Marked for Irakli Kvaratskhelia
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings19 Apr 2027
Successful dribbles: 31. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings19 Apr 2027
Marked 8.33 at 20, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Match17 Apr 2027
Still nobody has beaten Tskhinvali
The unbeaten run reaches 9. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad19 Apr 2027
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.
The terraces19 Apr 2027
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.
Match17 Apr 2027
The run at home goes on for Tskhinvali
8 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Match17 Apr 2027
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.
Player ratings19 Apr 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.45, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Apr 2027
2 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Match31 Mar 2027
Sioni through in the cup
A 0‑0 win over Saburtalo, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Sioni have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings5 Apr 2027
Successful dribbles: 23. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad5 Apr 2027
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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Chuck signs a new deal
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Chuck commits to Sioni for another 2 years.
Match3 Apr 2027
The goals have deserted Sioni
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Sioni can tell you which week it ends in.
Match3 Apr 2027
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings8 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 31. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Tskhinvali may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad8 Mar 2027
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.
Boardroom8 Mar 2027
5 academy graduates step up at Tskhinvali
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Squad8 Mar 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.
Market8 Mar 2027
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Mikheil Kashia has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market8 Mar 2027
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Goga Qazaishvili has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market8 Mar 2027
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Beka Chakvetadze is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market8 Mar 2027
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Guram Ananidze has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words exchanged at Sioni
Luka Avaliani 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.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Lokomotivi have kept their man, and Sioni go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
A loan move for Luka Chaganava is in the works
Sioni have made the call to Guria. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
Tskhinvali have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
Sioni have made the call to Zugdidi. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Sioni are still strangers to each other
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 dugout25 Jan 2027
Luka Avaliani knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Sioni, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market25 Jan 2027
The name of Bantu Mzwakali keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Sioni say nothing, which says plenty.
Squad25 Jan 2027
A new face in his position, and Alexandr Verulidze suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. Sioni have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Vakhtang Shengelia and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad16 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Tskhinvali
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.
Loan watch16 Nov 2026
“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.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
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.
Market16 Nov 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Marcos Pedro’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match2 Nov 2026
Tskhinvali are in among the leaders
Position 2 and 22 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Squad2 Nov 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Pedro Romano and Tskhinvali agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad2 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Tskhinvali
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.
Loan watch2 Nov 2026
“I watch every Tskhinvali game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Saburtalo runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad2 Nov 2026
The formation has left Pedro Romano behind
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Tskhinvali will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Squad2 Nov 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Goga Mikautadze
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Goga Mikautadze has come out of that comparison in the side, and Tskhinvali have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Oct 2026
Jemal Tabidze 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
The decline has begun for Bruno Paulo
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 36 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Saburtalo is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Market12 Oct 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Irakli Gvelesiani is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Squad12 Oct 2026
16 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad12 Oct 2026
A row about effort at Saburtalo
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Phillip Čančar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Looking ahead12 Oct 2026
A test against the best for Saburtalo
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Dinamo Tbilisi.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Jemal Tabidze and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Kauã is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad28 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Saburtalo
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Beka Dartsmelia was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match26 Sep 2026
3 matches without a goal for Saburtalo
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Rafael Broetto
“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.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Marked 7.27. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 43. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Jemal Tabidze arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Jemal Tabidze has, at Saburtalo, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Phillip Čančar commits to Saburtalo for another 4 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Saburtalo
Phillip Čančar 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.
Match1 Aug 2026
Shukura left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Saburtalo
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gilberto Júnior was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
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.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Tskhinvali have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.