Marked for Aleksandre Chakvetadze
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market27 Nov 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Flamurtari can pretend not to have heard.
Match25 Nov 2028
No end in sight to Flamurtari's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Flamurtari has to find a result from somewhere.
Market27 Nov 2028
Ariol Kaloshi has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Flamurtari they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad27 Nov 2028
Jacques Mbé 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 ratings27 Nov 2028
Nobody could get near Redi Kasa
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad27 Nov 2028
Lorenc Trashi 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 ratings27 Nov 2028
Marked 8.15 — 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.
Squad27 Nov 2028
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Flamurtari know it.
Player ratings27 Nov 2028
Slavko Jović turns it into his own net
Nobody's fault and entirely his: a goal that goes into the book with his name against it and nothing about it intended. Flamurtari deserved better, and so did he.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad9 Oct 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Igor Aleksovski and Flamurtari agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad9 Oct 2028
Jacques Mbé 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 Flamurtari this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Oct 2028
Redi Kasa 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
Uneasy
Squad7 Aug 2028
Pereowei Magbisa is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
Market7 Aug 2028
Only the photograph left for Ariol Kaloshi
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ariol Kaloshi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Flamurtari the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad7 Aug 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 Flamurtari this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Nikolaj Kirckhoff has just signed for Flamurtari, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Dimitris Chantakias has improved at 33, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Market7 Aug 2028
11 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match7 Aug 2027
The wait goes on for Zugdidi
34 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Ayanda Bophela 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 Aug 2027
Dato Chakvetadze 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.
Match7 Aug 2027
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad9 Aug 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Zurab Tsitaishvili, and the manager let it.
Squad9 Aug 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Vakhtang Kashia and Zugdidi agree another 2 years.