 Without a club during pre-season, Kinkladze trained with Portsmouth, where his former manager Jim Smith was on the managing staff. He played for Portsmouth in one pre-season friendly, but Portsmouth decided instead to sign another former Manchester City playmaker, Eyal Berkovic. Over the next few months, he was linked with moves to Scottish clubs Dundee and Celtic, and later Leeds United, but none resulted in a contract offer. As a consequence, he had to train individually and lost his place in the national team again, this time before the return match against Russia. In December 2003, Kinkladze went for a one-week trial at Panathinaikos, following an invitation from Giannis Vardinogiannis, the owner of the Greek club. However, at the end of the trial, the club decided not to sign him. Six months later, he was linked with a move to Russian club Shinnik Yaroslavl, but again, he was not offered a contract.
