Marked for Claudiu Cristea
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad6 Mar 2028
16 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Sioni lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match4 Mar 2028
9 matches without a win for Sioni
The run now stands at 9, and the questions being asked around Sioni are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings6 Mar 2028
Successful dribbles: 30. 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.
Market6 Mar 2028
Magno is on his way
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Sioni is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The dugout6 Mar 2028
Kakaroto keeps the receipts
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Sioni may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Words exchanged at Sioni
Victor Lube 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.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Dachi Tsnobiladze 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.
Boardroom6 Mar 2028
Sioni board go back on their word
Something was promised, a deadline passed, and it did not arrive. Trust inside a football club is built over years and spent in an afternoon.
Squad6 Mar 2028
“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; Sioni are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
In brief
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Player ratings
Davit Jikia stands above it all
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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The dugout
Davit Jikia has become a man the manager trusts
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad21 Feb 2028
30 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sioni lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Varlam Kilasonia 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.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Tempers go at Sioni
Magno 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 dugout21 Feb 2028
The manager makes an example of Otar Gagnidze
“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.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Sioni are still strangers to each other
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
Nobody at Sioni 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces14 Feb 2028
The mood at Sioni has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Squad14 Feb 2028
37 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sioni lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom14 Feb 2028
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Sioni
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market14 Feb 2028
“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 Sioni, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Varlam Kilasonia 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.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Magno in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sioni this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout14 Feb 2028
When it matters, Victor Lube plays
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.
Squad14 Feb 2028
The table has started to be checked before the results are in, and that is always the tell. Nobody at Sioni says the word out loud, and everybody in the building is thinking it.
The dugout14 Feb 2028
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces17 Jan 2028
The mood at Sioni has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Boardroom17 Jan 2028
Pressure builds in the Sioni boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market17 Jan 2028
“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 Sioni, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market17 Jan 2028
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Sioni have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Transfer targets17 Jan 2028
Everything agreed with Torpedo Kutaisi, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Words exchanged at Sioni
Giga Tsurtsumia 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.
Squad17 Jan 2028
A row about effort at Sioni
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Varlam Kilasonia was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets17 Jan 2028
A loan enquiry to Dinamo Batumi: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout17 Jan 2028
Victor Lube 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 Victor Lube is on it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market10 Jan 2028
“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 Sioni, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets10 Jan 2028
The deal with Dinamo Batumi is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Varlam Kilasonia 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.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Words exchanged at Sioni
Gabriel Mineiro 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.
Market10 Jan 2028
The name of Giorgi Chkheidze has come up in conversations Sioni were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Transfer targets10 Jan 2028
Kolkheti-1913 Poti 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.
Transfer targets10 Jan 2028
Kolkheti-1913 Poti 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.
The dugout10 Jan 2028
Davit Jikia 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 Davit Jikia is on it.
Market10 Jan 2028
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Luka Chakhnashvili has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Sioni.