“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Atalanta heard it as anything else.
Marco Carnesecchi 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 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Atalanta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lazar Samardžić 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. Giuseppe Mungari is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Nicola Dipinto 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Altamura can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Altamura training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrea Caleffi 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 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atalanta this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 8.16 — 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.
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 watch every Atalanta game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Altamura runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
6 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Altamura this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Altamura training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Enrico Silletti 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 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.
Marco Carnesecchi 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 want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Atalanta heard it as anything else.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Davide Zappacosta and Atalanta agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Atalanta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lazar Samardžić 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 watch every Atalanta game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Altamura runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Atalanta, another week without a signature from Danel Sinani.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Lazio? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.