Marked for Jaba Lobjanidze
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad8 Feb 2027
The words a physio says slowly. 63 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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 129 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad8 Feb 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Khvicha Chakvetadze and Tskhinvali agree another 3 years.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Sandro 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.
Market8 Feb 2027
The name of Mamuka Daraselia keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Tskhinvali say nothing, which says plenty.
Market8 Feb 2027
A season-long audition: Sapovnela still own him, but the shirt and the minutes are Tskhinvali's to give. A loan is a bet both clubs believe they are winning.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Sep 2026
31 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
There were 9 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match9 Sep 2026
Dinamo Batumi ended it 0‑2. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Market14 Sep 2026
“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 The request is on a desk at Tskhinvali, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match12 Sep 2026
1‑2 to Dinamo Tbilisi, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad14 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Saba Shengelia
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Tskhinvali training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sandro 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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
The substitution nobody applauded turned out to be the whole story. Tskhinvali were going nowhere until he came on.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 44. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market31 Aug 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Tskhinvali can pretend not to have heard.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
Tskhinvali sell a favourite for $48.0K
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Shota Ananidze was one of the reasons people came, and $48.0K does not replace that by itself.
Market31 Aug 2026
The offer from Zugdidi for Tornike Shengelia 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
William Klingender 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.
Market31 Aug 2026
Kolkheti paid $48.0K and Tskhinvali took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Saba Shengelia 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.
Match29 Aug 2026
Three points for Tskhinvali, 2‑0 the final word against Lokomotivi in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Avtandil Janelidze was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.18. 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Mamuka Daraselia, 33, rolls back the years — 8.00
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.00 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad3 Aug 2026
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.
Match1 Aug 2026
Beaten 2‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Market3 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: Merani have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Davit Janelidze. The answer from Tskhinvali has not changed — yet.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Tskhinvali training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Saba Shengelia 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“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.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Ninety minutes of Mikheil Janelidze at his very best
Marked 8.01. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Tskhinvali.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Giorgi Mikautadze and Tskhinvali agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Market3 Aug 2026
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Jaba Lobjanidze has his answer from Tskhinvali; what he does with it is the next window’s story.