Marked for Arseny Rodionov
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market9 Nov 2026
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Saburtalo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad9 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 Saburtalo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Nov 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Vakhtang Janelidze and Saburtalo agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 36. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad28 Sep 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Guram Mikautadze
34 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Saburtalo lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match28 Sep 2026
19 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.13 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad28 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 Saburtalo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces28 Sep 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Tornike Arveladze 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Tornike Arveladze, and the manager let it.
Loan watch28 Sep 2026
“I did not go to Chikhura to sit and watch. I want to come back to Saburtalo and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 7 matches say the rest.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad21 Sep 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Guram Mikautadze
41 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Saburtalo lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Arseny Rodionov, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.94
A mark of 7.94 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Arseny Rodionov 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
Beaten 2‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.26, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Loan watch21 Sep 2026
“I did not go to Dinamo Batumi to sit and watch. I want to come back to Saburtalo and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 6 matches say the rest.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad21 Sep 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Tornike Arveladze trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Lasha Kvaratskhelia 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
Upbeat
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
No sign of nerves from Arseny Rodionov at 20 — 7.72
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Arseny Rodionov did not need any: 7.72, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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 Saburtalo can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.24 for the rest of it.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Davit Kobiashvili 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
Add another name to the list: Samtredia have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Nika Kashia. The answer from Saburtalo has not changed — yet.
Match29 Aug 2026
Three points for Saburtalo, 2‑1 the final word against Samtredia in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Ninety minutes of Jaba Daraselia at his very best
Marked 8.21. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Saburtalo.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
A touch he did not want, a bounce he could not have read, and his name in the wrong column. There is no consoling a man after one of these, and Saburtalo will not try tonight.
Squad31 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Bachana Ananidze commits to Saburtalo for another 3 years.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match19 Aug 2026
The small margins put Saburtalo out
Out, 0‑3 to Dila, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
Saburtalo are taken apart by Dila — and the town wants answers
It finished 0-3. A cup exit is a disappointment; this was a public dismantling, and the difference between the two is the number of people who will still be talking about it in August.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
No sign of nerves from Arseny Rodionov at 20 — 7.60
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Arseny Rodionov did not need any: 7.60, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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.
Squad24 Aug 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.
Market24 Aug 2026
The phone has started ringing about Temur Kakabadze again, and this time the name on the line is Zugdidi. Saburtalo are listening politely and promising nothing.
Match22 Aug 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Sandro Gvelesiani. 2‑1 against Sapovnela, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad24 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mamuka Kobiashvili, and the manager let it.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Marked 8.24. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Saburtalo.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad10 Aug 2026
The match ball belongs to Lasha Kiteishvili, whose 4 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Market10 Aug 2026
Saburtalo say no — this time
The offer from Dinamo Tbilisi for Arseny Rodionov 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
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Arseny Rodionov commits to Saburtalo for another 5 years.
Squad10 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 Saburtalo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Marked 9.92 — 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
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Saburtalo and Dinamo Batumi, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Match8 Aug 2026
Dinamo Batumi made Saburtalo work for it, but the scoreboard read 4‑2 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Lasha Kiteishvili 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 Aug 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match1 Aug 2026
Sandro Gvelesiani had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Kolkheti were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Arseny Rodionov 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.
Match1 Aug 2026
2‑3 to Kolkheti, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Sandro Gvelesiani ran the middle of the pitch — 7.61
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 10 combined actions and a mark of 7.61, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Saburtalo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nika Arveladze 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.
Squad3 Aug 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Saburtalo, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market3 Aug 2026
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Saba Mikautadze has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Saburtalo.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 11. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.