Jemal Tabidze 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Joanderson trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Joanderson 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Saburtalo are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Saburtalo 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 Saburtalo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Khvicha Kvaratskhelia 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. Dato Kashia is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
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.
Nobody at Saburtalo 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.
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.
A new face in his position, and Jemal Tabidze suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. Saburtalo have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.
Saburtalo close the window on a squad of their own making
4 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Colon is saying, and nobody at Saburtalo is enjoying the guessing.
Jemal Tabidze 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.
Saburtalo asked and Deportivo Riestra said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Dinamo Batumi have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Saburtalo have made the call to Samtredia. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
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 Sebastián Figueredo is on it.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Chikhura waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Saburtalo is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Saburtalo asked and Chikhura said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Beka Dartsmelia 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.
Saburtalo asked and Dinamo Batumi 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 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.
Saburtalo have made the call to Dinamo Batumi. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Saburtalo have made the call to Deportivo Riestra. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Saburtalo know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Saburtalo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Giorgi Mikautadze 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.
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 Vakho Bedoshvili is on 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; Saburtalo are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Jemal Tabidze 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Zugdidi have kept their man, and Saburtalo go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Saburtalo, another week without a signature from Joanderson.
Saburtalo have made the call to Dinamo Batumi. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
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 Sebastián Figueredo is on it.
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Saburtalo know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Giorgi Kutsia has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
Beka Dartsmelia 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 Vakho Bedoshvili is on 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 Saburtalo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 Sebastián Figueredo is on it.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Saburtalo than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dato Arveladze was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 18 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Saburtalo have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dato Arveladze was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Saburtalo know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Saburtalo will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about 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 Saburtalo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at Saburtalo 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 asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 33 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Saburtalo 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 Jefferson Araújo 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.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Saburtalo would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Saburtalo will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Jemal Tabidze 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Saburtalo are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
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.
Nobody at Saburtalo 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.
In brief
The dugoutJoanderson asks for a word with the manager
Beka Dartsmelia 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.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Saburtalo know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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.
Kakha Kiteishvili 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 at Saburtalo 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 conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Elisson has written the date down.
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
In brief
SquadThe training reports on Goga Shengelia are not good
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Saburtalo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Mikheil Arveladze 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. Sandro Mikautadze is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Nobody at Saburtalo 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dato Arveladze was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Jemal Tabidze 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
12 new faces, and Saburtalo 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.
Nobody at Saburtalo 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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Saburtalo. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Saburtalo will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jefferson Araújo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Nobody at Saburtalo is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Elisson has written the date down.
Successful dribbles: 25. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Saburtalo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jefferson Araújo 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Nobody at Saburtalo 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.
Fernando Macedo 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.
Dinamo Tbilisi next, and one man in the Saburtalo dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
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 Saburtalo would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Ibrahim Alhassan scored, was marked 7.78, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Saburtalo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Successful dribbles: 33. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 27 signed and 1 gone
That is the business done at Saburtalo until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Colón have kept their man, and Saburtalo 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 Jefferson Araújo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Sandro Kvaratskhelia and Saburtalo agree another 3 years.
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 Jefferson Araújo is on it.
Successful dribbles: 20. 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.
Every supporter in the ground could have named the hole in this team, and most of them did, loudly, for months. Tornike Kirkitadze has been signed to close it.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Kakha Kiteishvili and Saburtalo agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
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.” Mamuka Qazaishvili, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Dila go through and Saburtalo go home, 1‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
“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.
Successful dribbles: 25. 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.
Saburtalo had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Zira, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
$80.0K on the table at Dinamo Batumi. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Beka Dartsmelia 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.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Vakho Bedoshvili obliged against Guria. 1‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Saburtalo.
Successful dribbles: 30. 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.
Jemal Tabidze 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.
Saburtalo offered $39.0K; Dinamo Batumi 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 14-year-old it feels ownership of. Mamuka Okriashvili 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.
It needed Vakho Bedoshvili to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Torpedo Kutaisi, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Saburtalo asked and Tskhinvali said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Kakha Kiteishvili 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Levan Mikautadze 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Aleksandre Kakabadze 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Archil Gamsakhurdia 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Jemal Tabidze has, at Saburtalo, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Vakho Bedoshvili 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Saburtalo and Kolkheti, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Marked 6.91 on 12 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Vakho Bedoshvili 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.
Dinamo Tbilisi have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.