Marked for Vakhtang Janelidze
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad22 Jan 2029
36 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.
Squad22 Jan 2029
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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad8 Jan 2029
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.
Squad8 Jan 2029
René Meléndez 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.
Market8 Jan 2029
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Saburtalo have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad8 Jan 2029
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Saba Tsitaishvili and Saburtalo agree another 4 years.
Market8 Jan 2029
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Saburtalo will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Boardroom8 Jan 2029
$1.0M 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market1 Jan 2029
“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 The request is on a desk at Saburtalo, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad1 Jan 2029
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Saburtalo have had the benefit of it.
Squad1 Jan 2029
Revaz Lobjanidze 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market25 Dec 2028
“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.
Market25 Dec 2028
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Vakhtang Janelidze will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Saburtalo the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad25 Dec 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Goga Kakabadze and Saburtalo agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market27 Nov 2028
“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.
Market27 Nov 2028
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.
Squad27 Nov 2028
Luis Blanco 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad6 Nov 2028
Luis Blanco 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.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Words at Saburtalo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. René Meléndez 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.
Boardroom6 Nov 2028
Saburtalo release $1.0M for the manager
The board have put money on the table rather than an encouraging word. What happens to it now is somebody else's problem, and somebody else's job.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market30 Oct 2028
“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.
Market30 Oct 2028
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.
Squad30 Oct 2028
Luis Blanco 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market2 Oct 2028
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.
Squad2 Oct 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Avtandil Zivzivadze commits to Saburtalo for another 2 years.
Squad2 Oct 2028
Luis Blanco 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match9 Sep 2028
Whatever happens, Saburtalo do not lose
12 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Luis Blanco 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.
Squad11 Sep 2028
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Saburtalo know it.
Squad11 Sep 2028
René Meléndez 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.
Squad11 Sep 2028
“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.
Player ratings11 Sep 2028
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match9 Sep 2028
It needed Davit Chakvetadze to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Lokomotivi, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Market11 Sep 2028
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.
Market11 Sep 2028
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Saba Gvelesiani’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match2 Sep 2028
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Sioni, and it could have been more.
Squad4 Sep 2028
Hunter Olson takes the match ball home
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Market4 Sep 2028
“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.
Market4 Sep 2028
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Vakhtang Janelidze will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Saburtalo the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match2 Sep 2028
Saburtalo cannot stop winning
3 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.
Squad4 Sep 2028
Luis Blanco 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.
Squad4 Sep 2028
Words at Saburtalo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. René Meléndez 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.
Match2 Sep 2028
Saburtalo are at home on the road
3 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
Player ratings4 Sep 2028
Marked 8.44 — 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings21 Aug 2028
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.16, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Match19 Aug 2028
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 9 matches without defeat is a foundation Saburtalo did not have in the autumn.
Player ratings21 Aug 2028
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Luis Blanco 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.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Words at Saburtalo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. René Meléndez 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.
Match19 Aug 2028
Sapovnela made Saburtalo work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad21 Aug 2028
“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.
Squad21 Aug 2028
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Revaz Lobjanidze will call it something else in private.
Market21 Aug 2028
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Saburtalo will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market7 Aug 2028
“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.
Market7 Aug 2028
Dila come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Saburtalo did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Match5 Aug 2028
Whatever happens, Saburtalo do not lose
7 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Revaz Lobjanidze 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 Aug 2028
Words at Saburtalo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. René Meléndez 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.
Market7 Aug 2028
The name of Vakhtang Janelidze has come up in conversations Saburtalo were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Boardroom7 Aug 2028
Saburtalo release $1.0M for the manager
The board have put money on the table rather than an encouraging word. What happens to it now is somebody else's problem, and somebody else's job.
Squad7 Aug 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Petro Marku commits to Saburtalo for another 3 years.
Squad7 Aug 2028
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market31 Jul 2028
Guria come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Saburtalo did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad31 Jul 2028
13 goals and a season average of 7.41. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Luis Blanco 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 Jul 2028
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Saburtalo and Kolkheti, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Match29 Jul 2028
Kolkheti made Saburtalo work for it, but the scoreboard read 4‑2 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings31 Jul 2028
14 combined actions and 7.36. 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.
Market31 Jul 2028
The phone has started ringing about Vakhtang Janelidze again, and this time the name on the line is Dila. Saburtalo are listening politely and promising nothing.
Match29 Jul 2028
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Saburtalo did not have in the autumn.
Squad31 Jul 2028
René Meléndez 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
Upbeat
Player ratings24 Jul 2028
Successful dribbles: 35. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings24 Jul 2028
A brace, and Saba Gvelesiani takes the afternoon — 8.92
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Saba Gvelesiani provided it, and the 8.92 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad24 Jul 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Saburtalo may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Luis Blanco 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.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Words at Saburtalo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. René Meléndez 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.
Match22 Jul 2028
A 2‑0 win over Shukura, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Market24 Jul 2028
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Saburtalo will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Squad24 Jul 2028
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Saburtalo told Revaz Lobjanidze something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Player ratings24 Jul 2028
The pass was always on for Lasha Kashia
Chances created: 6. Somebody has to open a door before anybody can walk through it, and he spent the afternoon opening doors.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match8 Jul 2028
4‑1, and Saba Gvelesiani took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Saburtalo tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings10 Jul 2028
Two goals and a mark of 9.43 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market10 Jul 2028
The bid was some way short and Saburtalo did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Luis Blanco 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.
Player ratings10 Jul 2028
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad10 Jul 2028
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Saburtalo know it.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Words at Saburtalo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. René Meléndez 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 ratings10 Jul 2028
A performance of 9.13 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Match8 Jul 2028
2 goals inside twenty minutes with Saba Gvelesiani in the middle of it, and Chikhura unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 Jul 2028
“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.
Squad3 Jul 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Saburtalo may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad3 Jul 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Lasha Kashia and Saburtalo agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Jul 2028
Luis Blanco 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.
Squad3 Jul 2028
12 goals and a season average of 7.33. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Boardroom3 Jul 2028
$1.0M 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.
Match1 Jul 2028
It finished 2‑2, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Boardroom3 Jul 2028
Saburtalo sign 9 boys into the academy
None of them will be seen by anybody outside the training ground for three years, most of them will never play a senior match, and one of them might change the club. That is the whole proposition, and it is why academies exist.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match21 Jun 2028
The small margins put Saburtalo out
Out, 1‑4 to Dila, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Market26 Jun 2028
“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.
The terraces26 Jun 2028
Saburtalo are taken apart by Dila — and the town wants answers
It finished 1-4. A cup exit is a disappointment; this was a public dismantling, and the difference between the two is the number of people who will still be talking about it in August.
Squad26 Jun 2028
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 ratings26 Jun 2028
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.
Player ratings26 Jun 2028
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.95 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Luis Blanco 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.
Match24 Jun 2028
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Davit Chakvetadze. 3‑1 against Merani, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Words at Saburtalo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. René Meléndez 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market12 Jun 2028
Guria come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Saburtalo did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Luis Blanco 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.
Match10 Jun 2028
1‑3 to Dinamo Tbilisi, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Words at Saburtalo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. René Meléndez 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.
Squad12 Jun 2028
The manager makes an example of Shota Kakabadze
“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.
Squad12 Jun 2028
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.
Player ratings12 Jun 2028
The substitution nobody applauded turned out to be the whole story. Saburtalo were going nowhere until he came on.
Player ratings12 Jun 2028
Successful dribbles: 9. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market12 Jun 2028
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Vakhtang Janelidze may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match15 Apr 2028
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.
Squad17 Apr 2028
“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.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Luis Blanco 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.
Player ratings17 Apr 2028
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Words at Saburtalo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. René Meléndez 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.
The terraces17 Apr 2028
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.
Match15 Apr 2028
Kolkheti made Saburtalo work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings17 Apr 2028
Marked 8.30. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Saburtalo.
Player ratings17 Apr 2028
Lasha Kashia was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.07. 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
Upbeat
Player ratings3 Apr 2028
Successful dribbles: 31. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match1 Apr 2028
Saburtalo make it 3 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Saburtalo have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Luis Blanco 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.
Match1 Apr 2028
Three points for Saburtalo, 3‑1 the final word against Guria in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Words at Saburtalo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. René Meléndez 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 ratings3 Apr 2028
A performance of 8.55 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Feb 2028
Irakli Rukhadze damages knee ligaments — 18 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 18 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.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Élan Ricardo 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.
Squad28 Feb 2028
René Meléndez 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
Steady
Squad6 Dec 2027
René Meléndez damages knee ligaments — 15 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 15 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.
Squad6 Dec 2027
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Saburtalo have had the benefit of it.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Luis Blanco 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.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Mario Santoro 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.
Boardroom6 Dec 2027
Saburtalo release $1.3M for the manager
The board have put money on the table rather than an encouraging word. What happens to it now is somebody else's problem, and somebody else's job.
Market6 Dec 2027
Vakhtang Janelidze returns from a loan that gave him nothing
4 appearances and 0 goals is not a season, it is a year somebody has lost. Whether that is his fault, the borrowing club's or the people who arranged it is the argument the next few weeks will have.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings29 Nov 2027
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Nicolás Andereggen 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 ratings29 Nov 2027
Marked 8.49 — 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.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Vakhtang Janelidze 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.
Boardroom29 Nov 2027
Wages eat 115% of everything Ethnikos Achnas earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Squad29 Nov 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Javier Siverio, and the manager let it.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Market29 Nov 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Lucas Flores’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad22 Nov 2027
René Meléndez damages knee ligaments — 29 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 29 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.
Market22 Nov 2027
“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.
Squad22 Nov 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Saburtalo may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Élan Ricardo 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.
Squad22 Nov 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Zurab Kvilitaia commits to Saburtalo for another 3 years.
Loan watch22 Nov 2027
“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 Saburtalo, and 6 appearances in 45 say he has earned the hearing.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad25 Oct 2027
A fracture rules Mario Santoro out for 17 days
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.
Market25 Oct 2027
“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.
Squad25 Oct 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Revaz Lobjanidze and Saburtalo agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Élan Ricardo 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.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Words at Saburtalo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. René Meléndez 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 watch25 Oct 2027
“I did not go to Kolkheti to sit and watch. I want to come back to Saburtalo and fight for my place.” 6 appearances in 41 matches say the rest.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match16 Oct 2027
No end in sight to Ethnikos Achnas's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Ethnikos Achnas has to find a result from somewhere.
Market18 Oct 2027
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Ethnikos Achnas they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Sebastian Musiolik 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.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Nicolás Andereggen 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.
Match16 Oct 2027
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Ethnikos Achnas can tell you which week it ends in.
Match16 Oct 2027
AE Kition left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad18 Oct 2027
“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.
Squad18 Oct 2027
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Market18 Oct 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Kostas Pileas’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad11 Oct 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Martim Maia and Ethnikos Achnas agree another 3 years.
Match9 Oct 2027
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad11 Oct 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 Ethnikos Achnas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Oct 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Luis Felipe, and the manager let it.
Squad11 Oct 2027
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Match9 Oct 2027
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Omonoia? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad27 Sep 2027
Élan Ricardo 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.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Words at Saburtalo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. René Meléndez 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.
Squad27 Sep 2027
“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.
Match25 Sep 2027
0‑1 to Dinamo Tbilisi, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Loan watch27 Sep 2027
“I did not go to Kolkheti to sit and watch. I want to come back to Saburtalo and fight for my place.” 6 appearances in 37 matches say the rest.
Squad27 Sep 2027
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
Steady
Squad13 Sep 2027
Andriy Kravchuk damages knee ligaments — 19 days out
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.
Squad13 Sep 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Ethnikos Achnas may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match11 Sep 2027
4 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.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Georgios Nikolas Angelopoulos is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Kostas Pileas 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
A 1‑1 draw with APOEL leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Market13 Sep 2027
Ermis are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Ethnikos Achnas will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Market13 Sep 2027
The Lucas Flores talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Ethnikos Achnas know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 7. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad23 Aug 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Andriy Kravchuk
41 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ethnikos Achnas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom23 Aug 2027
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Ethnikos Achnas
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market23 Aug 2027
“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 Ethnikos Achnas, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Emmanuel Lomotey has improved at 29, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Efstathios Giannaras is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Market23 Aug 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Ethnikos Achnas have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Jul 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Andriy Kravchuk
92 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ethnikos Achnas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Words at Ethnikos Achnas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicolás Andereggen 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.
Squad5 Jul 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 Ethnikos Achnas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Jun 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Andriy Kravchuk
99 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ethnikos Achnas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom28 Jun 2027
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Ethnikos Achnas
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Market28 Jun 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Ethnikos Achnas is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Neneco 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 Ethnikos Achnas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Emmanuel Lomotey has improved at 29, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market21 Jun 2027
Saburtalo say no — this time
The offer from Dinamo Tbilisi for Hunter Olson 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.
Squad21 Jun 2027
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.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Luis Blanco 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.
Market21 Jun 2027
The name of Vakhtang Janelidze has come up in conversations Saburtalo were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Player ratings21 Jun 2027
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Words at Saburtalo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. René Meléndez 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.
Squad21 Jun 2027
The medical room confirms 43 days on the sidelines for Léo Santos, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Match19 Jun 2027
Dila left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Loan watch21 Jun 2027
15 starts now, an average of 6.49, and the team sheet at Kolkheti has stopped being a question. Exactly what everybody signed up for.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 May 2027
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Saburtalo will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Player ratings17 May 2027
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad17 May 2027
René Meléndez 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 May 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.
Squad17 May 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Vakhtang Janelidze, and the manager let it.
Match15 May 2027
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Samtredia will be the happier side with the point.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 42. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad15 Mar 2027
18 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.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Luis Blanco 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.
Squad15 Mar 2027
René Meléndez 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.
Loan watch15 Mar 2027
“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 Saburtalo, and 0 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
Match13 Mar 2027
It needed Lasha Kashia to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Merani, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad8 Mar 2027
Vakhtang Janelidze damages knee ligaments — 26 days out
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.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Beka Ananidze: that is not what I was promised
“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.
Squad8 Mar 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Luis Blanco and Saburtalo agree another 2 years.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Luis Blanco 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.
Boardroom8 Mar 2027
4 academy players handed senior numbers at Saburtalo
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Market8 Mar 2027
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Otar Okriashvili has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market8 Mar 2027
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Kakha Ananidze is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market8 Mar 2027
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Avtandil Gvelesiani has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market8 Mar 2027
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Saba Kiteishvili has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad1 Mar 2027
Vakhtang Janelidze damages knee ligaments — 33 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 33 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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Luis Blanco 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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Saburtalo know it.
In brief
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Squad
René Meléndez falls out with a teammate over standards
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Boardroom
The Saburtalo production line keeps running