The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Guidonia Montecelio have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Guidonia Montecelio can pretend not to have heard.
This is not rotation. Davide Vitturini has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Guidonia Montecelio is pretending otherwise.
Boardroom5 Feb 2029
Deadline passes with 2 signed and 2 gone
That is the business done at Guidonia Montecelio 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.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: AS Roma keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Guidonia Montecelio ran out of time with Catanzaro. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never 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; Guidonia Montecelio are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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.
“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 The request is on a desk at Guidonia Montecelio, and it is not being withdrawn.
Giovanni Stellato 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. 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.
Half the programme played, position 11, 18 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
The dugout25 Dec 2028
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 Cristiano Chiari to a room that had heard them before.
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.
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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Orlando Viteritti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Cristiano Chiari after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
“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.
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.
Somebody watched every match in the division at the weekend and decided he was the best thing in any of them. A small honour, and most careers end without one.
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.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Giovanni Stellato signs something — a contract at Guidonia Montecelio or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
$1.7M on the table at Benevento. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Guidonia Montecelio offered $1.3M; Como said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sassuolo 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.
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.
“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.
Guidonia Montecelio and Benevento have settled on $1.7M. 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.
Guidonia Montecelio had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Sampdoria, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
The offer went to Campobasso this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
$570.0K on the table at Gubbio. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Orlando Viteritti 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.
Franco Pinoni 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.
“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.
6 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.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Paolo Frascatore scored, was marked 7.71, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Add another name to the list: Antequera have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Franco Pinoni. The answer from Guidonia Montecelio has not changed — yet.
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.
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 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 6.75, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Raffaele Marchioro 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 decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Raffaele Marchioro and Guidonia Montecelio agree another 3 years.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Guidonia Montecelio told Stênio something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Guidonia Montecelio can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Daniel Sannipoli 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 won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 12 combined actions and a mark of 7.33, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
At 22 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Guidonia Montecelio told Giovanni Stellato something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
7 goals in 26 games at Novara — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Guidonia Montecelio updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“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.
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 Franco Pinoni has written the date down.