A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Lokomotivi will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Da Silva 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 thought about how hard another man trains, and Zurab Chavchanidze was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Lokomotivi will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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 The request is on a desk at Lokomotivi, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zurab Chavchanidze was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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.
In brief
SquadQuestions about Kaíque Silva on the training pitch
The mood at Lokomotivi has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
“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.
Zurab Chavchanidze 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Giorgi Akhaladze was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Klearchos Vainopoulos has his answer from Lokomotivi; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
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.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Lokomotivi would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
André Luiz has been around long enough to know what the spring feels like when it goes wrong, and he can feel it. A dressing room that is frightened plays like one.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Lokomotivi can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Lokomotivi is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Da Silva 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 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.
“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; Lokomotivi are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. André Luiz was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Lokomotivi would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
In brief
The dugoutLuka Archaia has become a man the manager trusts
“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.
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.
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.
“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.
Zurab Chavchanidze 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 thought about how hard another man trains, and Giorgi Akhaladze was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Zurab Chavchanidze may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
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.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Lokomotivi would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
In brief
BoardroomThe Lokomotivi production line keeps running
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Boardroom30 Aug 2027
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Lokomotivi
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
“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.
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.
Zurab Chavchanidze 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jeferson Parrudo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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.
Add another name to the list: Iberia 1999 have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about David Asayure. The answer from Lokomotivi has not changed — yet.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dinamo Tbilisi have kept their man, and Lokomotivi go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Bukhuti Putkaradze may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Successful dribbles: 32. 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.
Jeferson Parrudo 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.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 14 actions, 7.87, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Words at Lokomotivi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zurab Chavchanidze 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.
A 2‑1 win over Samgurali Tskaltubo, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.