 2027
13 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Market21 Jun 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Samgurali Tskaltubo can pretend not to have heard.
Market21 Jun 2027
The offer from Bunyodkor for Dato Arveladze 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.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2027
Everything agreed with Gagra, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market14 Jun 2027
“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 Samgurali Tskaltubo, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market14 Jun 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Match12 Jun 2027
12 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2027
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Samgurali Tskaltubo have done the hard part with Dila, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2027
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Dinamo Tbilisi keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Home is on Ewerton's mind
“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; Samgurali Tskaltubo are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Bruno Leonardo 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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luiz Fernando was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 Aug 2026
A move Luiz Fernando would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Luiz Fernando is living that version at Samgurali Tskaltubo, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad17 Aug 2026
The medical room confirms 36 days on the sidelines for Vinicius, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Thiago Rodrigues and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ricardo Luz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Coritiba have kept their man, and Samgurali Tskaltubo go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market17 Aug 2026
“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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Coritiba: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Sport Recife 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
A season-long audition: Shakhtar still own him, but the shirt and the minutes are Samgurali Tskaltubo's to give. A loan is a bet both clubs believe they are winning.