102 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Merani lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 92 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Merani they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Merani this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Javohir Esonqulov signs something — a contract at Merani or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
Player ratingsAn afternoon Aslan Mutaliev will want back
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Merani can pretend not to have heard.
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Merani are no longer polite ones.
The terraces3 Apr 2028
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 7 of the 30 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
Facundo Romero 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.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Words at Merani training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nodar Kavtaradze 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.
“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; Merani are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Marked 5.36. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
Facundo Romero 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.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Words at Merani training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nodar Kavtaradze 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 38 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Merani can pretend not to have heard.
Facundo Romero 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Revaz Kiteishvili has just signed for Merani, and for once the answer mattered.
76 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Van lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Van will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
José Cadenas 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 had been thinking. Cesar Meza Colli 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.
“I watch every Van game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Apollon runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.