Tiago Gaona falls out with a teammate over standards
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.
Ilari Kangasniemi 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.
The dugout31 Mar 2036
The manager has not finished forgetting Raffaele Spanò's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Wil will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Wil that is a harder question to answer.
In brief
MarketThe clock does Tiago Gaona’s negotiating for him
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Wil can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Natnael Abraha will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Wil the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Wil this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Harrison Bettoni was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad17 Mar 2036
12 new faces, and Wil are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Wil will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Wil, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
“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 Wil, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Wil 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 Wil, another week without a signature from Luka Đorđević.
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Tim Spycher is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Raffaele Spanò's mistake
The dugoutTiago Gaona knocks on the manager's door
“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 Wil, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Wil is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Raffaele Spanò 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.
Wil ran out of time with Luzern. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kacper Kościerski 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 have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Wil can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Wil will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Lugano have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Luka Đorđević will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Lugano the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Andreas Horn has, at Lugano, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kjell Wätjen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Rhodri Smith 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 injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 16 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Lugano have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Lugano they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Denis Şandro 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 thought about how hard another man trains, and Kjell Wätjen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad19 Nov 2035
5 new faces, and Lugano are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Claudio Cassano is on it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Lugano will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Lugano is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad15 Oct 2035
Words at Lugano training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bryan Gil 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.
Jonas Kersken 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.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Caden Voice has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Lugano have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Lugano, another week without a signature from Mathias Kvistgaarden.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Dominique Carré has his answer from Lugano; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
4 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Lugano can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
5 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bryan Gil was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Jonas Kersken 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.
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.