The deal with Livorno is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Avellino keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
$240.0K on the table at Monza. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
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.
They have worked together before and it did not end well. Nobody at Guidonia Montecelio expects the new manager to have forgotten, least of all Marco Rossello.
Position 15 and 22 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Guidonia Montecelio, and it is not being withdrawn.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Guidonia Montecelio have done the hard part with Avellino, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Valber Júnior 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. Cesena have kept their man, and Guidonia Montecelio go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrea Tessiore 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 36 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 Guidonia Montecelio, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Guidonia Montecelio can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Guidonia Montecelio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrea Tessiore was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Marco Rossello.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrea Tessiore was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Jeen Haanstra 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 have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Guidonia Montecelio will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
The offer from SJK for Robinho 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Guidonia Montecelio have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Nobody at Guidonia Montecelio will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrea Tessiore was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Luigi D'Amico after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
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 Andrea Tessiore is on it.
“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 Guidonia Montecelio know 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 Guidonia Montecelio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Guidonia Montecelio pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
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.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Jeen Haanstra 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Guidonia Montecelio, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Guidonia Montecelio will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
10 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Guidonia Montecelio has to find a result from somewhere.
Successful dribbles: 24. 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 chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Forli have kept their man, and Guidonia Montecelio go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout25 Jan 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 Luigi D'Amico to a room that had heard them before.
Guidonia Montecelio have made the call to Avellino. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
9 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Guidonia Montecelio has to find a result from somewhere.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Guidonia Montecelio, and it is not being withdrawn.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Both clubs in the mire, one fixture between them, and a ground that will be louder and more frightened than at any point in the season. Guidonia Montecelio know what is at stake and so does everybody in the away end.
In brief
SquadAndrea Tessiore falls out with a teammate over standards
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 5 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Guidonia Montecelio can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 21 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.
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Guidonia Montecelio has to find a result from somewhere.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
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.” Luigi D'Amico chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Guidonia Montecelio, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nobody at Guidonia Montecelio will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Pescara defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
“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; Guidonia Montecelio are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Guidonia Montecelio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Successful dribbles: 16. 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.
8 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Squad5 Oct 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Benit Borasio
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Benit Borasio has come out of that comparison in the side, and Guidonia Montecelio have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
A 1‑1 draw with Torres leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
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.” Luigi D'Amico chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Luigi D'Amico after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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 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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Latina in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Marco Rossello has written the date down.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Pergolettese have kept their man, and Guidonia Montecelio 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.