Marked for Eros Ndreçka
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match15 Sep 2029
Merani will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Lokomotivi were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings17 Sep 2029
Sandro Mikautadze, 16, plays like he has been here for years — 9.87
A mark of 9.87 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 16-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad17 Sep 2029
Defences have started doubling up on Algassime Bah
21 goals and a season average of 7.52 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad17 Sep 2029
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Market17 Sep 2029
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Giorgi Gogatishvili will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Lokomotivi the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The dugout17 Sep 2029
“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.
Squad17 Sep 2029
Shota Tsitaishvili 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.
The dugout17 Sep 2029
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
The terraces17 Sep 2029
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
In brief
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The dugout
The manager makes an example of Benjamin Twum
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Player ratings
One of those days for Algassime Bah
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market11 Jun 2029
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Lokomotivi have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Transfer targets11 Jun 2029
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.
Transfer targets11 Jun 2029
No thanks: Pharell Nash rejects the move
Lokomotivi had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Ajax, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Market11 Jun 2029
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Lokomotivi have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad11 Jun 2029
Defences have started doubling up on Algassime Bah
10 goals and a season average of 7.32 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Match9 Jun 2029
It finished 1‑0, and it was Algassime Bah’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Lokomotivi.
Market11 Jun 2029
Chikhura are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Lokomotivi will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Player ratings11 Jun 2029
Ninety minutes of Algassime Bah at his very best
Marked 8.10. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Lokomotivi.
Squad11 Jun 2029
100 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings4 Jun 2029
Two goals and a mark of 9.50 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings4 Jun 2029
Successful dribbles: 25. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Market4 Jun 2029
“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 Lokomotivi, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market4 Jun 2029
Only the photograph left for Saba Janelidze
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Saba Janelidze will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Lokomotivi the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad4 Jun 2029
Dennis Amoako and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The terraces4 Jun 2029
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Boniphanseo Phiri 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.
Match2 Jun 2029
Merani made Lokomotivi work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Match2 Jun 2029
Merani blown away early
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Merani tried to reorganise, Lokomotivi did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
Squad4 Jun 2029
9 goals and a season average of 7.29. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match21 Apr 2029
Lokomotivi win it in stoppage time
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 90th minute. Samtredia will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Match21 Apr 2029
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Algassime Bah. 2‑1 against Samtredia, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The terraces23 Apr 2029
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Player ratings23 Apr 2029
Ninety minutes of Algassime Bah at his very best
Marked 8.68. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Lokomotivi.
Player ratings23 Apr 2029
Marked 8.31 — 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.
Squad23 Apr 2029
Eros Ndreçka 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.
The dugout23 Apr 2029
Rezo Lomidze gets it from the manager
“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 dugout23 Apr 2029
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Mamuka Mikautadze, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The dugout23 Apr 2029
Marcos Pedro gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Marcos Pedro is on it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad2 Apr 2029
7 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Market2 Apr 2029
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Giorgi Gogatishvili will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Lokomotivi the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad2 Apr 2029
Dennis Amoako 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.
The dugout2 Apr 2029
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Match31 Mar 2029
Dinamo Batumi left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout2 Apr 2029
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Squad2 Apr 2029
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Aleksandre Turkia is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Squad2 Apr 2029
A place in the month's best eleven for Lasha Kiteishvili
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Lasha Kiteishvili has come out of that comparison in the side, and Lokomotivi have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The dugout2 Apr 2029
Dennis Amoako has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Lokomotivi 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market29 Jan 2029
Luka Archaia hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lokomotivi can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets29 Jan 2029
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Gimnasia y Tiro keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Transfer targets29 Jan 2029
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.
Transfer targets29 Jan 2029
Ararat-Armenia have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
The dugout29 Jan 2029
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.
The dugout29 Jan 2029
Frank Chileshe knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Lokomotivi, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market29 Jan 2029
The name of Dennis Amoako keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Lokomotivi say nothing, which says plenty.
Market29 Jan 2029
Lokomotivi have made Jaba Kobiashvili available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
Squad29 Jan 2029
Nobody writes a headline about a tutor. Nobody has to be told, either, what happens to a signing who spends two years being the man nobody can talk to at lunch.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad4 Dec 2028
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Lokomotivi will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad4 Dec 2028
Aleksandre Turkia 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.
Squad4 Dec 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Eros Ndreçka commits to Lokomotivi for another 3 years.
The dugout4 Dec 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Giorgi Gogatishvili, and the manager let it.
Squad4 Dec 2028
Lasha Kiteishvili 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.
The dugout4 Dec 2028
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
Steady
Market27 Nov 2028
Only the photograph left for Saba Janelidze
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Saba Janelidze will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Lokomotivi the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad27 Nov 2028
Eros Ndreçka 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.
The dugout27 Nov 2028
Dennis Amoako gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Dennis Amoako is on it.
Market27 Nov 2028
The Marcos Pedro talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Lokomotivi know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout27 Nov 2028
Frank Chileshe knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Frank Chileshe trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Boardroom27 Nov 2028
36 graduates from an academy now rated 15 out of 20. A club this size does not survive any other way, and every name on that list is known in the town.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad6 Nov 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 Lokomotivi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout6 Nov 2028
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.
Market6 Nov 2028
“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.
Market6 Nov 2028
The name of Dennis Amoako keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Lokomotivi say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout6 Nov 2028
Luka Archaia asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout6 Nov 2028
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Algassime Bah has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad9 Oct 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Vasil Khositashvili commits to Lokomotivi for another 2 years.
Squad9 Oct 2028
Eros Ndreçka 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.
The dugout9 Oct 2028
Marcos Pedro has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Lokomotivi 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 dugout9 Oct 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Beka Kvilitaia, and the manager let it.
The dugout9 Oct 2028
Frank Chileshe asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market9 Oct 2028
The name of Dennis Amoako keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Lokomotivi say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market21 Aug 2028
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Lokomotivi they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market21 Aug 2028
The offer from Samtredia for Beka Kvilitaia 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.
Transfer targets21 Aug 2028
Everything agreed with Dinamo Tbilisi, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Transfer targets21 Aug 2028
Lokomotivi asked and Dinamo Batumi said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The dugout21 Aug 2028
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Match19 Aug 2028
A bad afternoon for Lokomotivi against Dila
1‑3 to Dila, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Mehrubon Karimov 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.
The dugout21 Aug 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.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Eros Ndreçka 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 Lokomotivi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Aug 2028
Gustavo Milani 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.
Player ratings14 Aug 2028
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
Transfer targets14 Aug 2028
Saburtalo wanted more than $28.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Transfer targets14 Aug 2028
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.
Player ratings14 Aug 2028
7.32, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Lokomotivi had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout14 Aug 2028
Marcos Pedro gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Marcos Pedro is on it.
The dugout14 Aug 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.
Squad14 Aug 2028
The formation has left Eros Ndreçka behind
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Lokomotivi will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
The dugout14 Aug 2028
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Mamuka Mikautadze after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.