Marked for Alphadjo Cissé
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 35. 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.
Market14 Sep 2026
“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.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: River Plate keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Triestina training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alessandro Faggioli 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.
Match12 Sep 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Eetu Vertainen. 2‑1 against Pro Vercelli, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Matteo Anzolin
“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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
7.95, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Triestina had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Francesco Bartoli on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market7 Sep 2026
“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 The request is on a desk at Triestina, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 18 in, 0 out at Triestina
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 18 arrived, 0 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Everything agreed with River Plate, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Triestina training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alessandro Faggioli 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.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Triestina asked and Cremonese said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad7 Sep 2026
10 new faces, and Triestina are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and Triestina will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Hudson Davis is no longer first choice
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Hudson Davis 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.
Looking ahead7 Sep 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Pro Vercelli in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Espanyol have done the hard part with River Plate, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Market31 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market31 Aug 2026
“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.
Market31 Aug 2026
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Espanyol people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Espanyol
Orkun Kökçü and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market31 Aug 2026
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Matías Vargas wants continental football; whether Espanyol can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Too much change too quickly at Espanyol
12 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.87 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market31 Aug 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Triestina can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Triestina asked and Sampdoria said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
“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.
Match29 Aug 2026
A point taken on 86 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. 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.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Idriz Voca's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Match29 Aug 2026
It needed Eetu Vertainen to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against Trento, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to River Plate: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Fee done, terms next for Orkun Kökçü
Espanyol and Besiktas have settled on $28.3M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Market17 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Alavés have kept their man, and Espanyol go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $35.0M — a club that wants Antony enough to be asked twice.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
The deal with Elche 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A move Alphadjo Cissé would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Alphadjo Cissé is living that version at Espanyol, and it tends to show in the first month.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
Graduation day at Espanyol
2 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Squad17 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Espanyol this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market17 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Leo Méndez has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.