Marked for Pietro Comuzzo
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match9 Oct 2027
Whatever happens, Fiorentina do not lose
12 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Market11 Oct 2027
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Moise Kean and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad11 Oct 2027
The medical room confirms 44 days on the sidelines for Nicolò Fagioli, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Market11 Oct 2027
“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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Words at Fiorentina training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tyrell Malacia 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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
International break empties Fiorentina
6 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.
Loan watch11 Oct 2027
“I did not go to Audace Cerignola to sit and watch. I want to come back to Fiorentina and fight for my place.” 3 appearances in 10 matches say the rest.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match4 Sep 2027
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
The dugout6 Sep 2027
Dodo: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Fiorentina have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings6 Sep 2027
Both of them Moise Kean's — 8.86
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.86, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Match4 Sep 2027
Nobody wants to play Fiorentina right now
6 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Window shuts: 14 in, 30 out at Fiorentina
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 14 arrived, 30 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Market6 Sep 2027
David Neres wants to know where this is going
“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 Fiorentina hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad6 Sep 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” David De Gea and Fiorentina agree another 2 years.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Moise Kean in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fiorentina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad6 Sep 2027
At 23 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Jul 2027
30 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Fiorentina lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market26 Jul 2027
“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.
Market26 Jul 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Giana Erminio waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Fiorentina is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Moise Kean 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.
Market26 Jul 2027
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Words at Fiorentina training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tyrell Malacia 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.
The dugout26 Jul 2027
“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.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Fiorentina are still strangers to each other
18 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.
Market26 Jul 2027
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Alessandro Schöpf has his answer from Fiorentina; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market22 Feb 2027
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Market22 Feb 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Torino is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Match20 Feb 2027
The wait goes on for Torino
4 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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Torino this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Rolando Mandragora 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.
Loan watch22 Feb 2027
22 appearances at Empoli and the goals keep coming. Torino are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
The manager makes an example of Pietro Comuzzo
“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.
Loan watch22 Feb 2027
26 appearances away from home and 13 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market25 Jan 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Torino people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
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.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
Marked 7.80 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Squad25 Jan 2027
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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words exchanged at Torino
Duván Zapata 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.
Market25 Jan 2027
The phone has started ringing about Alberto Paleari again, and this time the name on the line is Norwich City. Torino are listening politely and promising nothing.
The terraces25 Jan 2027
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Match23 Jan 2027
A 1‑0 win over Hellas Verona, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
Lucas Perri gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market11 Jan 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Audace Cerignola waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Torino is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Pietro Comuzzo, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.63
A mark of 7.63 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.
Market11 Jan 2027
“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 Torino, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market11 Jan 2027
Torino say no — this time
The offer from Dijon for Adrien Tamèze 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Torino this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Torino training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ricardo Rodríguez 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.
Match9 Jan 2027
A 1‑0 win over Atalanta, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad11 Jan 2027
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Torino can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.