Marked for Bachana Mikautadze
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market18 Jan 2027
“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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kolkheti this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market18 Jan 2027
Everyone has stopped pretending: Dila will make the call about Bachana Mikautadze this week. Kolkheti have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at Kolkheti training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cristiano Casella 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.
Market18 Jan 2027
The name of Beka Mikautadze has come up in conversations Kolkheti were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Market18 Jan 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Zurab Qazaishvili signs something — a contract at Kolkheti or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market11 Jan 2027
“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.
Market11 Jan 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market11 Jan 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Kolkheti have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad11 Jan 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kolkheti this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Cristiano Casella 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
57 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market4 Jan 2027
“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 Kolkheti, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market4 Jan 2027
Kolkheti say no — this time
The offer from Dila for Zurab Qazaishvili 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kolkheti this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words at Kolkheti training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jaba Qazaishvili 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
“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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Tornike Kakabadze has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Kolkheti 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Dec 2026
Bachana Mikautadze 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Cristiano Casella 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market7 Dec 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.
Squad7 Dec 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 Kolkheti this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Kolkheti training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cristiano Casella 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad30 Nov 2026
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market30 Nov 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Bachana Mikautadze 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad23 Nov 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 Kolkheti this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Kolkheti training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kakha Kiteishvili 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.
Loan watch23 Nov 2026
“I watch every Kolkheti game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Fatih Karagumruk runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Nov 2026
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Kolkheti have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Bachana Mikautadze 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Cristiano Casella 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad9 Nov 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 Kolkheti this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Kolkheti training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cristiano Casella 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Luka Sanikidze, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Oct 2026
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad12 Oct 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 Kolkheti this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at Kolkheti training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kakha Kiteishvili 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Oct 2026
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Kolkheti have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Bachana Mikautadze 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
Cristiano Casella 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match26 Sep 2026
No end in sight to Kolkheti's wait for a win
9 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Kolkheti has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad28 Sep 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 Kolkheti this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Kolkheti training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cristiano Casella 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.
Loan watch28 Sep 2026
“I watch every Kolkheti game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Fatih Karagumruk runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. 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
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Beka Mikautadze and Kolkheti agree another 3 years.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match19 Sep 2026
No end in sight to Kolkheti's wait for a win
8 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Kolkheti has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Bachana Mikautadze 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Kakha Kiteishvili 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.
Squad21 Sep 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
0‑1 to Dinamo Batumi, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Loan watch21 Sep 2026
“I did not go to Dinamo Batumi to sit and watch. I want to come back to Kolkheti and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match5 Sep 2026
6 matches without a win for Kolkheti
The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around Kolkheti are no longer polite ones.
Match5 Sep 2026
6 matches without a goal for Kolkheti
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 6 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Market7 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 Kolkheti, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad7 Sep 2026
14 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad7 Sep 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 Kolkheti this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Cristiano Casella 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.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Jaba Qazaishvili did the work nobody counts — 6.56
10 combined actions and 6.56. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Bachana Mikautadze is the division's best young player this month
At 21 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Kolkheti will try very hard not to make too much of it.
Match5 Sep 2026
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Shukura will be the happier side with the point.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad31 Aug 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 18 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match29 Aug 2026
The wait goes on for Kolkheti
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
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.
Match29 Aug 2026
The goals have deserted Kolkheti
5 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Kolkheti can tell you which week it ends in.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Jaba Qazaishvili 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Kolkheti training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kakha Kiteishvili 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
“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.
Match29 Aug 2026
Kolkheti and Guria cancel each other out
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Guria came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 Aug 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 25 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market24 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.
Market24 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.
Match22 Aug 2026
No end in sight to Kolkheti's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Kolkheti has to find a result from somewhere.
Match22 Aug 2026
Kolkheti cannot find the net
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Bachana Mikautadze 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.
Market24 Aug 2026
Emirates Club pay $18.0K, 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Cristiano Casella 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.
Loan watch24 Aug 2026
“I watch every Kolkheti game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Fatih Karagumruk runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 Aug 2026
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Tornike Kakabadze: 2 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Match12 Aug 2026
The cup run ends for Kolkheti
0‑0 against Chikhura, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 32 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Temur Chakvetadze, 18, plays like he has been here for years — 7.72
A mark of 7.72 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 18-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad17 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 Kolkheti this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match15 Aug 2026
Kolkheti cannot find the net
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Market17 Aug 2026
Shukura pay $14.0K, 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Kolkheti training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cristiano Casella 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.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Bachana Mikautadze 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
Match8 Aug 2026
Beaten 0‑3 by Merani, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Squad10 Aug 2026
A fracture rules Beka Kvilitaia out for 39 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Kolkheti will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market10 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
44 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Market10 Aug 2026
Kolkheti say no — this time
The offer from Shukura for Dato Kashia 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 Mikautadze and Kolkheti agree another 5 years.
Squad10 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 Kolkheti this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
Nobody left the Kolkheti dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Market10 Aug 2026
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Kolkheti will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match1 Aug 2026
Kolkheti win it in stoppage time
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 91th minute. Saburtalo will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A fracture rules Beka Kvilitaia out for 46 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Kolkheti will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Marked 6.67 on 21 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Bachana Mikautadze 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Cristiano Casella 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
The phone has started ringing about Dato Kashia again, and this time the name on the line is Shukura. Kolkheti are listening politely and promising nothing.
Match1 Aug 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Zurab Qazaishvili’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Kolkheti.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“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 ratings3 Aug 2026
A mark of 7.83, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.