The words a physio says slowly. 15 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Catania they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Emanuele Cicerelli 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.
Squad25 Mar 2030
Words at Catania training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniele Donnarumma 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.
A performance of 8.02 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout25 Mar 2030
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 Stefano Rossi left the room before anybody could ask which.
Nobody at Catania 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.
23 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Catania lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Filippo D'Andrea provided it, and the 9.10 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
At 35 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Catania is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Emanuele Cicerelli 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 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.
30 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Catania lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Roberto Insigne was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
8.29. 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.
The dugout11 Mar 2030
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Stefano Rossi kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Nobody at Catania 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.
37 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Catania lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Catania 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 Catania is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Kaleb Jimenez 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.
Squad4 Mar 2030
Words at Catania training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniele Donnarumma 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.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout4 Mar 2030
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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Stefano Rossi to a room that had heard them before.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Emanuele Cicerelli trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The words a physio says slowly. 44 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Catania will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Catania they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Catania this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 Feb 2030
Words at Catania training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniele Donnarumma 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 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Catania, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Potenza next, and one man in the Catania dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Catania know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
53 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Catania lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 32 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.95 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Lorenzo D'Agata will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Catania the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Emanuele Cicerelli 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Roberto Insigne was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The words a physio says slowly. 60 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 39 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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 Catania this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Catania can tell you which week it ends in.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
The words a physio says slowly. 67 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 bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Catania will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 0 arrived, 2 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Simone Leonardi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Catania the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Roberto Insigne 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.
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
74 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Catania lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Pergolettese waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Catania is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Lazio have accepted the money. What Catania do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Catania they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Emanuele Cicerelli 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.
Squad28 Jan 2030
Words at Catania training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Roberto Insigne 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.
Nobody at Catania 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 81 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.
Giovanni Bruzzaniti 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 Daniele Donnarumma was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The phone has started ringing about Lorenzo D'Agata again, and this time the name on the line is Foggia. Catania are listening politely and promising nothing.
88 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Catania lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 Catania, and it is not being withdrawn.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Catania have done the hard part with Cagliari, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Roberto Insigne 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 Daniele Donnarumma was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
95 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Catania 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 Catania can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Catania they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
102 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Catania lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mario Ierardi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Catania the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Emanuele Cicerelli 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.
Squad31 Dec 2029
Words at Catania training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniele Donnarumma 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.
Nobody at Catania 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.
109 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Catania 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 Catania 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 Daniele Donnarumma was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout24 Dec 2029
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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Stefano Rossi to a room that had heard them before.
Nobody at Catania 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.
116 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Catania 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 Catania 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.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Nobody at Catania 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.