The Saburtalo Post
Squad5 Oct 2026
Diogo wants to go home
“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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
A falling-out at Saburtalo
Beka Dartsmelia and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad5 Oct 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Sebastián Figueredo
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Sebastián Figueredo has come out of that comparison in the side, and Saburtalo have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
Giorgi Kutsia gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Giorgi Kutsia is on it.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Luka Rekhviashvili moves up the pecking order
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Saburtalo than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Beka Kobiashvili
“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.
In brief
- Market The Phillip Čančar question follows Saburtalo around
- The dugout Revaz Gvelesiani knocks on the manager’s door
- The dugout The manager plants his flag on Giorgi Papunashvili