The words a physio says slowly. 40 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.
At 19 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.
48 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Lokomotivi lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Fellipe 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Ante Kavelj falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Revaz 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Kakha Ananidze has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Kakha Mikautadze is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
57 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Lokomotivi lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Ante Kavelj and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at Lokomotivi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lasha Ugrekhelidze 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 trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Lokomotivi has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
The words a physio says slowly. 65 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.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Lokomotivi close the window on a squad of their own making
4 in and 3 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Lokomotivi can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Ante Kavelj 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Vojvodina have kept their man, and Lokomotivi go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Lokomotivi than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
The words a physio says slowly. 72 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Wanderson 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.
Gareji Sagarejo paid $87.0K and Lokomotivi took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Chaika have kept their man, and Lokomotivi go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lasha Ugrekhelidze was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
BoardroomWages eat 119% of everything Lokomotivi earn
79 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Lokomotivi lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Gagra paid $380.0K and Lokomotivi took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Spaeri paid $200.0K and Lokomotivi took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Aluminij have kept their man, and Lokomotivi go back to a list with one name crossed off 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 Lokomotivi know which stage they are at.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 86 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Jean Mineiro has just signed for Lokomotivi, 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 Lokomotivi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 19 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.
Lokomotivi asked and Dinamo Tbilisi said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
94 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Lokomotivi lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 Lokomotivi, and it is not being withdrawn.
At 20 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sioni have kept their man, and Lokomotivi go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“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; Lokomotivi are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Lokomotivi have made the call to Dinamo Tbilisi. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The words a physio says slowly. 101 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.
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.
108 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Lokomotivi lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
At 18 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.
Fellipe 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Guram Kvaratskhelia 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. Vakhtang Tsitaishvili 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Jaba Janelidze has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Vakhtang Shengelia 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.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Lokomotivi know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Mathematically certain, and nobody in this town is going to bed early. Whatever else happened this season, it finishes a division above where it started.
Luka Nozadze 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.
“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; Lokomotivi are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Luka Nozadze 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.
In brief
BoardroomWages swallow 150% of the Lokomotivi income
Laurenţiu Brănescu 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Khvicha Qazaishvili trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
12 graduates from an academy now rated 15 out of 20. A club this size does not survive any other way, and every name on that list is known in the town.
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.
Pierre Mounguengue 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.
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.
Pierre Mounguengue 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.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
150% of the income goes out in wages at Lokomotivi
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lokomotivi 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Nikoloz Kvelashvili is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vasil Khositashvili was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Luka Nozadze 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.
12 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Pierre Mounguengue is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Lokomotivi 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 Lokomotivi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Giorgi Gogatishvili is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lokomotivi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Lokomotivi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vasil Khositashvili 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 year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Lokomotivi would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Pierre Mounguengue 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.
Lokomotivi 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Lokomotivi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vasil Khositashvili 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 doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Lokomotivi will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Lokomotivi have lost him in all but the paperwork.
At 18 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.
“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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Lokomotivi close the window on a squad of their own making
23 in and 0 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.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Andijon keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Luka Nozadze 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vasil Khositashvili was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Lokomotivi know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lokomotivi can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lokomotivi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Slovan Liberec have kept their man, and Lokomotivi go back to a list with one name crossed off 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 Lokomotivi know which stage they are at.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Lokomotivi has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lokomotivi can pretend not to have heard.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Yuta Nakano has, at Lokomotivi, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The deal with Dynamo Kyiv 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Dynamo Kyiv is saying, and nobody at Lokomotivi is enjoying the guessing.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Gareji Sagarejo have kept their man, and Lokomotivi go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Lokomotivi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vasil Khositashvili 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.
Lokomotivi asked and PAEEK said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
Signings arrive with a picture of the club in their head, and this one’s picture was bigger than the building. He will play well and he will be gone, in that order, and everybody knows 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 Lokomotivi know which stage they are at.
Lokomotivi have made the call to Neftchi. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Lokomotivi have made the call to Dynamo Kyiv. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Lokomotivi has been clear about where Aleksandre Turkia stands, which is more than many ever get.
Everything agreed with Viktoria Plzen, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lokomotivi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Davit Kvilitaia has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Khvicha Qazaishvili is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Temur Qazaishvili has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Aleksandre 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.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Lokomotivi know which stage they are at.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Vasil Khositashvili and Lokomotivi agree another 2 years.
Dennis Amoako 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.
Lokomotivi asked and Neftchi said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vasil Khositashvili was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Lokomotivi know which stage they are at.
Lokomotivi have made the call to Viktoria Plzen. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Lokomotivi has been clear about where Dachi Gogol stands, which is more than many ever get.