133 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Venezia lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Filip Stanković will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Venezia 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 Venezia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Juan Jesus 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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Venezia heard it as anything else.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Venezia can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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.
“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 The request is on a desk at Venezia, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from PSM for Junior Ligue 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.
Add another name to the list: SV Ried have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Alfred Duncan. The answer from Venezia has not changed — yet.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Juan Jesus was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Juan Jesus trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Alfred Duncan had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Reggiana waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Venezia is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Venezia can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Alessandro Pagliari is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Juan Jesus was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Venezia asked and Juventus said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
33 appearances and 0 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ridgeciano Haps will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Venezia the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Thierry Rendall Correia wants continental football; whether Venezia can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at Venezia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan Jesus 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.
15 goals in 34 games at Las Palmas — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Venezia updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“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 Venezia know 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 Venezia, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Venezia is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Albion Rrahmani 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.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Juan Jesus 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.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Juan Jesus will call it something else in private.
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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Venezia told Albion Rrahmani something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Venezia 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 Venezia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Venezia can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Venezia told Gianluca Busio something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“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 Venezia, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Venezia they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Simon Sohm was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Venezia will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Nicolas Quintero 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. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Mario Grasso to a room that had heard them before.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Venezia pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Venezia, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Venezia will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Venezia can pretend not to have heard.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Venezia can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Matteo Grandi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Venezia the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Albion Rrahmani 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 have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Venezia can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Simon Sohm was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 55 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The first defeat in 13 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Frosinone; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Nicolas Quintero 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.
0‑1 to Frosinone, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at Venezia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Simon Sohm 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 63 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The hardest thing about being 18 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Vincenzo Damiano did not need any: 7.84, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 2 signed and 2 gone
That is the business done at Venezia 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ridgeciano Haps will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Venezia the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Venezia hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Lazio have kept their man, and Venezia go back to a list with one name crossed off 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 Venezia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Thierry Rendall Correia wants continental football; whether Venezia can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Reggiana made Venezia work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Simon Sohm 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.
Alessandro Pietrelli had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Juve Stabia were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Alessandro Pietrelli has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Nobody's fault and entirely his: a goal that goes into the book with his name against it and nothing about it intended. Venezia deserved better, and so did he.
Marked 8.05 — 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.
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.
1 for Simon Sohm, marked 7.79, 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.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Antoine Hainaut scored, was marked 7.33, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
At 23 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Simon Sohm 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 club in football 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 somebody has tried it.
Juan Jesus 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Mario Grasso on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Thierry Rendall Correia trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Nicolas Quintero arrives at 33 with nothing left to prove and plenty left to pass on. Legs are a young man's currency; knowing where to stand never ages.
The offer from APOEL for James Zapata 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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at La Equidad heard it as anything else.
Minute 90, against Deportivo Pasto, 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at La Equidad 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 Vitor Figueiredo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Duvan Torres