Marked for Shota Kakabadze
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad31 Aug 2026
Shota Kakabadze damages knee ligaments — 29 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 29 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.
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 Kolkheti can pretend not to have heard.
Market31 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Davit Jikia 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.
Match29 Aug 2026
It finished 2‑1, and it was Mikheil Kakabadze’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Kolkheti.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Irakli Daraselia 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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Ninety minutes of Irakli Daraselia at his very best
Marked 8.55. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Kolkheti.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Ninety minutes of Mikheil Kakabadze at his very best
Marked 8.06. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Kolkheti.
Squad31 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Archil Kakabadze, and the manager let it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 Aug 2026
Shota Kakabadze damages knee ligaments — 36 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 36 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.
Match19 Aug 2026
Dinamo Batumi ended it 0‑1. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Market24 Aug 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
A first appearance Tornike Daraselia will want to forget — 5.37
Everybody's debut is one of two stories and this was the other one. 5.37, and the only consolation available is that nobody's career has ever been decided by ninety minutes in a shirt he had just been given.
Market24 Aug 2026
Chikhura pay $87.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
A performance of 9.12 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Davit Jikia 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Levan Kobiashvili 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 terraces24 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Bachana Okriashvili 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 Aug 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Shota Kakabadze
44 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Kolkheti lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match12 Aug 2026
Kolkheti through in the cup
A 3‑1 win over Chikhura, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Market17 Aug 2026
The bid was some way short and Kolkheti did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
A chastening introduction for Davit Chakvetadze — 5.66
It is a hard way to meet a crowd. Marked 5.66 on the day he was handed the shirt, and the important thing now is what the next one looks like.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Davit Jikia 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.
Match15 Aug 2026
1‑3 to Zugdidi, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad17 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Bachana Okriashvili, and the manager let it.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Mikheil Kakabadze was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.58. 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.
Market17 Aug 2026
The name of Beka Okriashvili has come up in conversations Kolkheti were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market10 Aug 2026
Kolkheti say no — this time
The offer from Lokomotivi for Shota Kakabadze 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Bachana Okriashvili and Kolkheti agree another 4 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Irakli Daraselia 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Goga Okriashvili knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Goga 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.
Match8 Aug 2026
It needed Shota Kakabadze to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against Merani, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
The chances came and went for Davit Jikia
4 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
4 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
Market10 Aug 2026
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Giorgi Mikautadze has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Kolkheti.