Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Adam Ouaziz did not need any: 7.84, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Words at Groningen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stije Resink is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Marked 9.32 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Groningen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Groningen have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Federico Ragnoli Galli is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Groningen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Thom van Bergen will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Groningen the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Adam Ouaziz did not need any: 7.83, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Groningen have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Travis Hernes is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Taylor Booth wants continental football; whether Groningen can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Taylor Booth 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 hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Adam Ouaziz did not need any: 8.10, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Etienne Vaessen 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.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Words at Groningen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stije Resink 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.
Boardroom14 Aug 2028
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Groningen
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Mark Engel 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.
“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 Groningen, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Twente for Thom van Bergen 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.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Groningen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Words at Groningen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tyrique Mercera 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Travis Hernes is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Stije Resink 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.
At 24 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Nobody sells a season ticket on a signing like this. Every manager who has been through a bad October wants one anyway, and Groningen have gone and got theirs early.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Oscar Gloukh 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. Emre Ünüvar is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad3 Jul 2028
José Paradela falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The name of Abdellah Ouazane has come up in conversations Ajax were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
At 29 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Ajax they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“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 Ajax know it.
In brief
SquadOscar Gloukh falls out with a teammate over standards
This is the season the town will measure the next twenty against. The trophy travels home with the squad, and the route through the streets was agreed days ago.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Ajax will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Oscar Gloukh 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.
Squad22 May 2028
José Paradela 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.
12 goals in 36 games at Derby County — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Ajax updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“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 Ajax know it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Ajax know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pescara this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 May 2028
Words at Pescara training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Davide Faraoni 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.
An average of 7.03 in a first team he is several years too young for. Pescara have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
Squad15 May 2028
Words at Pescara training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giacomo Olzer 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pescara this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Youri Baas 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 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oscar Gloukh 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 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 Ajax know it.
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Ajax know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Oscar Gloukh 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.
Marcos Leonardo 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.
Nobody at Ajax 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Ajax, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Pescara will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pescara this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Words at Pescara training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Razvan Hagi 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.
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.
A 1‑0 win over Virtus Entella, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
8.51. 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 101 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Two goals and a mark of 8.89 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pescara this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Giacomo Olzer. 2‑1 against Frosinone, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
3 goals in 26 games at Arzignano — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Pescara updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 117 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Pescara they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
2‑3 to Sassuolo, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Razvan Hagi 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.
Day 13 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pescara this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Pescara have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
The terraces31 Jan 2028
Pescara spend $19.0M on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $19.0M for Diogo Leite, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Razvan Hagi 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pescara this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
Player ratingsGiacomo Olzer was on a different afternoon to everybody else
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Pescara have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Fausto Salicioni will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Pescara the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pescara this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I watch every Pescara game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Sambenedettese runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Pescara can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Words at Pescara training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Razvan Hagi 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.
Gianmarco Cangiano 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 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Mark Engel 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.
The phone has started ringing about Michael Zeppieri again, and this time the name on the line is Siracusa. Pescara are listening politely and promising nothing.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
It finished 0-3. A cup exit is a disappointment; this was a public dismantling, and the difference between the two is the number of people who will still be talking about it in August.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Fausto Salicioni will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Pescara the goodbyes have quietly begun.
4 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.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Words at Pescara training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Razvan Hagi 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.
Antonio Di Nardo 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 mood at Pescara 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.
Two goals and a mark of 9.20 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Ștefan Chirilă did not need any: 7.79, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Mark Engel is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Razvan Hagi 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pescara this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Ștefan Chirilă 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Pescara have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Fausto Salicioni will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Pescara the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Words at Pescara training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Razvan Hagi 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 particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Mark Engel 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.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 25 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Fausto Salicioni will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Pescara the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Giacomo Olzer 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 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Mark Engel 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.
Antonio Di Nardo scored, and precious little else went right: 2‑3 to Mantova, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Words at Pescara training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Razvan Hagi 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.
Gianmarco Cangiano 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.
“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 Pescara, and it is not being withdrawn.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Mark Engel is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Words at Pescara training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Razvan Hagi 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.
At 25 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Position 2, 67 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
The offer from Cambuur for Rayane Bounida 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.
The instruction has come from upstairs rather than from the dugout, which is the version of this conversation no manager enjoys. Somebody in that squad is now available whether the man who picks the team thinks so or not.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ajax this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. José Paradela 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 injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 16 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
“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 Ajax, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Manuel Lucchesi has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Pescara 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 Pescara, and it is not being withdrawn.
Giacomo Olzer 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. Lorenzo Berardi is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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 name of Alessandro Shehaj has come up in conversations Pescara were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“I watch every Pescara game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Arzignano runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“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 Ajax, and it is not being withdrawn.
The instruction has come from upstairs rather than from the dugout, which is the version of this conversation no manager enjoys. Somebody in that squad is now available whether the man who picks the team thinks so or not.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ajax this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. José Paradela 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.
Add another name to the list: Willem II have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Jorthy Mokio. The answer from Ajax has not changed — yet.
34 games, 0 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at Ajax now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.