Marked for Guram Kobiashvili
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad31 Aug 2026
Lasha Arveladze damages knee ligaments — 24 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 24 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.
Market31 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.
Match29 Aug 2026
4 matches without a win for Saburtalo
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Saburtalo are no longer polite ones.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Jemal Tabidze 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.
Match29 Aug 2026
0‑1 to Samtredia, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Market31 Aug 2026
The name of Gregorio Caruso has come up in conversations Saburtalo were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad10 Aug 2026
A move Jemal Tabidze would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Jemal Tabidze is living that version at Saburtalo, and it tends to show in the first month.
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
“The easiest signature of my career.” Sandro Mikautadze and Saburtalo agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Jemal Tabidze 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Saburtalo have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Goga Mikautadze 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.
Match8 Aug 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Market10 Aug 2026
Guria are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Saburtalo will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Market10 Aug 2026
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Guram Kobiashvili has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Saburtalo.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad3 Aug 2026
Sandro Mikautadze 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
Jaba Arveladze scored, and precious little else went right: 2‑3 to Kolkheti, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Saburtalo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Goga Mikautadze 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
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Guram Kobiashvili and Saburtalo agree another 2 years.
Market3 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: Lokomotivi have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Gregorio Caruso. The answer from Saburtalo has not changed — yet.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Temur Mchedlidze, and the manager let it.