Vagner Gonçalves Nogueira 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Bachana Arabuli signs something — a contract at Kolkheti or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Vagner Gonçalves Nogueira 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Kolkheti know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kolkheti this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Mikheil Gamsakhurdia is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Everybody at Kolkheti saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 38 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Kolkheti, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 17 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Something was said to Halid Doltmourziev and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Bachana Arabuli signs something — a contract at Kolkheti or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Jaba Kiteishvili is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
At 39, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Aleksandre Kobiashvili 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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Mikheil Janelidze after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Kolkheti are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kolkheti this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 36 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
“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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
19 new faces, and Kolkheti 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.
Something was said to Mamuka Chakvetadze and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Torpedo Kutaisi in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jaba Kiteishvili trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
Everybody at Kolkheti saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 38 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
Successful dribbles: 13. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Kolkheti know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.