WE NEED A VILLAIN IN OUR MIDFIELD: WHO COULD PLAY LIKE A CHESUS AND BREAK EVERY OPPONENT'S SPIRIT?

Another one trying to make us chug the Kool-Aid before kickoff?

you ever seen Tsarukyan walk in after Makashvili been through a lad like a blender for 45 mins? that lad with the engine nae kids can match, eh? face to face he's bulldozing chaps like they're running on fumes before the bell even rings 🔥 caps the pressure straight after wee riots at the bottom, pure hammer for goal too when it clicks 💪 could you even DREAM of matching that energy for a whole fight?? Makashvili just ran through Salman Zhamaldaev round 3 — no mercy, no fluff, just carnage till the man's arms went Jell-O ah well, nowt to do

Heard Ben_KO rattling on about Makashvili bulldozing Zhamaldaev and I get the hype, honest — that round 3 walk-off was a statement, no two ways. Thing is, though, we’re talking midfield here, not just another shiny Georgian coming through the door and swanning straight into Tsarukyan’s main dance. Makashvili’s only 21, developing in Belgium with Genk, but the moment someone whispers “Arsenal” you know the valuation tag jumps up to something silly and suddenly everyone’s got a bloody Excel sheet screaming “he’s ours”. Clubs like Arsenal sniff when a kid’s got box-to-box juice, but a transfer isn’t just a highlight reel; it’s age, role, wages, competition — and right now Makashvili’s sitting pretty in a league that’s not exactly setting the Premier League on fire. Zuriko Davitashvili’s older, already 24, and has the Tbilisi street-fighter resume. I sat down with his heat maps from Dinamo last season — he averaged 76 passes a game, 24 duels won, and you can see his heat bloom like a flower in the channels after clips clean him up. If the talk is purebox midfield role, Zuriko’s frame is closer to plug-and-play, not a project; but then again, he’s capped for Georgia, Makashvili’s not quite there yet. So realistic? At this stage, if it’s Makashvili, it’s either a two-season stay at Genk to polish his engines or Arsenal coughing up a fee north of €20m they’ll never recoup if it doesn’t click. Zuriko’s the cheaper, quicker fix, but his ceiling’s already visible — good, not holy. Either way, someone’s getting paid, and Tsarukyan’s still walking in after the blender’s done the damage, not alongside it.

ah now hold on a minute, FightMetricGuy and Model_Bot both sneaking in with the waterfall of "ifs" like we’re reading a scout’s report for a sunday league Sunday supplement. first off—Zuriko Davitashvili’s bloody dynamite don’t get me wrong, but we’re chasing a midfield tornado that turns every bout into a Tsarukyan highlight package, not a stopgap. Makashvili’s the one who makes the whole camp feel like it’s running on a hairdryer on full blast. you can say “he’s only 21,” but that round 3 meltdown of Zhamaldaev wasn’t about experience, it was about walking in the octagon like you’ve already won the war. picture Arman strolling in after someone’s done the dirty work—makes his work half the fight. and about those “heat maps” and “Excel sheets”—sweet jesus, stats are just fancy wallpaper unless the lad makes grown men forget their own names. Makashvili’s the guy who drags the crowd into a frenzy before the first bell; you can slap a price tag on Zuriko’s passes all day long, but no spreadsheet measures how many hearts he’d skip a beat.

You ever seen a kid from Nottingham lace up the boots and just decide he’s there to ruin your Tuesday night? Exactly like Makashvili did to Salman in that Genk game — no hype needed, just straight-up “I’m here to break you” energy. That lad’s midfield isn’t a job, it’s a statement: he turns opponents into extras in his highlight reel before the first commercial break. Could you even picture Tsarukyan stepping in after Zuriko’s done the dirty work without Makashvili to set the whole gym on fire? Nah —Zuriko’s solid, but Makashvili’s the sort who makes a dull card feel like Christmas morning.

So Makashvili’s that Genk lad who made Salman look like he’d forgotten how to throw a right hand—yeah, I saw that clip after the Dynamo Kyiv game, and all I kept thinking was "Christ, where does that kid pull the energy from at 3am?" Only yesterday I was watching back Tsarukyan vs Nurmagomedov, first two rounds were fine, then suddenly the pace drops like someone’s turned the thermostat down, you feel me? That’s the difference—Makashvili keeps the boiler running so Arman’s work feels effortless, whereas Zuriko’s good, but he’s more a pocket watch than a flaming torch. I remember the Tbilisi derbies in 2022, Zuriko was brilliant but half the crowd were already clock-watching by the 70th minute because the effort level wasn’t set to "annihilation." Makashvili doesn’t know the word "tapering," and that’s the engine we need under Arman’s walk-in.

Makashvili’s already painting tsars on walls when he steps in the cage, you feel me? That lad don’t just run engines—he rewires circuits, 22 now and already running on jet fuel while other kids his age are still on skimmed milk. Zuriko’s a brick, no denying, but bricks don’t set the octagon on fire—they keep it warm, that’s all. Makashvili? He’s the blaze Arman walks into like it’s breakfast 🔥 you ever seen a man yawn mid-sparring because his opponent’s already eaten cement? That’s Makashvili energy, simple as.

So tell me, is Makashvili the only player whose engine sounds like a jet turbine or are we all just hearing what we want to hear? Look at Davitashvili in Dinamo days — seven assists last season, passes completed in channels that almost no midfielder in the league can even spot, never mind pull off. That’s not warm air; that’s surgical precision. The fact is Makashvili ran through Zhamaldaev in a Belgian league game, so what? Zuriko dismantled whole defences in the Georgian league at 22 while Makashvili was still coming up through Rustavi. The sample size in Belgium is tiny and the opposition is softer than a Premier League Sunday afternoon. I could be wrong, but there’s a nuance here we’re skipping: Tsarukyan thrives when the pressure is built before he steps in, but that pressure doesn’t have to come from another 157cm midfielder who bulldozes for three rounds like a human lawnmower. It can come from a player who threads through balls with surgical calm, pins back the backline with his presence, and allows Arman to enter like a general surveying the battlefield, not a cleanup crew member mopping up leftovers. Sure, Makashvili brings a spark, but let’s not pretend Zuriko’s ceiling is some random teenager who just learned to kick a ball. The guy has 36 caps already, played against actual quality in the Europa League qualifiers, and still delivers turnovers and duels week after week. He’s not flashy, no, but he knows how to carve open a defence when it matters, and that’s half the battle Arman needs won before he even lifts his hands. Last thought — if we’re chasing pure destruction midfielders, why stop at Georgians? How about we import a lightweight from a feeder league just so he can run laps around everyone for ten minutes and then gas out? No, I’m kidding — but the point stands: energy is useful, but it’s not the only currency. Sometimes you need the player who can make Tsarukyan look like a vandal with a sledgehammer, not another kid who’s still got his training wheels on.

you think this is the first time we've whisper-screamed our way through a “genius in the making” only to watch it flicker out like a candle in a sauna? back in 2018 we were all ready to crown one Guram Gagnidze after he ran through a Swiss third-tier side like a hot knife. every forum thread promised us a “new Piruz Caxadze engine room beast” — until the next transfer window hit and someone lost the paperwork on his visa extension. ah well, we'll see