Marked for Levan Daraselia
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 40. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market1 Feb 2027
Antalyaspor come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Gaziantep did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market1 Feb 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 The request is on a desk at Gaziantep, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match30 Jan 2027
No end in sight to Gaziantep's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Gaziantep has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Denis Drăguş in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gaziantep this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match30 Jan 2027
Gaziantep 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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words at Gaziantep training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Bayo 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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
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.
Squad1 Feb 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad1 Feb 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Levan Kiteishvili
42 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Saburtalo lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market1 Feb 2027
Saburtalo say no — this time
The offer from Chikhura for Mamuka Gamsakhurdia 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.
Squad1 Feb 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 Saburtalo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Feb 2027
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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Zurab Mikautadze 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.
Market1 Feb 2027
Saburtalo opened the door and nobody walked through it. So Vakhtang Shengelia stays — listed, trained, and available — while both sides mark the days to January on the same calendar.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad25 Jan 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Levan Kiteishvili
49 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Saburtalo lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market25 Jan 2027
Saburtalo say no — this time
The offer from Dinamo Tbilisi for Mamuka Mikautadze 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.
Squad25 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 Saburtalo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Davit Ananidze pulls a muscle — 18 days out
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 18 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Market25 Jan 2027
Add another name to the list: Tskhinvali have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Levan Daraselia. The answer from Saburtalo has not changed — yet.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Sandro Janelidze 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
Steady
Squad18 Jan 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Vakhtang Kashia
16 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Saburtalo lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market18 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 Saburtalo, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market18 Jan 2027
Saburtalo say no — this time
The offer from Dinamo Batumi for Levan Daraselia 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Shota Gamsakhurdia 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
A move Ibrahim Al-Hosani would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Ibrahim Al-Hosani is living that version at Saburtalo, and it tends to show in the first month.
Market18 Jan 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Saburtalo have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad2 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Vakhtang Kashia
99 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Saburtalo lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad2 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Sandro Janelidze 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
Steady
Squad2 Nov 2026
Levan Daraselia: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Shukura have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Roland Paku in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shukura this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at Shukura training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kleyder Barreto 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
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 41. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
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 Shukura, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Roland Paku in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shukura this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Shukura training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kleyder Barreto 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ole-Monrad Alme, and the manager let it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Luka Chaganava
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Luka Chaganava has come out of that comparison in the side, and Shukura have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.