Marked for Thálisson
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad15 Mar 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad15 Mar 2027
“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 Shukura know it.
Squad15 Mar 2027
A falling-out at Shukura
Arthur and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match13 Mar 2027
Sioni left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
The manager makes an example of Benjamin Twum
“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 ratings15 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market15 Mar 2027
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Goga Kiteishvili after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout15 Mar 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
Uneasy
Player ratings8 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 32. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings8 Mar 2027
A brace, and Thálisson takes the afternoon — 8.31
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Thálisson provided it, and the 8.31 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Boardroom8 Mar 2027
Shukura moved before anybody else could: a new deal for Goga Kiteishvili, agreed quietly and announced loudly. Boards extend managers for many reasons; the good one is the one this looks like.
Squad8 Mar 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Arthur and Shukura agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Alemão wants to go home
“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 Shukura know it.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Wanderson 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 Shukura this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom8 Mar 2027
Graduation day at Shukura
3 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Squad8 Mar 2027
A row about effort at Shukura
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Arthur was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match6 Mar 2027
Three points for Shukura, 2‑1 the final word against Samtredia in a contest settled by the finer margins.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
“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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
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 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Rafael Teixeira
“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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad21 Sep 2026
Tiago Bagagem 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Shukura
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Arthur was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Marked 8.04 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Shukura are still strangers to each other
14 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
A 1‑1 draw with Kolkheti leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
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.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Goga Kiteishvili was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Shukura dressing room was either.
Looking ahead21 Sep 2026
A test against the best for Shukura
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Dinamo Batumi.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market7 Sep 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 Shukura, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 27 signed and 0 gone
That is the business done at Shukura until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
No thanks: André rejects the move
Shukura had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Corinthians, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at Shukura
Arthur 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.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Shukura
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emmanuel Boansi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad7 Sep 2026
No place for Thálisson in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Shukura are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Market7 Sep 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Giorgi Kavtaradze has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.