It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hellas Verona this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 easiest signature of my career.” Muslim Nabiev and Hellas Verona agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Daniele Ghilardi signs something — a contract at Hellas Verona or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ognjen Markovic will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Hellas Verona the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Mathis Lambourde 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 interest is real enough to have reached print. Hellas Verona have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad28 Jun 2038
Words at Hellas Verona training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rafik Belghali 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 Hellas Verona this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The offer from Palermo for Milan Hubocan 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 rules permit it and it stings anyway. Ognjen Markovic has agreed terms with Frosinone for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
The phone has started ringing about Rémy Rémy again, and this time the name on the line is Cesena. Hellas Verona are listening politely and promising nothing.
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.
Rafik Belghali 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Cristiano Martinelli has just signed for Hellas Verona, and for once the answer mattered.
Juventus will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Lloyd Kelly has pre-agreed a move to Hellas Verona, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Edoardo Sottini and Hellas Verona agree another 3 years.
A conversation is coming this week. Hellas Verona will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Squad14 Jun 2038
Words at Hellas Verona training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Muslim Nabiev 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 words a physio says slowly. 20 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.
“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 Hellas Verona, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Hellas Verona have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The words a physio says slowly. 50 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.
A mark of 8.45 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hellas Verona this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
9.84. 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.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Tobias Slotsager. 2‑0 against Cagliari, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
20 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
83 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Hellas Verona lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Hellas Verona they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Tobias Slotsager scored, was marked 7.90, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hellas Verona this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
133 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Hellas Verona 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 Hellas Verona can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hellas Verona this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 8.06 — 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 words a physio says slowly. 157 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.
Two goals and a mark of 10.00 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.54 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Milan Hubocan will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Hellas Verona the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Rafik Belghali 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.
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.
In brief
Player ratingsRémy Rémy was on a different afternoon to everybody else
The words a physio says slowly. 168 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hellas Verona this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 8.03 — 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.
12 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.74 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
30 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Angelo Sorrentino did not need any: 8.31, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Mathis Lambourde 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.
Defensive actions: 24, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Squad25 Jan 2038
Words at Hellas Verona training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rafik Belghali 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Hellas Verona will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Stefano Maiorana provided it, and the 7.50 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.30 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Mathis Lambourde 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 8 goals between Hellas Verona and AC Milan, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 23 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.13 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Hellas Verona have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Hellas Verona hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 12 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 41 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hellas Verona this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
5 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
7 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Hellas Verona will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Valerio Testa obliged against Livorno. 2‑1 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Hellas Verona.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.49 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hellas Verona this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
7 goals in one match, Daniele Ghilardi on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Hellas Verona and Frosinone.
Squad9 Nov 2037
Words at Hellas Verona training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yellu Santiago 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Hellas Verona will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.01 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Mathis Lambourde 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 version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.54, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad2 Nov 2037
Words at Hellas Verona training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rafik Belghali 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. Rémy Rémy 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. 18 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Hellas Verona will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ognjen Markovic provided it, and the 9.01 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Mathis Lambourde 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Hellas Verona know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
In brief
BoardroomThe Hellas Verona production line keeps running
MarketThe clock does Moussa Touré’s negotiating for him
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Hellas Verona will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 10 goals between Hellas Verona and Como, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
36 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Hellas Verona lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hellas Verona this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Hellas Verona and Palermo in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
52 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Hellas Verona lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hellas Verona this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
10 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Alfonso Parisi has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Elia Colletti has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Romano Dalla Costa is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
68 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Hellas Verona 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 Hellas Verona can pretend not to have heard.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Daniele Ghilardi and Hellas Verona agree another 2 years.
Mathis Lambourde 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.
Inter will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Leandro Ferrigno has pre-agreed a move to Hellas Verona, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
At 39 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.23 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Hellas Verona is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hellas Verona this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
2 goals inside twenty minutes with Mathis Lambourde in the middle of it, and Juventus unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
In brief
SquadVíctor Vidal falls out with a teammate over standards
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 14 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Hellas Verona is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
At 37 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.10 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Mathis Lambourde 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.
It finished 5‑4, and it was Rafik Belghali’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Hellas Verona.
Squad20 Oct 2036
Words at Hellas Verona training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Antoine Bernede 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.
9 goals in one match, Rafik Belghali on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Hellas Verona and Cesena.