Marked for Wesley
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings2 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 30. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad2 Aug 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.
Squad2 Aug 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Wanderson commits to Shukura for another 2 years.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Luiz Henrique 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.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Words at Shukura training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Arthur 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.
The dugout2 Aug 2027
Alemão gets it from the manager
“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.
Market2 Aug 2027
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Shukura, another week without a signature from Alison Araçoiaba.
Player ratings2 Aug 2027
Marked 7.63. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
The dugout2 Aug 2027
Rafael Teixeira has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Shukura 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 May 2027
Luiz Henrique 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.
Squad10 May 2027
Wesley signs a new deal
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Wesley commits to Shukura for another 3 years.
Squad10 May 2027
Words at Shukura training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Arthur 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.
Match8 May 2027
0‑2 to Chikhura, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout10 May 2027
The manager makes an example of Pedro Antônio
“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.
Player ratings10 May 2027
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout10 May 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Goga Kiteishvili to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout10 May 2027
A promise honoured at Shukura
Something was said to Alison Araçoiaba and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout10 May 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout22 Mar 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad22 Mar 2027
A falling-out at Shukura
Luiz Henrique and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Arthur 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.
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
Defensive actions: 19, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
The manager makes an example of Beka Beridze
“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.
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 15. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
Marked 7.52. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
Luiz Henrique has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Shukura 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.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
Shukura have gone to Lokomotivi with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Squad25 Jan 2027
A falling-out at Shukura
Luiz Henrique and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at Shukura training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Arthur 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 targets25 Jan 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dila have kept their man, and Shukura go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
Luiz Henrique gets picked when it counts
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 Luiz Henrique is on it.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
Alemão knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Shukura, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market4 Jan 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 Shukura can pretend not to have heard.
Squad4 Jan 2027
“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; Shukura are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad4 Jan 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shukura this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Luka Jincharadze is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Arthur 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 targets4 Jan 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dinamo Batumi have kept their man, and Shukura go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
“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.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
Shukura have made the call to Dinamo Tbilisi. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
A loan enquiry to Dinamo Tbilisi: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.