“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 The request is on a desk at AlbinoLeffe, and it is not being withdrawn.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.” AlbinoLeffe have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Gabriele Baldi 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 easiest signature of my career.” Benedetto Barba and AlbinoLeffe agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
At 22 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.
Every long career reaches the week the last one is thought about. He would like it to be where he started, and AlbinoLeffe know now that the thought has arrived.
29 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. AlbinoLeffe lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. AlbinoLeffe have done the hard part with Guidonia Montecelio, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Bari have kept their man, and AlbinoLeffe go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Martino Ventura has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Luciano Melis 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. Ignazio Gentile 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. Tiziano Corsini 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 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.
The name of Andrea Astrologo has come up in conversations AlbinoLeffe were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Gabriele Baldi 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 Alessandro Lombardi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Atalanta have kept their man, and AlbinoLeffe go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. AlbinoLeffe 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.
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.
“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.
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.
That is the business done at AlbinoLeffe until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
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.
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.
The dugout7 Feb 2028
Simone Potop is still being punished for one mistake
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 month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Sascha Britschgi is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
$1.2M settles it between the clubs for Roko Jurišić
NK Osijek have accepted the money. What Zadar do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
“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 Zadar, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Lokomotiva Zagreb is saying, and nobody at Zadar is enjoying the guessing.
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.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Zadar can tell you which week it ends in.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kristijan Colak was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Position 3, 29 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Hajduk Split is saying, and nobody at Zadar is enjoying the guessing.
Mateo Bogdan 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.
Zadar asked and Dinamo Zagreb said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Duje Petkov 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mateo Bogdan trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Hajduk Split have kept their man, and Zadar go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kristijan Colak was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zadar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Zadar are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Zadar have made the call to Dinamo Zagreb. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
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 Marin Cop is on it.
7 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Zadar could ask drops and the wages Duje Petkov can ask rise.
Position 3 and 29 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
The terraces21 Jun 2027
Supporters turn on the $180.0K sale of Ivica Lovren
He is going to HNK Gorica, the club has $180.0K it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Zadar offered $1.0M; Hajduk Split 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
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.
Zadar have made the call to Slaven Belupo. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Dušan Vuković is in the works
42 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Zadar lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 17 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
At 20 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alfonso Barco 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 did not go to Hrvatski Dragovoljac to sit and watch. I want to come back to Zadar and fight for my place.” 10 appearances in 39 matches say the rest.
72 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zadar lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Zadar will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Niko Livaja 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 watch every Zadar game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Hrvatski Dragovoljac runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Jaxon Brown 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Marin Kovac signs something — a contract at Zadar or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
The dugoutMateo Erceg knocks on the manager's door
The words a physio says slowly. 103 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. Zadar will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Position 3, 29 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Fran Simunovic is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Alfonso Barco 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.
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 Dejan Kovac is on it.
136 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Zadar lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Zadar will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The deal that would have taken Mario Corluka to Dinamo Minsk has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Zadar with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alfonso Barco 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 Dejan Kovac is on it.