Marked for Revaz Janelidze
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market9 Aug 2027
“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.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
The clubs have shaken hands with Sioni; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Player ratings9 Aug 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.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
The offer went to Guria this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Tornike 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.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Red Bull Salzburg have kept their man, and Tskhinvali go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Carlo Locatelli 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.
Match7 Aug 2027
A point taken on 88 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
The dugout9 Aug 2027
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Temur Lobjanidze will call it something else in private.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 May 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 84 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match1 May 2027
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Denis Višinský will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Tskhinvali escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Squad3 May 2027
13 goals and a season average of 7.40. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Match1 May 2027
Denis Višinský scored, and precious little else went right: 2‑3 to Samtredia, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad3 May 2027
Nika Kobiashvili 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 ratings3 May 2027
Marked 8.13 — 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 dugout3 May 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.
Squad3 May 2027
The medical room confirms 20 days on the sidelines for Avtandil Mchedlidze, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
The dugout3 May 2027
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Levan Kvaratskhelia after 2‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout30 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Tornike Lobjanidze 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Tskhinvali training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Otar Arveladze 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Avtandil Kiteishvili commits to Tskhinvali for another 1 years.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout23 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.
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 Tskhinvali this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Tskhinvali
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nika Kobiashvili was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Loan watch23 Nov 2026
“I did not go to Chikhura to sit and watch. I want to come back to Tskhinvali and fight for my place.” 1 appearances in 13 matches say the rest.
The dugout23 Nov 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Oct 2026
Tornike Lobjanidze 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
A row about effort at Tskhinvali
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nika Kobiashvili was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Sandro Shengelia and Tskhinvali agree another 1 years.
Loan watch5 Oct 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 2 appearances in 7 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad5 Oct 2026
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Avtandil Gamsakhurdia is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
Tskhinvali had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Noah, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Match12 Sep 2026
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 8 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Tornike 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Tskhinvali
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nika Kobiashvili was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match12 Sep 2026
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Otar Arveladze, and the manager let it.
Loan watch14 Sep 2026
“I watch every Tskhinvali game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Lokomotivi runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Tskhinvali told Revaz Janelidze something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.