Marked for Zurab Tsitaishvili
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Jun 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 48 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market19 Jun 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Volga is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Boardroom19 Jun 2028
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Neguete has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Squad19 Jun 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Volga this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Vladimir Popov 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.
Squad19 Jun 2028
“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
Squad6 Dec 2027
“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.
Squad6 Dec 2027
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Saburtalo will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Market6 Dec 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 Saburtalo can pretend not to have heard.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Davit Shengelia 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.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Valerio Verdi 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.
Boardroom6 Dec 2027
Saburtalo release $1.3M for the manager
The board have put money on the table rather than an encouraging word. What happens to it now is somebody else's problem, and somebody else's job.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market15 Nov 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.
Market15 Nov 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Saburtalo is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad15 Nov 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.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Words at Saburtalo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Valerio Verdi 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 watch15 Nov 2027
“I did not go to Sioni to sit and watch. I want to come back to Saburtalo and fight for my place.” 6 appearances in 20 matches say the rest.
Squad15 Nov 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad25 Oct 2027
Davit Shengelia 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.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Valerio Verdi 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 watch25 Oct 2027
“I did not go to Sioni to sit and watch. I want to come back to Saburtalo and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 6 matches say the rest.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match8 Sep 2027
Saburtalo through in the cup
A 2‑0 win over Dinamo Tbilisi, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Match11 Sep 2027
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
Two goals and a mark of 9.68 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad13 Sep 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Saburtalo may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market13 Sep 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.
Squad13 Sep 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Valerio Verdi commits to Saburtalo for another 4 years.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Oto Goshadze 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.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Valerio Verdi 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 ratings13 Sep 2027
Marked 9.09 — 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad19 Jul 2027
Tempers go at Sioni
Levan 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.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Bantu Mzwakali 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.
Squad19 Jul 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Dachi Tsnobiladze, and the manager let it.
Market19 Jul 2027
The phone has started ringing about Luka Avaliani again, and this time the name on the line is Zugdidi. Sioni are listening politely and promising nothing.
Match17 Jul 2027
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings19 Jul 2027
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Too much change too quickly at Sioni
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Player ratings19 Jul 2027
An afternoon Regnar Krot will want back
Marked 5.47. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
Player ratings19 Jul 2027
5.51. Every footballer has these and most of them happen away from a full ground; his did not, and he will be aware of that all week.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom5 Jul 2027
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Beka Janelidze has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Boardroom5 Jul 2027
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Sioni
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market5 Jul 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 Sioni, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Tempers go at Sioni
Vasilis Grosdis 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.
Match3 Jul 2027
A bad afternoon for Sioni against Kolkheti
1‑3 to Kolkheti, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad5 Jul 2027
“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.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Words at Sioni training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giorgi Gaprindashvili 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.
Boardroom5 Jul 2027
Sioni sign 6 boys into the academy
None of them will be seen by anybody outside the training ground for three years, most of them will never play a senior match, and one of them might change the club. That is the whole proposition, and it is why academies exist.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Bantu Mzwakali named in the team of the month
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Bantu Mzwakali is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces28 Jun 2027
The mood at Sioni has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Match28 Jun 2027
Sioni sink to position 15
10 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Match26 Jun 2027
Zurab Tsitaishvili wins it after the whistle should have gone
93 minutes played. Zurab Tsitaishvili found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Shukura went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Market28 Jun 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 Sioni, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings28 Jun 2027
Zurab Tsitaishvili, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 8.07
A mark of 8.07 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Player ratings28 Jun 2027
Age has not caught Bantu Mzwakali yet — 8.10
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.10 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Luka Avaliani is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.
Squad28 Jun 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 Sioni this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Words at Sioni training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexandr Verulidze 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
Upbeat
Squad2 Nov 2026
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Nika Kashia 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 Saburtalo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Loan watch2 Nov 2026
“I watch every Saburtalo game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Shukura runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.