From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad22 Oct 2035
A knee injury of the worst kind for Bachana Arveladze
48 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Dinamo Batumi lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad22 Oct 2035
Levan Khozrevanidze 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.
Squad22 Oct 2035
Words at Dinamo Batumi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Imran Oulad Omar 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad15 Oct 2035
A knee injury of the worst kind for Bachana Arveladze
55 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Dinamo Batumi lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market15 Oct 2035
“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.
Squad15 Oct 2035
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 Batumi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Oct 2035
Artem Mylchenko 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.
Squad15 Oct 2035
“The easiest signature of my career.” Shota Kobiashvili and Dinamo Batumi agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad8 Oct 2035
A knee injury of the worst kind for Bachana Arveladze
62 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Dinamo Batumi lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad8 Oct 2035
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 Batumi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad8 Oct 2035
Eric Krivičić gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Eric Krivičić has just signed for Dinamo Batumi, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad8 Oct 2035
Words at Dinamo Batumi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Imran Oulad Omar 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.
Market8 Oct 2035
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Dinamo Batumi know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Market8 Oct 2035
The best deals are the ones the accountants never notice. Eric Krivičić arrives at Dinamo Batumi with his wages the only cost and something to prove the only clause.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad1 Oct 2035
A knee injury of the worst kind for Bachana Arveladze
69 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Dinamo Batumi lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market1 Oct 2035
Leandro Ortiz hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dinamo Batumi can pretend not to have heard.
Market1 Oct 2035
Rick De Jong has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Dinamo Batumi they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad1 Oct 2035
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.
Squad1 Oct 2035
Imran Oulad Omar 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.
Boardroom1 Oct 2035
85% of the income goes out in wages at Dinamo Batumi
Every club in football 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 somebody has tried it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 Sep 2035
A knee injury of the worst kind for Bachana Arveladze
76 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Dinamo Batumi lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad24 Sep 2035
Levan Khozrevanidze 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.
Squad24 Sep 2035
Words at Dinamo Batumi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artem Mylchenko 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.
Squad24 Sep 2035
“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.
Player ratings24 Sep 2035
Ninety minutes of Luka Tsulukidze at his very best
Marked 8.45. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Dinamo Batumi.
Match22 Sep 2035
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The terraces24 Sep 2035
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
Market24 Sep 2035
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Giorgi Arabidze’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Player ratings24 Sep 2035
A mark of 5.65 tells the story without any need for embellishment. He will want the tape of this one quietly lost.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad17 Sep 2035
A knee injury of the worst kind for Bachana Arveladze
84 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Dinamo Batumi lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad17 Sep 2035
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Dinamo Batumi may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market17 Sep 2035
“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.
Squad17 Sep 2035
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 Batumi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings17 Sep 2035
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad17 Sep 2035
Words at Dinamo Batumi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Imran Oulad Omar 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.
Match15 Sep 2035
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Kolkheti defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Market17 Sep 2035
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Levan Khozrevanidze signs something — a contract at Dinamo Batumi or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Market17 Sep 2035
No fee and no drama: Denys Lunyov has signed at Dinamo Batumi, and the wage bill is the only line that moved.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad10 Sep 2035
A knee injury of the worst kind for Bachana Arveladze
91 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Dinamo Batumi lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match8 Sep 2035
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Shukura kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Dinamo Batumi will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Squad10 Sep 2035
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad10 Sep 2035
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.
Squad10 Sep 2035
Imran Oulad Omar 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.
Player ratings10 Sep 2035
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.08, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match8 Sep 2035
It needed Michele Ragosta to find the net to bring anything home at all: 3‑3 against Shukura, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Player ratings10 Sep 2035
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market10 Sep 2035
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Luka Tsulukidze’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 Sep 2035
A knee injury of the worst kind for Bachana Arveladze
98 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Dinamo Batumi lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match1 Sep 2035
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Market3 Sep 2035
“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 ratings3 Sep 2035
Two goals and a mark of 8.55 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings3 Sep 2035
Artem Mylchenko, 35, rolls back the years — 7.91
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.91 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Market3 Sep 2035
Rick De Jong has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Dinamo Batumi they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad3 Sep 2035
“The easiest signature of my career.” Artem Mylchenko and Dinamo Batumi agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Sep 2035
Levan Khozrevanidze 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.
Squad3 Sep 2035
Words at Dinamo Batumi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artem Mylchenko 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad27 Aug 2035
A knee injury of the worst kind for Bachana Arveladze
105 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Dinamo Batumi lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match25 Aug 2035
No end in sight to Dinamo Batumi's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Dinamo Batumi has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad27 Aug 2035
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 Batumi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Aug 2035
Imran Oulad Omar 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.
Match25 Aug 2035
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad27 Aug 2035
“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.
Player ratings27 Aug 2035
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market27 Aug 2035
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Dinamo Batumi will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
The terraces27 Aug 2035
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad20 Aug 2035
A knee injury of the worst kind for Bachana Arveladze
112 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Dinamo Batumi lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market20 Aug 2035
Sapovnela come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Dinamo Batumi did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Match18 Aug 2035
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad20 Aug 2035
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 Batumi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Aug 2035
Words at Dinamo Batumi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Imran Oulad Omar 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.
Squad20 Aug 2035
“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.
Player ratings20 Aug 2035
A performance of 8.31 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings20 Aug 2035
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match18 Aug 2035
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market13 Aug 2035
Chikhura come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Dinamo Batumi did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad13 Aug 2035
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 Batumi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 Aug 2035
Artem Mylchenko 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.
Player ratings13 Aug 2035
Luka Tsulukidze was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.06. 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.
Boardroom13 Aug 2035
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Player ratings13 Aug 2035
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market13 Aug 2035
He is 19, and nobody at Dinamo Batumi signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Squad13 Aug 2035
“The easiest signature of my career.” Nika Gvelesiani and Dinamo Batumi agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad6 Aug 2035
271 appearances across 10 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
Squad6 Aug 2035
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Thiago Currado and Dinamo Batumi agree another 4 years.
Match4 Aug 2035
The unbeaten run reaches 7. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad6 Aug 2035
Levan Khozrevanidze 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.
Squad6 Aug 2035
Words at Dinamo Batumi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Imran Oulad Omar 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.
Player ratings6 Aug 2035
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match4 Aug 2035
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Saburtalo came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
Market6 Aug 2035
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Adam Richardson’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market30 Jul 2035
“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.
Squad30 Jul 2035
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Player ratings30 Jul 2035
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad30 Jul 2035
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.
Match28 Jul 2035
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad30 Jul 2035
Imran Oulad Omar 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.
Squad30 Jul 2035
“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.
Match28 Jul 2035
A 1‑1 draw with Dinamo Tbilisi leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings23 Jul 2035
Successful dribbles: 26. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market23 Jul 2035
“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.
Squad23 Jul 2035
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Dinamo Batumi may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad23 Jul 2035
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.
Market23 Jul 2035
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Dinamo Batumi is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad23 Jul 2035
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 Batumi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match21 Jul 2035
Tskhinvali made Dinamo Batumi work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad23 Jul 2035
The manager makes an example of Giorgi Arabidze
“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.
Player ratings23 Jul 2035
A mark of 7.97, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market16 Jul 2035
Leandro Ortiz hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dinamo Batumi can pretend not to have heard.
Squad16 Jul 2035
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.
Market16 Jul 2035
Rick De Jong has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Dinamo Batumi they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad16 Jul 2035
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 Batumi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Jul 2035
Imran Oulad Omar 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 terraces16 Jul 2035
At 17 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Player ratings16 Jul 2035
A performance of 8.76 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad16 Jul 2035
“The easiest signature of my career.” Mahir Nadirov and Dinamo Batumi agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match7 Jul 2035
No end in sight to Dinamo Batumi's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Dinamo Batumi has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad9 Jul 2035
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Dinamo Batumi have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market9 Jul 2035
The offer from Chikhura for Lasha Daraselia 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.
Squad9 Jul 2035
Levan Khozrevanidze 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.
Squad9 Jul 2035
Words at Dinamo Batumi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Imran Oulad Omar 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.
Player ratings9 Jul 2035
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad9 Jul 2035
“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.
Player ratings9 Jul 2035
Thiago Currado was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.31. 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.
Match7 Jul 2035
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market2 Jul 2035
“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 Batumi, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match30 Jun 2035
No end in sight to Dinamo Batumi's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Dinamo Batumi has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad2 Jul 2035
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.
Squad2 Jul 2035
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Adam Richardson, and the manager let it.
Player ratings2 Jul 2035
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.06, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad2 Jul 2035
Lukas Friis 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.
Boardroom2 Jul 2035
7 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
Squad2 Jul 2035
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.
Match30 Jun 2035
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market25 Jun 2035
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Dinamo Batumi is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market25 Jun 2035
“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.
Match23 Jun 2035
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad25 Jun 2035
Levan Khozrevanidze 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.
Squad25 Jun 2035
Words at Dinamo Batumi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Imran Oulad Omar 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.
Player ratings25 Jun 2035
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad25 Jun 2035
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.
Match23 Jun 2035
A 1‑1 draw with Sapovnela leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Squad25 Jun 2035
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match16 Jun 2035
Beaten 0‑3 by Torpedo Kutaisi, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Market18 Jun 2035
“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.
Squad18 Jun 2035
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 Batumi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Jun 2035
Imran Oulad Omar 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.
Player ratings18 Jun 2035
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad18 Jun 2035
The manager makes an example of Luka Kapianidze
“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.
Boardroom18 Jun 2035
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Squad18 Jun 2035
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Dinamo Batumi told Giorgi Arabidze something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The terraces18 Jun 2035
Everybody has an opinion about Adam Richardson
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings11 Jun 2035
Two goals and a mark of 8.54 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The terraces11 Jun 2035
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 10 of the 38 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
Market11 Jun 2035
“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.
Market11 Jun 2035
The offer from Sapovnela for Rick De Jong 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.
Squad11 Jun 2035
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 Batumi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match9 Jun 2035
3‑4 to Dila, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Match9 Jun 2035
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Dinamo Batumi and Dila, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad11 Jun 2035
The manager makes an example of Thiago Currado
“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.
Market11 Jun 2035
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Dinamo Batumi will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market4 Jun 2035
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dinamo Batumi can pretend not to have heard.
Squad4 Jun 2035
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Imran Oulad Omar commits to Dinamo Batumi for another 2 years.
Squad4 Jun 2035
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.
Match2 Jun 2035
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad4 Jun 2035
Imran Oulad Omar 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.
Squad4 Jun 2035
The manager makes an example of Giorgi Arabidze
“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.
Market4 Jun 2035
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Dinamo Batumi have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Player ratings4 Jun 2035
13 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.
Match2 Jun 2035
Point won or two lost for Dinamo Batumi?
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Kolkheti? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match26 May 2035
4‑1, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings28 May 2035
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.44, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market28 May 2035
“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.
Market28 May 2035
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Leandro Ortiz wants continental football; whether Dinamo Batumi can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad28 May 2035
Levan Khozrevanidze 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.
Squad28 May 2035
Words at Dinamo Batumi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Imran Oulad Omar 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.
Squad28 May 2035
“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.
Player ratings28 May 2035
David Maguicha was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.89. 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.
Player ratings28 May 2035
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.64, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings21 May 2035
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.
Market21 May 2035
“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 Batumi, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad21 May 2035
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 Batumi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings21 May 2035
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.27, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad21 May 2035
The manager has not finished forgetting Leandro Ortiz's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Squad21 May 2035
Lukas Friis 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
Steady
Squad14 May 2035
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 Batumi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 May 2035
Words at Dinamo Batumi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Imran Oulad Omar 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.
Player ratings14 May 2035
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings14 May 2035
Marked 8.25. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Dinamo Batumi.
Squad14 May 2035
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Dato Tsitaishvili and Dinamo Batumi agree another 4 years.
Squad14 May 2035
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings7 May 2035
At 37 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.08 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad7 May 2035
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 Batumi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 May 2035
Imran Oulad Omar 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.
Match5 May 2035
Zugdidi made Dinamo Batumi work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad7 May 2035
The manager makes an example of Leandro Ortiz
“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.
Player ratings7 May 2035
A performance of 8.15 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match28 Apr 2035
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 86th, and Merani spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
Squad30 Apr 2035
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.
Market30 Apr 2035
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dinamo Batumi can pretend not to have heard.
Squad30 Apr 2035
Levan Khozrevanidze 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.
Player ratings30 Apr 2035
Ninety minutes of David Maguicha at his very best
Marked 8.66. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Dinamo Batumi.
Match28 Apr 2035
A 1‑0 win over Merani, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings30 Apr 2035
Defensive actions: 19, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Player ratings30 Apr 2035
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market23 Apr 2035
Rick De Jong hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dinamo Batumi can pretend not to have heard.
Match21 Apr 2035
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad23 Apr 2035
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.
Squad23 Apr 2035
Imran Oulad Omar 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.
Squad23 Apr 2035
“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.
Match21 Apr 2035
Saburtalo left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings23 Apr 2035
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.
Squad23 Apr 2035
The manager has not finished forgetting Leandro Ortiz's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Player ratings23 Apr 2035
One lapse, one goal, and ninety minutes of honest work counting for nothing. That is the job at Dinamo Batumi, and it is a cruel one.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Apr 2035
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 Batumi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Apr 2035
Words at Dinamo Batumi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Imran Oulad Omar 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.
Player ratings16 Apr 2035
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad16 Apr 2035
“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.
Player ratings16 Apr 2035
Marked 8.18 — 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.
Squad16 Apr 2035
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.
Match14 Apr 2035
It needed David Maguicha to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Dinamo Tbilisi, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The terraces16 Apr 2035
Everybody has an opinion about Luka Kapianidze
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
Market16 Apr 2035
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Dinamo Batumi know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match4 Apr 2035
Guria go through and Dinamo Batumi go home, 0‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
The terraces9 Apr 2035
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 10 of the 38 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Player ratings9 Apr 2035
A chastening introduction for Nika Janelidze — 5.38
It is a hard way to meet a crowd. Marked 5.38 on the day he was handed the shirt, and the important thing now is what the next one looks like.
Squad9 Apr 2035
“The easiest signature of my career.” Luka Kapianidze and Dinamo Batumi agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad9 Apr 2035
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 Batumi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Apr 2035
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Giorgi Arabidze, and the manager let it.
Player ratings9 Apr 2035
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.
Boardroom9 Apr 2035
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
Squad9 Apr 2035
Words at Dinamo Batumi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jakob Štrukelj 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings2 Apr 2035
Two goals and a mark of 8.87 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market2 Apr 2035
“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.
Squad2 Apr 2035
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Luka Kapianidze commits to Dinamo Batumi for another 2 years.
Squad2 Apr 2035
Levan Khozrevanidze 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 Apr 2035
Words at Dinamo Batumi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Imran Oulad Omar 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.
Match31 Mar 2035
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Levan Khozrevanidze. 2‑1 against Lokomotivi, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Market2 Apr 2035
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Dinamo Batumi has been clear about where Dmitri Mandrîcenco stands, which is more than many ever get.
Squad2 Apr 2035
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.
Player ratings2 Apr 2035
Successful dribbles: 14. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings26 Mar 2035
At 37 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.03 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market26 Mar 2035
Rick De Jong hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dinamo Batumi can pretend not to have heard.
Market26 Mar 2035
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Squad26 Mar 2035
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.
Squad26 Mar 2035
Imran Oulad Omar 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.
Player ratings26 Mar 2035
20 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.
Match24 Mar 2035
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Imran Oulad Omar. 1‑0 against Sioni, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings26 Mar 2035
19 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.
Player ratings26 Mar 2035
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match17 Mar 2035
No end in sight to Dinamo Batumi's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Dinamo Batumi has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad19 Mar 2035
Levan Khozrevanidze 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.
Player ratings19 Mar 2035
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad19 Mar 2035
Jakob Štrukelj 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.
Squad19 Mar 2035
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.
Match17 Mar 2035
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The terraces19 Mar 2035
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
Player ratings19 Mar 2035
8 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
Market19 Mar 2035
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Dinamo Batumi know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad12 Mar 2035
A knee injury of the worst kind for Beka Gvelesiani
17 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Dinamo Batumi lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad12 Mar 2035
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 Batumi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Mar 2035
Imran Oulad Omar 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.
Squad12 Mar 2035
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Imran Oulad Omar, and the manager let it.
Match10 Mar 2035
Sapovnela left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Boardroom12 Mar 2035
Nobody left the Dinamo Batumi dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Player ratings12 Mar 2035
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings12 Mar 2035
4.58 on the card. Some afternoons a footballer looks like a man who has only just been introduced to the game, and this was one of them.
Market12 Mar 2035
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Dinamo Batumi know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad5 Mar 2035
A knee injury of the worst kind for Beka Gvelesiani
24 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Dinamo Batumi lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market5 Mar 2035
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dinamo Batumi can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom5 Mar 2035
A new deal for the man in the dugout, and the clearest thing a board can say without calling a press conference about it. Stability is cheap to promise and expensive to deliver.
Squad5 Mar 2035
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 Batumi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom5 Mar 2035
9 academy players handed senior numbers at Dinamo Batumi
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Match3 Mar 2035
2‑3 to Torpedo Kutaisi, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad5 Mar 2035
Words at Dinamo Batumi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Imran Oulad Omar 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.
Squad5 Mar 2035
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Artem Mylchenko, and the manager let it.
Market5 Mar 2035
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Archil Mikautadze is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Feb 2035
A knee injury of the worst kind for Beka Gvelesiani
31 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Dinamo Batumi lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market26 Feb 2035
“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.
Squad26 Feb 2035
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
Squad19 Feb 2035
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 16 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad19 Feb 2035
A knee injury of the worst kind for Beka Gvelesiani
38 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Dinamo Batumi lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market19 Feb 2035
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Feb 2035
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 23 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match12 Feb 2035
Dinamo Batumi refuse to drop out of the race
Position 2, 60 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Squad12 Feb 2035
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 Batumi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Feb 2035
Imran Oulad Omar 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.
Squad12 Feb 2035
Luka Tsulukidze has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Dinamo Batumi 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.
Market12 Feb 2035
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Dinamo Batumi know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Feb 2035
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 32 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market5 Feb 2035
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Shukura moved on, Lasha Daraselia reports back to Dinamo Batumi, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Squad5 Feb 2035
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Artem Mylchenko commits to Dinamo Batumi for another 2 years.
Squad5 Feb 2035
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 Batumi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Feb 2035
Words at Dinamo Batumi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artem Mylchenko 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.
Boardroom5 Feb 2035
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
Market5 Feb 2035
Contract settled, hands shaken, no fee changing hands. Tornike Tsitaishvili leaves Dinamo Batumi the quiet way, and the wage bill breathes a little easier.
Market5 Feb 2035
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Bachana Kashia may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad29 Jan 2035
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 39 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market29 Jan 2035
Rick De Jong hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dinamo Batumi can pretend not to have heard.
Squad29 Jan 2035
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 Batumi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad29 Jan 2035
Imran Oulad Omar 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.
Squad29 Jan 2035
Thiago Currado has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Dinamo Batumi 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.
Market29 Jan 2035
Shukura are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Dinamo Batumi will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad22 Jan 2035
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 46 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market22 Jan 2035
“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 Batumi, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market22 Jan 2035
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Leandro Ortiz wants continental football; whether Dinamo Batumi can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad22 Jan 2035
Levan Khozrevanidze 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.
Squad22 Jan 2035
Words at Dinamo Batumi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Imran Oulad Omar 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.
Squad22 Jan 2035
Giorgi Arabidze has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Dinamo Batumi 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad15 Jan 2035
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 55 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match15 Jan 2035
Position 2 and 60 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Squad15 Jan 2035
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.
Squad15 Jan 2035
Artem Mylchenko 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.
Squad15 Jan 2035
Luka Tsulukidze has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Dinamo Batumi 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.
Market15 Jan 2035
Merani are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Dinamo Batumi will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad8 Jan 2035
A fracture rules Giorgi Arabidze out for 62 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Dinamo Batumi will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad8 Jan 2035
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market8 Jan 2035
“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.
Market8 Jan 2035
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Dinamo Batumi is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad8 Jan 2035
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.
Squad8 Jan 2035
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Jaba Kiteishvili has just signed for Dinamo Batumi, and for once the answer mattered.
Boardroom8 Jan 2035
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Mikhail Gaidash has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Dinamo Batumi have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Boardroom8 Jan 2035
Dinamo Batumi release $28.4K for the manager
The board have put money on the table rather than an encouraging word. What happens to it now is somebody else's problem, and somebody else's job.
Market8 Jan 2035
He is 20, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad1 Jan 2035
A fracture rules Giorgi Arabidze out for 69 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Dinamo Batumi will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad1 Jan 2035
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Dinamo Batumi will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Market1 Jan 2035
“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 Batumi, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market1 Jan 2035
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Dinamo Batumi is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad1 Jan 2035
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 Batumi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Jan 2035
Words at Dinamo Batumi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Imran Oulad Omar 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad25 Dec 2034
A fracture rules Giorgi Arabidze out for 76 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Dinamo Batumi will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market25 Dec 2034
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dinamo Batumi can pretend not to have heard.
Squad25 Dec 2034
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 Batumi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad18 Dec 2034
A fracture rules Giorgi Arabidze out for 83 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Dinamo Batumi will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match12 Dec 2034
0‑3. There is a level at which football is played every single week by clubs that have been doing it for fifty years, and an evening like this is what it feels like to arrive there without having done it.
Match18 Dec 2034
Dinamo Batumi refuse to drop out of the race
Position 2, 60 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
The terraces18 Dec 2034
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 11 of the 38 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Squad18 Dec 2034
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 Batumi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Dec 2034
Words at Dinamo Batumi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Imran Oulad Omar 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.
Squad18 Dec 2034
“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.
Player ratings18 Dec 2034
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Boardroom18 Dec 2034
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad11 Dec 2034
A fracture rules Giorgi Arabidze out for 90 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Dinamo Batumi will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market11 Dec 2034
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Lasha Daraselia will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dinamo Batumi the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad11 Dec 2034
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 Batumi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Dec 2034
Imran Oulad Omar 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.
Squad11 Dec 2034
“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 Batumi are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Market11 Dec 2034
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Dinamo Batumi know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad4 Dec 2034
A fracture rules Giorgi Arabidze out for 97 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Dinamo Batumi will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Boardroom4 Dec 2034
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.
Match28 Nov 2034
1‑0. Continental football is where a club finds out what it actually is, and Dinamo Batumi came through the finding-out well against Ventspils.
Market4 Dec 2034
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dinamo Batumi can pretend not to have heard.
Squad4 Dec 2034
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Dinamo Batumi will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Market4 Dec 2034
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Dinamo Batumi they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Boardroom4 Dec 2034
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Artem Yamangulov has agreed terms with Samtredia for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad4 Dec 2034
Levan Khozrevanidze 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.
Squad4 Dec 2034
Words at Dinamo Batumi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artem Mylchenko 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad27 Nov 2034
A fracture rules Giorgi Arabidze out for 104 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Dinamo Batumi will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market27 Nov 2034
“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.
Squad27 Nov 2034
Rick De Jong: 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.” Dinamo Batumi have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad20 Nov 2034
A fracture rules Giorgi Arabidze out for 111 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Dinamo Batumi will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match20 Nov 2034
Position 2 and 60 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Market20 Nov 2034
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Leandro Ortiz wants continental football; whether Dinamo Batumi can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad13 Nov 2034
A fracture rules Giorgi Arabidze out for 118 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Dinamo Batumi will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match7 Nov 2034
0‑2 away to the standard of Viborg. 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.
Squad13 Nov 2034
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Dinamo Batumi have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings13 Nov 2034
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market13 Nov 2034
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Lasha Daraselia will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dinamo Batumi the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match7 Nov 2034
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad13 Nov 2034
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 Batumi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 Nov 2034
Artem Mylchenko 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 terraces13 Nov 2034
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad6 Nov 2034
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 126 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market6 Nov 2034
“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.
Squad6 Nov 2034
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Imran Oulad Omar commits to Dinamo Batumi for another 2 years.
Squad6 Nov 2034
Levan Khozrevanidze 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.
Squad6 Nov 2034
Words at Dinamo Batumi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Imran Oulad Omar 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.
Boardroom6 Nov 2034
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad30 Oct 2034
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 133 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match24 Oct 2034
2‑3 against Viborg. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.
Market30 Oct 2034
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dinamo Batumi can pretend not to have heard.
Squad30 Oct 2034
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.
Squad30 Oct 2034
Imran Oulad Omar 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.
Squad30 Oct 2034
“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.
Player ratings30 Oct 2034
Luka Tsulukidze was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.06. 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.
Boardroom30 Oct 2034
93% of the income goes out in wages at Dinamo Batumi
Every club in football 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 somebody has tried it.
Player ratings30 Oct 2034
Ten men and a goalkeeper behind him, and it still finished in the net. He knew before anybody told him, and nobody at Dinamo Batumi needed to.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad23 Oct 2034
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 140 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match23 Oct 2034
Position 2 and 60 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Squad23 Oct 2034
Levan Khozrevanidze 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
Steady
Squad16 Oct 2034
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 147 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market16 Oct 2034
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Lasha Daraselia will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dinamo Batumi the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad16 Oct 2034
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 Batumi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad9 Oct 2034
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 154 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match3 Oct 2034
0‑3. There is a level at which football is played every single week by clubs that have been doing it for fifty years, and an evening like this is what it feels like to arrive there without having done it.
The terraces9 Oct 2034
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 8 of the 38 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
Squad9 Oct 2034
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market9 Oct 2034
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dinamo Batumi can pretend not to have heard.
Squad9 Oct 2034
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Dinamo Batumi have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad9 Oct 2034
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 Batumi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom9 Oct 2034
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
Player ratings9 Oct 2034
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad2 Oct 2034
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 161 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad2 Oct 2034
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.
Squad2 Oct 2034
Artem Mylchenko 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.
Boardroom2 Oct 2034
101% of the income goes out in wages at Dinamo Batumi
Every club in football 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 somebody has tried it.
Boardroom2 Oct 2034
Dinamo Batumi release $28.4K for the manager
The board have put money on the table rather than an encouraging word. What happens to it now is somebody else's problem, and somebody else's job.
Squad2 Oct 2034
A place in the month's best eleven for Adam Richardson
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Adam Richardson has come out of that comparison in the side, and Dinamo Batumi have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match19 Sep 2034
2‑0 against Ventspils, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Levan Khozrevanidze was at the centre of the description.
Match25 Sep 2034
Dinamo Batumi refuse to drop out of the race
Position 2, 60 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Player ratings25 Sep 2034
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.43, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad25 Sep 2034
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.
Match23 Sep 2034
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.
Market25 Sep 2034
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dinamo Batumi can pretend not to have heard.
Squad25 Sep 2034
Levan Khozrevanidze 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.
Squad25 Sep 2034
Words at Dinamo Batumi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Imran Oulad Omar 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.
Squad25 Sep 2034
“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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings18 Sep 2034
Successful dribbles: 25. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market18 Sep 2034
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Lasha Daraselia will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dinamo Batumi the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market18 Sep 2034
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Match16 Sep 2034
The unbeaten run reaches 7. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad18 Sep 2034
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 Batumi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Sep 2034
Imran Oulad Omar 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.
Squad18 Sep 2034
“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.
Player ratings18 Sep 2034
20 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.
Match16 Sep 2034
Three points for Dinamo Batumi, 1‑0 the final word against Kolkheti in a contest settled by the finer margins.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad11 Sep 2034
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 Batumi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings11 Sep 2034
23 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.
Squad11 Sep 2034
Bachana Kashia gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Bachana Kashia has just signed for Dinamo Batumi, and for once the answer mattered.
Match9 Sep 2034
Whatever happens, Dinamo Batumi do not lose
6 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.
Squad11 Sep 2034
Words at Dinamo Batumi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artem Mylchenko 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.
Squad11 Sep 2034
11 goals and a season average of 7.30. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Match9 Sep 2034
Three points for Dinamo Batumi, 1‑0 the final word against Shukura in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings11 Sep 2034
Ninety minutes of David Maguicha at his very best
Marked 8.32. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Dinamo Batumi.
Market11 Sep 2034
Tornike Kvilitaia is 20, and Dinamo Batumi have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad4 Sep 2034
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad4 Sep 2034
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Luka Kapianidze and Dinamo Batumi agree another 2 years.
Player ratings4 Sep 2034
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad4 Sep 2034
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 Batumi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad4 Sep 2034
Imran Oulad Omar 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.
Market4 Sep 2034
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Dinamo Batumi have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Boardroom4 Sep 2034
101% of the income goes out in wages at Dinamo Batumi
Every club in football 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 somebody has tried it.
Boardroom4 Sep 2034
Dinamo Batumi release $28.4K for the manager
The board have put money on the table rather than an encouraging word. What happens to it now is somebody else's problem, and somebody else's job.
Match2 Sep 2034
Point won or two lost for Dinamo Batumi?
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Guria? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad28 Aug 2034
The words a physio says slowly. 17 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.
Match28 Aug 2034
Position 2 and 52 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Market28 Aug 2034
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dinamo Batumi can pretend not to have heard.
Market28 Aug 2034
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Player ratings28 Aug 2034
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad28 Aug 2034
Levan Khozrevanidze 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.
Squad28 Aug 2034
Words at Dinamo Batumi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Imran Oulad Omar 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.
Player ratings28 Aug 2034
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.89, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match26 Aug 2034
A 1‑0 win over Chikhura, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad21 Aug 2034
The words a physio says slowly. 24 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.
Squad21 Aug 2034
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.
Squad21 Aug 2034
Artem Mylchenko 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.
Player ratings21 Aug 2034
Ninety minutes of Thiago Currado at his very best
Marked 8.93. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Dinamo Batumi.
Match19 Aug 2034
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Thiago Currado. 1‑0 against Zugdidi, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad21 Aug 2034
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Dmitri Mandrîcenco, and the manager let it.
Market21 Aug 2034
Samtredia are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Dinamo Batumi will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
The terraces21 Aug 2034
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
Market21 Aug 2034
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Dinamo Batumi know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Aug 2034
The words a physio says slowly. 31 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.
Squad14 Aug 2034
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 Batumi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings14 Aug 2034
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad14 Aug 2034
Words at Dinamo Batumi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Imran Oulad Omar 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.
Squad14 Aug 2034
The manager makes an example of Adam Richardson
“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.
Market14 Aug 2034
Add another name to the list: Samtredia have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Lasha Daraselia. The answer from Dinamo Batumi has not changed — yet.
Match12 Aug 2034
It needed Levan Khozrevanidze to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Merani, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The terraces14 Aug 2034
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad7 Aug 2034
The words a physio says slowly. 38 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.
Squad7 Aug 2034
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 Batumi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Aug 2034
Imran Oulad Omar 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.
Squad7 Aug 2034
A season average of 7.29 with 11 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
The terraces7 Aug 2034
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Rick De Jong has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Match5 Aug 2034
Three points for Dinamo Batumi, 2‑0 the final word against Saburtalo in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings7 Aug 2034
Defensive actions: 20, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Player ratings7 Aug 2034
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings7 Aug 2034
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.52, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad31 Jul 2034
The words a physio says slowly. 45 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.
Match31 Jul 2034
42 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Player ratings31 Jul 2034
A defender's goal wins it for Dinamo Batumi — 7.81
1 for Thiago Currado, marked 7.81, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Market31 Jul 2034
Noel Prešnjak has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Dinamo Batumi they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad31 Jul 2034
Levan Khozrevanidze 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.
Player ratings31 Jul 2034
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad31 Jul 2034
Words at Dinamo Batumi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artem Mylchenko 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.
Squad31 Jul 2034
“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
Upbeat
Squad24 Jul 2034
Adam Richardson damages knee ligaments — 15 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 15 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.
Market24 Jul 2034
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dinamo Batumi can pretend not to have heard.
Squad24 Jul 2034
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.
Squad24 Jul 2034
Imran Oulad Omar 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.
Match22 Jul 2034
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings24 Jul 2034
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.
Squad24 Jul 2034
Defences have started doubling up on Luka Tsulukidze
10 goals and a season average of 7.22 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Boardroom24 Jul 2034
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Player ratings24 Jul 2034
11 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad17 Jul 2034
Adam Richardson damages knee ligaments — 22 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 22 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.
Squad17 Jul 2034
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Dinamo Batumi have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match15 Jul 2034
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Dinamo Batumi have 4 straight wins of it.
Market17 Jul 2034
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Leandro Ortiz wants continental football; whether Dinamo Batumi can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad17 Jul 2034
Levan Khozrevanidze 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.
Squad17 Jul 2034
Words at Dinamo Batumi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Imran Oulad Omar 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.
Match15 Jul 2034
It finished 1‑0, and it was David Maguicha’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Dinamo Batumi.
Player ratings17 Jul 2034
David Maguicha was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.45. 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.
Player ratings17 Jul 2034
Defensive actions: 17, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad10 Jul 2034
Adam Richardson damages knee ligaments — 29 days out
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.
Player ratings10 Jul 2034
Two goals and a mark of 8.48 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Match8 Jul 2034
3 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.
Market10 Jul 2034
Adam Richardson wants to know where this is going
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Dinamo Batumi hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad10 Jul 2034
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 Batumi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Jul 2034
Artem Mylchenko 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.
Match8 Jul 2034
Sioni made Dinamo Batumi work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad10 Jul 2034
“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.
Boardroom10 Jul 2034
111% of the income goes out in wages at Dinamo Batumi
Every club in football 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 somebody has tried it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad3 Jul 2034
Adam Richardson damages knee ligaments — 36 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 36 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.
Squad3 Jul 2034
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Dinamo Batumi have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match3 Jul 2034
36 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Market3 Jul 2034
Only the photograph left for Noel Prešnjak
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Noel Prešnjak will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dinamo Batumi the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad3 Jul 2034
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Artem Mylchenko and Dinamo Batumi agree another 2 years.
Squad3 Jul 2034
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 Batumi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom3 Jul 2034
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Player ratings3 Jul 2034
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 20 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Match1 Jul 2034
Samtredia made Dinamo Batumi work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad26 Jun 2034
Adam Richardson damages knee ligaments — 43 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 43 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.
Match21 Jun 2034
1‑2 against Samtredia, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Match24 Jun 2034
The 88th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Levan Khozrevanidze decided nobody was going anywhere. Sapovnela had no time left to answer.
Player ratings26 Jun 2034
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.76, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
The terraces26 Jun 2034
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 9 of the 37 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Player ratings26 Jun 2034
The hardest thing about being 18 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Bachana Gvelesiani did not need any: 7.95, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Market26 Jun 2034
“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.
Market26 Jun 2034
Shukura come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Dinamo Batumi did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad26 Jun 2034
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
Upbeat
Squad19 Jun 2034
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings19 Jun 2034
Giorgi Arabidze, 36, rolls back the years — 7.87
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.87 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Player ratings19 Jun 2034
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad19 Jun 2034
Levan Khozrevanidze 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.
Squad19 Jun 2034
Words at Dinamo Batumi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artem Mylchenko 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.
Match17 Jun 2034
Torpedo Kutaisi left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad19 Jun 2034
“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 Jun 2034
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Dinamo Batumi will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Market19 Jun 2034
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Giorgi Arabidze’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad12 Jun 2034
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match10 Jun 2034
4 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.
Squad12 Jun 2034
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 Batumi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Jun 2034
Artem Mylchenko 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.
Match10 Jun 2034
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Levan Khozrevanidze. 2‑1 against Dila, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings12 Jun 2034
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.75, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad12 Jun 2034
“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.
Boardroom12 Jun 2034
99% of the income goes out in wages at Dinamo Batumi
Every club in football 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 somebody has tried it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match5 Jun 2034
Dinamo Batumi refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 27 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Player ratings5 Jun 2034
Imran Oulad Omar, 36, rolls back the years — 8.18
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.18 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Market5 Jun 2034
Nejc Lovric hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dinamo Batumi can pretend not to have heard.
Market5 Jun 2034
Noel Prešnjak has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Dinamo Batumi they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Match3 Jun 2034
Nobody wants to play Dinamo Batumi right now
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.
Boardroom5 Jun 2034
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Squad5 Jun 2034
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 Batumi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match3 Jun 2034
The run at home goes on for Dinamo Batumi
9 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market29 May 2034
“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 ratings29 May 2034
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.17 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Match27 May 2034
Whatever happens, Dinamo Batumi do not lose
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.
Squad29 May 2034
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 Batumi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad29 May 2034
Artem Mylchenko 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.
Match27 May 2034
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Levan Khozrevanidze. 2‑1 against Shukura, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad29 May 2034
Defences have started doubling up on Luka Tsulukidze
10 goals and a season average of 7.28 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Player ratings29 May 2034
A performance of 8.10 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad29 May 2034
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mikhail Sachkovskiy, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market22 May 2034
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Dinamo Batumi heard it as anything else.
Squad22 May 2034
Levan Khozrevanidze 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.
Match20 May 2034
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Dinamo Batumi did not have in the autumn.
Squad22 May 2034
Words at Dinamo Batumi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artem Mylchenko 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.
Match20 May 2034
Guria made Dinamo Batumi work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings22 May 2034
Ninety minutes of Luka Tsulukidze at his very best
Marked 8.68. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Dinamo Batumi.
Match20 May 2034
8 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Squad22 May 2034
Defences have started doubling up on Luka Tsulukidze
9 goals and a season average of 7.24 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad22 May 2034
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market15 May 2034
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Squad15 May 2034
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.
Squad15 May 2034
Artem Mylchenko 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.
Squad15 May 2034
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Levan Khozrevanidze, and the manager let it.
Player ratings15 May 2034
Marked 8.49 — 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.
Squad15 May 2034
“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 Batumi are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Boardroom15 May 2034
91% of the income goes out in wages at Dinamo Batumi
Every club in football 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 somebody has tried it.
Match13 May 2034
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Player ratings15 May 2034
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad8 May 2034
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Dinamo Batumi will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad8 May 2034
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Giorgi Arabidze commits to Dinamo Batumi for another 3 years.
Squad8 May 2034
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 Batumi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad8 May 2034
Words at Dinamo Batumi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artem Mylchenko 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.
Player ratings8 May 2034
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Boardroom8 May 2034
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad1 May 2034
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Dinamo Batumi will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings1 May 2034
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.11 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad1 May 2034
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.
Player ratings1 May 2034
22 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.
Squad1 May 2034
Artem Mylchenko 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.
Match29 Apr 2034
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: David Maguicha. 2‑0 against Merani, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad1 May 2034
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Luka Kapianidze, and the manager let it.
Player ratings1 May 2034
A performance of 8.69 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings1 May 2034
Luka Tsulukidze was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.23. 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 Apr 2034
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 34 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad24 Apr 2034
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad24 Apr 2034
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 Batumi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Apr 2034
Artem Mylchenko 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.
Player ratings24 Apr 2034
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings24 Apr 2034
Marked 8.31 — 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.
Match22 Apr 2034
It needed Thiago Currado to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Saburtalo, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Player ratings24 Apr 2034
Shots: 13. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
Market24 Apr 2034
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Dinamo Batumi know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 Apr 2034
A knee injury of the worst kind for Maksym Shumylo
17 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Dinamo Batumi lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad17 Apr 2034
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 41 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad17 Apr 2034
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 Batumi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings17 Apr 2034
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings17 Apr 2034
David Maguicha was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.23. 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.
Squad17 Apr 2034
Nika Kalandarishvili 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.
Match15 Apr 2034
A 2‑2 draw with Dinamo Tbilisi leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Boardroom17 Apr 2034
Wages eat 85% of everything Dinamo Batumi earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Market17 Apr 2034
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Dinamo Batumi know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Apr 2034
A knee injury of the worst kind for Maksym Shumylo
24 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Dinamo Batumi lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match5 Apr 2034
A 2‑0 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?
Squad10 Apr 2034
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 48 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings10 Apr 2034
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.53, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
The terraces10 Apr 2034
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 10 of the 43 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
Player ratings10 Apr 2034
23 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 Apr 2034
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 Batumi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match8 Apr 2034
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Dinamo Batumi and Tskhinvali in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Apr 2034
A knee injury of the worst kind for Maksym Shumylo
31 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Dinamo Batumi lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad3 Apr 2034
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 55 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings3 Apr 2034
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.69, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad3 Apr 2034
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Imran Oulad Omar and Dinamo Batumi agree another 2 years.
Market3 Apr 2034
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad3 Apr 2034
Levan Khozrevanidze 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.
Boardroom3 Apr 2034
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
Match1 Apr 2034
It needed Luka Tsulukidze to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against Lokomotivi, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Player ratings3 Apr 2034
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad27 Mar 2034
A knee injury of the worst kind for Maksym Shumylo
38 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Dinamo Batumi lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad27 Mar 2034
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 62 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad27 Mar 2034
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad27 Mar 2034
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.
Match25 Mar 2034
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Thiago Currado. 1‑0 against Sioni, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings27 Mar 2034
Marked 8.45 — 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.
Market27 Mar 2034
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Dinamo Batumi know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Player ratings27 Mar 2034
Shots: 8, not one of them in. A centre forward is paid for one thing, and on this evidence he has forgotten which thing it is.
The terraces27 Mar 2034
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad20 Mar 2034
Maksym Shumylo damages knee ligaments — 46 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 46 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.
Squad20 Mar 2034
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 69 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings20 Mar 2034
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.45, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market20 Mar 2034
“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.
Squad20 Mar 2034
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 Batumi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Mar 2034
Words at Dinamo Batumi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artem Mylchenko 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.
Match18 Mar 2034
A 2‑0 win over Samtredia, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings20 Mar 2034
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings20 Mar 2034
A defender's afternoon for Leandro Ortiz
Defensive actions: 14. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad13 Mar 2034
Maksym Shumylo damages knee ligaments — 53 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 53 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.
Squad13 Mar 2034
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 76 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market13 Mar 2034
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Squad13 Mar 2034
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 Batumi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 Mar 2034
Artem Mylchenko 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.
Player ratings13 Mar 2034
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.22, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match11 Mar 2034
A 1‑1 draw with Sapovnela leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Market13 Mar 2034
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Luka Tsulukidze’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Player ratings13 Mar 2034
5.54. Every footballer has these and most of them happen away from a full ground; his did not, and he will be aware of that all week.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad6 Mar 2034
Maksym Shumylo damages knee ligaments — 60 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 60 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.
Squad6 Mar 2034
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 83 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings6 Mar 2034
Two goals and a mark of 8.98 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad6 Mar 2034
Luka Lovric gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Luka Lovric has just signed for Dinamo Batumi, and for once the answer mattered.
Boardroom6 Mar 2034
A new deal for the man in the dugout, and the clearest thing a board can say without calling a press conference about it. Stability is cheap to promise and expensive to deliver.
Squad6 Mar 2034
Levan Khozrevanidze 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.
Boardroom6 Mar 2034
7 academy players handed senior numbers at Dinamo Batumi
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Match4 Mar 2034
It finished 3‑2, and it was Luka Tsulukidze’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Dinamo Batumi.
Match4 Mar 2034
3 away wins in a row. Travelling support is the truest kind, and this season it is being repaid in the only currency that counts.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad27 Feb 2034
Maksym Shumylo damages knee ligaments — 67 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 67 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.
Squad27 Feb 2034
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.
Squad27 Feb 2034
Artem Mylchenko 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
Squad20 Feb 2034
Maksym Shumylo damages knee ligaments — 74 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 74 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.
Market20 Feb 2034
“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 Batumi, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad20 Feb 2034
“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 Batumi know it.
Squad20 Feb 2034
Levan Khozrevanidze 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.
Squad20 Feb 2034
Words at Dinamo Batumi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artem Mylchenko 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.
Market20 Feb 2034
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Levan Khozrevanidze signs something — a contract at Dinamo Batumi or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad13 Feb 2034
Maksym Shumylo damages knee ligaments — 81 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 81 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.
Match13 Feb 2034
54 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Market13 Feb 2034
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Dinamo Batumi heard it as anything else.
Squad13 Feb 2034
“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 Batumi know it.
Squad13 Feb 2034
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 Batumi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 Feb 2034
Words at Dinamo Batumi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nika Kalandarishvili 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad6 Feb 2034
Maksym Shumylo damages knee ligaments — 88 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 88 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.
Squad6 Feb 2034
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Luka Kapianidze commits to Dinamo Batumi for another 2 years.
Squad6 Feb 2034
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 Batumi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad6 Feb 2034
Words at Dinamo Batumi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artem Mylchenko 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.
Boardroom6 Feb 2034
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad30 Jan 2034
A knee injury of the worst kind for Maksym Shumylo
96 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Dinamo Batumi lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad30 Jan 2034
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.
Squad30 Jan 2034
Thiago Currado 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
Squad23 Jan 2034
A knee injury of the worst kind for Maksym Shumylo
103 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Dinamo Batumi lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market23 Jan 2034
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dinamo Batumi can pretend not to have heard.
Market23 Jan 2034
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Dinamo Batumi they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad23 Jan 2034
Levan Khozrevanidze 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.
Squad23 Jan 2034
Words at Dinamo Batumi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thiago Currado 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.
Squad23 Jan 2034
Giorgi Arabidze has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Dinamo Batumi 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad16 Jan 2034
75 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Dinamo Batumi lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match16 Jan 2034
Position 2 and 54 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Market16 Jan 2034
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad16 Jan 2034
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad16 Jan 2034
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 Batumi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Jan 2034
Artem Mylchenko 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
Squad9 Jan 2034
The words a physio says slowly. 83 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.
Market9 Jan 2034
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Leandro Ortiz wants continental football; whether Dinamo Batumi can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad9 Jan 2034
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 Batumi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Jan 2034
Words at Dinamo Batumi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thiago Currado 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.
Squad9 Jan 2034
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Market9 Jan 2034
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Dinamo Batumi will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad2 Jan 2034
The words a physio says slowly. 90 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.
Squad2 Jan 2034
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Dinamo Batumi will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Market2 Jan 2034
Add another name to the list: Sapovnela have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Antonio Beidenegl. The answer from Dinamo Batumi has not changed — yet.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad26 Dec 2033
The words a physio says slowly. 97 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.
Market26 Dec 2033
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dinamo Batumi can pretend not to have heard.
Squad26 Dec 2033
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market26 Dec 2033
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad26 Dec 2033
Levan Khozrevanidze 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.
Squad26 Dec 2033
Words at Dinamo Batumi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artem Mylchenko 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad19 Dec 2033
The words a physio says slowly. 104 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.
Match19 Dec 2033
Position 2 and 54 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Squad19 Dec 2033
“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 Batumi are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad12 Dec 2033
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.
Squad12 Dec 2033
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 Batumi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Dec 2033
“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 Batumi are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad5 Dec 2033
The words a physio says slowly. 118 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.
Boardroom5 Dec 2033
Continental nights are coming to Dinamo Batumi
Qualification is secured, and next season the big floodlit nights are continental ones. For the players it is a stage; for the accounts it is a lifeline; for the supporters it is passports.
Squad5 Dec 2033
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Dinamo Batumi will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Squad5 Dec 2033
“The easiest signature of my career.” Artem Mylchenko and Dinamo Batumi agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Market5 Dec 2033
The shirt still fits. Goga Lobjanidze is back at Dinamo Batumi, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Squad5 Dec 2033
Adam Richardson 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.
Boardroom5 Dec 2033
Dinamo Tbilisi will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Bonga Mkhize has pre-agreed a move to Dinamo Batumi, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Boardroom5 Dec 2033
Dinamo Batumi release $89.7K for the manager
The board have put money on the table rather than an encouraging word. What happens to it now is somebody else's problem, and somebody else's job.
Market5 Dec 2033
Nicola Trevisan is 20, and Dinamo Batumi have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad28 Nov 2033
The words a physio says slowly. 125 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.
Market28 Nov 2033
“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 Batumi, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad28 Nov 2033
Levan Khozrevanidze 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.
Squad28 Nov 2033
A move Davit Lobjanidze would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Davit Lobjanidze is living that version at Dinamo Batumi, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad28 Nov 2033
Words at Dinamo Batumi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thiago Currado 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.
Market28 Nov 2033
Davit Lobjanidze is 20, and Dinamo Batumi have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.