Marked for Otar Kakabadze
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Samtredia have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“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.
Market2 Nov 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Tamaz Makatsaria’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Sep 2026
Eric Barrios and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Sep 2026
34 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Too much change too quickly at Samtredia
10 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Aleksandre Janelidze chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“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.
Match26 Sep 2026
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Guria came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
Market28 Sep 2026
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Tamaz Makatsaria signs something — a contract at Samtredia or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Samtredia. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 33. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Marked 7.97 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Eric Barrios and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Temperley have kept their man, and Samtredia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The terraces10 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Raul Baratelia 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Giorgi Chakvetadze 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Shota Shengelia 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Otar Kakabadze is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Nika Shengelia is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.