$680.0K was the most the club would pay and Atalanta 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.
Sampdoria asked and Hellas Verona 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 offer from Fiorentina for Gennaro Tutino 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.
“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 The request is on a desk at Sampdoria, and it is not being withdrawn.
Carlo Evangelista 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 Mattia Viti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Add another name to the list: Pescara have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Gaëtan Coucke. The answer from Sampdoria has not changed — yet.
Venezia left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout5 Jun 2028
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Riccardo Battaglia left the room before anybody could ask which.
Something was said to Bruno Medina and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.20, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Stade Lavallois this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Stade Lavallois has been clear about where Denzel stands, which is more than many ever get.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Stade Lavallois, and 3 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Stade Lavallois, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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 Alpha Diallo is on it.
Carlo Evangelista 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.
Squad8 May 2028
Mattia Viti 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.
At 37, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
The dugout8 May 2028
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Riccardo Battaglia left the room before anybody could ask which.
Nobody at Sampdoria 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.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Stade Lavallois are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Thibaut Vargas 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mamadou Samassa and Stade Lavallois agree another 2 years.
Squad8 May 2028
Ethan Mbappé is the division's best young player this month
At 21 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Stade Lavallois will try very hard not to make too much of it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Denzel trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Sidi Bane is on it.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Stade Lavallois. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Carlo Evangelista 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Stefan Gartenmann was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout1 May 2028
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Riccardo Battaglia left the room before anybody could ask which.
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 Carlo Evangelista is on 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 Stade Lavallois this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
9 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.
Nobody at Stade Lavallois 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.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Stade Lavallois, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Sampdoria heard it as anything else.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Mattia Viti 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.
Nikola Sekulov 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.
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 Carlo Evangelista is on it.
The dugout3 Apr 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Riccardo Battaglia was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Sampdoria 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 Sampdoria, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Stade Lavallois can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Stade Lavallois have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
At 37, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pape Niama Sissoko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
12 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
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 Mamadou Samassa is on it.
ESTAC Troyes next, and one man in the Stade Lavallois dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Lorenzo Insigne provided it, and the 8.32 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sampdoria they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sampdoria this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 ratings20 Mar 2028
Mattia Viti was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.08. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Sampdoria has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Words at Sampdoria training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mattia Viti 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.
Nikola Sekulov 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Riccardo Battaglia after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Nobody at Sampdoria 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.
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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Bjorn Meijer and Sampdoria agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Words at Sampdoria training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mattia Viti 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.
“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.
The dugout6 Mar 2028
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Riccardo Battaglia left the room before anybody could ask which.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Sampdoria told Bruno Medina something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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.
A mark of 7.86 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.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Mattia Viti 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Carlo Evangelista 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.
Add another name to the list: Cosenza have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Samuele Massolo. The answer from Sampdoria has not changed — yet.
Nikola Sekulov 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Sampdoria told Alessandro Di Pardo something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
That is the business done at Sampdoria until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Bruno Medina 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 Stefan Gartenmann was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad7 Feb 2028
A place in the month's best eleven for Bjorn Meijer
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Bjorn Meijer has come out of that comparison in the side, and Sampdoria have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mattia Viti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 17. 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.
Something was said to Lorenzo Insigne and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Riccardo Battaglia after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“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 Sampdoria, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Words at Sampdoria training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mattia Viti 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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Nobody at Sampdoria 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.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
“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 Sampdoria, and it is not being withdrawn.
“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 Sampdoria hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mattia Viti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Sampdoria has been clear about where Fabio Depaoli stands, which is more than many ever get.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Carlo Evangelista is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Carlo Evangelista and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Mattia Viti 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.
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
A goalkeeper’s error has no defender behind it to tidy it away. He knew before the ball crossed the line, the crowd knew a second later, and there is nothing anybody can say tonight.
The dugout13 Dec 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Riccardo Battaglia to a room that had heard them before.
“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.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Words at Sampdoria training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mattia Viti 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.
Fabio Depaoli 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.
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.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 36 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Sampdoria is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Sampdoria has been clear about where Alessandro Di Pardo stands, which is more than many ever get.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Sampdoria told Alessandro Di Pardo something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Sampdoria can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mattia Viti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Sampdoria are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“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.
Every long career reaches the week the last one is thought about. He would like it to be where he started, and Sampdoria know now that the thought has arrived.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Manuel Cicconi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
Gabriele Baldi 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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Nobody at Sampdoria 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Sampdoria know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Parma next, and one man in the Sampdoria 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 city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Sampdoria would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
In brief
The dugoutMatteo Piazza knocks on the manager's door
Ewen Jaouen 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 had been thinking. Alpha Diallo 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.
Something was said to Stéphane Sparagna and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Rodez AF in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
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.
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.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Stade Lavallois would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sampdoria can pretend not to have heard.
A mark of 7.75 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.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Mattia Viti 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.
Nikola Sekulov 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Carlo Evangelista 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.
0‑4 to Pisa, 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sampdoria this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Sampdoria told Salvatore Esposito something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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 Arezzo.
Beaten 4 times, 1 saves, and an afternoon that will go on his record whether it was his fault or the defence’s. It is the quiet unfairness of the position.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mattia Viti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sampdoria this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 9 combined actions and a mark of 7.16, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
It needed Carlo Evangelista to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Südtirol, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Riccardo Battaglia chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
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 Stefan Gartenmann is on 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 Sampdoria can pretend not to have heard.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Words at Sampdoria training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mattia Viti 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.
Fabio Depaoli 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.
7 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
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 Carlo Evangelista is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Stefano Girelli trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Stade Lavallois this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I watch every Stade Lavallois game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Sampdoria runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alpha Diallo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Ethan Clavreul is on it.
Dijon next, and one man in the Stade Lavallois dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ethan Clavreul trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
His past walked in ahead of him. Players who have been where he has been get a hearing in a dressing room before they have earned one, and he has it for as long as his form does.
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
1 on the scoresheet on his first appearance and a mark of 7.88 beside it. Most debuts are got through; this one was enjoyed, by him and by everybody watching it.
Two goals and a mark of 9.16 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
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.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Mattia Viti 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Sampdoria will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Torres moved on, Samuele Massolo reports back to Sampdoria, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Sampdoria can tell you which week it ends in.
Bruno Medina 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.
Sampdoria 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.
Juve Stabia left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout13 Sep 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Riccardo Battaglia to a room that had heard them before.
The words a physio says slowly. 37 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Stade Lavallois have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Stade Lavallois is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at FC Lorient is saying, and nobody at Stade Lavallois is enjoying the guessing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Stade Lavallois this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Stade Lavallois asked and Olympique Lyonnais 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 words a physio says slowly. 82 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Thibaut Vargas 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.
Stade Lavallois asked and RC Strasbourg said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jules Gaudin 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Stade Lavallois has been clear about where Trévis Dago stands, which is more than many ever get.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Stade Lavallois know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Stade Lavallois, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Sampdoria will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The phone has started ringing about Oliver Abildgaard again, and this time the name on the line is Carpi. Sampdoria are listening politely and promising nothing.
Sampdoria had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Angers SCO, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
110 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Stade Lavallois lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Stade Lavallois this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Stade Lavallois, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Stade Lavallois know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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 Sidi Bane is on it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Sampdoria will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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 Sampdoria, and it is not being withdrawn.
Sampdoria had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Godoy Cruz, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Sampdoria asked and Potenza said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fabio Depaoli was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Stade Lavallois 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 words a physio says slowly. 28 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“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 Stade Lavallois, and it is not being withdrawn.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. William Bianda was one of the reasons people came, and $1.6M does not replace that by itself.
The phone has started ringing about Carlo Evangelista again, and this time the name on the line is Sampdoria. Stade Lavallois are listening politely and promising nothing.
Thibaut Vargas 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 had been thinking. Dylan Mbayo 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 words a physio says slowly. 28 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. William Bianda will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Stade Lavallois the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Thibaut Vargas 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Sam Sanna trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
Kévin Malcuit is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
The words a physio says slowly. 35 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
2 behind and going nowhere, until Thibaut Vargas decided otherwise. Le Mans FC had done the hard part and then watched it come apart, and the noise at the final whistle was the sort a ground keeps.
1 for Thibaut Vargas, marked 7.34, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Stade Lavallois is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Antoine Mendy 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.
Le Mans FC made Stade Lavallois work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑2 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Dylan Mbayo 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.
At 20 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jules Gaudin will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Stade Lavallois the goodbyes have quietly begun.
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
At 20 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Antoine Mendy 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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Dylan Mbayo 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 happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 36 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
“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 dugout5 Apr 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Arnaud Laurent left the room before anybody could ask which.
In brief
The dugoutMamadou Samassa has become a man the manager trusts
22 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Stade Lavallois lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Stade Lavallois they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Stade Lavallois told Antoine Mendy something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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 William Bianda is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Yohan Tavares trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
They sit in position 8 and they will be waiting. Away form is where a season shows its true character, and this side has a point to make about its own.
Two goals and a mark of 8.92 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Successful dribbles: 26. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Stade Lavallois is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Antoine Mendy 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 now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Bournemouth have kept their man, and Stade Lavallois go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Stade Lavallois are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Arnaud Laurent on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Stade Lavallois is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Carlo Evangelista is living that version at Stade Lavallois, and it tends to show in the first month.
Antoine Mendy 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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Dylan Mbayo 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.
8 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The words a physio says slowly. 32 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Franco Mastantuono did not need any: 8.29, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Fiorentina can pretend not to have heard.
David De Gea 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Carlo Evangelista is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Level with 95 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Fiorentina had all but put away. Sassuolo will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 2‑2, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 88th, and Lazio spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
1 for Nicolò Fagioli, marked 7.96, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Álex Jiménez 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.
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.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Luca Ranieri has his answer from Fiorentina; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 31 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Two goals and a mark of 8.44 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Tasos Douvikas 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Carlo Evangelista is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
“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 Fiorentina know it.
Lazio have accepted the money. What Fiorentina do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
“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 Fiorentina, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
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.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $19.4M has been paid because Tasos Douvikas is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
Como did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $15.0M for Álex Valle, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
The most awkward business a club does is signing tomorrow's answer while today's is still in the building. Tom Cannon comes from Sheffield United for exactly that purpose, and the handover will not be discussed publicly by anybody.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Tasos Douvikas has just signed for Fiorentina, and for once the answer mattered.
David De Gea 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Fiorentina are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Fiorentina training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Carlo Evangelista 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Christ Inao Oulaï signs something — a contract at Fiorentina or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.