There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Iván Azón provided it, and the 9.29 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Two goals and a mark of 8.52 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Davide Lendel will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Como the goodbyes have quietly begun.
7 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.
Player ratings21 Apr 2031
A brace, and Nicolas Kühn takes the afternoon — 8.46
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Nicolas Kühn provided it, and the 8.46 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Davide Lendel will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Como the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Luis Milla 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.
8 goals in one match, Cristian Shpendi on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Como and Avellino.
In brief
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Omar Lebyad’s exile
35 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Como lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.89 for the rest of it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Davide Lendel will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Como the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Trevoh Chalobah 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.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Como can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Como is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Trevoh Chalobah was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Como and Carrarese in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Player ratings24 Feb 2031
Manuel Pinotti was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.30. 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.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Vinko Kolaković will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Como escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Como people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The terraces27 Jan 2031
A cup hiding at AC Milan leaves Como explaining themselves
0-5, and long before the end the away end had switched from encouragement to something considerably more pointed. Nobody rings a phone-in about losing narrowly.
The offer from Modena for Liam Kerrigan 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Como will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Position 19 and 15 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Como is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Como have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Luis Milla 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.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Bartol Franjić has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Trevoh Chalobah 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and AC Milan waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Como is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Cristian Shpendi 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 Trevoh Chalobah 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 Como, and it is not being withdrawn.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Como will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.66 at 37, and nobody on the pitch was better.
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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Como they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
7 goals in one match, Álvaro Morata on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Como and Siracusa.
In brief
SquadWords at Como training over how hard people work
41 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Como lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Como can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Como they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Luis Milla 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.