Marked for Fellipe Jack
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad11 Aug 2036
Luca Ranieri breaks a bone — 61 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 61 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market11 Aug 2036
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around AC Milan people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market11 Aug 2036
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Torino had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Market11 Aug 2036
Dieguinho puts it in writing
“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 The request is on a desk at AC Milan, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market11 Aug 2036
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad11 Aug 2036
AC Milan are still strangers to each other
8 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.
The dugout11 Aug 2036
Joshua Nga Kana has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at AC Milan 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.
Squad11 Aug 2036
A season on the outside for Bogdan Popov
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at AC Milan has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Match11 Aug 2036
Continental football is in reach for AC Milan
84 points from position 4. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad28 Jul 2036
Luca Ranieri breaks a bone — 77 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 77 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market28 Jul 2036
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at AC Milan is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market28 Jul 2036
“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.
Market28 Jul 2036
AC Milan say no — this time
The offer from Torino for Fellipe Jack 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.
Squad28 Jul 2036
Bogdan Popov arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Bogdan Popov has, at AC Milan, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad28 Jul 2036
A falling-out at AC Milan
Reece James and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market28 Jul 2036
The name of Scott McTominay has come up in conversations AC Milan were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Transfer targets28 Jul 2036
AC Milan 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.
Squad28 Jul 2036
“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 AC Milan know it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market28 Jul 2036
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Livorno waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Catania is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market28 Jul 2036
“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 Catania, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets28 Jul 2036
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.
Squad28 Jul 2036
Words at Catania training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Joao Cunha 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.
Squad28 Jul 2036
Words exchanged at Catania
Laurence Giani 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.
Squad28 Jul 2036
The medical room confirms 33 days on the sidelines for Gianluca De Carli, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Transfer targets28 Jul 2036
Catania have made the call to Fiorentina. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets28 Jul 2036
A loan enquiry to Pescara: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Boardroom28 Jul 2036
Catania bank $850.0K from an old deal
The unglamorous genius of a well-written contract. Fellipe Jack is somebody else's player now, and $850.0K has arrived because the people who sold him thought further ahead than the transfer window.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad21 Jul 2036
85 days out for Luca Ranieri after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. AC Milan will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market21 Jul 2036
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. AC Milan have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market21 Jul 2036
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Ascoli had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Market21 Jul 2036
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Transfer targets21 Jul 2036
Juventus wanted more than $690.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Market21 Jul 2036
The phone has started ringing about Fellipe Jack again, and this time the name on the line is Torino. AC Milan are listening politely and promising nothing.
Transfer targets21 Jul 2036
AC Milan asked and Lazio said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Transfer targets21 Jul 2036
A loan move for Bogdan Popov is in the works
AC Milan have made the call to Napoli. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout21 Jul 2036
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market16 Jun 2036
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market16 Jun 2036
Dieguinho hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AC Milan can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom16 Jun 2036
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Paolo Bianco 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.
Squad16 Jun 2036
Giacomo De Pieri 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.
Transfer targets16 Jun 2036
AC Milan 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.
Squad16 Jun 2036
6 AC Milan players away with their countries
The training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 6 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
Squad16 Jun 2036
Juan David Cabal 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.
Squad16 Jun 2036
“The easiest signature of my career.” Filippo Locatelli and AC Milan agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout16 Jun 2036
Marc Bernal has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at AC Milan 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market14 Apr 2036
Only the photograph left for Stefano Turati
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Stefano Turati will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around AC Milan the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Player ratings14 Apr 2036
Successful dribbles: 23. 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.
Squad14 Apr 2036
11 goals and a season average of 7.26. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Match12 Apr 2036
Genoa left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad14 Apr 2036
200 times in these colours, in all weathers and under four or five different managers. That kind of service is quietly disappearing from the game.
Boardroom14 Apr 2036
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout14 Apr 2036
Oscar Gloukh has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at AC Milan 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.
The dugout14 Apr 2036
“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.
The dugout14 Apr 2036
Fellipe Jack 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
Upbeat
Match24 Nov 2035
The run at home goes on for AC Milan
13 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Match24 Nov 2035
AC Milan cannot stop winning
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Match24 Nov 2035
Three points for AC Milan, 1‑0 the final word against Juventus in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings26 Nov 2035
Marc Bernal ran the middle of the pitch — 7.48
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 10 combined actions and a mark of 7.48, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Looking ahead26 Nov 2035
The neighbours are next for AC Milan
Nothing about the week ahead is ordinary. Inter on Saturday, a town that has already started talking about it, and a dressing room that does not need telling what it means.
Player ratings26 Nov 2035
Successful dribbles: 16. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Player ratings26 Nov 2035
A mark of 7.99, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout26 Nov 2035
The manager makes an example of Fellipe Jack
“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 dugout26 Nov 2035
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Silvio Longo kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout19 Nov 2035
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” AC Milan may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
The dugout19 Nov 2035
“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.
The dugout19 Nov 2035
Nico Williams gets picked when it counts
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 Nico Williams is on it.
Boardroom19 Nov 2035
AC Milan counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at AC Milan now.
Market19 Nov 2035
The name of Eli Junior Kroupi keeps appearing in other people's back pages. AC Milan say nothing, which says plenty.
Market19 Nov 2035
2 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs AC Milan money.
Looking ahead19 Nov 2035
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.
The dugout19 Nov 2035
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at AC Milan. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Market19 Nov 2035
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Luca Ranieri may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match15 Sep 2035
4‑0, and Eli Junior Kroupi took the headlines on an afternoon when everything AC Milan tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings17 Sep 2035
Two goals and a mark of 9.00 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings17 Sep 2035
Age has not caught Nico Williams yet — 8.50
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.50 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market17 Sep 2035
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around AC Milan they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Match15 Sep 2035
AC Milan cannot stop winning
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Boardroom17 Sep 2035
Belts tighten at AC Milan
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
Squad17 Sep 2035
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AC Milan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match15 Sep 2035
The run at home goes on for AC Milan
8 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Squad17 Sep 2035
Appearance number 200 for Dieguinho
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.
In brief
-
The dugout
Eli Junior Kroupi has become a man the manager trusts
-
The dugout
Fellipe Jack gets it from the manager
-
The dugout
The view from the dugout
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market23 Jul 2035
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. AC Milan have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market23 Jul 2035
Juventus paid $14.2M and AC Milan took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Market23 Jul 2035
The chase for Fellipe Jack ended with $6.9M changing hands and Catania out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Market23 Jul 2035
“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 AC Milan, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad23 Jul 2035
Nicolò Bertola gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Nicolò Bertola has just signed for AC Milan, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad23 Jul 2035
Reece James 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 AC Milan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Jul 2035
A row about effort at AC Milan
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Joshua Nga Kana was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad23 Jul 2035
No place for Nicolò Bertola in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation AC Milan are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The dugout23 Jul 2035
Eli Junior Kroupi has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at AC Milan 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market23 Jul 2035
$6.9M is a serious amount of money and it does not play centre-forward. Everybody in the dressing room knows who used to be looked at when it went wrong.
The terraces23 Jul 2035
Supporters turn on the $6.9M sale of Fellipe Jack
He is going to AC Milan, the club has $6.9M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Market23 Jul 2035
“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 Catania, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market23 Jul 2035
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Catania is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad23 Jul 2035
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Catania this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets23 Jul 2035
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.
Market23 Jul 2035
The name of Davide Del Rio has come up in conversations Catania were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad23 Jul 2035
Words at Catania training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giorgos Papadopoulos 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 targets23 Jul 2035
A loan move for Gianni Peirano is in the works
Catania have made the call to Torino. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market16 Jul 2035
Business between these two is never simply business. AC Milan wanted Christian Comotto, Inter did not want to sell to them of all clubs, and the signature at the end of it says who won that argument.
Market16 Jul 2035
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Transfer targets16 Jul 2035
The clubs have shaken hands with Napoli; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Market16 Jul 2035
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around AC Milan people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Transfer targets16 Jul 2035
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.
Transfer targets16 Jul 2035
AC Milan have gone to Catania 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.
Market16 Jul 2035
Dieguinho hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AC Milan can pretend not to have heard.
Squad16 Jul 2035
A move Christian Comotto 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. Christian Comotto is living that version at AC Milan, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad16 Jul 2035
Words at AC Milan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Iván Figueroa 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market16 Jul 2035
The phone has started ringing about Fellipe Jack again, and this time the name on the line is AC Milan. Catania are listening politely and promising nothing.
Market16 Jul 2035
“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 Catania, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market16 Jul 2035
Davide Del Rio has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Catania they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Transfer targets16 Jul 2035
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Catania have done the hard part with Lazio, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad16 Jul 2035
A falling-out at Catania
Matheos Ferreira and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets16 Jul 2035
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Pescara have kept their man, and Catania go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad16 Jul 2035
Giorgos Papadopoulos 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.
Transfer targets16 Jul 2035
A loan enquiry to Virtus Entella: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout16 Jul 2035
The manager makes an example of Davide Del Rio
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market2 Jul 2035
Fellipe Jack hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Catania can pretend not to have heard.
Market2 Jul 2035
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Catania people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Transfer targets2 Jul 2035
Catania and Carrarese have settled on $360.0K. 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.
The dugout2 Jul 2035
“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.
Squad2 Jul 2035
Mauro Galli arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Mauro Galli has, at Catania, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Transfer targets2 Jul 2035
Catania asked and Lazio 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 dugout2 Jul 2035
This is not rotation. Lukas Legaard has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Catania is pretending otherwise.
Squad2 Jul 2035
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Catania this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 Jul 2035
Giorgos Papadopoulos 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad18 Jun 2035
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Catania had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Squad18 Jun 2035
Words exchanged at Catania
Enzo Tostivint 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.
Squad18 Jun 2035
The one award nobody else on the pitch can win goes to Gianluca Mazzi, on 21 clean sheets across the season. Keepers wait a career for a season like it.
Transfer targets18 Jun 2035
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.
Market18 Jun 2035
The name of Davide Del Rio has come up in conversations Catania were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad18 Jun 2035
Words at Catania training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rayane Boutlane 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 targets18 Jun 2035
Lazio have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
The dugout18 Jun 2035
The manager makes an example of Renato Zenoni
“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.
Market18 Jun 2035
The Fellipe Jack talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Catania know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market4 Jun 2035
“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 Catania, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad4 Jun 2035
7 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
The dugout4 Jun 2035
Federico Diaz: 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.” Catania have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad4 Jun 2035
Matheos Ferreira 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.
Transfer targets4 Jun 2035
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Napoli have kept their man, and Catania go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout4 Jun 2035
The team sheet said everything about Enzo Tostivint
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Enzo Tostivint.
Market4 Jun 2035
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Squad4 Jun 2035
Words at Catania training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giorgos Papadopoulos 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 targets4 Jun 2035
Frosinone have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market7 May 2035
“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.
The dugout7 May 2035
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Catania have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad7 May 2035
Vyacheslav Bardybakhin 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.
Match5 May 2035
It finished 1‑0, and it was Kaleb Jimenez’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Catania.
Player ratings7 May 2035
Ninety minutes of Kaleb Jimenez at his very best
Marked 8.19. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Catania.
Market7 May 2035
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Squad7 May 2035
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Catania can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad7 May 2035
A row about effort at Catania
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oresti Rifa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout7 May 2035
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 1‑0, already talking about the next one.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The dugout30 Apr 2035
“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.
Market30 Apr 2035
Only the photograph left for Federico Diaz
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Federico Diaz will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Catania the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match28 Apr 2035
4 matches without a win for Catania
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Catania are no longer polite ones.
Squad30 Apr 2035
Enzo Tostivint 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.
Match28 Apr 2035
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout30 Apr 2035
“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.
Squad30 Apr 2035
Words at Catania training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giorgos Papadopoulos 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 dugout30 Apr 2035
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Boardroom30 Apr 2035
Wages swallow 88% of the Catania income
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market9 Apr 2035
Fellipe Jack hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Catania can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout9 Apr 2035
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Catania may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad9 Apr 2035
Matheos Ferreira 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.
Squad9 Apr 2035
“The easiest signature of my career.” Alessio D'Amico and Catania agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad9 Apr 2035
Giorgos Papadopoulos 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.
Player ratings9 Apr 2035
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.51 on the card, and the Catania support went home talking about one name.
The dugout9 Apr 2035
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The dugout9 Apr 2035
“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.
The dugout9 Apr 2035
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout2 Apr 2035
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Catania may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market2 Apr 2035
Fellipe Jack 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 Catania hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Market2 Apr 2035
Only the photograph left for Federico Diaz
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Federico Diaz will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Catania the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad2 Apr 2035
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Catania this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 Apr 2035
Giorgos Papadopoulos 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.
Boardroom2 Apr 2035
86% of the income goes out in wages at Catania
Every club in football 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 somebody has tried it.
Squad2 Apr 2035
A place in the month's best eleven for Fellipe Jack
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Fellipe Jack has come out of that comparison in the side, and Catania have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The dugout2 Apr 2035
Enzo Tostivint knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Catania, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad2 Apr 2035
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Filip Strømland Lien 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match26 Mar 2035
Catania are in among the leaders
Position 3 and 54 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Squad26 Mar 2035
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market26 Mar 2035
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Catania can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Match24 Mar 2035
Catania get the job done against Monza
A 2‑0 win over Monza, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings26 Mar 2035
A performance of 8.24 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings26 Mar 2035
Marked 7.28 on 10 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Squad26 Mar 2035
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Catania this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Mar 2035
Words at Catania training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oresti Rifa 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 Mar 2035
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Fabrizio Conti on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match26 Feb 2035
Catania up to position 3
47 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Market26 Feb 2035
Nigel Thomas has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Catania they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market26 Feb 2035
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Catania can pretend not to have heard.
Match24 Feb 2035
5 matches without a win for Catania
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Catania are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings26 Feb 2035
Up for the corner, and Fellipe Jack delivers — 7.72
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Fellipe Jack scored, was marked 7.72, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
The dugout26 Feb 2035
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Catania have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match24 Feb 2035
Still nobody has beaten Catania
The unbeaten run reaches 7. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Match24 Feb 2035
The run at home goes on for Catania
10 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Squad26 Feb 2035
A falling-out at Catania
Matheos Ferreira and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market12 Feb 2035
Matija Subotić has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Catania they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market12 Feb 2035
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Catania people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market12 Feb 2035
“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.
Player ratings12 Feb 2035
Up for the corner, and Matija Subotić delivers — 7.85
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Matija Subotić scored, was marked 7.85, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Transfer targets12 Feb 2035
Everything was agreed with Pescara and then the doctor spoke. Catania have walked away from a signing on the advice of somebody who never saw him play, which is how it is supposed to work.
Market12 Feb 2035
“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.
Transfer targets12 Feb 2035
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Cosenza have kept their man, and Catania go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad12 Feb 2035
Matheos Ferreira 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.
Transfer targets12 Feb 2035
The clock did what Spezia would not, and ended it. Supporters who watched the countdown will spend the next window doing it again.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market22 Jan 2035
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Catania is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Transfer targets22 Jan 2035
$1.2M was the most the club would pay and AS Roma 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.
Market22 Jan 2035
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Catania can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Market22 Jan 2035
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Federico Diaz reports back to Catania with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Squad22 Jan 2035
A falling-out at Catania
Enzo Tostivint and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets22 Jan 2035
Catania 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.
The terraces22 Jan 2035
He is 23 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.
Match20 Jan 2035
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Bernardo Machado. 1‑0 against Lecce, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Match22 Jan 2035
Halfway: Catania sit in position 3
42 points at the turn. The first half of a season is a promise; the second is a bill, and the town is about to find out which of the two this one was.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad25 Dec 2034
A fracture rules David Mindombe out for 18 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Catania will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market25 Dec 2034
Only the photograph left for Nigel Thomas
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nigel Thomas will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Catania the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Player ratings25 Dec 2034
At 33 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 7.83, and nobody on the pitch better.
The dugout25 Dec 2034
Donato Ianzano: 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.” Catania have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market25 Dec 2034
“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.
Match23 Dec 2034
Catania cannot stop winning
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Squad25 Dec 2034
A falling-out at Catania
Vyacheslav Bardybakhin and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match23 Dec 2034
A 1‑0 win over Pro Vercelli, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Market25 Dec 2034
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Catania, another week without a signature from Matija Subotić.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad27 Nov 2034
46 days out for David Mindombe after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Catania will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market27 Nov 2034
Only the photograph left for Nigel Thomas
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nigel Thomas will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Catania the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market27 Nov 2034
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.
Match25 Nov 2034
Catania cannot stop winning
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Squad27 Nov 2034
Simone Gazzola arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Simone Gazzola has, at Catania, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Match25 Nov 2034
Cosenza made Catania work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings27 Nov 2034
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.22, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad27 Nov 2034
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Squad27 Nov 2034
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Catania this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad6 Nov 2034
A fracture rules David Mindombe out for 67 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Catania will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match1 Nov 2034
Catania out of the cup
Cagliari ended it 1‑3. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Market6 Nov 2034
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Lucas Landgren Persson will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Catania the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market6 Nov 2034
“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.
Squad6 Nov 2034
Words exchanged at Catania
Vyacheslav Bardybakhin 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.
Match4 Nov 2034
It finished 2‑0, and it was Lucas Landgren Persson’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Catania.
Player ratings6 Nov 2034
Marked 8.04. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Catania.
Squad6 Nov 2034
100 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.
The dugout6 Nov 2034
The manager makes an example of Agustín Melean
“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.