28 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 88 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Cristhian Loor: 1 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Position 3, 57 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking 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 Tskhinvali can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Paysandu keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Lasha Lobjanidze and Tskhinvali agree another 5 years.
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
42 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Tskhinvali will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
56 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
João Pedro Tchoca 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.
Tskhinvali asked and Unión de Santa Fe said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Level with 88 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Tskhinvali had all but put away. Sioni will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
In brief
Player ratingsNobody on the pitch touched Goga Janelidze
49 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.
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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.76 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Patrick scored, was marked 7.71, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Cristhian Loor 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.
Tskhinvali asked and Shakhtar said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
56 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 121 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Tskhinvali have done the hard part with Sampaio Correa, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
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.
Match14 Aug 2027
Another one collected away from home
4 on the bounce on the road for Tskhinvali. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
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.
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.
Tskhinvali had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Shakhtar, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
The first defeat in 8 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Torpedo Kutaisi; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Tskhinvali know it.
Successful dribbles: 20. 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.
70 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 12 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 135 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.96 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Basaksehir keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
The words a physio says slowly. 79 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.
Position 2, 46 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
7 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Two goals and a mark of 8.88 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“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.
Cristhian Loor 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.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Words at Tskhinvali training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Goga 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.
102 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.
15 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Successful dribbles: 30. 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.
“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.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.10 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Juventude is saying, and nobody at Tskhinvali is enjoying the guessing.
Cristhian Loor 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.
109 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.
4‑1, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings28 Jun 2027
A brace, and Dário Júnior takes the afternoon — 9.04
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Dário Júnior provided it, and the 9.04 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Goga Janelidze provided it, and the 8.72 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
14 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Patrick scored, was marked 7.52, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Everything agreed with Juventude, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Santos is saying, and nobody at Tskhinvali is enjoying the guessing.
116 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.
The offer from Dinamo Tbilisi for Goga Janelidze 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.
13 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
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.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 23 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
At 36, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
In brief
SquadDário Júnior falls out with a teammate over standards
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. David Matei did not need any: 8.35, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“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.
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
He is 20, he is averaging 7.01, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
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.
Lokomotivi made Tskhinvali work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑2 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad24 May 2027
David Matei 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.
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
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.
Squad17 May 2027
Words at Tskhinvali training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dário Júnior 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 22 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.
David Matei 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Buddy Vogelzang has just signed for Tskhinvali, and for once the answer mattered.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dário Júnior was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 10 combined actions and a mark of 7.22, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
3‑0, and David Matei took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Tskhinvali tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings3 May 2027
A brace, and David Matei takes the afternoon — 8.43
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. David Matei provided it, and the 8.43 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
9 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Squad3 May 2027
Words at Tskhinvali training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Matei 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.
“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; Tskhinvali are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. David Matei 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.
David Matei and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Dário Júnior 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 20 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.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 5 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. David Matei did not need any: 8.22, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
5 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.98 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Cristhian Loor 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.
Match10 Apr 2027
Another one collected away from home
4 on the bounce on the road for Tskhinvali. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Squad12 Apr 2027
David Matei 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.
“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; Tskhinvali are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dário Júnior was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 33 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Lasha Lobjanidze provided it, and the 8.82 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
At 36, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Squad22 Mar 2027
David Matei 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.
Filipe Cirne 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 20-year-old it feels ownership of. David Matei 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 dugout22 Mar 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Revaz Kakabadze, on a 3‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
David Matei 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 Dário Júnior was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Tskhinvali know it.
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Revaz Kakabadze kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Words at Tskhinvali training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dário Júnior 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.
David Matei 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.
10 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Tskhinvali know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Lasha Lobjanidze and Tskhinvali agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Goga Janelidze was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Torpedo Kutaisi have kept their man, and Tskhinvali go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“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; Tskhinvali are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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 Dário Júnior is on it.
Lokomotivi have accepted the money. What Tskhinvali do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The offer from Merani for Lasha Lobjanidze 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dário Júnior was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Tskhinvali asked and Dila said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
At 35, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
8 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
A loan enquiry to Dinamo Tbilisi: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Tskhinvali have had the benefit of it.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 36 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Tskhinvali can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dário Júnior was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Tskhinvali asked and Torpedo Kutaisi said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Tskhinvali has been clear about where Avtandil Kiteishvili stands, which is more than many ever get.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dário Júnior was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Djalma is 34 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
Qualification is done, and next season the floodlights come on for something bigger. A stage for the players, oxygen for the accounts and a passport for everybody else.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Tskhinvali will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Filipe Cirne 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 Goga Janelidze was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad7 Dec 2026
7 new faces, and Tskhinvali are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pedro Romano was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 3 appearances in 11 say he has earned the hearing.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Dário Júnior 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.
Vakhtang Shengelia 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.
“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 1 appearances in 10 say he has earned the hearing.
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Nobody at Tskhinvali will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Tskhinvali would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Tskhinvali, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Guram Kvilitaia plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.
Words at Tskhinvali training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Goga 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.
Aleksandre 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.
Something was said to Pablo and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Somebody watched every match in the division at the weekend and decided he was the best thing in any of them. A small honour, and most careers end without one.
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.83, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Dário Júnior 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.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 36 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Tskhinvali is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Lasha Lobjanidze 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 dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Revaz Kakabadze kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Nobody at Tskhinvali will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Squad19 Oct 2026
The division's best last weekend was a Tskhinvali man
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Goga Janelidze was the best thing in any of them.
At 35, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Dário Júnior 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.
“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 6 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad12 Oct 2026
5 new faces, and Tskhinvali are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Nika Tsitaishvili has his answer from Tskhinvali; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Nobody at Tskhinvali will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nika Tsitaishvili trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Tskhinvali know it.
Vakhtang Shengelia 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Tskhinvali training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Goga 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.
Successful dribbles: 29. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Dário Júnior 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.
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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Revaz Kakabadze after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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 Davit Tsitaishvili is on it.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
At 35 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.06, and nobody on the pitch better.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Tskhinvali training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dário Júnior 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 22 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 8.11 — 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Revaz Kakabadze on a 4‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Dinamo Tbilisi go through and Tskhinvali go home, 2‑3 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Marked 8.18 — 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 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Tskhinvali are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Nobody at Tskhinvali will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Vakhtang Shengelia scored in the 85th minute, Dinamo Batumi had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Tskhinvali took the lot.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Lasha Lobjanidze, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 7.66
A mark of 7.66 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.
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Everything agreed with Vasco da Gama, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Tskhinvali offered $240.0K; Dila said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Aleksandre Daraselia 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.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Goga Janelidze obliged against Shukura. 3‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Tskhinvali.
There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 0 on the scoresheet, 7.33 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.
“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.
Tskhinvali had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Corinthians, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Vakhtang Shengelia 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 injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 16 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
The name of Archil Lobjanidze has come up in conversations Tskhinvali were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
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. Criciuma have kept their man, and Tskhinvali go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
At 23 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.