Marked for Levan Kashia
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad28 Dec 2026
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Saburtalo will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad28 Dec 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Yakov Amosov is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad30 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Saburtalo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tornike Kvilitaia 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.
Squad30 Nov 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
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 Saburtalo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at Saburtalo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tugra Turhan 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.
Squad2 Nov 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad21 Sep 2026
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
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 Saburtalo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match19 Sep 2026
A 3‑1 win over Tskhinvali, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The terraces21 Sep 2026
At 19 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
Saburtalo keep winning on the road
3 away wins in a row. Travelling support is the truest kind, and this season it is being repaid in the only currency that counts.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Tugra Turhan ran the middle of the pitch — 7.46
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 11 combined actions and a mark of 7.46, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
A performance of 8.10 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Khvicha Kvaratskhelia was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.00. 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match12 Sep 2026
A 3-goal lead gone for Saburtalo
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Lokomotivi kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Saburtalo will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market14 Sep 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Saburtalo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Khvicha Kvaratskhelia 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 ratings14 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.16, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Davit Zivzivadze was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.17. 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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Ninety minutes of Tornike Kvilitaia at his very best
Marked 8.14. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Saburtalo.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Tugra Turhan 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 Saburtalo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match19 Aug 2026
Dila ended it 1‑2. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Squad24 Aug 2026
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market24 Aug 2026
Maxim Fedorov hands in a written request
“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.
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.
Squad24 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
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 terraces24 Aug 2026
At 17 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.
Match22 Aug 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Dato Kvaratskhelia. 1‑0 against Sapovnela, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 37. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match12 Aug 2026
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Tornike Kvilitaia obliged against Guria. 1‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Saburtalo.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Sandro Kiteishvili 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.
Match15 Aug 2026
Torpedo Kutaisi left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad17 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Levan Kashia
“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 ratings17 Aug 2026
Ninety minutes of Tornike Kvilitaia at his very best
Marked 8.45. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Saburtalo.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Tornike Kvilitaia 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Saba Okriashvili commits to Saburtalo for another 3 years.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 28. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market10 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Levan Kashia commits to Saburtalo for another 3 years.
Market10 Aug 2026
The deal that would have taken Shota Lobjanidze to Shukura has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Saburtalo with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Sandro Kiteishvili 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
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Sandro Kiteishvili, and the manager let it.
Market10 Aug 2026
Everyone has stopped pretending: Pafos will make the call about Mamuka Okriashvili this week. Saburtalo have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Shota 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Irakli Mikautadze has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Saburtalo.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 35. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.04 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad3 Aug 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.
Market3 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: Pafos have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Mamuka Okriashvili. The answer from Saburtalo has not changed — yet.
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 Saburtalo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match1 Aug 2026
2‑3 to Kolkheti, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad3 Aug 2026
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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Levan Kashia knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Levan Kashia trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.