Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Matteo Scanzi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Empoli the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Empoli can pretend not to have heard.
3 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.
Lloyd Kelly 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.
Squad12 May 2031
Words at Empoli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Youri Chadli 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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Empoli is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Empoli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 May 2031
Words at Empoli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lloyd Kelly 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 8.08 — 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.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Jesse Joronen 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.
0‑4 to Como, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Empoli is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“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 The request is on a desk at Empoli, and it is not being withdrawn.
Riccardo Sottil 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 thought about how hard another man trains, and Lloyd Kelly was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Interim Coach after 0‑4, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
In brief
Squad5 new faces, and Empoli are still learning each other
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Empoli is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Riccardo Sottil 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.
Squad17 Mar 2031
Words at Empoli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lloyd Kelly 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 8.06 — 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Interim Coach after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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 Marco Curto is on it.
Two goals and a mark of 9.56 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.38 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Matteo Scanzi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Empoli the goodbyes have quietly begun.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Matteo Scanzi 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.
Riccardo Sottil 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.
6 goals in one match, Tomáš Bobček on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Empoli and Carrarese.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Youri Chadli was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 28. 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Empoli have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Luciano Ango will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Empoli the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Riccardo Sottil 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.
14 goals and a season average of 7.31. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad23 Dec 2030
Lloyd Kelly 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.
It finished 2‑0, and it was Tomáš Bobček’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Empoli.
The dugout23 Dec 2030
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Interim Coach, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Empoli they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Riccardo Sottil and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad11 Nov 2030
Lloyd Kelly 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.
Marked 8.15 — 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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Interim Coach could afford to be generous.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Matteo Scanzi
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Paolo Rrapaj will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Empoli the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Lloyd Kelly 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.
Squad21 Oct 2030
Words at Empoli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Youri Chadli 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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Matteo Scanzi has his answer from Empoli; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Successful dribbles: 14. 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.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alberto Cerri will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Empoli the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, and a scan that said otherwise. He goes back to Vicenza; Empoli go back to the market; and both will insist there is no story here.
Lloyd Kelly 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 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 Youri Chadli was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 24 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Alberto Cerri trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Empoli told Matteo Scanzi something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Successful dribbles: 54. 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.
Filippo Costa 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 thought about how hard another man trains, and Matteo Scanzi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Stefanos Mouktaris and Lumezzane agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
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.
Nobody at Lumezzane 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.
Pergolettese will want this one forgotten quickly: 5‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Lumezzane were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lumezzane can pretend not to have heard.
Two goals and a mark of 8.52 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lumezzane this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Nov 2029
Words at Lumezzane training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrea Boffelli 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Thiago Verardi
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Mirko Loreti did not need any: 7.74, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Giacomo Gabbiani. 1‑0 against Dolomiti Bellunesi, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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 Lumezzane.
Squad12 Nov 2029
Words at Lumezzane training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matteo Scanzi 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.
26 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Lumezzane lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 10 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped 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 Lumezzane this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Cittadella left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad22 Oct 2029
Matteo Scanzi 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.
“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.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Lumezzane will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
“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 Lumezzane, and it is not being withdrawn.
Two goals and a mark of 8.55 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Filippo Costa 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Alessandro Ghillani. 2‑1 against Trento, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Thiago Verardi, and the manager let it.
Squad1 Oct 2029
Words at Lumezzane training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matteo Scanzi 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Lumezzane will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings17 Sep 2029
Mirko Loreti, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.43
A mark of 8.43 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.
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.
Filippo Costa and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad17 Sep 2029
Words at Lumezzane training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrea Boffelli 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Alessandro Ghillani. 2‑0 against Alcione Milano, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Luciano Parisi could afford to be generous.
In brief
The dugoutPietro Moretti dropped after a run of poor form
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Mirko Loreti did not need any: 7.77, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Filippo Costa 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Cittadella have kept their man, and Lumezzane go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.38, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad10 Sep 2029
Matteo Scanzi 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.
In brief
Player ratingsAlessandro Ghillani was on a different afternoon to everybody else
A season average of 7.19 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Lumezzane know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Filippo Costa 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.
Juve Stabia paid $660.0K and Lumezzane took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad13 Aug 2029
Marco Moscati has improved at 36, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Sassuolo will make the call about Michele Rocca this week. Lumezzane have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Squad13 Aug 2029
Words at Lumezzane training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matteo Scanzi 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.
San Martín SJ 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 clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Lumezzane people have started saying his name 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 Lumezzane, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lumezzane 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.
Squad30 Jul 2029
Matteo Scanzi 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lumezzane can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Lumezzane they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
Squad16 Jul 2029
At 20, Mirko Loreti is already the best thing here
An average of 7.19 in a first team he is several years too young for. Lumezzane have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
Filippo Costa 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.
At 27 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Lumezzane, and both men came out saying it was fine.
In brief
The dugoutMatteo Scanzi has become a man the manager trusts
“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 Lumezzane, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Lumezzane is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
He is 20, he is averaging 7.19, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Filippo Costa 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Frosinone have kept their man, and Lumezzane go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.