From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad18 Dec 2028
A fracture rules Mattia Villa out for 75 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Zugdidi will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market18 Dec 2028
“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 The request is on a desk at Zugdidi, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad18 Dec 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Zugdidi may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad11 Dec 2028
A fracture rules Mattia Villa out for 82 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Zugdidi will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market11 Dec 2028
“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.
Market11 Dec 2028
Lasha Kukulava has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Zugdidi they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad11 Dec 2028
A muscle injury sidelines Sultan Djamilov for 16 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Zugdidi will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad11 Dec 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Rezo Lomidze and Zugdidi agree another 3 years.
Squad11 Dec 2028
Sultan Djamilov 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
Steady
Squad4 Dec 2028
A fracture rules Mattia Villa out for 89 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Zugdidi will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad4 Dec 2028
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Zugdidi have had the benefit of it.
Market4 Dec 2028
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Raymond Daniels will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Zugdidi the goodbyes have quietly begun.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad27 Nov 2028
A fracture rules Mattia Villa out for 96 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Zugdidi will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad27 Nov 2028
Sultan Djamilov 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.
Squad27 Nov 2028
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Viktar Palitsevich is living that version at Zugdidi, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad27 Nov 2028
Words at Zugdidi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Saba Chakvetadze 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.
Market27 Nov 2028
Zugdidi shop where it costs nothing
Viktar Palitsevich signs, and the fee column stays empty. Deals like this look small in July and clever by March — or they are never mentioned again.
Market27 Nov 2028
2 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Zugdidi money.
In brief
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Market
Lucas Meurer leaves for nothing
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Boardroom
The Zugdidi production line keeps running
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Boardroom
The Zugdidi board put their names to it
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad20 Nov 2028
A fracture rules Mattia Villa out for 103 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Zugdidi will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad20 Nov 2028
“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.
Squad20 Nov 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zugdidi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad13 Nov 2028
A fracture rules Mattia Villa out for 110 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Zugdidi will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market13 Nov 2028
“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 Zugdidi, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market13 Nov 2028
Only the photograph left for Lasha Kukulava
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Lasha Kukulava will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Zugdidi the goodbyes have quietly begun.
In brief
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Squad
Tempers go at Zugdidi
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Squad
The manager makes an example of Mattia Villa
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Squad
Words at Zugdidi training over how hard people work
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market6 Nov 2028
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Zugdidi they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad6 Nov 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Lasha Arveladze commits to Zugdidi for another 3 years.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Mattia Villa in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zugdidi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad30 Oct 2028
Sultan Djamilov 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.
Squad30 Oct 2028
The manager makes an example of Ilja Shakhmatov
“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.
Squad30 Oct 2028
Words at Zugdidi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raymond Daniels 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
Steady
Market23 Oct 2028
Lucas Meurer 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 Zugdidi can pretend not to have heard.
Market23 Oct 2028
Lucas Meurer has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Zugdidi they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad23 Oct 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zugdidi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market16 Oct 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Zugdidi can pretend not to have heard.
Market16 Oct 2028
Lasha Kukulava has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Zugdidi they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad16 Oct 2028
Sultan Djamilov 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
Steady
Market9 Oct 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Zugdidi is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad9 Oct 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Sultan Djamilov commits to Zugdidi for another 2 years.
Squad9 Oct 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zugdidi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad2 Oct 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Sultan Djamilov commits to Zugdidi for another 2 years.
Squad2 Oct 2028
Sultan Djamilov 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.
Squad2 Oct 2028
Words at Zugdidi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Saba Chakvetadze 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.
Boardroom2 Oct 2028
$870.9K on the table at Zugdidi
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.
Squad2 Oct 2028
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Halid Doltmourziev is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Market2 Oct 2028
Zugdidi have made Lucas Meurer available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings25 Sep 2028
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Halid Doltmourziev did not need any: 8.30, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Market25 Sep 2028
Lucas Meurer has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Zugdidi they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Match23 Sep 2028
Still nobody has beaten Zugdidi
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.
Squad25 Sep 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zugdidi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match23 Sep 2028
A 2‑1 win over Lokomotivi, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The terraces25 Sep 2028
At 17 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.
Squad25 Sep 2028
The medical room confirms 25 days on the sidelines for Kakha Lobjanidze, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Saba Chakvetadze 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.
Squad25 Sep 2028
“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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad18 Sep 2028
There were 11 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad18 Sep 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Zugdidi may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings18 Sep 2028
Age has not caught Mattia Villa yet — 8.02
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.02 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market18 Sep 2028
“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.
Market18 Sep 2028
Lasha Kukulava has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Zugdidi they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Mattia Villa 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 ratings18 Sep 2028
22 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Match16 Sep 2028
Still nobody has beaten Zugdidi
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.
Player ratings18 Sep 2028
Giorgi Zivzivadze was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.40. 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
Match9 Sep 2028
Sandro Mikautadze had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Samtredia were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
Player ratings11 Sep 2028
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.46, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market11 Sep 2028
Lucas Meurer 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 Zugdidi can pretend not to have heard.
Market11 Sep 2028
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Raymond Daniels will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Zugdidi the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad11 Sep 2028
“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.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Sultan Djamilov 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 Sep 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Saba Chakvetadze commits to Zugdidi for another 3 years.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Words at Zugdidi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Saba Chakvetadze 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.
Match9 Sep 2028
2‑2, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match2 Sep 2028
4‑1, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings4 Sep 2028
Mattia Villa, 33, rolls back the years — 8.80
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.80 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Player ratings4 Sep 2028
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Halid Doltmourziev did not need any: 8.10, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad4 Sep 2028
Rezo Lomidze: 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.” Zugdidi have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad4 Sep 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zugdidi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market4 Sep 2028
So close: Beka Kakhidze’s move dies late
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Merani moved on, Beka Kakhidze reports back to Zugdidi, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Squad4 Sep 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Khvicha Mchedlidze commits to Zugdidi for another 3 years.
Player ratings4 Sep 2028
Sandro Mikautadze was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.05. 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.
The terraces4 Sep 2028
At 21 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings28 Aug 2028
Halid Doltmourziev, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.98
A mark of 7.98 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Sultan Djamilov 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 Aug 2028
A move Ilja Shakhmatov 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. Ilja Shakhmatov is living that version at Zugdidi, and it tends to show in the first month.
Player ratings28 Aug 2028
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market28 Aug 2028
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Zugdidi will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Squad28 Aug 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Lasha Shengelia and Zugdidi agree another 3 years.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Words at Zugdidi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raymond Daniels 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.
Match26 Aug 2028
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Player ratings28 Aug 2028
Shots: 8. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market21 Aug 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Zugdidi can pretend not to have heard.
Market21 Aug 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Zugdidi is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Boardroom21 Aug 2028
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Lucas Meurer has agreed terms with Kolkheti for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad21 Aug 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zugdidi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings21 Aug 2028
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings21 Aug 2028
7.83, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Zugdidi had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
Squad21 Aug 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Vakhtang Gamsakhurdia and Zugdidi agree another 3 years.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Raymond Daniels 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.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Mattia Villa has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Zugdidi 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
Squad14 Aug 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings14 Aug 2028
Age has not caught Mattia Villa yet — 8.62
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.62 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market14 Aug 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Zugdidi is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad14 Aug 2028
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.
Boardroom14 Aug 2028
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Raymond Daniels has agreed terms with Merani for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Sultan Djamilov 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 Aug 2028
Defensive actions: 21. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Match12 Aug 2028
Three points for Zugdidi, 2‑0 the final word against Kolkheti in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings14 Aug 2028
Marked 8.76 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match5 Aug 2028
The wait goes on for Zugdidi
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.
Squad7 Aug 2028
“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.
Market7 Aug 2028
The chase for Rezo Lomidze ended with $190.0K changing hands and Guria out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Squad7 Aug 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zugdidi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings7 Aug 2028
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match5 Aug 2028
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad7 Aug 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mate Ghaghvishvili, and the manager let it.
Squad7 Aug 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Levan Arveladze commits to Zugdidi for another 1 years.
Loan watch7 Aug 2028
“I watch every Zugdidi game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Lokomotivi runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market31 Jul 2028
“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.
Match29 Jul 2028
The wait goes on for Zugdidi
5 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.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Mattia Villa 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 ratings31 Jul 2028
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.79 on the card, and the Zugdidi support went home talking about one name.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Words at Zugdidi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raymond Daniels 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 Jul 2028
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad31 Jul 2028
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.
Squad31 Jul 2028
“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.
Match29 Jul 2028
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Guria defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market24 Jul 2028
Zugdidi say no — this time
The offer from Torpedo Kutaisi for Sultan Djamilov 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.
Player ratings24 Jul 2028
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Halid Doltmourziev did not need any: 7.86, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market24 Jul 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Zugdidi can pretend not to have heard.
Market24 Jul 2028
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Irakli Kakabadze will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Zugdidi the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match22 Jul 2028
The wait goes on for Zugdidi
4 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.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Mattia Villa in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zugdidi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Saba Chakvetadze 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.
Match22 Jul 2028
A 1‑1 draw with Chikhura leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market17 Jul 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Zugdidi can pretend not to have heard.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Sultan Djamilov 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.
Squad17 Jul 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mattia Villa, and the manager let it.
Match15 Jul 2028
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Words at Zugdidi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raymond Daniels 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 ratings17 Jul 2028
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Nobody at Zugdidi 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.
Market17 Jul 2028
Merani are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Zugdidi will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Player ratings17 Jul 2028
Marked 5.56, and generously at that. Nothing came off, and by the end the crowd had stopped expecting it to.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match8 Jul 2028
A 2-goal lead gone for Zugdidi
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Merani kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Zugdidi will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Market10 Jul 2028
Lucas Meurer 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 Zugdidi can pretend not to have heard.
Squad10 Jul 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zugdidi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings10 Jul 2028
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.93, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings10 Jul 2028
Marked 8.62 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad10 Jul 2028
“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.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Raymond Daniels 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.
Match8 Jul 2028
It finished 2‑2, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Mattia Villa has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Zugdidi 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
Upbeat
Squad3 Jul 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market3 Jul 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Zugdidi is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad3 Jul 2028
Sultan Djamilov 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.
Match1 Jul 2028
0‑1 to Saburtalo, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad3 Jul 2028
Words at Zugdidi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Irakli Kakabadze 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 ratings3 Jul 2028
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Boardroom3 Jul 2028
Zugdidi sign 7 boys into the academy
None of them will be seen by anybody outside the training ground for three years, most of them will never play a senior match, and one of them might change the club. That is the whole proposition, and it is why academies exist.
Squad3 Jul 2028
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Mate Ghaghvishvili is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Player ratings3 Jul 2028
Shots: 7, not one of them in. A centre forward is paid for one thing, and on this evidence he has forgotten which thing it is.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match24 Jun 2028
Zugdidi bow out of the cup
Dinamo Tbilisi go through and Zugdidi go home, 1‑0 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match26 Jun 2028
Zugdidi refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 29 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Market26 Jun 2028
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Zugdidi they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market26 Jun 2028
“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 Zugdidi, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings26 Jun 2028
A first appearance Giorgi Kvaratskhelia will want to forget — 5.69
Everybody's debut is one of two stories and this was the other one. 5.69, and the only consolation available is that nobody's career has ever been decided by ninety minutes in a shirt he had just been given.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Giorgi Zivzivadze 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 terraces26 Jun 2028
Zugdidi spend $240.0K on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $240.0K for Halid Doltmourziev, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad19 Jun 2028
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Player ratings19 Jun 2028
Age has not caught Mattia Villa yet — 8.66
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.66 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market19 Jun 2028
“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.
Market19 Jun 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Zugdidi is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Match17 Jun 2028
Zugdidi make it 3 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Zugdidi have 3 straight wins of it.
Boardroom19 Jun 2028
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Squad19 Jun 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zugdidi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match17 Jun 2028
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mattia Villa. 1‑0 against Tskhinvali, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad19 Jun 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Giorgi Zivzivadze, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market12 Jun 2028
$760.0K is a serious amount of money and it does not play centre-forward. Everybody in the dressing room knows who used to be looked at when it went wrong.
Market12 Jun 2028
“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.
The terraces12 Jun 2028
Zugdidi sell a favourite for $760.0K
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Nika Ananidze was one of the reasons people came, and $760.0K does not replace that by itself.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Saba Kiteishvili: 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.” Zugdidi have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Giorgi Zivzivadze 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.
Match10 Jun 2028
Whatever happens, Zugdidi do not lose
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Player ratings12 Jun 2028
Sandro Mikautadze was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.14. 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.
Match10 Jun 2028
It finished 2‑1, and it was Sandro Mikautadze’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Zugdidi.
Player ratings12 Jun 2028
Lasha Arveladze was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.81. 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
Match3 Jun 2028
4‑0, and Nika Ananidze took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Zugdidi tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Market5 Jun 2028
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad5 Jun 2028
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market5 Jun 2028
“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 Zugdidi, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Levan Arveladze: 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.” Zugdidi have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad5 Jun 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zugdidi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings5 Jun 2028
Ninety minutes of Nika Ananidze at his very best
Marked 9.29. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Zugdidi.
Player ratings5 Jun 2028
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.15, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match27 May 2028
A 3-goal lead gone for Zugdidi
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Samtredia kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Zugdidi will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Player ratings29 May 2028
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.41, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market29 May 2028
“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.
Player ratings29 May 2028
Mattia Villa, 33, rolls back the years — 7.92
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.92 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad29 May 2028
Mattia Villa in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zugdidi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings29 May 2028
Ninety minutes of Nika Ananidze at his very best
Marked 8.95. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Zugdidi.
The terraces29 May 2028
At 22 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.
Player ratings29 May 2028
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.73, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match27 May 2028
A 5‑5 draw with Samtredia leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market22 May 2028
“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 Zugdidi, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad22 May 2028
Irakli Kakabadze: 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.” Zugdidi have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market22 May 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Zugdidi is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad22 May 2028
Mattia Villa 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 ratings22 May 2028
Guram Arveladze was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.89. 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.
Squad22 May 2028
Words at Zugdidi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Irakli Kakabadze 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.
Squad22 May 2028
A season average of 7.22 with 5 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Match20 May 2028
A 1‑1 draw with Sapovnela leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Player ratings22 May 2028
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market15 May 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Zugdidi is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market15 May 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Zugdidi can pretend not to have heard.
Squad15 May 2028
Mattia Villa in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zugdidi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings15 May 2028
Guram Arveladze was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.08. 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.
Player ratings15 May 2028
Ninety minutes of Sultan Djamilov at his very best
Marked 8.24. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Zugdidi.
Player ratings15 May 2028
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.
Squad15 May 2028
Irakli Kakabadze 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.
Match13 May 2028
A 1‑1 draw with Torpedo Kutaisi leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Squad15 May 2028
Mattia Villa has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Zugdidi 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
Upbeat
Market8 May 2028
Nika Ananidze 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 Zugdidi can pretend not to have heard.
Squad8 May 2028
Mattia Villa 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 ratings8 May 2028
A performance of 9.29 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings8 May 2028
21 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Match6 May 2028
Three points for Zugdidi, 1‑0 the final word against Dinamo Batumi in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings8 May 2028
Ninety minutes of Lasha Arveladze at his very best
Marked 8.02. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Zugdidi.
Squad8 May 2028
Defences have started doubling up on Nika Ananidze
6 goals and a season average of 7.25 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad8 May 2028
Words at Zugdidi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Saba Chakvetadze 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 ratings8 May 2028
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market1 May 2028
“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 Zugdidi, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad1 May 2028
Mattia Villa in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zugdidi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match29 Apr 2028
Kolkheti left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings1 May 2028
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad1 May 2028
The manager makes an example of Lucas Meurer
“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.
Squad1 May 2028
Saba Chakvetadze 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.
Squad1 May 2028
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.
Player ratings1 May 2028
Shots: 12, not one of them in. A centre forward is paid for one thing, and on this evidence he has forgotten which thing it is.
Player ratings1 May 2028
Shots: 4, not one of them in. A centre forward is paid for one thing, and on this evidence he has forgotten which thing it is.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market24 Apr 2028
“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 Zugdidi, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market24 Apr 2028
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Zugdidi they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad24 Apr 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Giorgi Zivzivadze commits to Zugdidi for another 4 years.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Mattia Villa 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 ratings24 Apr 2028
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad24 Apr 2028
“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.
Loan watch24 Apr 2028
“I watch every Zugdidi game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Lokomotivi runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Words at Zugdidi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Irakli Kakabadze 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.
Match22 Apr 2028
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market17 Apr 2028
Only the photograph left for Nika Ananidze
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nika Ananidze will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Zugdidi the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market17 Apr 2028
“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 Zugdidi, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad17 Apr 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Zugdidi may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Mattia Villa in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zugdidi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings17 Apr 2028
Guram Arveladze was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.39. 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.
Player ratings17 Apr 2028
Marked 9.35 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Player ratings17 Apr 2028
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match15 Apr 2028
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Guram Arveladze. 2‑0 against Guria, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Match15 Apr 2028
Zugdidi settle it inside twenty minutes
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Guria spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Apr 2028
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.
Player ratings10 Apr 2028
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.61, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market10 Apr 2028
“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.
Player ratings10 Apr 2028
No sign of nerves from Dato Daraselia at 16 — 7.94
The hardest thing about being 16 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Dato Daraselia did not need any: 7.94, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Player ratings10 Apr 2028
Age has not caught Mattia Villa yet — 8.28
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.28 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Mattia Villa 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.
Match8 Apr 2028
1‑2 to Chikhura, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The terraces10 Apr 2028
At 16 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Apr 2028
There were 11 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market3 Apr 2028
“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 Zugdidi, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Jonathan Filipe: 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.” Zugdidi have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Mattia Villa in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zugdidi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings3 Apr 2028
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match1 Apr 2028
Zugdidi come up short against Dila
Dila left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Irakli Kakabadze 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 ratings3 Apr 2028
5.59 on the card. Some afternoons a footballer looks like a man who has only just been introduced to the game, and this was one of them.
Market3 Apr 2028
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings27 Mar 2028
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.32, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad27 Mar 2028
“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.
Market27 Mar 2028
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Saba Chakvetadze will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Zugdidi the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Sultan Djamilov 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.
Match25 Mar 2028
Guram Arveladze among the goals in a wild afternoon
6 goals in one match, Guram Arveladze on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Zugdidi and Merani.
Match25 Mar 2028
A 4‑2 win over Merani, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings27 Mar 2028
Giorgi Zivzivadze was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.87. 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.
Player ratings27 Mar 2028
A performance of 8.60 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad27 Mar 2028
“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
Steady
Match18 Mar 2028
Nika Ananidze had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Saburtalo were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
Market20 Mar 2028
Only the photograph left for Nika Ananidze
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nika Ananidze will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Zugdidi the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Player ratings20 Mar 2028
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.73 for the rest of it.
Squad20 Mar 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zugdidi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings20 Mar 2028
Marked 8.86 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Player ratings20 Mar 2028
Marked 8.41 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad20 Mar 2028
“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.
Match18 Mar 2028
A 3‑3 draw with Saburtalo leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Irakli Kakabadze 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
Steady
Squad13 Mar 2028
A fracture rules Lucas Meurer out for 19 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Zugdidi will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market13 Mar 2028
“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 Zugdidi, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad13 Mar 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Zugdidi may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
The terraces13 Mar 2028
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 7 of the 32 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Sultan Djamilov 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.
Match11 Mar 2028
Dinamo Tbilisi left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad13 Mar 2028
“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.
Player ratings13 Mar 2028
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings13 Mar 2028
Shots: 9, not one of them in. A centre forward is paid for one thing, and on this evidence he has forgotten which thing it is.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad6 Mar 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 13 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad6 Mar 2028
A fracture rules Lucas Meurer out for 26 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Zugdidi will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match4 Mar 2028
4‑0, and Nika Ananidze took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Zugdidi tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Market6 Mar 2028
“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 Zugdidi, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad6 Mar 2028
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Boardroom6 Mar 2028
Temur Kashia signs on for the long haul
Zugdidi moved before anybody else could: a new deal for Temur Kashia, agreed quietly and announced loudly. Boards extend managers for many reasons; the good one is the one this looks like.
Squad6 Mar 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Sultan Djamilov and Zugdidi agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Player ratings6 Mar 2028
Marked 10.00 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Boardroom6 Mar 2028
Graduation day at Zugdidi
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Feb 2028
A fracture rules Lucas Meurer out for 33 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Zugdidi will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market28 Feb 2028
“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 Zugdidi, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market28 Feb 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Zugdidi is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Mattia Villa 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.
Loan watch28 Feb 2028
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Zugdidi, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Words at Zugdidi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Irakli Kakabadze 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
Steady
Squad21 Feb 2028
A fracture rules Lucas Meurer out for 40 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Zugdidi will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market21 Feb 2028
Only the photograph left for Nika Ananidze
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nika Ananidze will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Zugdidi the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market21 Feb 2028
Lucas Meurer 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 Zugdidi can pretend not to have heard.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Feb 2028
A fracture rules Lucas Meurer out for 47 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Zugdidi will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market14 Feb 2028
“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 Zugdidi, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Sultan Djamilov 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.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Words at Zugdidi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Saba Chakvetadze 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.
Squad14 Feb 2028
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.
Market14 Feb 2028
Zugdidi have let the market know Revaz Zivzivadze can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Feb 2028
A fracture rules Lucas Meurer out for 54 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Zugdidi will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market7 Feb 2028
“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 Zugdidi, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad7 Feb 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zugdidi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Irakli Kakabadze 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.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Lasha Arveladze has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Zugdidi 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.
Market7 Feb 2028
The shop window has Lasha Kashia in it
Zugdidi have let the market know Lasha Kashia can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad31 Jan 2028
A fracture rules Lucas Meurer out for 61 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Zugdidi will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market31 Jan 2028
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad31 Jan 2028
“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.
Market31 Jan 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Zugdidi is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Sultan Djamilov 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.
Squad31 Jan 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Raymond Daniels and Zugdidi agree another 1 years.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 Jan 2028
A fracture rules Lucas Meurer out for 68 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Zugdidi will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market24 Jan 2028
Nika Ananidze has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Zugdidi they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market24 Jan 2028
“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 Zugdidi, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad24 Jan 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zugdidi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Saba Chakvetadze 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.
Squad24 Jan 2028
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 Jan 2028
A fracture rules Lucas Meurer out for 75 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Zugdidi will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market17 Jan 2028
“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.
Market17 Jan 2028
Chikhura come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Zugdidi did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market17 Jan 2028
Add another name to the list: Dila have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Nika Ananidze. The answer from Zugdidi has not changed — yet.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Mattia Villa 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.
Market17 Jan 2028
Everyone has stopped pretending: Saburtalo will make the call about Saba Chakvetadze this week. Zugdidi have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Jan 2028
A fracture rules Lucas Meurer out for 82 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Zugdidi will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market10 Jan 2028
“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 Jan 2028
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad10 Jan 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zugdidi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market10 Jan 2028
Add another name to the list: Saburtalo have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Saba Chakvetadze. The answer from Zugdidi has not changed — yet.
Market10 Jan 2028
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Zugdidi will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Jan 2028
Lucas Meurer breaks a bone — 89 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 89 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market3 Jan 2028
“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.
Market3 Jan 2028
Saburtalo come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Zugdidi did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad3 Jan 2028
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Zugdidi have had the benefit of it.
Squad3 Jan 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zugdidi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market3 Jan 2028
The phone has started ringing about Davit Chakvetadze again, and this time the name on the line is Chikhura. Zugdidi are listening politely and promising nothing.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad27 Dec 2027
Lucas Meurer breaks a bone — 96 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 96 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market27 Dec 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.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Sultan Djamilov 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
Steady
Squad20 Dec 2027
Lucas Meurer breaks a bone — 103 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 103 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market20 Dec 2027
“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 Zugdidi, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad20 Dec 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 Zugdidi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad13 Dec 2027
Lucas Meurer breaks a bone — 110 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 110 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market13 Dec 2027
“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 Zugdidi, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Sultan Djamilov 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
Steady
Squad6 Dec 2027
Lucas Meurer breaks a bone — 117 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 117 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market6 Dec 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Zugdidi is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market6 Dec 2027
Lucas Meurer 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 Zugdidi can pretend not to have heard.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market29 Nov 2027
“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 Zugdidi, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad29 Nov 2027
“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.
Squad29 Nov 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 Zugdidi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market22 Nov 2027
“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 Zugdidi, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Levan Arveladze: 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.” Zugdidi have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Giorgi Zivzivadze 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.
Loan watch22 Nov 2027
“I watch every Zugdidi game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Merani runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Saba Chakvetadze 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.
Squad22 Nov 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Cristiano Schiavone, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market15 Nov 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.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Sultan Djamilov 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.
Loan watch15 Nov 2027
“I did not go to Merani to sit and watch. I want to come back to Zugdidi and fight for my place.” 3 appearances in 13 matches say the rest.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market8 Nov 2027
Only the photograph left for Nika Ananidze
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nika Ananidze will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Zugdidi the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market8 Nov 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 Zugdidi can pretend not to have heard.
Squad8 Nov 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 Zugdidi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market1 Nov 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 Zugdidi can pretend not to have heard.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Sultan Djamilov 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 Nov 2027
Words at Zugdidi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Saba Chakvetadze 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
Steady
Market25 Oct 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 Zugdidi can pretend not to have heard.
Squad25 Oct 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 Zugdidi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 Oct 2027
33 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Loan watch25 Oct 2027
“I did not go to Merani to sit and watch. I want to come back to Zugdidi and fight for my place.” 3 appearances in 11 matches say the rest.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Saba Chakvetadze 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.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Jonathan Filipe 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad18 Oct 2027
Sultan Djamilov 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.
Loan watch18 Oct 2027
“I watch every Zugdidi game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Merani runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad18 Oct 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Irakli Kakabadze, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market11 Oct 2027
Nika Ananidze 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 Zugdidi can pretend not to have heard.
Market11 Oct 2027
Nika Ananidze has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Zugdidi they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Giorgi Zivzivadze 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
Steady
Market4 Oct 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 Zugdidi can pretend not to have heard.
Squad4 Oct 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 Zugdidi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Words at Zugdidi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Saba Chakvetadze 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
Steady
Squad27 Sep 2027
32 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Player ratings27 Sep 2027
23 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Squad27 Sep 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 Zugdidi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Defences have started doubling up on Mattia Villa
13 goals and a season average of 7.29 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad27 Sep 2027
61 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Match25 Sep 2027
It finished 1‑0, and it was Mattia Villa’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Zugdidi.
Player ratings27 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings27 Sep 2027
Ninety minutes of Mattia Villa 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 Zugdidi.
Player ratings27 Sep 2027
12 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad20 Sep 2027
There were 9 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market20 Sep 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 Zugdidi can pretend not to have heard.
Squad20 Sep 2027
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Zugdidi have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Sultan Djamilov 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.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Defences have started doubling up on Mattia Villa
12 goals and a season average of 7.27 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
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
Steady
Match11 Sep 2027
Samtredia will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Zugdidi were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Squad13 Sep 2027
The match ball belongs to Nika Ananidze, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Market13 Sep 2027
Nika Ananidze has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Zugdidi they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market13 Sep 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 Zugdidi can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
Marked 10.00 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
Ninety minutes of Nika Ananidze at his very best
Marked 10.00. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Zugdidi.
Squad13 Sep 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 Zugdidi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 Sep 2027
A season average of 7.39 with 11 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
The terraces13 Sep 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 16-year-old it feels ownership of. Dato Daraselia 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market6 Sep 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.
Match4 Sep 2027
The wait goes on for Zugdidi
4 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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Sultan Djamilov 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 ratings6 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings6 Sep 2027
A performance of 8.59 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad6 Sep 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mattia Villa, and the manager let it.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Words at Zugdidi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Irakli Kakabadze 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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Giorgi Zivzivadze is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Match4 Sep 2027
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad30 Aug 2027
The words a physio says slowly. 18 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.
Market30 Aug 2027
“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 Zugdidi, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad30 Aug 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 Zugdidi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Defences have started doubling up on Mattia Villa
11 goals and a season average of 7.28 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Match28 Aug 2027
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad30 Aug 2027
“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.
Loan watch30 Aug 2027
“I watch every Zugdidi game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Guria runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Player ratings30 Aug 2027
5.50. Every footballer has these and most of them happen away from a full ground; his did not, and he will be aware of that all week.
Market30 Aug 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Zugdidi know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad23 Aug 2027
The words a physio says slowly. 25 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.
Market23 Aug 2027
“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 Zugdidi, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad23 Aug 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 Zugdidi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market23 Aug 2027
Tskhinvali paid $6.0K and Zugdidi took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad23 Aug 2027
“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.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Dato Kashia 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 ratings23 Aug 2027
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.81 on the card, and the Zugdidi support went home talking about one name.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match21 Aug 2027
Point won or two lost for Zugdidi?
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Dinamo Batumi? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Aug 2027
The words a physio says slowly. 32 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.
Market16 Aug 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Zugdidi is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market16 Aug 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 Zugdidi can pretend not to have heard.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Giorgi Zivzivadze 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.
Squad16 Aug 2027
A season average of 7.38 with 11 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Player ratings16 Aug 2027
Marked 8.76 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad16 Aug 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; Zugdidi are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Player ratings16 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match14 Aug 2027
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market9 Aug 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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
“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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Mattia Villa 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 ratings9 Aug 2027
Giorgi Zivzivadze was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.43. 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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Guram Mchedlidze and Zugdidi agree another 2 years.
Squad9 Aug 2027
10 goals and a season average of 7.33. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Match7 Aug 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Giorgi Zivzivadze. 1‑0 against Shukura, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings9 Aug 2027
15 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Player ratings9 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 14. 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
Market2 Aug 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Zugdidi is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Mattia Villa in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zugdidi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match31 Jul 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Nika Ananidze. 3‑1 against Guria, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings2 Aug 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.27, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad2 Aug 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Guram Mchedlidze and Zugdidi agree another 2 years.
Player ratings2 Aug 2027
A performance of 9.15 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Mattia Villa is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.31 with 11 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Words at Zugdidi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giorgi Zivzivadze 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.
Loan watch2 Aug 2027
“I did not go to Guria to sit and watch. I want to come back to Zugdidi and fight for my place.” 1 appearances in 29 matches say the rest.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Jul 2027
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match24 Jul 2027
6 matches without a win for Zugdidi
The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around Zugdidi are no longer polite ones.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Mattia Villa 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.
Market26 Jul 2027
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Zugdidi will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Giorgi Zivzivadze 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 ratings26 Jul 2027
Marked 8.70 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad26 Jul 2027
9 goals and a season average of 7.25. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Player ratings26 Jul 2027
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match24 Jul 2027
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match17 Jul 2027
Dila punish Zugdidi for switching off
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Jonathan Filipe will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Zugdidi escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Player ratings19 Jul 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.07, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market19 Jul 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.
Match17 Jul 2027
5 matches without a win for Zugdidi
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Zugdidi are no longer polite ones.
Match17 Jul 2027
Beaten 3‑4, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Mattia Villa in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zugdidi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Jul 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Lasha Arveladze, and the manager let it.
Player ratings19 Jul 2027
Ninety minutes of Giorgi Zivzivadze at his very best
Marked 8.16. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Zugdidi.
Market19 Jul 2027
Guria are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Zugdidi will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market12 Jul 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.
The terraces12 Jul 2027
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 6 of the 29 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Match10 Jul 2027
The wait goes on for Zugdidi
4 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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Mattia Villa 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.
Match10 Jul 2027
A bad afternoon for Zugdidi against Merani
1‑2 to Merani, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Giorgi Zivzivadze 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 ratings12 Jul 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.77, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad12 Jul 2027
The manager makes an example of Jonathan Filipe
“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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Mattia Villa is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.28 with 10 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market5 Jul 2027
Lokomotivi come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Zugdidi did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market5 Jul 2027
“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 Zugdidi, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Mattia Villa in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zugdidi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Words at Zugdidi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giorgi Zivzivadze 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.
Squad5 Jul 2027
A muscle injury sidelines Goga Kakabadze for 14 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Zugdidi will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad5 Jul 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Dato Daraselia and Zugdidi agree another 3 years.
Loan watch5 Jul 2027
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Zugdidi, and 1 appearances in 25 say he has earned the hearing.
Boardroom5 Jul 2027
Intake day at the Zugdidi academy
7 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
Match3 Jul 2027
It needed Jonathan Filipe to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Saburtalo, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match23 Jun 2027
Zugdidi bow out of the cup
Dinamo Batumi go through and Zugdidi go home, 0‑0 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Market28 Jun 2027
“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 Zugdidi, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad28 Jun 2027
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Demetre Buliskeria: 1 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Player ratings28 Jun 2027
Defensive actions: 29. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Squad28 Jun 2027
“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.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Mattia Villa 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 ratings28 Jun 2027
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.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Words at Zugdidi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Saba Chakvetadze 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 Jun 2027
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match19 Jun 2027
The 86th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Revaz Zivzivadze decided nobody was going anywhere. Tskhinvali had no time left to answer.
Player ratings21 Jun 2027
Revaz Zivzivadze, 35, rolls back the years — 8.86
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.86 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Market21 Jun 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 Zugdidi can pretend not to have heard.
Market21 Jun 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Zugdidi is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Mattia Villa in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zugdidi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market21 Jun 2027
Archil Kiteishvili has left for Shukura in a $26.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Match19 Jun 2027
Tskhinvali made Zugdidi work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Words at Zugdidi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giorgi Zivzivadze 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.
Market21 Jun 2027
The name of Shota Chakvetadze has come up in conversations Zugdidi were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market14 Jun 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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Mattia Villa 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 Jun 2027
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market14 Jun 2027
The name of Archil Kiteishvili has come up in conversations Zugdidi were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Mattia Villa is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.33 with 10 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Giorgi Zivzivadze 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.
Match12 Jun 2027
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings14 Jun 2027
Shots: 4. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings7 Jun 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.02, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market7 Jun 2027
Zugdidi say no — this time
The offer from Dila for Mattia Villa 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.
Squad7 Jun 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Zugdidi may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings7 Jun 2027
Marked 10.00 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Mattia Villa in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zugdidi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Jun 2027
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Vladislav Karachun is living that version at Zugdidi, and it tends to show in the first month.
Match5 Jun 2027
Sioni made Zugdidi work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑2 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Loan watch7 Jun 2027
“I did not go to Guria to sit and watch. I want to come back to Zugdidi and fight for my place.” 1 appearances in 21 matches say the rest.
Squad7 Jun 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Demetre Buliskeria, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market31 May 2027
“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 Zugdidi, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad31 May 2027
Mattia Villa 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 ratings31 May 2027
Marked 9.22 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad31 May 2027
Giorgi Zivzivadze 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 ratings31 May 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.98, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match29 May 2027
Three points for Zugdidi, 2‑0 the final word against Samtredia in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad31 May 2027
9 goals and a season average of 7.23. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad31 May 2027
23 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Player ratings31 May 2027
Marked 5.63, and generously at that. Nothing came off, and by the end the crowd had stopped expecting it to.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market24 May 2027
“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 Zugdidi, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match22 May 2027
The wait goes on for Zugdidi
4 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.
Squad24 May 2027
Mattia Villa in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zugdidi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match22 May 2027
3 matches without a goal for Zugdidi
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.
Player ratings24 May 2027
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad24 May 2027
Words at Zugdidi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giorgi Zivzivadze 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.
Match22 May 2027
Sapovnela left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad24 May 2027
Mattia Villa 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.
Squad24 May 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Demetre Buliskeria trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market17 May 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 Zugdidi can pretend not to have heard.
Squad17 May 2027
Mattia Villa 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.
Match15 May 2027
Torpedo Kutaisi left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad17 May 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Saba Chakvetadze commits to Zugdidi for another 3 years.
Squad17 May 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Shota Chakvetadze, and the manager let it.
Squad17 May 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
Crisis
Market10 May 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.
Squad10 May 2027
Mattia Villa in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zugdidi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 May 2027
Words at Zugdidi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giorgi Zivzivadze 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.
Squad10 May 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jonathan Filipe, and the manager let it.
Match8 May 2027
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad10 May 2027
Defences have started doubling up on Mattia Villa
8 goals and a season average of 7.24 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Loan watch10 May 2027
“I watch every Zugdidi game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Guria runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Player ratings10 May 2027
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings10 May 2027
Shots: 10. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 May 2027
“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 Zugdidi, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings3 May 2027
Two goals and a mark of 8.49 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad3 May 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match1 May 2027
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Zugdidi and Kolkheti in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad3 May 2027
Mattia Villa 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 ratings3 May 2027
Marked 9.46 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad3 May 2027
Giorgi Zivzivadze 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.
Squad3 May 2027
“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.
Match1 May 2027
It needed Giorgi Zivzivadze to find the net to bring anything home at all: 3‑3 against Kolkheti, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings26 Apr 2027
No sign of nerves from Sandro Mikautadze at 21 — 8.85
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Sandro Mikautadze did not need any: 8.85, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Giorgi Zivzivadze 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.
Match24 Apr 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Giorgi Zivzivadze. 3‑2 against Shukura, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad26 Apr 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Sandro Mikautadze commits to Zugdidi for another 4 years.
Player ratings26 Apr 2027
Ninety minutes of Giorgi Zivzivadze at his very best
Marked 9.03. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Zugdidi.
Player ratings26 Apr 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.90, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The terraces26 Apr 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Sandro Mikautadze 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.
Match24 Apr 2027
2 goals inside twenty minutes with Giorgi Zivzivadze in the middle of it, and Shukura unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
Squad26 Apr 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Guram Okriashvili, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match17 Apr 2027
Guria will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Zugdidi were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings19 Apr 2027
A brace, and Mattia Villa takes the afternoon — 10.00
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mattia Villa provided it, and the 10.00 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings19 Apr 2027
Two goals and a mark of 8.50 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad19 Apr 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Lasha Arveladze and Zugdidi agree another 3 years.
Squad19 Apr 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 Zugdidi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Words at Zugdidi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giorgi Zivzivadze 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
Crisis
Squad12 Apr 2027
17 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zugdidi lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The terraces12 Apr 2027
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 6 of the 30 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
Match10 Apr 2027
The wait goes on for Zugdidi
5 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.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Lasha Arveladze 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 Apr 2027
Giorgi Zivzivadze 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 watch12 Apr 2027
“I did not go to Guria to sit and watch. I want to come back to Zugdidi and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 13 matches say the rest.
Match10 Apr 2027
Chikhura left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad12 Apr 2027
The manager makes an example of Jonathan Filipe
“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.
Player ratings12 Apr 2027
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Apr 2027
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Demetre Buliskeria: 3 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Squad5 Apr 2027
24 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zugdidi lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match3 Apr 2027
Zugdidi march on in the cup
Dila are out and Zugdidi go through, 1‑1 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Match31 Mar 2027
Zugdidi march on in the cup
Dila are out and Zugdidi go through, 0‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Market5 Apr 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 Zugdidi can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings5 Apr 2027
26 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Match3 Apr 2027
4 matches without a win for Zugdidi
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Zugdidi are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings5 Apr 2027
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad5 Apr 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 Zugdidi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad29 Mar 2027
31 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zugdidi lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad29 Mar 2027
“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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Giorgi Zivzivadze and Zugdidi agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Mattia Villa 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 ratings29 Mar 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.92, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings29 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings29 Mar 2027
Mattia Villa was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.17. 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.
Match27 Mar 2027
It needed Mattia Villa to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against Merani, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Market29 Mar 2027
The name of Giorgi Zivzivadze keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Zugdidi say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad22 Mar 2027
38 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zugdidi lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad22 Mar 2027
“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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Mattia Villa in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zugdidi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Loan watch22 Mar 2027
“I did not go to Sapovnela to sit and watch. I want to come back to Zugdidi and fight for my place.” 2 appearances in 10 matches say the rest.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Irakli Kakabadze 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.
Match20 Mar 2027
Point won or two lost for Zugdidi?
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Saburtalo? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad15 Mar 2027
45 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zugdidi lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market15 Mar 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 Zugdidi can pretend not to have heard.
Match13 Mar 2027
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Zugdidi and Dinamo Tbilisi, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Lasha Arveladze 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.
Match13 Mar 2027
Dinamo Tbilisi made Zugdidi work for it, but the scoreboard read 4‑2 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
Ninety minutes of Guram Arveladze at his very best
Marked 9.12. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Zugdidi.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
Giorgi Zivzivadze was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.97. 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.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
A performance of 8.99 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad15 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Demetre Buliskeria, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad8 Mar 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Levan Arveladze
23 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zugdidi lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match6 Mar 2027
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Jonathan Filipe will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Zugdidi escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Market8 Mar 2027
“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 Zugdidi, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The terraces8 Mar 2027
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 6 of the 30 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Squad8 Mar 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jonathan Filipe and Zugdidi agree another 4 years.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Mattia Villa in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zugdidi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom8 Mar 2027
Graduation day at Zugdidi
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad1 Mar 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Levan Arveladze
30 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zugdidi lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Lasha Arveladze 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 Mar 2027
Words at Zugdidi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Irakli Kakabadze 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
Squad22 Feb 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Levan Arveladze
37 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zugdidi lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad22 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 Zugdidi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Feb 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Shota Chakvetadze, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad15 Feb 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Levan Arveladze
44 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zugdidi lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match15 Feb 2027
Zugdidi up to position 3
13 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Lasha Arveladze 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
Squad8 Feb 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Levan Arveladze
51 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zugdidi lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Mattia Villa in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zugdidi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Jaba Kobiashvili 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
Squad1 Feb 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Levan Arveladze
58 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zugdidi lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Mattia Villa 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
Tornike Gamsakhurdia 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
Squad25 Jan 2027
Levan Arveladze damages knee ligaments — 66 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 66 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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Cristiano Schiavone 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
Temur Gvelesiani has left for Sapovnela in a $19.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.