Shota Gvelesiani 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 Dec 2026
Words at Zugdidi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jaba Chakvetadze 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Zugdidi have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zugdidi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Shota Gvelesiani 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Zugdidi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jaba Chakvetadze 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zugdidi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Zugdidi, and 0 appearances in 6 say he has earned the hearing.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Sioni? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Zugdidi, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A mark of 7.69 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 18-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Zugdidi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jaba Chakvetadze 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.
At 18 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Zurab Kiteishvili. 1‑0 against Samtredia, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Zugdidi, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
Nobody at Zugdidi is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
Two goals and a mark of 8.73 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zugdidi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Mikheil Kakabadze is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Successful dribbles: 12. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market7 Sep 2026
The window shut and Goga Kashia is still in the building
Zugdidi spent a month trying to move him and nobody rang back. He trains with a squad that has told him where he stands, and both sides start counting down to the next one.
“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 Zugdidi, and it is not being withdrawn.
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Shota Gvelesiani 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 crowd waited for a goal that never came. Torpedo Kutaisi defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
The words a physio says slowly. 19 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.
“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 Zugdidi, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Torpedo Kutaisi for Mikheil Shengelia 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zugdidi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 words a physio says slowly. 26 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.
Torpedo Kutaisi go through and Zugdidi go home, 2‑4 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Zurab Kiteishvili provided it, and the 8.27 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 8 of the 27 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
The offer from Shukura for Kakha Mikautadze 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.
The phone has started ringing about Mikheil Shengelia again, and this time the name on the line is Torpedo Kutaisi. Zugdidi are listening politely and promising nothing.
Jaba Chakvetadze 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Zugdidi and Torpedo Kutaisi, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.