From our football correspondent
Steady
Match29 Aug 2026
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Zugdidi kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Torpedo Kutaisi will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Market31 Aug 2026
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Torpedo Kutaisi have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Squad31 Aug 2026
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.
Market31 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 The request is on a desk at Torpedo Kutaisi, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Up for the corner, and Nodar Lominadze delivers — 7.85
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Nodar Lominadze scored, was marked 7.85, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Torpedo Kutaisi have done the hard part with Benfica, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Torpedo Kutaisi asked and San Martín said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
Felipe Pires 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match19 Aug 2026
Tskhinvali ended it 0‑1. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Torpedo Kutaisi will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Up for the corner, and Nodar Lominadze delivers — 7.90
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Nodar Lominadze scored, was marked 7.90, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Everything agreed with Legia, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
No thanks: Rivaldo Zwane rejects the move
Torpedo Kutaisi had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Ajax Cape Town, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Nodar Lominadze and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market24 Aug 2026
The Sioni deal is off
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Nika Chakvetadze reports back to Torpedo Kutaisi with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Squad24 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match12 Aug 2026
A 3‑0 win over Zugdidi, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Match15 Aug 2026
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 4‑0 against Saburtalo, and it could have been more.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Warley runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 31. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.57, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.16, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
A debut Nika Daraselia will not forget — 7.28
There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 0 on the scoresheet, 7.28 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Torpedo Kutaisi will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Torpedo Kutaisi have done the hard part with Dinamo Tbilisi, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
No thanks: Isaque rejects the move
Torpedo Kutaisi had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Shakhtar, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 28. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
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.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
No thanks: Boubou Diallo rejects the move
Torpedo Kutaisi had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Dukla Prague, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
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
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Nodar Lominadze and Torpedo Kutaisi agree another 4 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.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Guria have kept their man, and Torpedo Kutaisi go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout10 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
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Dato 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. 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
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Felipe Pires commits to Torpedo Kutaisi for another 3 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Nodar Lominadze 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.
Squad3 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.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Basaksehir have kept their man, and Torpedo Kutaisi go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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
8 new faces, and Torpedo Kutaisi 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.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Dukla Prague: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Shakhtar 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.