“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 The request is on a desk at Shukura, and it is not being withdrawn.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 Shukura 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Shukura, and both men came out saying it was fine.
20 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Shukura lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Shukura have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Luka Nozadze and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Shukura training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dato Dolidze 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.
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Giorgi Kavtaradze may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
The words a physio says slowly. 27 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.
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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Shukura training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giorgi Kavtaradze 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Levan Okriashvili is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Goga Gvelesiani's mistake
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
34 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Shukura lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Shukura can pretend not to have heard.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shukura 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 Luka Kakulia was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The words a physio says slowly. 17 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shukura this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Shukura training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luka Nozadze 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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
“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 Shukura will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
24 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Shukura 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 Shukura, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Khvicha Daraselia 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. Lasha Gvelesiani 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.
9 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.
Something was said to Mate Ghaghvishvili and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Shukura can pretend not to have heard.
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 Dato Dolidze was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
10 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Shukura can pretend not to have heard.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 5 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Luka Rekhviashvili scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑3 to Sapovnela, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Shukura training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luka Nozadze 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 afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑5 defeat, delivered by Dato Arveladze to a room that had heard them before.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Shukura training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Levan Arveladze 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.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Otar Mikautadze
1‑4 against Dinamo Batumi, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Otar Daraselia 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.
Shukura ran out of time with Zugdidi. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Squad14 Sep 2026
9 new faces, and Shukura 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.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑4 Dato Arveladze left the room before anybody could ask which.
“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 Shukura, and it is not being withdrawn.
Zugdidi have accepted the money. What Shukura do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 19 arrived, 0 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Shukura had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Zugdidi, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
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.
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 deal with Tskhinvali 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 Shukura this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Shukura asked and Zugdidi 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 clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Dila keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shukura 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. Zugdidi have kept their man, and Shukura go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Shukura training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luka Nozadze 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.
Luka Rekhviashvili is 19, and Shukura have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
0‑3 to Chikhura, 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.
The offer went to Torpedo Kutaisi 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.
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.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shukura this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Luka Kakulia is living that version at Shukura, and it tends to show in the first month.
Shukura 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Otar Mikautadze is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Dato Kiteishvili 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. Revaz Tsitaishvili is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Lasha Mchedlidze 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Shukura can pretend not to have heard.
The terraces3 Aug 2026
The stands have turned
“Enough is enough. We have watched this for months.” 4 of the 19 senior players walked off to it, and the message was not aimed at any one of them.
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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Shukura and Merani, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
$37.0K was the most the club would pay and Dinamo Batumi were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
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.