Marked for Tornike Shengelia
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match16 Jun 2029
13 matches without a win for Tskhinvali
The run now stands at 13, and the questions being asked around Tskhinvali are no longer polite ones.
Match18 Jun 2029
Every point is an argument now for Tskhinvali
Position 16 and 10 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
The terraces18 Jun 2029
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 12 of the 32 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
Market18 Jun 2029
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market18 Jun 2029
“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.
Market18 Jun 2029
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Tskhinvali they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Boardroom18 Jun 2029
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Squad18 Jun 2029
Raúl Tito 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.
Squad18 Jun 2029
The manager makes an example of Raúl Tito
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match5 May 2029
No end in sight to Tskhinvali's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Tskhinvali has to find a result from somewhere.
Market7 May 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Tskhinvali can pretend not to have heard.
Squad7 May 2029
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Tskhinvali have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad7 May 2029
Raúl Tito 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.
Squad7 May 2029
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Archil Tsitaishvili and Tskhinvali agree another 2 years.
Squad7 May 2029
Davit Jikia 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.
Player ratings7 May 2029
Otar Gagnidze did the work nobody counts — 6.19
10 combined actions and 6.19. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
Loan watch7 May 2029
“I watch every Tskhinvali game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Dinamo Batumi runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Match5 May 2029
It needed Mikheil Mchedlidze to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Sioni, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Feb 2029
Tsotne Chikovani damages knee ligaments — 14 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 14 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.
Market12 Feb 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Tskhinvali can pretend not to have heard.
Squad12 Feb 2029
Raúl Tito 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.
Squad12 Feb 2029
Levan Kakabadze 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.
Squad12 Feb 2029
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Sebastian Jørgensen and Tskhinvali agree another 3 years.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad22 Jan 2029
Raúl Tito 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.
Squad22 Jan 2029
Words at Tskhinvali training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Levan Kakabadze 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.
Squad22 Jan 2029
“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.