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.
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.
The phone has started ringing about Felipe Santiago again, and this time the name on the line is Sioni. Dinamo Batumi are listening politely and promising nothing.
Dinamo Batumi had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Remo, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Lazare Kupatadze has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Squad27 Aug 2029
Words at Dinamo Batumi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gustavo Caballero 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.
“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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dinamo Tbilisi have kept their man, and Dinamo Batumi go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 74 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Meshakhte Tkibuli waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Dinamo Batumi is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The offer from Gareji Sagarejo for Jaduli Iobashvili 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.
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.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Cruzeiro keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gustavo Caballero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Facundo Paredes was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Dinamo Batumi will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Torpedo Kutaisi waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Dinamo Batumi is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Iago Machado has, at Dinamo Batumi, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and André was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Dinamo Batumi asked and Bragantino said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 90 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Gareji Sagarejo waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Dinamo Batumi is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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.
The deal with Dinamo Tbilisi is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Add another name to the list: Sioni have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Giorgi Putkaradze. The answer from Dinamo Batumi has not changed — yet.
Squad6 Aug 2029
Words at Dinamo Batumi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gustavo Caballero 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sport Recife have kept their man, and Dinamo Batumi go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 98 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
“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.
The fee is $190.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Dinamo Tbilisi drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Squad30 Jul 2029
Words at Dinamo Batumi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gustavo Caballero 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Dinamo Batumi can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Facundo Paredes and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Add another name to the list: AEZ Zakakiou have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Giorgi Tsetskhladze. The answer from Dinamo Batumi has not changed — yet.
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.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Dinamo Batumi people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“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.
The offer from Sioni for Felipe Santiago 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.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Iberia 1999 moved on, Mathew Gbomadu reports back to Dinamo Batumi, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
“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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and André was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Mathew Gbomadu 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.
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.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Dinamo Batumi people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Bragantino is saying, and nobody at Dinamo Batumi is enjoying the guessing.
Dinamo Batumi offered $60.0K; Gagra said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Words at Dinamo Batumi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gustavo Caballero 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.
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.
Position 3 on 31 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
“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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Spaeri waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Dinamo Batumi is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Position 3, 31 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Dinamo Batumi have done the hard part with Spaeri, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Bragantino keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Dinamo Batumi people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Felipe Santiago will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dinamo Batumi the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The offer from Gonio for Lucas Clarke 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.
The deal with Dinamo Tbilisi is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Grêmio keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Samgurali Tskaltubo wanted more than $76.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
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 clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Dinamo Batumi people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Iberia 1999 had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
6 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.
The offer from Sioni for Felipe Santiago 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.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $83.4K — a club that wants Alexandros Doumas enough to be asked twice.
The deal with Bragantino is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
The offer went to Samgurali Tskaltubo this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Thiaguinho has just signed for Dinamo Batumi, and for once the answer mattered.
In brief
SquadWords at Dinamo Batumi training over how hard people work
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Dinamo Batumi have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Everything agreed with Meshakhte Tkibuli, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
The offer from Gareji Sagarejo for Jaduli Iobashvili 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.
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.
Squad18 Jun 2029
Words at Dinamo Batumi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gustavo Caballero 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.
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.
The name of Lazare Kupatadze has come up in conversations Dinamo Batumi were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Gonio waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Dinamo Batumi is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Position 3, 25 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.
Dinamo Batumi and Dinamo Tbilisi have settled on $160.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Dinamo Batumi have gone to Dinamo Tbilisi with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
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.
Meshakhte Tkibuli go through and Dinamo Batumi go home, 1‑3 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
“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.
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.
Dinamo Batumi asked and Corinthians said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Mathew Gbomadu and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Add another name to the list: Sioni have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Giorgos Ioannou. The answer from Dinamo Batumi has not changed — yet.
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
0‑3 to Kolkheti-1913 Poti, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Marked 7.25 on 20 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
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.
“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.
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.
8 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 90th minute. Spaeri will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nikoloz Baladze will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dinamo Batumi the goodbyes have quietly begun.
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gustavo Caballero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Position 3 and 21 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Match12 May 2029
After 13 games, Dinamo Batumi finally taste it again
The first defeat in 13 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Iberia 1999; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gustavo Caballero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Mathew Gbomadu and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Dinamo Batumi, another week without a signature from Guram Japaridze.
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Luka Kharatishvili knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
“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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Gonzalo Berterame and Dinamo Batumi agree another 2 years.
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.
“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.
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
“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.
Squad30 Apr 2029
Words at Dinamo Batumi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gustavo Caballero 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.
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.
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
Marked 7.88 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Dinamo Batumi had the best player on the pitch.
Squad30 Apr 2029
8 new faces, and Dinamo Batumi are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Shota Shekiladze provided it, and the 8.89 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
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.
Squad23 Apr 2029
Words at Dinamo Batumi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gustavo Caballero 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.
A 3‑1 win over Meshakhte Tkibuli, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Dinamo Batumi can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Mathew Gbomadu 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.
8 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Position 3, 14 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 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.
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.
Mathew Gbomadu and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Every long career reaches the week the last one is thought about. He would like it to be where he started, and Dinamo Batumi know now that the thought has arrived.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Sandro Kashia on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
9 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.
Squad9 Apr 2029
Words at Dinamo Batumi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gustavo Caballero 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.
“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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Sandro Kashia on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Lucas Clarke
“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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gustavo Caballero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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.
Felipe Santiago 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.
10 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Gustavo Caballero trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“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.
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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Buddy Vogelzang is living that version at Dinamo Batumi, and it tends to show in the first month.
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.
“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.
Mathew Gbomadu 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.
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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Endri Agolli has just signed for Dinamo Batumi, and for once the answer mattered.
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.
Facundo Paredes and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Nika Manjgaladze and Dinamo Batumi agree another 3 years.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Gustavo Caballero. 1‑0 against Spaeri, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Dinamo Batumi, and 2 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Felipe Saraiva is living that version at Dinamo Batumi, and it tends to show in the first month.
“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.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gustavo Caballero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Davit Qazaishvili has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Lasha Ananidze has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Archil Shengelia is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
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.
Mathew Gbomadu 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.
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.
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
20 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Dinamo Batumi lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.
Squad19 Feb 2029
Words at Dinamo Batumi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gustavo Caballero 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.
“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.
Mathew Gbomadu and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Luka Kharatishvili is on it.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Dinamo Batumi has been clear about where Davit Mujiri stands, which is more than many ever get.
28 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Dinamo Batumi lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Gareji Sagarejo moved on, Davit Mujiri reports back to Dinamo Batumi, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Squad12 Feb 2029
Words at Dinamo Batumi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gustavo Caballero 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.
Dinamo Batumi asked and Zenit said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Dinamo Batumi can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Felipe Santiago and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“I watch every Dinamo Batumi game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Telavi runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
35 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Dinamo Batumi lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Dinamo Batumi have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“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.
Boardroom5 Feb 2029
Dinamo Batumi close the window on a squad of their own making
2 in and 5 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Giorgi Putkaradze reports back to Dinamo Batumi with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
The offer from Rustavi for Davit Mujiri 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.
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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Dinamo Batumi can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Facundo Paredes and Dinamo Batumi agree another 4 years.
The words a physio says slowly. 44 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.
He is going to Dinamo Tbilisi, the club has $570.0K it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
“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.
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.
Dinamo Tbilisi pay $570.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Mathew Gbomadu 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.
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 words a physio says slowly. 51 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The 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.
Everything agreed with Torpedo Kutaisi, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Shota Shekiladze was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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.
The words a physio says slowly. 59 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Dinamo Batumi people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Words at Dinamo Batumi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Shota Shekiladze 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.
Dinamo Batumi asked and Ceará said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Lokomotivi waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Dinamo Batumi is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The offer from Torpedo Kutaisi for Giorgi Putkaradze 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.
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.
Add another name to the list: Gonio have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Nikoloz Baladze. The answer from Dinamo Batumi has not changed — yet.
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.
Squad8 Jan 2029
Words at Dinamo Batumi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gonzalo 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.
74 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Dinamo Batumi lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.
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.
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.
Squad1 Jan 2029
Words at Dinamo Batumi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Shota Shekiladze 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.
Mathew Gbomadu 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Dinamo Batumi has been clear about where Jaduli Iobashvili stands, which is more than many ever get.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Natan will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dinamo Batumi the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
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.
“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.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Felipe Santiago will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dinamo Batumi the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Imran Oulad Omar is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Luka Kharatishvili signs something — a contract at Dinamo Batumi or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Dinamo Batumi, and both men came out saying it was fine.
95 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Dinamo Batumi lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Shota Shekiladze was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
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.
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.
This is the season the town will measure the next twenty against. The trophy travels home with the squad, and the route through the streets was agreed days ago.
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.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Dinamo Batumi have had the benefit of it.
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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Dinamo Batumi can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad4 Dec 2028
Words at Dinamo Batumi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Shota Shekiladze 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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Gonzalo Berterame is on it.
2 appearances and 0 goals is not a season away, it is a year lost. He is back at Dinamo Batumi no further forward, and everybody involved will explain why it was not their fault.
110 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.
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.
Mathew Gbomadu and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Dinamo Batumi, and 13 appearances in 43 say he has earned the hearing.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Luka Kharatishvili is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Tyler Tingey trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
117 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Dinamo Batumi lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Felipe Santiago will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dinamo Batumi the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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.
Mathew Gbomadu and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad20 Nov 2028
Words at Dinamo Batumi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giorgos Ioannou is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The 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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Wallace was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I did not go to Meshakhte Tkibuli to sit and watch. I want to come back to Dinamo Batumi and fight for my place.” 12 appearances in 40 matches say the rest.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Sandro Altunashvili is on it.
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.
Giorgos Ioannou 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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Gonzalo Berterame is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Paulinho Curuá trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
24 graduates, from a department now rated 9 out of 20. Nothing about the academy appears in a result, and nothing about the club’s future exists without it.
A programme of his own, away from the group, aimed at one thing the staff think is holding him back. Most improvement happens like this and none of it makes the paper.
34 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Dinamo Batumi will quote 15 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
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.
Mathew Gbomadu and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Giorgos Ioannou was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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.
“I watch every Dinamo Batumi game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Gagra runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The 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.
“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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Wallace was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
3 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Dinamo Batumi could ask drops and the wages Dyego can ask rise.
In brief
The dugoutDavit Mujiri knocks on the manager’s 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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Wallace was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Dinamo Batumi, and 12 appearances in 36 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
7 goals in 18 games at Merani — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Dinamo Batumi updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Dinamo Batumi that is a harder question to answer.
In brief
The dugoutDavit Mujiri knocks on the manager's 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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Gonzalo Berterame and Dinamo Batumi agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Mathew Gbomadu 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.
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.
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.
A call-up flatters the player and the club that produced him in the same breath. Dinamo Batumi would like him back in one piece and know they will not be consulted.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Tyler Tingey trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Natan will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dinamo Batumi the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Gonzalo Berterame and Dinamo Batumi agree another 2 years.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Dinamo Batumi can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Mathew Gbomadu and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Wallace was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Luka Kharatishvili is on it.
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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Dinamo Batumi can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Wallace was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Imran Oulad Omar is on it.
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.
“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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Giorgos Ioannou was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
7 goals in 18 games at Merani — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Dinamo Batumi updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Dinamo Batumi people have started saying his name in the past tense.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Shota Shekiladze was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Mathew Gbomadu and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Gonzalo Berterame is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Gonzalo Berterame signs something — a contract at Dinamo Batumi or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Dinamo Batumi that is a harder question to answer.
34 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
“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.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 17 arrived, 24 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
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.
Mathew Gbomadu 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.
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
“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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Dinamo Batumi have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“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.
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.
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.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Words at Dinamo Batumi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giorgos Ioannou 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.
“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.
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.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Dinamo Batumi know which stage they are at.
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.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 15 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Wallace was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Dinamo Batumi people have started saying his name in the past tense.
It is sentimental, it is completely genuine, and it is the beginning of a departure nobody has announced. The club can be gracious about it or it can pretend not to have heard.
Mathew Gbomadu and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Words at Dinamo Batumi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Wallace is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Dyego has his answer from Dinamo Batumi; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Gonzalo Berterame is on it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Dinamo Batumi, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Gonzalo Berterame signs something — a contract at Dinamo Batumi or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
3 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
34 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Darlan had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
“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.
“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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Natan will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dinamo Batumi the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luka Kharatishvili was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Dinamo Batumi have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“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.
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.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Darlan has agreed terms with Gagra for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Dinamo Batumi can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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.
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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Gagra waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Dinamo Batumi is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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.
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.
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.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Dinamo Batumi people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Luka Lakvekheliani will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dinamo Batumi the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Mathew Gbomadu and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
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.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 34 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
The offer from Spaeri for Dyego 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.
“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.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.95 for the rest of it.
Mathew Gbomadu 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.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Add another name to the list: Gonio have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Felipe Santiago. The answer from Dinamo Batumi has not changed — yet.
Position 2, 31 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.90 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Dinamo Batumi have lost him in all but the paperwork.
1 for Sandro Altunashvili, marked 7.59, 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.
The offer from Dinamo Tbilisi for Thiago Rodrigues 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.
“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.
Dinamo Batumi offered $26.0K; Dila said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Words at Dinamo Batumi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luka Kharatishvili 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.
Dinamo Batumi asked and Lokomotivi said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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.
A loan enquiry to Torpedo Kutaisi: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Gonio had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
“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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Luka Lakvekheliani will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dinamo Batumi the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Dinamo Batumi have gone to Dila with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luka Kharatishvili was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Dinamo Batumi asked and Dila said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Mathew Gbomadu and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
$3.2M is a serious amount of money and it does not play centre-forward. Everybody in the dressing room knows who used to be looked at when it went wrong.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Dinamo Batumi people have started saying his name in the past tense.
He is going to Dinamo Tbilisi, the club has $3.2M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
“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.
Mathew Gbomadu 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Luka Tsulukidze. 2‑1 against Iberia 1999, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
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.
10 combined actions and 7.18. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
In brief
BoardroomWages swallow 103% of the Dinamo Batumi income
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Davit Mujiri obliged against Lokomotivi. 4‑1 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Dinamo Batumi.
Two goals and a mark of 8.92 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Position 3, 24 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.
“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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Túlio will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dinamo Batumi the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luka Kharatishvili was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Andrii Andreichuk will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dinamo Batumi the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
“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.
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.
“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.
The dugout29 May 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Sandro Kashia kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
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.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Mathew Gbomadu and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
8 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Squad22 May 2028
Words at Dinamo Batumi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Wallace 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.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 92. Torpedo Kutaisi had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Thiago Rodrigues will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dinamo Batumi the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Successful dribbles: 23. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luka Kharatishvili was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Mathew Gbomadu 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.
Torpedo Kutaisi next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
7.24, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Dinamo Batumi had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout15 May 2028
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Sandro Kashia chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Davit Mujiri
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.
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.
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.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
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.
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.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Sandro Altunashvili scored, was marked 7.92, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Sandro Altunashvili. 1‑0 against Samgurali Tskaltubo, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad1 May 2028
Words at Dinamo Batumi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Wallace 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.
“Three loans in three years. At some point a club has to decide if I am their player or their asset.” The spell at Meshakhte Tkibuli continues; the message travels home.
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
“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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Sandro Kashia on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
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.
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.
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.
Mathew Gbomadu and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
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.
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.
Mathew Gbomadu was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
A 1‑0 win over Kolkheti-1913 Poti, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Guram Japaridze and Dinamo Batumi agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Dinamo Batumi can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Wallace was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Boardroom10 Apr 2028
89% 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.
Successful dribbles: 13. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Shota Shekiladze provided it, and the 8.43 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Dinamo Batumi and Dinamo Tbilisi in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
A 4‑2 win over Dinamo Tbilisi, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Words at Dinamo Batumi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luka Kharatishvili 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.
“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.
“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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Luka Lakvekheliani will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dinamo Batumi the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Words at Dinamo Batumi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luka Kharatishvili is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Thiago Rodrigues has his answer from Dinamo Batumi; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Imran Oulad Omar is on it.
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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Tyler Tingey has just signed for Dinamo Batumi, and for once the answer mattered.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Wallace was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A mark of 7.76, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Squad20 Mar 2028
7 new faces, and Dinamo Batumi are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
“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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luka Kharatishvili was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Revaz Chiteishvili 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.
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.62 on the card, and the Dinamo Batumi support went home talking about one name.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Sandro Kashia, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
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.
“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.
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.
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Boardroom6 Mar 2028
6 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.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Words at Dinamo Batumi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luka Kharatishvili 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.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Luka Lakvekheliani will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dinamo Batumi the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Thiago Rodrigues 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.
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.
“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.
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.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Dinamo Batumi would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Thiago Rodrigues will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dinamo Batumi the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Thiago Rodrigues has agreed terms with Dinamo Tbilisi for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Words at Dinamo Batumi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luka Kharatishvili 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.
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.
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Dinamo Batumi can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Dinamo Batumi, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Andrii Andreichuk had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Words at Dinamo Batumi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luka Kharatishvili 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.
Revaz Chiteishvili 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Dinamo Batumi can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Sandro Altunashvili is on it.
25 points from position 5. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
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.
He is going to Gagra, the club has $650.0K it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Dinamo Batumi close the window on a squad of their own making
3 in and 9 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Gareji Sagarejo have kept their man, and Dinamo Batumi go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Spaeri moved on, Irakli Rukhadze reports back to Dinamo Batumi, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
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.
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.
“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.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Dinamo Batumi people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The shirt still fits. Davit Mujiri 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Dinamo Batumi can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luka Kharatishvili was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Samtredia have kept their man, and Dinamo Batumi go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Dinamo Batumi have lost him in all but the paperwork.
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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Paulinho Curuá is living that version at Dinamo Batumi, and it tends to show in the first month.
“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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luka Kharatishvili was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Dinamo Batumi asked and Gagra said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
Add another name to the list: Lokomotivi have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Andrii Andreichuk. The answer from Dinamo Batumi has not changed — yet.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Dila had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
“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.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Dinamo Batumi people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Add another name to the list: Gonio have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Nikoloz Baladze. The answer from Dinamo Batumi has not changed — yet.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Sandro Altunashvili is on it.
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.
In brief
MatchContinental football is in reach for Dinamo Batumi
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Dinamo Batumi have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Dinamo Batumi will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luka Kharatishvili was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Gonio have kept their man, and Dinamo Batumi go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Revaz Chiteishvili and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“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.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Dinamo Batumi had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
The name of Jaduli Iobashvili has come up in conversations Dinamo Batumi were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
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.
Revaz Chiteishvili and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Luka Tsulukidze has his answer from Dinamo Batumi; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
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.
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.
“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.
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.
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.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Dinamo Batumi would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luka Kharatishvili was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Thiago Rodrigues and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Giorgi Kokhreidze and Dinamo Batumi agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
“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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Luka Tsulukidze is on it.
Thiago Rodrigues 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Dinamo Batumi can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Paulo Vitor trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Natan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
25 points from position 5. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Dinamo Batumi have had the benefit of it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Luka Lakvekheliani will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dinamo Batumi the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
“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.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Thiago Rodrigues has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The loan was meant to give him football. 4 games and 0 goals later he is back at Dinamo Batumi no further forward, and everybody involved will explain why it was not their doing.
Out, 0‑0 to Torpedo Kutaisi, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
1 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luka Kharatishvili was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Successful dribbles: 19. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Boardroom29 Nov 2027
127% 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.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Thiago Rodrigues.
Thiago Rodrigues and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“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.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Thiago Rodrigues.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Luka Tsulukidze is on it.
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 shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Thiago Rodrigues 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.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Dinamo Batumi will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Words at Dinamo Batumi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giorgi Tsetskhladze 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.
“I watch every Dinamo Batumi game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Kolkheti-1913 Poti runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Dinamo Batumi, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Dinamo Batumi would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Luka Lakvekheliani will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dinamo Batumi the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luka Kharatishvili was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Revaz Chiteishvili and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Imran Oulad Omar is on it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Dinamo Batumi, and both men came out saying it was fine.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Dinamo Batumi has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luka Kharatishvili was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Revaz Chiteishvili 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.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Dinamo Batumi told Thiago Rodrigues something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Natan has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Dinamo Batumi, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Dinamo Batumi has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
“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.
Thiago Rodrigues and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Giorgi Tsetskhladze was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Paulo Vitor trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
“I watch every Dinamo Batumi game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Kolkheti-1913 Poti runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Dinamo Batumi can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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.
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.
“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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luka Kharatishvili was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Dinamo Batumi, and 0 appearances in 17 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Luka Kharatishvili: 2 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Luka Tsulukidze 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.
Marked 8.27 — 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.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
The 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.