Marked for Vasily Glushakov
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 58. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match7 Nov 2026
1‑1 against ADO Den Haag, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Giorgi Kakabadze was at the centre of the description.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Giorgi Kakabadze, 17, plays like he has been here for years — 7.65
A mark of 7.65 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 17-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Vasily Glushakov 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Tskhinvali training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Santiago Mera 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
The team sheet said everything about Erik Zetterberg
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Erik Zetterberg.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad2 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Vasily Glushakov 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Tornike Kobiashvili and Tskhinvali agree another 4 years.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Sep 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 12 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match19 Sep 2026
A chastening European night for Tskhinvali
0‑4 against Baltika. The honest reading is not that the players were poor; it is that the distance between this club and that one is currently measured in things money takes years to buy.
Market21 Sep 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Tskhinvali is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Match19 Sep 2026
6 matches without a win for Tskhinvali
The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around Tskhinvali are no longer polite ones.
Boardroom21 Sep 2026
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Levan Arveladze 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.
Squad21 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 Tskhinvali this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Vasily Glushakov 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Per-Egil Flo gets it from the manager
“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.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.17, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 37. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match12 Sep 2026
The small margins put Tskhinvali out
Out, 0‑1 to Dinamo Tbilisi, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match12 Sep 2026
4 matches without a win for Tskhinvali
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Tskhinvali are no longer polite ones.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Santiago Mera 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Tskhinvali training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vasily Glushakov 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“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.
Loan watch14 Sep 2026
“I did not go to Sioni to sit and watch. I want to come back to Tskhinvali and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.
Market14 Sep 2026
6 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Tskhinvali could get for him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 29. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market31 Aug 2026
The offer from Samtredia for Tornike Kobiashvili 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.
Market31 Aug 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Tskhinvali can pretend not to have heard.
Match29 Aug 2026
Still nobody has beaten Tskhinvali
The unbeaten run reaches 7. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Per-Egil Flo 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.
Market31 Aug 2026
Archil Gvelesiani has left for Zugdidi in a $9.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Tskhinvali training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vasily Glushakov 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.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Archil Kvilitaia 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 ratings31 Aug 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.25, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 50. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad24 Aug 2026
2 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Match19 Aug 2026
Torpedo Kutaisi are out and Tskhinvali go through, 0‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Match22 Aug 2026
Guram Gvelesiani wins it after the whistle should have gone
94 minutes played. Guram Gvelesiani found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Sioni went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Market24 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market24 Aug 2026
“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.
Market24 Aug 2026
The paperwork is done: Zurab Gigashvili joins from Samtredia in a deal worth $79.0K. Now comes the harder part.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Per-Egil Flo 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 Tskhinvali this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match22 Aug 2026
Still nobody has beaten Tskhinvali
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Aug 2026
The offer from Dinamo Tbilisi for Levan Arveladze 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Archil Kvilitaia and Tskhinvali agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Per-Egil Flo 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Tskhinvali training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Levan Kharabadze 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.
Squad10 Aug 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.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Marked 8.19 — 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.
Match8 Aug 2026
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Beka Kvilitaia had Tskhinvali level again within 1 minutes, and Sapovnela never got to play with a lead at all.
Match8 Aug 2026
A 2‑2 draw with Sapovnela leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.06 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
A hand in 2 of them from Beka Kvilitaia — 7.95
Marked 7.95. There is a kind of forward whose value only shows up when you count what he was involved in rather than what he finished, and this is the day that argument makes itself.
Squad3 Aug 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.
Match1 Aug 2026
It finished 3‑1, and it was Archil Kvilitaia’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Tskhinvali.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Levan Kharabadze 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 terraces3 Aug 2026
At 22 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
The phone has started ringing about Temur Gvelesiani again, and this time the name on the line is Sapovnela. Tskhinvali are listening politely and promising nothing.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Archil Kvilitaia was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.10. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Market3 Aug 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.