Marked for Kakha Kakabadze
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad2 Nov 2026
Beka Dartsmelia 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.
Squad2 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.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
95% of the income goes out in wages at Saburtalo
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Beka Dartsmelia 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.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
A performance of 8.24 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad19 Oct 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Lasha Kashia and Saburtalo agree another 3 years.
Loan watch19 Oct 2026
“I did not go to Lokomotivi to sit and watch. I want to come back to Saburtalo and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.
Squad19 Oct 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
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.
Market12 Oct 2026
Davit Khelaia has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Merani they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad12 Oct 2026
86 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
Squad5 Oct 2026
Tempers go at Merani
Nodar Kavtaradze 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
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Eshonxon Jahbarov commits to Merani for another 3 years.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Wages eat 363% of everything Merani earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match12 Sep 2026
No end in sight to Merani's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Merani has to find a result from somewhere.
Market14 Sep 2026
Only the photograph left for Davit Khelaia
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Davit Khelaia will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Merani the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad14 Sep 2026
The medical room confirms 114 days on the sidelines for Doueugui Mala, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad14 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 Merani this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Loan watch14 Sep 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 Merani, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Defensive actions: 16. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Luka Kadaria, and the manager let it.
Match12 Sep 2026
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Sioni defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.