The Tskhinvali Post
Squad25 Jan 2027
The knee: Keagan Phiri out for 90 days
90 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Tskhinvali lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market25 Jan 2027
Only the photograph left for Tornike Kobiashvili
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Tornike Kobiashvili will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Tskhinvali the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at Tskhinvali training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Avtandil Lobjanidze 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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
A falling-out at Tskhinvali
Levan Shengelia and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Tskhinvali lose Danilo Silva
26 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
Jaba Kobiashvili 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 Jaba Kobiashvili is on it.
In brief
- Market Avtandil Lobjanidze linked with a move away
- The dugout Kakha Ananidze knocks on the manager’s door
- The dugout Avtandil Lobjanidze keeps his manager's vote
- Market Platon Zharov goes out on loan