The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Cesena people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cesena can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Juventus keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Matteo Francesconi 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.
Squad25 Jun 2029
Words at Cesena training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gianluca Frabotta 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Osasuna have kept their man, and Cesena go back to a list with one name crossed off 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 Cesena can pretend not to have heard.
Cesena and Giana Erminio have settled on $230.0K. 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.
Cesena have gone to Giugliano 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Renate have kept their man, and Cesena go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gianluca Frabotta was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Misael Aguirre 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.
Add another name to the list: Sanjoanense have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Rafael Melo. The answer from Cesena has not changed — yet.
Tommaso Berti 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 Matteo Francesconi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
8 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.
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.
A new manager did not pick last season’s side and does not care what it looked like. Mauro Arambarri has taken that personally, in the best sense, and Cesena are seeing a version of him the last regime had stopped seeing.
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.
The dugout9 Apr 2029
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.” Interim Coach kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gianluca Frabotta was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every Cesena game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at De Graafschap runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.59 on the card, and the Cesena support went home talking about one name.
Squad19 Feb 2029
5 new faces, and Cesena are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout19 Feb 2029
The manager has not finished forgetting Giacomo Calò's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Cesena, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Everything agreed with Hellas Verona, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cesena this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The phone has started ringing about Alessandro Giovannini again, and this time the name on the line is Juve Stabia. Cesena are listening politely and promising nothing.
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.
Bari ended it 0‑1. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Player ratings18 Dec 2028
A brace, and Alberto Cerri takes the afternoon — 8.66
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Alberto Cerri provided it, and the 8.66 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cesena can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gianluca Frabotta was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Genoa held the lead for 2 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Cesena answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
Tommaso Berti 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.
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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Cesena, and 3 appearances in 15 say he has earned the hearing.
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout13 Nov 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 1‑3 Gianluca Bianco left the room before anybody could ask which.
Something was said to Alessandro Giovannini and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Emmen go through and De Graafschap go home, 1‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Luca Oyen and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Words at De Graafschap training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Iker Muñoz is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
5 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Fortuna Sittard were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
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.
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.
Michele Barbella 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.
“I watch every Cesena game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at De Graafschap runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Cesena, and both men came out saying it was fine.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Catanzaro in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Cesena know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” De Graafschap have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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 De Graafschap, and it is not being withdrawn.
Luca Oyen 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.
Squad2 Oct 2028
Iker Muñoz 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.
50 goals in these colours now, every one of them somebody’s memory. There is a supporter in the stand who can tell you where he was for most of them.
Player ratings2 Oct 2028
Levi Schoppema was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.13. 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cesena can pretend not to have heard.
Tommaso Berti 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.
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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Cesena, and 2 appearances in 7 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout18 Sep 2028
Somebody else is better right now than Daniel Fila
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.
The dugout18 Sep 2028
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.” Gianluca Bianco, on a 3‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
In brief
The dugoutAlberto Cerri knocks on the manager's door
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Kirayno Schaken reports back to De Graafschap with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Trevor Doornbusch has just signed for De Graafschap, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Words at De Graafschap training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Iker Muñoz 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.
Squad11 Sep 2028
13 new faces, and De Graafschap are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Utrecht next, and one man in the De Graafschap dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Tommaso Berti 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.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Words at Cesena training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matteo Francesconi 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Cesena 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 Cesena, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Training is not playing and everybody in the game knows it. Rafael Melo has gone out on loan to a club that wants him in the side rather than around it, and he will come back either a better player or an answered question.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Cesena will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Pergolettese had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cesena can pretend not to have heard.
Add another name to the list: Audace Cerignola have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Vittorio Magni. The answer from Cesena has not changed — yet.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Renate have kept their man, and Cesena go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Giulio Manetti 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ibrahim El Kadiri and De Graafschap agree another 3 years.
Ibrahim El Kadiri 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.
De Graafschap asked and Ajax 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 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.
“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; De Graafschap are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
De Graafschap have made the call to OH Leuven. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Cesena will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Cesena have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“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 Cesena, and it is not being withdrawn.
The fee is $1.5M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Torino drove a hard bargain; time will say who won 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.
Day 9 of the vacancy. Candidates have been priced, sounded out and quietly ruled out — and the caretaker’s win ratio is becoming an argument all by itself.
Cesena asked and Lecce said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Cesena are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
5 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.
7.96, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Torino heard it as anything else.
Daniele Montevago 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.
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Words at Torino training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yuri Rocchetti 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.
In brief
Squad7 new faces, and Torino are still learning each other
The dugoutThe view from the dugout
MarketRafael Melo returns from a loan that gave him nothing
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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Fisayo Dele-Bashiru provided it, and the 8.35 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
A mark of 7.98 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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Torino heard it as anything else.
He is 20 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
108 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Torino lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
6 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Torino can pretend not to have heard.
The phone has started ringing about Ardian Ismajli again, and this time the name on the line is O'Higgins. Torino are listening politely and promising nothing.
Match18 Dec 2027
Another one collected away from home
4 on the bounce on the road for Torino. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Leonel Müller 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
Words at Arzignano training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Erald Lakti 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Dominik Mayer after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
Nobody at Arzignano is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
88 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Torino lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Torino can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
200 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 133 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Torino will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Two goals and a mark of 8.97 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Torino have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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 Torino, and 2 appearances in 14 say he has earned the hearing.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Carlo Grassi could afford to be generous.
The mood at Arzignano has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Erald Lakti 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 Arzignano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Nicola Nanni signs something — a contract at Arzignano or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Eros De Santis is on it.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Arzignano that is a harder question to answer.
66 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Torino lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 83 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 Torino, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Latina had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Torino can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
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 7.22, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
101 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Torino lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 Torino, and it is not being withdrawn.
The phone has started ringing about Cristiano Biraghi again, and this time the name on the line is Lumezzane. Torino are listening politely and promising nothing.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Sandro Agostini has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.