The words a physio says slowly. 120 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.
The bid was some way short and Dinamo Tbilisi did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Player ratings13 Jun 2050
A brace, and Nils Olsen takes the afternoon — 8.38
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Nils Olsen provided it, and the 8.38 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Andrej Juranovic and Dinamo Tbilisi agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad13 Jun 2050
Words at Dinamo Tbilisi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Robert Palmer 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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Enrique García provided it, and the 8.01 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The unbeaten run reaches 9. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad16 May 2050
Robert Palmer 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.
9 combined actions and 6.66. 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.
5 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.
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.
Marked 8.67 — 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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Stefan Nemec and Dinamo Tbilisi agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Nobody at Dinamo Tbilisi will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Dinamo Tbilisi is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad21 Mar 2050
Robert Palmer 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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Sandro Daraselia and Dinamo Tbilisi agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Nobody at Dinamo Tbilisi will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Luka Sucic commits to Dinamo Tbilisi for another 2 years.
Squad7 Feb 2050
Robert Palmer 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.
Nobody at Dinamo Tbilisi will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The offer from Samtredia for Enrique García 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Enrique García and Dinamo Tbilisi agree another 3 years.
Squad10 Jan 2050
Robert Palmer 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.
1‑2 away to the standard of Dinamo Bucharest. Nobody will pretend this was a scandal; the gap is real, it is measurable, and closing it is a project rather than a team talk.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Dinamo Tbilisi is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Andrej Juranovic scored, was marked 7.30, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Andrej Juranovic commits to Dinamo Tbilisi for another 1 years.
Squad13 Dec 2049
Words at Dinamo Tbilisi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Julen Parra 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.
In brief
SquadRobert Palmer has become a man the manager trusts
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Dinamo Tbilisi they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Dinamo Tbilisi may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad15 Nov 2049
Robert Palmer 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Revaz Kashia and Dinamo Tbilisi agree another 4 years.
Nobody at Dinamo Tbilisi will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Enrique García will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dinamo Tbilisi the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Nika Kvilitaia and Dinamo Tbilisi agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
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.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.82 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Samtredia moved on, Craig Robertson reports back to Dinamo Tbilisi, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
A season average of 7.25 with 16 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad6 Sep 2049
Words at Dinamo Tbilisi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Robert Palmer 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.
26 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Sapovnela will make the call about Ruben Gavranovic this week. Dinamo Tbilisi have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 24 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.90 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
4 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.
Three points for Dinamo Tbilisi, 3‑2 the final word against Tskhinvali in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad31 May 2049
Words at Dinamo Tbilisi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Robert Palmer 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.
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings31 May 2049
Junya Osako was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.21. 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.89 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
It finished 3‑1, and it was Luka Sucic’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Dinamo Tbilisi.
Squad19 Apr 2049
Words at Dinamo Tbilisi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Robert Palmer 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 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.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Dinamo Tbilisi they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Richard Arias and Dinamo Tbilisi agree another 3 years.
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.
Squad8 Feb 2049
Words at Dinamo Tbilisi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Robert Palmer 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 easiest signature of my career.” Vakhtang Qazaishvili and Dinamo Tbilisi agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Jack Moore signs something — a contract at Dinamo Tbilisi or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
71 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Dinamo Tbilisi lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad28 Dec 2048
Robert Palmer 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.
99 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Dinamo Tbilisi lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Qualification is done, and next season the floodlights come on for something bigger. A stage for the players, oxygen for the accounts and a passport for everybody else.
It finished 0-3. 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Dinamo Tbilisi have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Dinamo Tbilisi can tell you which week it ends in.
120 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Dinamo Tbilisi lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
127 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Dinamo Tbilisi lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Simone Valentini is living that version at Dinamo Tbilisi, and it tends to show in the first month.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jack Moore and Dinamo Tbilisi agree another 2 years.
Squad2 Nov 2048
Robert Palmer 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.
Robert Palmer 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.
The young player of the month award goes to a 18-year-old at Dinamo Tbilisi who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Revaz Gvelesiani has come out of that comparison in the side, and Dinamo Tbilisi have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Nobody at Dinamo Tbilisi will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.