Marked for Daniel Bolívar
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Sep 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Sioni may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Luka Avaliani is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Marked 6.83 on 18 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The medical room confirms 49 days on the sidelines for Erik Zetterberg, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad7 Sep 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 Sioni this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Sioni training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nemanja Ilić 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.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad7 Sep 2026
12 new faces, and Sioni 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market31 Aug 2026
“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 The request is on a desk at Sioni, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Nemanja Ilić 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.
Match29 Aug 2026
0‑2 to Dinamo Tbilisi, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad31 Aug 2026
“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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Squad31 Aug 2026
The division's best last weekend was a Sioni man
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Giorgi Gabedava was the best thing in any of them.