Marked for Lasha Lobjanidze
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout18 Oct 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Tskhinvali may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad18 Oct 2027
A season average of 7.69 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Tskhinvali know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Boardroom18 Oct 2027
The numbers do not look good at Tskhinvali
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Squad18 Oct 2027
A row about effort at Tskhinvali
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mateo Benegas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Moisés 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.
The dugout18 Oct 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.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
Nil Chesnokov has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Tskhinvali will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Market18 Oct 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Nil Chesnokov signs something — a contract at Tskhinvali or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Loan watch18 Oct 2027
29 starts now, an average of 6.82, and the team sheet at Chikhura has stopped being a question. Exactly what everybody signed up for.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match4 Sep 2027
4‑1, and Felipe Karabulut took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Tskhinvali tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Market6 Sep 2027
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Match6 Sep 2027
Tskhinvali are in among the leaders
Position 2 and 63 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Player ratings6 Sep 2027
Two goals and a mark of 9.16 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings6 Sep 2027
Mateo Benegas, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.97
A mark of 8.97 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 20 signed and 15 gone
That is the business done at Tskhinvali until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Match4 Sep 2027
Nobody wants to play Tskhinvali right now
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Squad6 Sep 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 Tskhinvali this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Mateo Benegas 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.
In brief
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The terraces
The crowd has taken to Mateo Benegas
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Match
Another one collected away from home
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Player ratings
Lasha Kobiashvili beats them one at a time
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match28 Aug 2027
Lokomotivi will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Tskhinvali were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings30 Aug 2027
No sign of nerves from Mateo Benegas at 21 — 8.43
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Mateo Benegas did not need any: 8.43, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Market30 Aug 2027
The name of Lasha Lobjanidze has come up in conversations Tskhinvali were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Mateo Benegas and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Yakov Leskov 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 dugout30 Aug 2027
“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 ratings30 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Too much change too quickly at Tskhinvali
9 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.
Loan watch30 Aug 2027
“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 Tskhinvali, and 4 appearances in 31 say he has earned the hearing.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad2 Aug 2027
Khvicha Mikautadze damages knee ligaments — 23 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 23 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.
Match31 Jul 2027
After 15 games, Tskhinvali finally taste it again
The first defeat in 15 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Torpedo Kutaisi; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Squad2 Aug 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 Tskhinvali this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Words at Tskhinvali training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mateo Benegas 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.
Player ratings2 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 18. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The dugout2 Aug 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Helistano Manga, and the manager let it.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Too much change too quickly at Tskhinvali
8 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.
Loan watch2 Aug 2027
“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 Tskhinvali, and 4 appearances in 27 say he has earned the hearing.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings5 Jul 2027
Two goals and a mark of 8.92 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market5 Jul 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Shukura waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Tskhinvali is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Match3 Jul 2027
6 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Market5 Jul 2027
Dila come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Tskhinvali did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Match3 Jul 2027
Tskhinvali are at home on the road
6 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
The deal with Temperley is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Market5 Jul 2027
The shirt still fits. Avtandil Kvilitaia is back at Tskhinvali, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Avtandil Tsitaishvili 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 Jul 2027
13 goals and a season average of 7.29. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match19 Jun 2027
Zugdidi will want this one forgotten quickly: 5‑2, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Tskhinvali were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Squad21 Jun 2027
The match ball belongs to Lasha Lobjanidze, whose 4 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Market21 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.
Player ratings21 Jun 2027
No sign of nerves from Mateo Benegas at 21 — 8.05
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Mateo Benegas did not need any: 8.05, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
The dugout21 Jun 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.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2027
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Dila is saying, and nobody at Tskhinvali is enjoying the guessing.
Match19 Jun 2027
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Tskhinvali have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad21 Jun 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Irakli Lobjanidze commits to Tskhinvali for another 4 years.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Nil Chesnokov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad3 May 2027
Davit Gvelesiani damages knee ligaments — 41 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 41 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.
Player ratings3 May 2027
Successful dribbles: 35. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad3 May 2027
25 days out for Moisés after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Tskhinvali will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Player ratings3 May 2027
Mateo Benegas, 21, steals the show — 8.49
Marked 8.49 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Boardroom3 May 2027
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
Squad3 May 2027
Mateo Benegas 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.
Squad3 May 2027
At 21, Mateo Benegas is already the best thing here
An average of 7.06 in a first team he is several years too young for. Tskhinvali have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
Match1 May 2027
Three points for Tskhinvali, 2‑0 the final word against Samtredia in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings3 May 2027
Ninety minutes of Otar Shengelia at his very best
Marked 8.49. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Tskhinvali.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Oct 2026
19 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Tskhinvali lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Moisés and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Lasha Lobjanidze and Tskhinvali agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Yakov Leskov 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 dugout12 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.
Loan watch12 Oct 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 Tskhinvali, and 0 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Oct 2026
27 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Tskhinvali lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Moisés 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
Nil Chesnokov 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
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.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Lasha Lobjanidze trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market5 Oct 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Nil Chesnokov’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Market5 Oct 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.
The terraces5 Oct 2026
The stands have heard the Yakov Leskov talk too
What was a back-page story is now a matter for the terraces, and the terraces do not do nuance. Tskhinvali would like it dealt with before it becomes the only question anybody asks.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market28 Sep 2026
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jaba Kiteishvili will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Tskhinvali the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom28 Sep 2026
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Jaba Kiteishvili 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Moisés 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Tskhinvali training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yakov Leskov 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.
Match26 Sep 2026
It finished 2‑1, and it was Lasha Lobjanidze’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Tskhinvali.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Marked 8.04 — 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.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
A performance of 8.05 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Loan watch28 Sep 2026
“I watch every Tskhinvali 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.