From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad8 Mar 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Gianluca Pugliese and Torpedo Kutaisi agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Boardroom8 Mar 2027
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Squad8 Mar 2027
“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; Torpedo Kutaisi are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Match6 Mar 2027
Dinamo Batumi left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Filip Kljajić 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.
Squad8 Mar 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Torpedo Kutaisi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market8 Mar 2027
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Revaz 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.
Market8 Mar 2027
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Shota Okriashvili 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.
Market8 Mar 2027
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Avtandil 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market1 Mar 2027
“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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Dato Bukia: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Torpedo Kutaisi have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad1 Mar 2027
“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; Torpedo Kutaisi are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad22 Feb 2027
Giorgi Arabidze was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Filip Kljajić 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.
Loan watch22 Feb 2027
“I watch every Torpedo Kutaisi game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Sioni runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market15 Feb 2027
The offer from Merani for Diego Deisadze 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Torpedo Kutaisi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at Torpedo Kutaisi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Filip Kljajić is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad8 Feb 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Torpedo Kutaisi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Sori Mané gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Filip Kljajić has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Torpedo Kutaisi will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words at Torpedo Kutaisi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gianluca Pugliese 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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Filip Havelka was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad1 Feb 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market25 Jan 2027
Matej Šimić hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Torpedo Kutaisi can pretend not to have heard.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Giorgi Arabidze was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Market25 Jan 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Torpedo Kutaisi have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad18 Jan 2027
Filip Havelka breaks a bone — 21 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 21 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market18 Jan 2027
Merani come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Torpedo Kutaisi did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Komnen Andrić falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad11 Jan 2027
A fracture rules Filip Havelka out for 29 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Torpedo Kutaisi will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market11 Jan 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Torpedo Kutaisi can pretend not to have heard.
Market11 Jan 2027
The offer from Dinamo Tbilisi for Tsotne Nadaraia was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Giorgi Arabidze was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Gianluca Pugliese falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad11 Jan 2027
It is the quietest kind of dressing-room problem and the one that lasts longest, because nobody has done anything anyone can be disciplined for. 3 players sit outside all 4 groups entirely, which is the detail that tends to matter.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad4 Jan 2027
Filip Havelka breaks a bone — 37 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 37 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market4 Jan 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Torpedo Kutaisi can pretend not to have heard.
Market4 Jan 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad4 Jan 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Torpedo Kutaisi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad4 Jan 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Aleko Basiladze and Torpedo Kutaisi agree another 4 years.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Dec 2026
Filip Havelka breaks a bone — 44 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 44 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Giorgi Arabidze was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Torpedo Kutaisi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Komnen Andrić is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Dec 2026
Filip Havelka breaks a bone — 53 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 53 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad21 Dec 2026
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Torpedo Kutaisi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gianluca Pugliese is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Dec 2026
A fracture rules Filip Havelka out for 61 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Torpedo Kutaisi will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad14 Dec 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Torpedo Kutaisi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Sori Mané pulls a muscle — 14 days out
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Dec 2026
Filip Havelka breaks a bone — 69 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 69 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market7 Dec 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Torpedo Kutaisi can pretend not to have heard.
Squad7 Dec 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Torpedo Kutaisi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
They will talk about this season in this town for a long time. The trophy comes home with the squad, and the route is already agreed.
Squad30 Nov 2026
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Filip Kljajić: 3 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Squad30 Nov 2026
A fracture rules Filip Havelka out for 77 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Torpedo Kutaisi will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Sori Mané: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Torpedo Kutaisi have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market30 Nov 2026
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Demetre Buliskeria will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Torpedo Kutaisi the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Gianluca Pugliese falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
It was his to settle and he did not settle it. A long walk back to the halfway line, and a considerably longer week.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad23 Nov 2026
A fracture rules Filip Havelka out for 84 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Torpedo Kutaisi will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad23 Nov 2026
“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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Torpedo Kutaisi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Nov 2026
Filip Havelka breaks a bone — 92 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 92 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad16 Nov 2026
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Giorgi Arabidze was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad9 Nov 2026
Filip Havelka breaks a bone — 101 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 101 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad9 Nov 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Torpedo Kutaisi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Torpedo Kutaisi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gianluca Pugliese is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad2 Nov 2026
A fracture rules Filip Havelka out for 111 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Torpedo Kutaisi will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market2 Nov 2026
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Torpedo Kutaisi they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad2 Nov 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Torpedo Kutaisi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Oct 2026
A fracture rules Filip Havelka out for 118 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Torpedo Kutaisi will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad26 Oct 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Torpedo Kutaisi may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Gianluca Pugliese was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Oct 2026
A fracture rules Filip Havelka out for 127 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Torpedo Kutaisi will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad19 Oct 2026
“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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Giorgi Arabidze was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Oct 2026
A fracture rules Filip Havelka out for 134 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Torpedo Kutaisi will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Gianluca Pugliese 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Matej Šimić
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market5 Oct 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Torpedo Kutaisi is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Giorgi Arabidze was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
95% of the income goes out in wages at Torpedo Kutaisi
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match26 Sep 2026
Kolkheti will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Torpedo Kutaisi were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 31. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad28 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Torpedo Kutaisi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Torpedo Kutaisi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gianluca Pugliese is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Ninety minutes of Komnen Andrić at his very best
Marked 8.14. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Torpedo Kutaisi.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Ninety minutes of Gianluca Pugliese at his very best
Marked 8.11. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Torpedo Kutaisi.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 29. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match19 Sep 2026
The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around Torpedo Kutaisi are no longer polite ones.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Giorgi Arabidze was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Gianluca Pugliese falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Marked 7.27. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Squad21 Sep 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 42. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad14 Sep 2026
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Filip Kljajić: 2 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Match9 Sep 2026
A 1‑1 win over Dinamo Batumi, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Match12 Sep 2026
No end in sight to Torpedo Kutaisi's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Torpedo Kutaisi has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Gianluca Pugliese was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Twelve yards, a goalkeeper guessing, and it still did not go in. He will take the next one, and every soul in the ground will hold their breath.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Marked 7.90. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Marked 7.38. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Squad14 Sep 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market7 Sep 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Torpedo Kutaisi is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Giorgi Arabidze was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Gianluca Pugliese falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Match5 Sep 2026
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Aleko Basiladze
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Aleko Basiladze has come out of that comparison in the side, and Torpedo Kutaisi have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Gianluca Pugliese has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Torpedo Kutaisi 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.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
He was not in the side at half past three and he had settled it before five. Half an hour, and Torpedo Kutaisi had a different afternoon.
Market7 Sep 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 38. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match29 Aug 2026
The unbeaten run reaches 7. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad31 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Torpedo Kutaisi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Filip Kljajić, and the manager let it.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
A performance of 8.59 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Torpedo Kutaisi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giorgi Kokhreidze is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
A performance of 8.12 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Match29 Aug 2026
A 2‑2 draw with Zugdidi leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Too much change too quickly at Torpedo Kutaisi
6 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match19 Aug 2026
Lokomotivi are out and Torpedo Kutaisi go through, 1‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 32. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market24 Aug 2026
“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 Torpedo Kutaisi, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match22 Aug 2026
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad24 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Torpedo Kutaisi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Marked 7.86. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Squad24 Aug 2026
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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Vladimer Mamuchashvili trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 46. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match12 Aug 2026
Zugdidi are out and Torpedo Kutaisi go through, 2‑1 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Match12 Aug 2026
Gianluca Pugliese wins it after the whistle should have gone
114 minutes played. Gianluca Pugliese found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Zugdidi went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Market17 Aug 2026
The bid was some way short and Torpedo Kutaisi did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A move Gianluca Pugliese would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Gianluca Pugliese is living that version at Torpedo Kutaisi, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad17 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Torpedo Kutaisi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A muscle injury sidelines Matej Šimić for 15 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Torpedo Kutaisi will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad17 Aug 2026
26 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Gianluca Pugliese was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.05. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 41. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market10 Aug 2026
“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.
Market10 Aug 2026
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Torpedo Kutaisi they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Demetre Buliskeria 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Nodar Lominadze commits to Torpedo Kutaisi for another 3 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Torpedo Kutaisi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Komnen Andrić 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nodar Lominadze, and the manager let it.
Market10 Aug 2026
Still no offer on the table, and Giorgi Arabidze’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Giorgi Arabidze and Torpedo Kutaisi agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Giorgi Arabidze was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The terraces3 Aug 2026
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Market3 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: Sapovnela have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Oto Goshadze. The answer from Torpedo Kutaisi has not changed — yet.
Match1 Aug 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Viktor Bliznichenko. 1‑0 against Tskhinvali, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Viktor Bliznichenko was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.37. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Market3 Aug 2026
36 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Nodar Lominadze asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.