Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Charlie Robinson has, at Gonio, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Gonio can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Gonio, another week without a signature from Shalva Burjanadze.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Shalva Burjanadze trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Gonio can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 0 signed and 0 gone
That is the business done at Gonio until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
$290.0K on the table at Dinamo Tbilisi. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Shalva Burjanadze was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 The request is on a desk at Gonio, and it is not being withdrawn.
Gonio had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Dinamo Tbilisi, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gonio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Erekle Jijavadze 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.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Kolkheti-1913 Poti have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
In brief
The dugoutGia Apkhazava knocks on the manager's door
The clubs have shaken hands with Dinamo Tbilisi; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Gonio have done the hard part with Kolkheti-1913 Poti, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Braga 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.
7 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Gonio can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Gonio asked and Torpedo Kutaisi said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Shalva Burjanadze was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
16 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Gonio lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Gonio can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dinamo Tbilisi have kept their man, and Gonio go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Gonio have made the call to Dinamo Tbilisi. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
A loan enquiry to Torpedo Kutaisi: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
24 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Gonio lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 14 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gonio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Signings arrive with a picture of the club in their head, and this one’s picture was bigger than the building. He will play well and he will be gone, in that order, and everybody knows it.
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 21 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Braga 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.
39 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Gonio lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Gonio will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ilia Katsiashvili is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
46 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Gonio lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 36 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
53 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Gonio lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 43 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gonio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Gonio will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gonio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 40 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Gonio will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Gonio can pretend not to have heard.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Gonio can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Gonio will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gonio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
In brief
SquadWords at Gonio training over how hard people work
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Gonio will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Braga 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jaba Kasrelishvili 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Gonio will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
At 36, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jaba Kasrelishvili 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Gonio will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Gonio can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Gonio will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Mate Kometiani 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Gonio will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ilia Katsiashvili is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gonio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Gonio will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Gonio has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Gonio will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Chabuki Labadze 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.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Gonio know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Gonio will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Gonio close the window on a squad of their own making
26 in and 13 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Gonio had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Lokomotivi, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Gonio asked and Kolkheti-1913 Poti said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Chabuki Labadze and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Gonio, another week without a signature from Gia Apkhazava.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Gonio will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The deal with Lokomotivi is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Gareji Sagarejo is saying, and nobody at Gonio is enjoying the guessing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gonio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Gonio asked and Dinamo Tbilisi said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Gonio will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Gonio will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 133 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Meshakhte Tkibuli go through and Gonio go home, 0‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Kolkheti-1913 Poti is saying, and nobody at Gonio is enjoying the guessing.
Mate Kometiani and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Torpedo Kutaisi wanted more than $120.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
He is doing his job and he is not settling. Gonio were supposed to be a step up in his own reckoning, and his own reckoning has been adjusted since he arrived.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Gonio will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Gonio will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Mate Kometiani has just signed for Gonio, and for once the answer mattered.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Nikoloz Tskhovrebashvili and Gonio agree another 3 years.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Gaga Gazdeliani is a Gonio player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Erekle Jijavadze is a Gonio player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Gia Apkhazava is a Gonio player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mirza Partenadze was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Levan Ingorokva 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.
Deportivo Laferrere have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Gonio, another week without a signature from Mirza Partenadze.