Marked for Ferre Murari
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Aug 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Kakha Kiteishvili
54 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Kolkheti lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match12 Aug 2028
Whatever happens, Kolkheti do not lose
9 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.
Market14 Aug 2028
Kolkheti say no — this time
The offer from Samtredia for Mikheil Ananidze 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.
Match12 Aug 2028
5 matches without a win for Kolkheti
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Kolkheti are no longer polite ones.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Kakha Kiteishvili 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.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Avtandil Janelidze 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.
Player ratings14 Aug 2028
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad14 Aug 2028
“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 Kolkheti know it.
Market14 Aug 2028
Everyone has stopped pretending: Sioni will make the call about Archil Zivzivadze this week. Kolkheti have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad29 May 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kolkheti this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad29 May 2028
Words at Kolkheti training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Avtandil Janelidze 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.
Squad29 May 2028
“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.
Squad29 May 2028
“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 Kolkheti know it.
Loan watch29 May 2028
“I watch every Kolkheti game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Sivasspor runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Match27 May 2028
Point won or two lost for Kolkheti?
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Dila? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match5 Apr 2028
The small margins put Kolkheti out
Out, 0‑1 to Tskhinvali, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Market10 Apr 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Kolkheti can pretend not to have heard.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Kakha Kiteishvili 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.
Match8 Apr 2028
A 3‑1 win over Dinamo Tbilisi, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Avtandil Janelidze 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.
Player ratings10 Apr 2028
Marked 8.30 — 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 ratings10 Apr 2028
Ninety minutes of Beka Kvilitaia at his very best
Marked 8.26. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Kolkheti.
Squad10 Apr 2028
“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.
Squad10 Apr 2028
“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; Kolkheti are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Feb 2028
Mamuka Mikautadze damages knee ligaments — 23 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 23 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Davit Jikia 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 Kolkheti this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Ferre Murari gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Ferre Murari has just signed for Kolkheti, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Words at Kolkheti training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Guram Janelidze 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.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Kolkheti release $1.6M 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.
Market7 Feb 2028
36 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom23 Aug 2027
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Bhayangkara Presisi
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Moussa Sidibé 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.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Kafiatur Rizky gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Kafiatur Rizky has just signed for Bhayangkara Presisi, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Siphelo Baloni 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.
Squad23 Aug 2027
“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.
Match21 Aug 2027
A 1‑1 draw with Madura United leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Boardroom23 Aug 2027
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.
Market23 Aug 2027
Nobody sells a season ticket on a signing like this. Every manager who has been through a bad October wants one anyway, and Bhayangkara Presisi have gone and got theirs early.