Phil Harres and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad16 Oct 2028
Words at Holstein Kiel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Adrián Kaprálik 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.
5 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Phil Harres signs something — a contract at Holstein Kiel or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Magdeburg next, and one man in the Holstein Kiel dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Holstein Kiel would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
The offer from Mjällby for Leon-Oumar Wechsel 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.
Holstein Kiel asked and Hamburger SV said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Add another name to the list: Magdeburg have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Leon Parduzi. The answer from Holstein Kiel has not changed — yet.
Something was said to Phil Harres and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Holstein Kiel, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Holstein Kiel can tell you which week it ends in.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Holstein Kiel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jonas Therkelsen trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
$1.3M was the most the club would pay and Greuther Fürth were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows 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 Holstein Kiel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Adrián Kaprálik was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 95. VfL Bochum had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Genoa can pretend not to have heard.
Justin Bijlow 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.
Genoa asked and Napoli 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 is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Hugo Cuenca wants continental football; whether Genoa can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
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 Alex Amorim is on it.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Genoa told Franz-Ethan Meichtry something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Leo Østigård signs something — a contract at Genoa or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Genoa have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The offer from Inter for Mikael Egill Ellertsson 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.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Leo Østigård 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.
Genoa asked and Napoli 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 is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Genoa can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
“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 Genoa know it.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Lorenzo Colombo was one of the reasons people came, and $20.0M does not replace that by itself.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Genoa heard it as anything else.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Genoa they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Justin Bijlow 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.
Genoa asked and Benevento 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 manager has re-ordered his thinking and Agustín Fontana 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Genoa 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 Genoa can pretend not to have heard.
Justin Bijlow 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.
29 appearances and 4 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver 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 Genoa, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
Nobody at Genoa 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Giovanni Stellato was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
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 Alessandro Falleni is on it.
Leo Østigård 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Juventus.
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 Franz-Ethan Meichtry is on it.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Juventus in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Genoa that is a harder question to answer.
Position 15 and 21 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.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Guidonia Montecelio will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrea Tessiore was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
9 goals in 23 games at Novara — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Guidonia Montecelio updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Ignazio Corsini after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Guidonia Montecelio, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Successful dribbles: 13. 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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Vis Pesaro in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
In brief
Player ratingsThe chances came and went for Luciano Berg
Gaël Lafont, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.90
A mark of 7.90 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
“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 Guidonia Montecelio, and it is not being withdrawn.
Diogo Medeiros 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Gaël Lafont 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Gaël Lafont. 1‑0 against Forli, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrea Tessiore was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jarek Elías and Guidonia Montecelio agree another 4 years.
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.
5 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Guidonia Montecelio can tell you which week it ends in.
Guidonia Montecelio asked and AC Milan 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Giorgio De Marzi is in the works
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Gaël Lafont's mistake
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Genoa 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 Genoa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Genoa told Djibril Sow something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Mario Bianco after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Gaël Lafont did not need any: 7.74, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrea Tessiore was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Ignazio Corsini after 1‑4, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Luciano Berg trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
2 saves does not settle the argument about whose fault it was, and the argument will run all week. Goalkeepers carry these scorelines whoever caused them.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Davide Zappella, and the manager let it.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Ignazio Corsini was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Guidonia Montecelio dressing room was either.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Guidonia Montecelio, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Gaël Lafont is 20, and for one weekend he was the best of everybody his age in the division. Nobody should build a career on it and everybody quietly does.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Guidonia Montecelio will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
In brief
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Emerson Rubio
Position 16, 9 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Gaël Lafont, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.88
A mark of 7.88 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
One scored and one made, which is a different afternoon from scoring twice and an easier one to overlook. Marked 7.98, and involved in 2 of his side's goals.
He is 20 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrea Tessiore was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Simone Tascone and Guidonia Montecelio agree another 3 years.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Gaël Lafont is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.