Marked for Iyed Haj Khalifa
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match13 Mar 2027
Whatever happens, Dinamo Tbilisi do not lose
12 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Irakli Azarovi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
Miguel Terceros back under a manager who knows him
The new man at Dinamo Tbilisi has worked with Miguel Terceros before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 19. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match13 Mar 2027
5 matches without defeat, and then Zugdidi. Nobody at the ground pretended it would go on forever; nobody expected it to stop here either.
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 Dinamo Tbilisi know it.
Market15 Mar 2027
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Loan watch15 Mar 2027
“I did not go to MFK Ruzomberok to sit and watch. I want to come back to Dinamo Tbilisi and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 6 matches say the rest.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
The form table has caught Giorgi Loria
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market8 Feb 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dinamo Tbilisi can pretend not to have heard.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Gustavo Prado 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.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Miguel Terceros, and the manager let it.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Toni Silić has outgrown this division
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Dinamo Tbilisi know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Boardroom8 Feb 2027
Dinamo Tbilisi release $1.5M for the manager
The board have put money on the table rather than an encouraging word. What happens to it now is somebody else's problem, and somebody else's job.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Davit Jikia 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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Too much change too quickly at Dinamo Tbilisi
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
When it matters, Lyes Houri 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad1 Feb 2027
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Dinamo Tbilisi will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market1 Feb 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market1 Feb 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Dinamo Tbilisi close the window on a squad of their own making
4 in and 10 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.
Market1 Feb 2027
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Iyed Haj Khalifa reports back to Dinamo Tbilisi with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Irakli Azarovi 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.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
Dinamo Tbilisi asked and San Telmo said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad1 Feb 2027
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Dinamo Tbilisi know which stage they are at.
Squad1 Feb 2027
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Dinamo Tbilisi can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Jaba Kankava 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 Dinamo Tbilisi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match19 Sep 2026
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Dinamo Tbilisi did not have in the autumn.
Match19 Sep 2026
After 5 games, Dinamo Tbilisi finally taste it again
The first defeat in 5 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Lokomotivi; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
7.75, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Dinamo Tbilisi had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout21 Sep 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.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Gabriel Bontempo has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Dinamo Tbilisi 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
This league is too small for Baylee Dipepa
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Dinamo Tbilisi will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Match19 Sep 2026
A 1‑1 draw with Lokomotivi leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match29 Aug 2026
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 88th, and Samtredia spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
Market31 Aug 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Everything agreed with Mitre, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Dinamo Tbilisi asked and Tskhinvali said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match29 Aug 2026
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Dinamo Tbilisi have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Jaba Kankava and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match29 Aug 2026
Samtredia made Dinamo Tbilisi work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
The dugout31 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.