Marked for Matej Šimić
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Oct 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Torpedo Kutaisi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Oct 2026
8 new faces, and Torpedo Kutaisi 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 watch19 Oct 2026
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Torpedo Kutaisi, and 2 appearances in 6 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad19 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.
Squad19 Oct 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.
Market19 Oct 2026
The Matej Šimić talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Torpedo Kutaisi know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 38. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match19 Sep 2026
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Torpedo Kutaisi are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
A defender's afternoon for Mateo Itrak
Defensive actions: 25. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Match19 Sep 2026
7 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Komnen Andrić 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Torpedo Kutaisi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giorgi Arabidze 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mario Tajima, and the manager let it.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Too much change too quickly at Torpedo Kutaisi
7 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Shukura? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 Aug 2026
Filip Kljajić decides it from twelve yards
3 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Match19 Aug 2026
A 1‑1 win over Guria, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 32. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Mario Tajima, 33, rolls back the years — 8.84
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.84 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Luka Rekhviashvili did not need any: 7.66, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Market24 Aug 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
A defender's afternoon for Matej Šimić
Defensive actions: 26. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Market24 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Giorgi Arabidze 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market10 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
24 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Felipe Pires 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 Torpedo Kutaisi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Giorgi Arabidze 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Komnen Andrić
“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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Mario Tajima has outgrown this division
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Torpedo Kutaisi know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Market10 Aug 2026
The clock runs on Felipe Pires's contract
36 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
Market10 Aug 2026
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Torpedo Kutaisi will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Giorgi Arabidze and Torpedo Kutaisi agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Giorgi Arabidze 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
The phone has started ringing about Kisley Zita again, and this time the name on the line is Shukura. Torpedo Kutaisi are listening politely and promising nothing.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
17 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Market3 Aug 2026
49 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Marked 7.78. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
A defender's afternoon for Sori Mané
Defensive actions: 14. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 13. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market3 Aug 2026
No place for Dato Bukia in the plan
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Dato Bukia has his answer from Torpedo Kutaisi; what he does with it is the next window’s story.