“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 The request is on a desk at Sioni, and it is not being withdrawn.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
“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 Sioni know it.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Halid Doltmourziev has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Luka Avaliani 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tornike Dundua 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.
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Mikheil Ananidze was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Sioni dressing room was either.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Luka Avaliani trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Sioni will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
A mark of 7.84 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Giorgi Ubilava has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Mikheil Ananidze could afford to be generous.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 34 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Sioni have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Sioni can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Erald Maksuti 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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
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.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Guria? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Sioni will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The offer from Guria for Luka Avaliani 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.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Sioni close the window on a squad of their own making
4 in and 0 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Still no offer on the table, and Lucão’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Lucão has moved up it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Sioni will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Lucão is living that version at Sioni, and it tends to show in the first month.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Sioni, and both men came out saying it was fine.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Sioni has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
A season-long look at somebody else’s player: Halid Doltmourziev arrives from Dinamo Tbilisi with something to prove and a return ticket in the drawer. Good loans make everybody richer; this one starts Saturday.
Mauro Estol 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.
Add another name to the list: Plaza Colonia have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Agustín Coitto. The answer from Tacuarembo has not changed — yet.
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.
Tacuarembo have made the call to San Telmo. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Nobody at Tacuarembo 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.
72 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Tacuarembo lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Pablo López 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and José Duarte was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Tacuarembo, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
86 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Tacuarembo lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. José Duarte will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Tacuarembo the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Lucão has agreed terms with Oriental for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Mauro Estol 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Santiago Vargas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
4 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Tacuarembo could ask drops and the wages Anderson Brum can ask rise.