The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Juventude moved on, Salvador Fuster reports back to Ituano, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
He arrived for a fee and leaves for a fraction of it. $121.4K of what Ituano paid for Peu is money the club will not see again, and the boardroom will be asked about it for two seasons.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Ituano had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
The offer from Manauara for Kayke Bueno 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.
Ituano asked and Athletic Club said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CSA this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Inter de Limeira pay $280.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
CSA asked and Athletico Paranaense said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad30 Dec 2030
Hugo Martins 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.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 35 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for CSA is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
“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; CSA are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Lócio is in the works
The dugoutMauro Isopi knocks on the manager's door
The name of Salvador Fuster has come up in conversations Ituano were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Luis Miguel will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ituano the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Marlon Yan 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 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.
Ituano asked and Vasco da Gama said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
Not an interim appointment — an institution with an empty coaching office. Somebody unfamiliar will run the sessions this week, and the question of how a club gets into this state is one the board will be asked and will not answer.
The offer from Náutico for Kauã 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.
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.
“Somebody has to pick the team on Saturday, and this week that is me.” An interim appointment with no promises attached, which is how most of them start.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.08 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. CSA will quote 15 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CSA this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at CSA can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
The 88th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Thiago Gigena decided nobody was going anywhere. Sampaio Corrêa had no time left to answer.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what CSA can pretend not to have heard.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CSA this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hugo Martins was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Vitor Ramon 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.
In brief
Boardroom141% of the income goes out in wages at CSA
CSA interviewed the field and appointed the corridor: Interim Coach keeps the job he had been doing in all but title. Sometimes the safest pair of hands is the one already holding the wheel.
“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 CSA, and it is not being withdrawn.
5 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Diego Raposo 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 version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Andrey is living that version at CSA, and it tends to show in the first month.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Víctor Cantillo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Samuel Portugal will call it something else in private.
In brief
SquadA place in the month's best eleven for Elías Rodas
21 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 41 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.
“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 CSA, and it is not being withdrawn.
Víctor Cantillo 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. CSA will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. CSA have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The deal with Internacional 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.
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad15 Jul 2030
Vitor Ramon 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. CSA will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. CSA have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what CSA can pretend not to have heard.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Coritiba is saying, and nobody at CSA is enjoying the guessing.
“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 CSA hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Diego Raposo 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 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 48 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lautaro Núñez 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.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 33 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
The dugout27 May 2030
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
The manager has a list and the board has a condition attached to it. That is not a crisis — half of football works this way — but it decides which of the two of them gets his way in August.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Erick Gabriel is on it.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. CSA will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Erick Gabriel obliged against Pouso Alegre. 2‑1 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is CSA.
Match15 May 2030
Erick Gabriel wins it after the whistle should have gone
98 minutes played. Erick Gabriel found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Pouso Alegre went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Diego Raposo 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. Víctor Cantillo 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.
Marked 8.17 — 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.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 10 actions, 6.91, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Everybody at CSA saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 35 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Víctor Cantillo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Kauã 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. Víctor Cantillo 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. CSA know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at CSA, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. CSA will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Kauã 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. David Tapia has just signed for CSA, and for once the answer mattered.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Víctor Cantillo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at CSA 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at CSA, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. CSA know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
15 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. CSA lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. CSA will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around CSA people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what CSA can pretend not to have heard.
Kauã 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 bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. CSA will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 51 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
“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 CSA, and it is not being withdrawn.
One scored and one made, which is a different afternoon from scoring twice and an easier one to overlook. Marked 7.94, and involved in 2 of his side's goals.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CSA this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. CSA will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CSA this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at CSA, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nycollas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Thaciano signs something — a contract at CSA or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
6 goals in 21 games at Ponte Preta — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at CSA updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at CSA. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason CSA will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Víctor Cantillo 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.
8 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
The words a physio says slowly. 109 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Pineto have done the hard part with Venezia, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Casertana is saying, and nobody at Pineto is enjoying the guessing.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Palermo have kept their man, and Pineto go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad30 Jul 2029
Words at Pineto training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tommaso D'Orazio 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.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Pineto know it.
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
123 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Pineto lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Position 15 and 25 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Pineto they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Everything agreed with Cremonese, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
$56.0K on the table at Pro Vercelli. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The offer went to Fiorentina this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
The offer went to Ascoli this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
137 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Pineto lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Pineto know it.
Pineto have gone to Pro Vercelli with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Pineto offered $150.0K; Avellino said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
144 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Pineto lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Pineto can pretend not to have heard.
The phone has started ringing about Andrea Buonaccorsi again, and this time the name on the line is Pianese. Pineto are listening politely and promising nothing.
Pineto asked and Inter said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pineto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 Jun 2029
Words at Pineto training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maximilian Ljung 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 bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
151 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Pineto lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Position 15 and 25 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Pineto is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Pineto have gone to Pro Vercelli with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Catania have kept their man, and Pineto go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Pineto can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
“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 Pineto, and it is not being withdrawn.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Christ Achi Ange has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Pineto have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
This is not rotation. Matvey Lastochkin has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Pineto is pretending otherwise.
Squad4 Jun 2029
Words at Pineto training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maximilian Ljung 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.
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 132 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Pineto have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Pineto can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tommaso D'Orazio was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pineto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Manuel Nardozi signs something — a contract at Pineto or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Pineto will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Pineto they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“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 Pineto, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Erick Gabriel has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 38 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Pineto is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Maximilian Ljung was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Pineto will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Pineto can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Pineto can pretend not to have heard.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Matteo Borsoi and Pineto agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad7 May 2029
Words at Pineto training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tommaso D'Orazio 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Erick Gabriel trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“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 Pineto, and it is not being withdrawn.
“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; Pineto are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 39 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
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.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
25 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Squad23 Apr 2029
Words at Pineto training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maximilian Ljung 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.
Andrea Ceccarelli 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.
3 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Pineto could ask drops and the wages Erick Gabriel can ask rise.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Manuel Nardozi signs something — a contract at Pineto or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Pineto, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
“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 Apr 2029
Words at Pineto training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tommaso D'Orazio 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.
Petros Alekyan 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.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 36 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Pineto is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Successful dribbles: 18. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Giulio Salvatore after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Pineto can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Pineto have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Petros Alekyan 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 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.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Position 15 and 23 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Two goals and a mark of 9.07 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
It had gone 12 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.
Player ratings26 Mar 2029
Denny Tassotti, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.30
A mark of 8.30 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tommaso D'Orazio was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pineto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
12 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Pineto can pretend not to have heard.
This is not rotation. Tommaso D'Orazio has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Pineto is pretending otherwise.
Squad19 Mar 2029
Words at Pineto training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tommaso D'Orazio 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.
“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.
The dugout19 Mar 2029
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Giulio Salvatore was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Pineto dressing room was either.
“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 Pineto, and it is not being withdrawn.
Two goals and a mark of 8.10 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
6 goals in one match, Erick Gabriel on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Pineto and Pianese.
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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 2‑4, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Giulio Salvatore has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
“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 Pineto, and it is not being withdrawn.
This is not rotation. Andrea Buonaccorsi has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Pineto is pretending otherwise.
Squad5 Mar 2029
Words at Pineto training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tommaso D'Orazio 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Pineto can tell you which week it ends in.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Pineto 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 Pineto can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tommaso D'Orazio was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.