Marked for Numan Kurdić
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad8 Feb 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 21 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Internacional keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Giorgi Loria 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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aleksandre Kalandadze was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Athletico Paranaense have kept their man, and Dinamo Tbilisi go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Home is on Erik's mind
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Dinamo Tbilisi are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad23 Nov 2026
109 days out for Bachana Arabuli after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Dinamo Tbilisi will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Jaba Kankava and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Román Gómez 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 dugout23 Nov 2026
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.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Dinamo Tbilisi. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Market23 Nov 2026
The Numan Kurdić talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Dinamo Tbilisi know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Nov 2026
Jaba Kankava 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 Dinamo Tbilisi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
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.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Giorgi Kukhianidze has written the date down.
Market16 Nov 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Barnes Osei’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
The manager comes out for Numan Kurdić
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Numan Kurdić has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Numan Kurdić is the talk of the training ground
Sharpest man there all week, by every account. It is the quietest line on this page and it usually runs the week before somebody’s run in the side begins.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Oct 2026
“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 Dinamo Tbilisi know it.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
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.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Dinamo Tbilisi. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nikoloz Ugrekhelidze trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market26 Oct 2026
The Numan Kurdić talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Dinamo Tbilisi know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Squad26 Oct 2026
The penny has dropped for Pedrinho
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Dinamo Tbilisi the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Nikoloz Ugrekhelidze is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Jaba Kankava and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Dinamo Tbilisi can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Numan Kurdić and Dinamo Tbilisi agree another 4 years.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Wages swallow 98% of the Dinamo Tbilisi income
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
Pedrinho 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 Pedrinho is on it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Sep 2026
Jaba Kankava 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
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Giorgi Gvasalia is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pedrinho was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
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 Bachana Arabuli is on it.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
Numan Kurdić knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Dinamo Tbilisi, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market28 Sep 2026
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Mikheil Makatsaria may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Sep 2026
Jaba Kankava 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 Dinamo Tbilisi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Dinamo Tbilisi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pedrinho 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 dugout21 Sep 2026
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.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Dinamo Tbilisi have no good answer.
Market21 Sep 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Barnes Osei’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Numan Kurdić knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Numan Kurdić trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market21 Sep 2026
The clock does Numan Kurdić’s negotiating for him
3 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Dinamo Tbilisi could ask drops and the wages Numan Kurdić can ask rise.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market14 Sep 2026
“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 Dinamo Tbilisi, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market14 Sep 2026
Only the photograph left for Numan Kurdić
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Numan Kurdić will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dinamo Tbilisi the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
Dinamo Tbilisi asked and Benfica said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The dugout14 Sep 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
19 new faces, and Dinamo Tbilisi are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Loan watch14 Sep 2026
“I did not go to Gareji Sagarejo to sit and watch. I want to come back to Dinamo Tbilisi and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
When it matters, Lyes Houri plays
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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
His past walked in ahead of him. Players who have been where he has been get a hearing in a dressing room before they have earned one, and he has it for as long as his form does.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 17 in, 13 out at Dinamo Tbilisi
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 17 arrived, 13 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
$1.9M was the most the club would pay and Dila were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Cruzeiro keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Giorgi Kukhianidze 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 Sep 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pedrinho was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Cruzeiro have kept their man, and Dinamo Tbilisi go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout7 Sep 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
This league is too small for Damir Redžić
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Dinamo Tbilisi will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Lyes Houri is no longer first choice
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Lyes Houri has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match19 Aug 2026
A 5‑1 win over Meshakhte Tkibuli, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Squad24 Aug 2026
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Market24 Aug 2026
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.
Market24 Aug 2026
“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 Dinamo Tbilisi, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Dinamo Tbilisi have done the hard part with Red Bull Salzburg, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
No thanks: Damir Redžić rejects the move
Dinamo Tbilisi had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Red Bull Salzburg, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Numan Kurdić has agreed terms with Iberia 1999 for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Jaba Kankava 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 Dinamo Tbilisi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 Aug 2026
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Market17 Aug 2026
Only the photograph left for Numan Kurdić
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Numan Kurdić will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dinamo Tbilisi the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Jaba Kankava 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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Porto have kept their man, and Dinamo Tbilisi go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pedrinho was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Red Bull Salzburg: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Corinthians have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Ajax Cape Town: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
$1.7M was the most the club would pay and Tigre were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Everything agreed with Goiás, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Dinamo Tbilisi had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Sport Recife, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Mathew Gbomadu commits to Dinamo Tbilisi for another 4 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Jaba Kankava 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
Dinamo Tbilisi asked and Flamengo said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Goga Shengelia has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Irakli Kashia has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Kakha Tsitaishvili is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.