Marked for Vakhtang Mikautadze
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Nov 2026
A falling-out at Zugdidi
Guram Tsitaishvili and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
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 Zugdidi, and 3 appearances in 10 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Saba Tsitaishvili trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market14 Sep 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 ratings14 Sep 2026
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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Tempers go at Sioni
Givi Mukbaniani 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.
Match12 Sep 2026
0‑1 to Dinamo Tbilisi, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Vinicius Nunes and Sioni agree another 2 years.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Aleksandre Mikautadze left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Beka Beridze, and the manager let it.
Looking ahead14 Sep 2026
Saburtalo next, and one man in the Sioni dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Off the academy pitches and into a senior shirt, at 18. The parents in the stand will keep the programme, and so will he.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market7 Sep 2026
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Dachi Tsnobiladze will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sioni the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Sioni close the window on a squad of their own making
15 in and 3 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
The clock did what Dila would not, and ended it. Supporters who watched the countdown will spend the next window doing it again.
Market7 Sep 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Sioni, another week without a signature from Dachi Tsnobiladze.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Sioni are still strangers to each other
7 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Squad7 Sep 2026
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
Squad7 Sep 2026
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
The dugout7 Sep 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces31 Aug 2026
He is going to Shukura, the club has $110.0K it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Sioni have done the hard part with Dila, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Market31 Aug 2026
Shukura pay $110.0K, 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 ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Tskhinvali have kept their man, and Sioni go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match29 Aug 2026
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout31 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.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Aleksandre Mikautadze after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 Aug 2026
2 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
Match15 Aug 2026
The small margins put Sioni out
Out, 0‑3 to Dila, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
A cup hiding at Dila leaves Sioni explaining themselves
0-3, and long before the end the away end had switched from encouragement to something considerably more pointed. Nobody rings a phone-in about losing narrowly.
Market17 Aug 2026
Sioni say no — this time
The offer from Zugdidi for Tornike Mindiashvili 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.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Marked 6.72 on 19 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Sioni had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Zugdidi, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Squad17 Aug 2026
400 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Aug 2026
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sioni they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad10 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Sioni
Givi Mukbaniani and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Kakha Chakvetadze 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Tornike Kakabadze has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Revaz Gvelesiani 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.
The dugout10 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.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Tskhinvali: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
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.
In brief
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Squad
Too much change too quickly at Sioni
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Squad
No place for Beka Beridze in the new shape
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict