“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Atalanta 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 Atalanta this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 9.08 — 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.
“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 Atalanta, and 0 appearances in 31 say he has earned the hearing.
Add another name to the list: Catanzaro have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Ibrahima Camara. The answer from Atalanta has not changed — yet.
Marked 8.37 — 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 offer from Napoli for Giacomo Raspadori 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.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Atalanta have had the benefit of 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 Atalanta can pretend not to have heard.
Marked 9.11 — 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.
Marked 9.10 — 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Lazar Samardžić. 2‑1 against Venezia, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Guidonia Montecelio have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The shirt still fits. Francesco Andrea Di Vito is back at Guidonia Montecelio, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Gabriele Bernardotto 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.
Marked 8.24 — 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.
He is 18, and nobody at Guidonia Montecelio signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
“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.
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.
Giorgio Scalvini 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 did not go to Guidonia Montecelio to sit and watch. I want to come back to Atalanta and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 13 matches say the rest.
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.
Shots: 9. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
In brief
Player ratingsThe one thing Yoan Bonny could not do
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Guidonia Montecelio have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Guidonia Montecelio, another week without a signature from Francesco Nicastro.
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.
“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 Atalanta, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Giacomo Raspadori signs something — a contract at Atalanta or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Marco Brescianini has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
Giacomo Raspadori 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Dion Cakolli trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Giacomo Raspadori signs something — a contract at Atalanta or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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 is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Guidonia Montecelio will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
7 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Guidonia Montecelio could ask drops and the wages Francesco Nicastro can ask rise.
A new face in his position, and Michele Avella suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. Guidonia Montecelio have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.