Marked for Mikheil Kvilitaia
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad4 Oct 2027
Alexis Martínez damages knee ligaments — 17 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 17 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.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Words at Saburtalo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mikheil 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.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Bruno Arady is the division's best young player this month
At 20 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Saburtalo will try very hard not to make too much of it.
Squad4 Oct 2027
The award goes to Zurab Chakvetadze, and nobody around here is inclined to argue with the choice.
Boardroom4 Oct 2027
$1.5M on the table at Saburtalo
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
Loan watch4 Oct 2027
“I did not go to Torpedo Kutaisi to sit and watch. I want to come back to Saburtalo and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 15 matches say the rest.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match25 Sep 2027
Saburtalo make it 17 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Saburtalo have 17 straight wins of it.
Match25 Sep 2027
The run at home goes on for Saburtalo
28 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Squad27 Sep 2027
41 goals and a season average of 7.68. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad27 Sep 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Alexis Martínez
25 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 ratings27 Sep 2027
Bruno Arady, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.88
A mark of 7.88 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.
Squad27 Sep 2027
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Saburtalo have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings27 Sep 2027
Léo Santos runs at them all day
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.
Match25 Sep 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Levan Qazaishvili. 3‑1 against Dinamo Tbilisi, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Mikheil 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match11 Sep 2027
27 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Match11 Sep 2027
Saburtalo cannot stop winning
15 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.
Squad13 Sep 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Alexis Martínez
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.
Squad13 Sep 2027
A season average of 7.40 with 40 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Match8 Sep 2027
A 1‑0 win over Torpedo Kutaisi, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
A brace, and Jadel Katongo takes the afternoon — 8.29
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Jadel Katongo provided it, and the 8.29 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market13 Sep 2027
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.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Zurab Kakabadze 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.
Match11 Sep 2027
It finished 3‑1, and it was Jadel Katongo’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Saburtalo.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match14 Aug 2027
Saburtalo make home a hard place to visit
24 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Revaz Okriashvili damages knee ligaments — 30 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 30 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.
Squad16 Aug 2027
31 goals and a season average of 7.60. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Match14 Aug 2027
Saburtalo cannot stop winning
10 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.
Market16 Aug 2027
Saburtalo say no — this time
The offer from Viitorul for Zurab Chakvetadze 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.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Mikheil 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.
Match14 Aug 2027
It finished 2‑0, and it was Revaz Kobiashvili’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Saburtalo.
Player ratings16 Aug 2027
Marked 8.35 — 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 ratings16 Aug 2027
Léo Santos was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.30. 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
Triumph
Player ratings9 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 57. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match7 Aug 2027
The run at home goes on for Saburtalo
23 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Match7 Aug 2027
Nobody wants to play Saburtalo right now
9 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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
A season average of 7.50 with 22 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad9 Aug 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Levan Qazaishvili commits to Saburtalo for another 4 years.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Words at Saburtalo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mikheil 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.
Squad9 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 Saburtalo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces9 Aug 2027
At 23 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.
Match7 Aug 2027
A 1‑0 win over Dinamo Batumi, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match7 Nov 2026
A European night to remember for Saburtalo
2‑1 against NEC, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 28 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
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.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
The hardest thing about being 18 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Saba Kharebashvili did not need any: 7.87, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Revaz 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.
The terraces9 Nov 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 18-year-old it feels ownership of. Saba Kharebashvili 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.
Match7 Nov 2026
Saburtalo make home a hard place to visit
8 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Saburtalo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mikheil 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.
Loan watch9 Nov 2026
“I did not go to Qarabag to sit and watch. I want to come back to Saburtalo and fight for my place.” 3 appearances in 13 matches say the rest.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad19 Oct 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 51 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Davit Okriashvili 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Mikheil 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad7 Sep 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 95 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match5 Sep 2026
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
A brace, and Zurab Chakvetadze takes the afternoon — 8.31
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Zurab Chakvetadze provided it, and the 8.31 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Match5 Sep 2026
Saburtalo make it 6 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Saburtalo have 6 straight wins of it.
Market7 Sep 2026
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Saburtalo, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Davit Okriashvili 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.
Match5 Sep 2026
Saburtalo keep winning on the road
4 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 ratings7 Sep 2026
Revaz Kobiashvili was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.44. 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 ratings7 Sep 2026
A performance of 8.15 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.