Marked for Davit Kakabadze
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad12 Jul 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Bachana Kakabadze
33 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Kolkheti lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match10 Jul 2027
Lokomotivi will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Kolkheti were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings12 Jul 2027
Two goals and a mark of 8.41 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Defences have started doubling up on Jaba Zivzivadze
19 goals and a season average of 7.36 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Market12 Jul 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.
Player ratings12 Jul 2027
Successful dribbles: 25. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad12 Jul 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Kolkheti may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match10 Jul 2027
Kolkheti make it 3 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Kolkheti have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad12 Jul 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 Kolkheti this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market7 Jun 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market7 Jun 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.
Player ratings7 Jun 2027
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad7 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 Kolkheti this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Jaba Zivzivadze 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.
Match5 Jun 2027
0‑1 to Dinamo Batumi, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Market7 Jun 2027
The phone has started ringing about Mamuka Kakabadze again, and this time the name on the line is Merani. Kolkheti are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad7 Jun 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Khvicha Janelidze, and the manager let it.
Boardroom7 Jun 2027
Kolkheti 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
Upbeat
Player ratings10 May 2027
Two goals and a mark of 8.40 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings10 May 2027
Tornike Janelidze, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.14
A mark of 8.14 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Market10 May 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 Kolkheti can pretend not to have heard.
Squad10 May 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Fabian Banguero and Kolkheti agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad10 May 2027
Davit Kereselidze 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.
Match8 May 2027
Three points for Kolkheti, 3‑1 the final word against Chikhura in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad10 May 2027
Néstor Canelón 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.
The terraces10 May 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Tornike Janelidze has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Player ratings10 May 2027
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings12 Apr 2027
Successful dribbles: 38. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad12 Apr 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Jaba Janelidze
26 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Kolkheti lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market12 Apr 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 Kolkheti can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings12 Apr 2027
Tornike Janelidze, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.75
A mark of 7.75 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Words at Kolkheti training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Néstor Canelón 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.
Squad12 Apr 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 Kolkheti this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces12 Apr 2027
At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Match10 Apr 2027
It finished 1‑0, and it was Tornike Janelidze’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Kolkheti.
Market12 Apr 2027
Nika Ananidze is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Kolkheti has been clear about where Nika Ananidze stands, which is more than many ever get.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad15 Mar 2027
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Kolkheti have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market15 Mar 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 Kolkheti, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 25. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad15 Mar 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 Kolkheti this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words at Kolkheti training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jaba Zivzivadze 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.
Squad15 Mar 2027
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Kolkheti are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Match13 Mar 2027
A 1‑0 win over Samtredia, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.31, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Loan watch15 Mar 2027
“I watch every Kolkheti game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Sioni runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad1 Feb 2027
A fracture rules Bantu Mzwakali out for 72 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Sioni will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market1 Feb 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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Tempers go at Sioni
Uglješa Radinović 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Nov 2026
Silvester Shkalla damages knee ligaments — 93 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 93 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Kolkheti will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad16 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Oct 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Silvester Shkalla
122 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Kolkheti lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market19 Oct 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Kolkheti is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad19 Oct 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 Kolkheti this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.