Marked for Johan Arango
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad9 Nov 2026
62 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Gagra lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Gagra
Tomas Bastos 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Gagra training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mate Tsintsadze 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 dugout9 Nov 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 Patrick Carvalho is on it.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
Johan Arango asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout9 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 Elguja Grigalashvili has written the date down.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad2 Nov 2026
Alisson Farias damages knee ligaments — 72 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 72 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 dugout2 Nov 2026
Johan Arango: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Gagra have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Tempers go at Gagra
Tomas Bastos 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.
Squad2 Nov 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 Gagra know it.
Squad2 Nov 2026
João Victor makes the wrong kind of headline
Dealt with internally, which is the phrase a club uses when it would rather nobody asked twice. He will be fined, he will apologise, and he will play on Saturday.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Davit Mujiri, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad28 Sep 2026
Alisson Farias damages knee ligaments — 111 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 111 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Tomas Bastos 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 Gagra this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Mate Tsintsadze 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad21 Sep 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Alisson Farias
118 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Gagra lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad21 Sep 2026
A falling-out at Gagra
Tomas Bastos and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Johan Arango gets it from the manager
“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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match19 Aug 2026
Cup progress for Gagra
A 2‑0 win over Dila, 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: 30. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Maicon gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Maicon has just signed for Gagra, and for once the answer mattered.
Market24 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: Merani have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Saba Zoidze. The answer from Gagra has not changed — yet.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Gagra offered $790.0K; Torpedo Kutaisi said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Gagra
Nika Kvekveskiri and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Gagra training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mate Tsintsadze 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.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Gagra asked and Dynamo Kyiv said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad24 Aug 2026
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Gagra know which stage they are at.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Davi Guedes and União agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Match1 Aug 2026
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A falling-out at União
Jardisson and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Market3 Aug 2026
União and Davi Guedes are talking past each other
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 12. 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
The armband goes to Jardisson
A strip of cloth that decides nothing on the pitch and tells the dressing room whose opinion counts. The manager has made a statement without making one.
Market3 Aug 2026
Contract settled, hands shaken, no fee changing hands. Danilo Cirqueira leaves União the quiet way, and the wage bill breathes a little easier.
Market3 Aug 2026
Contract settled, hands shaken, no fee changing hands. Bruno Morais leaves União the quiet way, and the wage bill breathes a little easier.