The words a physio says slowly. 108 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.
Südtirol had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Pescara, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
$850.0K on the table at Lazio. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Südtirol asked and Como said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
$17.0K was the most the club would pay and Padova were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Squad11 Aug 2036
Words at Südtirol training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniel Viljoen 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.
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 Charlie Carter is on it.
The dugout11 Aug 2036
The manager has not finished forgetting Valentino Pavone'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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Südtirol will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The offer went to Como this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Atalanta is saying, and nobody at Südtirol is enjoying the guessing.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Lecce have kept their man, and Südtirol go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad14 Jul 2036
Leny Grebot 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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Südtirol will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“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 Südtirol, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Bari is saying, and nobody at Südtirol is enjoying the guessing.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Südtirol is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Südtirol have gone to Empoli with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
The clubs have shaken hands with Cagliari; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Pisa is saying, and nobody at Südtirol is enjoying the guessing.
Everything was agreed with Ascoli and then the doctor spoke. Südtirol have walked away from a signing on the advice of somebody who never saw him play, which is how it is supposed to work.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 36 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Squad16 Jun 2036
Leny Grebot 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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Südtirol know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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.
1 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Südtirol money.
The dugout19 May 2036
The manager has not finished forgetting Valentino Pavone'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.
“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 Südtirol, and it is not being withdrawn.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Südtirol had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Stitch and Südtirol agree another 2 years.
Squad5 May 2036
Words at Südtirol training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leny Grebot 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 Südtirol this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Position 11 on 33 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
Player ratings21 Apr 2036
Up for the corner, and Leny Grebot delivers — 7.80
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Leny Grebot scored, was marked 7.80, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Leny Grebot was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Charlie Carter 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Leny Grebot. 1‑0 against Forli, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Teodoro Testa on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Valerio Lombardi has his answer from Südtirol; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
In brief
MarketThe clock does Andrea Vailati’s negotiating for him
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Valentino Pavone's mistake
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
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 7.73 for the rest of it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Südtirol they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Tommaso Rugani 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.
Squad14 Apr 2036
Words at Südtirol training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leny Grebot 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.
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout14 Apr 2036
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Teodoro Testa left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
7.77, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Genoa is saying, and nobody at Südtirol is enjoying the guessing.
Stitch 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Como have kept their man, and Südtirol go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
1 for Lorenzo Lo Vecchio, marked 7.74, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Südtirol offered $350.0K; Bologna said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Südtirol asked and Lazio said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Daniel Viljoen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Maro Edirin 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Lorenzo Santarelli and Südtirol agree another 1 years.
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 Südtirol 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 Südtirol 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 Südtirol this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Cremonese have kept their man, and Südtirol go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad7 Jan 2036
Words at Südtirol training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniel Viljoen 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Südtirol they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 36 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Daniel Viljoen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
7.47, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Südtirol had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout24 Dec 2035
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Teodoro Testa was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Südtirol dressing room was either.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Südtirol have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Südtirol they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad26 Nov 2035
Words at Südtirol training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniel Viljoen 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 Südtirol this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 17. 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.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Guidonia Montecelio defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Tommaso Rugani 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.
Squad19 Nov 2035
Maro Edirin 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.
Nobody at Südtirol will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
6 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Südtirol could ask drops and the wages Andrea Vailati can ask rise.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
100 graduates, from a department now rated 9 out of 20. Nothing about the academy appears in a result, and nothing about the club’s future exists without it.
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 7.44 for the rest of it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Südtirol 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 Daniel Viljoen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Something was said to Emanuele Greco and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout12 Nov 2035
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Teodoro Testa chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Südtirol they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Südtirol know it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Maro Edirin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Minute 87, against Livorno, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Teodoro Testa after the 2‑2 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
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 7.86 for the rest of it.
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
500 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.
Squad22 Oct 2035
Words at Südtirol training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniel Viljoen 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 Südtirol this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
5 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Gubbio were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
10 combined actions and 7.21. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Lorenzo Lo Vecchio provided it, and the 8.06 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ignazio Pugliese will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Südtirol the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Südtirol are no longer polite ones.
Squad1 Oct 2035
Words at Südtirol training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniel Viljoen 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 easiest signature of my career.” Lorenzo Santarelli and Südtirol agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Südtirol, another week without a signature from Andrea Vailati.
“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 Südtirol, and it is not being withdrawn.
Südtirol had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Como, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Südtirol asked and Como said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Daniel Viljoen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Südtirol will try again when the window opens; Virtus Entella may not be selling by then.
Charlie Carter 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.
17 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Südtirol lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 Südtirol, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets3 Sep 2035
$520.0K settles it between the clubs for Sasha Guidi
Virtus Entella have accepted the money. What Südtirol do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: AC Milan keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Lorenzo Lo Vecchio scored, was marked 7.79, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Südtirol asked and Fiorentina said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 19 arrived, 14 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Südtirol is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Como is saying, and nobody at Südtirol is enjoying the guessing.
$1.5M on the table at AC Milan. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The deal with Torino is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Südtirol offered $730.0K; AC Milan said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
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.
Maro Edirin 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.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Charlie Carter 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 Maro Edirin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
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 Maro Edirin is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Maro Edirin trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Andrea Vailati has just signed for Südtirol, and for once the answer mattered.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Salford City have kept their man, and Südtirol go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Charlie Carter and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad4 Jun 2035
Words at Südtirol training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maro Edirin 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.
Reggiana will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Malo Le Bolay has pre-agreed a move to Südtirol, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Squad7 May 2035
Words at Südtirol training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniel Viljoen 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Südtirol, another week without a signature from Emanuele Greco.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Südtirol, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Südtirol had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 35 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Südtirol is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Daniel Viljoen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Südtirol know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Position 3 on 54 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Lorenzo Lo Vecchio provided it, and the 8.15 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Position 3, 54 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.84 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Südtirol they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Marked 9.71 — 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. 17 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.
Successful dribbles: 29. 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.
7.49, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
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.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
The dugout9 Apr 2035
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑3 defeat, delivered by Teodoro Testa to a room that had heard them before.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Simone Davi
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Tommaso Bianco
19 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Südtirol lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
0‑3 to Reggiana, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Südtirol will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Südtirol can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad26 Feb 2035
Words at Südtirol training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniel Viljoen 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.
Maro Edirin 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Südtirol, another week without a signature from Jean-Baptiste Dupont.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Südtirol will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Two goals and a mark of 8.09 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Napoli is saying, and nobody at Südtirol is enjoying the guessing.
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 7.63 for the rest of it.
Boardroom5 Feb 2035
Südtirol close the window on a squad of their own making
0 in and 3 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Südtirol will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
A mark of 7.90 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.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Südtirol had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
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.
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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Südtirol will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Lorenzo Lo Vecchio and Südtirol agree another 4 years.
Stitch 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 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Südtirol will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
A mark of 8.32 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.
1 for Lorenzo Lo Vecchio, marked 7.77, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
11 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Südtirol this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Player ratings27 Nov 2034
Stitch was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.40. 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 117 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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 7.94 for the rest of it.
7.88, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
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.
A point taken on 85 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
Charlie Carter 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.
Successful dribbles: 16. 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.