Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Atalanta will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Atalanta have 4 straight wins of it.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Up for the corner, and Franck Kessié delivers — 7.72
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Franck Kessié scored, was marked 7.72, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atalanta this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Franck Kessié. 2‑1 against Lecce, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vinko Kolaković was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Atalanta had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Zenit, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
22 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Atalanta lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 3 signed and 4 gone
That is the business done at Atalanta 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.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Atalanta hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Marco Carnesecchi 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.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Franck Kessié has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
6 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Napoli next, and one man in the Atalanta dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
36 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Atalanta lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The fee is $23.6M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Bodo/Glimt drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Everything agreed with New England Revolution, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Lecce paid $15.6M and Atalanta took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Franck Kessié 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Atalanta have done the hard part with Bodo/Glimt, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atalanta this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The name of Odilon Kossounou has come up in conversations Atalanta were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
What was a back-page story is now a matter for the terraces, and the terraces do not do nuance. Atalanta would like it dealt with before it becomes the only question anybody asks.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Atalanta has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Atalanta people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The offer from Parma for Charles De Ketelaere 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.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Charles De Ketelaere and Atalanta agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Franck Kessié 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.
Add another name to the list: Ospitaletto have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Dion Cakolli. The answer from Atalanta has not changed — yet.
144 appearances across 13 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Cléber has, at Atalanta, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Charles De Ketelaere 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Atalanta, another week without a signature from Sead Kolašinac.
49 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Atalanta, and both men came out saying it was fine.