The words a physio says slowly. 33 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.
42 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Player ratings14 Aug 2028
Teboho Lorch, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 8.31
A mark of 8.31 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Tskhinvali they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Temur Kvaratskhelia 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.
Samtredia made Tskhinvali work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Yuriy Pantia 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.
At 19 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.
Marked 8.77 — 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 40 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.
The terraces7 Aug 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.” 9 of the 30 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tskhinvali this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Words at Tskhinvali training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yuriy Pantia 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.
Marked 5.54. 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.
In brief
Player ratingsTeboho Lorch could not find anything
The words a physio says slowly. 47 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.
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 8 matches without defeat is a foundation Tskhinvali did not have in the autumn.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Words at Tskhinvali training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Revaz Kashia 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.
Teboho Lorch 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Ignazio Lombardi 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.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Teboho Lorch did not need any: 8.26, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Temur Kvaratskhelia 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.
Squad8 May 2028
Words at Tskhinvali training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Revaz Kashia 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.
At 19 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.
Sapovnela will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Tskhinvali were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Temur Shengelia provided it, and the 7.93 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 7 matches without defeat is a foundation Tskhinvali did not have in the autumn.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Words at Tskhinvali training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Revaz Kashia 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.
8.93. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Teboho Lorch 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 18-year-old it feels ownership of. Temur Shengelia 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Tskhinvali have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The terraces13 Mar 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.” 9 of the 33 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Words at Tskhinvali training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Revaz Kashia 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.
Teboho Lorch 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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Tskhinvali, and 2 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Tskhinvali will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
He is going to Shukura, the club has $260.0K it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
The words a physio says slowly. 52 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.
The medical room confirms 32 days on the sidelines for Lasha Kakabadze, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Words at Tskhinvali training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Revaz Kashia 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.
97 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Tskhinvali lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Tskhinvali have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Teboho Lorch 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Temur Kvaratskhelia signs something — a contract at Tskhinvali or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“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 Tskhinvali, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Tskhinvali is pretending he will be back in the shirt.