There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. AC Milan have paid $87.3M for Tomás Muñoz, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
The offer went to Maccabi Tel Aviv 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.
The clubs have shaken hands with Fiorentina; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
AC Milan have gone to Burnley 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 offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Player ratings15 Jan 2029
A brace, and Tomás Muñoz takes the afternoon — 8.92
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Tomás Muñoz provided it, and the 8.92 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Juventus paid $16.1M and AC Milan took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
The words a physio says slowly. 30 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 chase for Andrea Adorante ended with $19.4M changing hands and Venezia out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Fiorentina people have started saying his name in the past tense.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Caoimhin Kelleher is living that version at Fiorentina, and it tends to show in the first month.
$7.0M on the table at Reggiana. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Empoli have kept their man, and Fiorentina go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Tomás Muñoz was one of the reasons people came, and $87.3M does not replace that by itself.
AC Milan and Fiorentina have settled on $87.3M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Juventus waiting with a shirt. Nobody at AC Milan is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
AC Milan have gone to Modena 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Fiorentina have kept their man, and AC Milan go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There were 85 minutes on the clock and Sassuolo had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and AC Milan did not stop to explain themselves.
Adrien Rabiot 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.
38 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Fiorentina lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The offer went to Newcastle United 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.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 96th minute. Udinese will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Two goals and a mark of 8.79 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Sassuolo waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Fiorentina is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Fiorentina asked and Deportivo La Coruña 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 offer went to Sassuolo 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.
Tomás Muñoz had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Pisa were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Fiorentina is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jesús Rodríguez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.13 — 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Fiorentina they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“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.
Dodo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad11 Dec 2028
Lucas Beltrán 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.
Player ratings11 Dec 2028
Lucas Beltrán was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.87. 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
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 7.75 for the rest of it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Fiorentina is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Jesús Rodríguez 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.
9 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
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.
14 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Match11 Nov 2028
Tomás Muñoz wins it after the whistle should have gone
90 minutes played. Tomás Muñoz found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Modena went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Successful dribbles: 31. 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Giovanni Fabbian will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Fiorentina the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Dodo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Words at Fiorentina training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jesús Rodríguez 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.
8 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Fiorentina they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Jesús Rodríguez 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.
Player ratings30 Oct 2028
Tomás Muñoz was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.73. 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lucas Beltrán was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 15. 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.
Sassuolo will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Fiorentina were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Jesús Rodríguez provided it, and the 9.09 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Fiorentina is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Stefano Paglino is living that version at Fiorentina, and it tends to show in the first month.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Fiorentina is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Dodo 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.
Squad9 Oct 2028
Words at Fiorentina training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lucas Beltrán 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 run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 6 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Minute 92, against Atalanta, 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.
The training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 4 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
Two goals and a mark of 8.96 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
6 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
“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 Fiorentina hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Fiorentina they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Dodo 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Morgan Fox is living that version at Fiorentina, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad2 Oct 2028
Words at Fiorentina training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jesús Rodríguez 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.
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Fiorentina is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fiorentina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Words at Fiorentina training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lucas Beltrán 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.
Juventus made Fiorentina work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings18 Sep 2028
Jesús Rodríguez was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.06. 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Torino waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Fiorentina is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Lazio had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The offer went to Empoli 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.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 19 arrived, 21 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
“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 Fiorentina hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Fiorentina have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Christ Inao Oulaï is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Dodo 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.
Fiorentina 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.
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
A clause somebody insisted on years ago, in a negotiation nobody remembers, has just paid Fiorentina $1.4M. Abdelhamid Sabiri left a long time ago; the paperwork stayed.
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.
21 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Fiorentina 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 Fiorentina, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Fiorentina people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Avellino have kept their man, and Fiorentina go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Fiorentina is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Fiorentina have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
At 22 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.
31 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Fiorentina lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The fee is $5.5M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Arezzo drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Valerio Verre has just signed for Fiorentina, and for once the answer mattered.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Gabriele Bertolini will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Fiorentina the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Dodo 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. Juventus have kept their man, and Fiorentina go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Fiorentina has been clear about where Roberto Piccoli stands, which is more than many ever get.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. AS Roma have kept their man, and Fiorentina go back to a list with one name crossed off 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 Fiorentina, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Fiorentina is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mattia Magalotti and Fiorentina agree another 4 years.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
In brief
SquadWords at Fiorentina training over how hard people work
The fee is $42.5M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Inter drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. AS Roma have kept their man, and Fiorentina go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Jesús Rodríguez is living that version at Fiorentina, and it tends to show in the first month.
Fiorentina offered $7.5M; Ternana 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Fiorentina have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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 Fiorentina hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Gabriele Bertolini will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Fiorentina the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Dodo 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 Jun 2028
Words at Fiorentina training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jesús Rodríguez 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.
In brief
The dugoutLucas Beltrán asks for a word with the manager
Inter arrived with $115.3M and left with the best player in the building. The board will call it business; the queue at the ticket office will use other words.
Fiorentina asked and Cremonese 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 offer went to Ternana 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.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Ospitaletto had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Fiorentina have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Moise Kean has gone, the accounts have $115.3M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
“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 Fiorentina hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
The offer went to Inter 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.
The offer went to Palermo 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.
“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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Fiorentina is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fiorentina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Qualification is done, and next season the floodlights come on for something bigger. A stage for the players, oxygen for the accounts and a passport for everybody else.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Fiorentina had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Giovanni Fabbian will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Fiorentina 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 Fiorentina 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 Simon Sohm was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Tomás Muñoz is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Albert Guðmundsson trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Fiorentina they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nicolò Fagioli was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Tomás Muñoz signs something — a contract at Fiorentina or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Fiorentina would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Fiorentina they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
David De Gea 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.
Minute 91, against Napoli, 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.
Squad8 May 2028
Words at Fiorentina 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Fiorentina is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Ulises Rivas 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fiorentina 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 Fiorentina can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout1 May 2028
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 Leandro Palmieri left the room before anybody could ask which.
Dodo 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 Nicolò Fagioli was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Fiorentina have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
Player ratings10 Apr 2028
Roberto Piccoli was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.14. 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.
Minute 95, against Bologna, 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.
2‑2, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Words at Fiorentina training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giovanni Fabbian 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.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Fiorentina scored in the 93th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Player ratings3 Apr 2028
Up for the corner, and Arthur Atta delivers — 7.99
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Arthur Atta scored, was marked 7.99, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Fiorentina they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Arthur Atta 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 want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Fiorentina heard it as anything else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nicolò Fagioli was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
23 goals and a season average of 7.55. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Player ratings13 Mar 2028
A brace, and Tomás Muñoz takes the afternoon — 9.06
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Tomás Muñoz provided it, and the 9.06 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Fiorentina heard it as anything else.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Fiorentina is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Fiorentina is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fiorentina 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.
Riccardo Sottil 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 Fiorentina can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Words at Fiorentina training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giovanni Fabbian 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 dugout28 Feb 2028
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 Leandro Palmieri to a room that had heard them before.
In brief
The dugoutTomás Muñoz has become a man the manager trusts
The dugoutLucas Beltrán asks for a word with the manager
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Fiorentina is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Flavio Montanari and Fiorentina agree another 5 years.
Player ratings21 Feb 2028
Tomás Muñoz was on a different afternoon to everybody else
10.00. 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.
$47.7M was the most the club would pay and Aston Villa 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.
Sassuolo will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Fiorentina were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
6 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Fiorentina have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Dodo wants continental football; whether Fiorentina can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Fiorentina they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Fiorentina have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The clubs have shaken hands with Modena; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Add another name to the list: LOSC Lille have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Tomás Muñoz. The answer from Fiorentina has not changed — yet.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Fiorentina have kept their man, and AC Milan go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Nobody at the club will say out loud who this signing is for, which is how you know exactly who it is for. Gavi has been brought in to take a shirt somebody is still wearing.
Two goals and a mark of 8.96 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Gavi is living that version at AC Milan, and it tends to show in the first month.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around AC Milan people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Fiorentina have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“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 Fiorentina, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Franco Carboni is living that version at Fiorentina, and it tends to show in the first month.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Fiorentina will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The offer went to HNK Rijeka 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.
Two goals and a mark of 9.48 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fiorentina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 26 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Marked 8.00 — 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 36 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Tommaso Rubino did not need any: 9.76, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Fiorentina can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 43 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Fiorentina heard it as anything else.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Gabriele Bertolini will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Fiorentina the goodbyes have quietly begun.
David De Gea and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings13 Dec 2027
Tomás Muñoz was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.53. 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Fiorentina will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match27 Nov 2027
Tomás Muñoz wins it after the whistle should have gone
95 minutes played. Tomás Muñoz found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Bologna went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Two goals and a mark of 9.16 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
A performance of 8.60 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings29 Nov 2027
Dodo was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.06. 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.
Squad29 Nov 2027
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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Fiorentina will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Riccardo Sottil 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 pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Moise Kean, and the manager let it.
Player ratings22 Nov 2027
Lucas Beltrán was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.21. 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.
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.
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 Tomás Muñoz is on it.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
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.” Leandro Palmieri kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Fiorentina will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Fiorentina can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
8.16. 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.
“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; Fiorentina are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Words at Fiorentina 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.
The dugout1 Nov 2027
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.” Leandro Palmieri kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Fiorentina will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Tomás Muñoz scored in the 85th minute, Monza had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Fiorentina took the lot.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fiorentina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
Riccardo Sottil 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.
A point taken on 87 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.
Squad27 Sep 2027
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.
22 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Nobody at Fiorentina 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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Leandro Palmieri after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 87th, and Cagliari spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Gabriele Bertolini will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Fiorentina the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Jacopo Fazzini has improved at 24, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 4 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Tomás Muñoz. 2‑1 against Cagliari, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Fiorentina have gone to Napoli 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 offer went to Cittadella 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.
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.
The first defeat in 4 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Juventus; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
“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.
In brief
The dugoutTomás Muñoz has become a man the manager trusts
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Gabriele Bertolini will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Fiorentina the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Dodo 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.
At 22 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.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Jacopo Fazzini has improved at 24, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 4 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
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.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Fiorentina can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
At 22 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.
David De Gea 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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Nicolò Fagioli has improved at 26, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Grégoire Defrel and Fiorentina agree another 2 years.
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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fiorentina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
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 manager has re-ordered his thinking and Marco Brescianini has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Nobody at Fiorentina 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.
31 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Fiorentina lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Fiorentina will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Albert Guðmundsson trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Marco Richter is on it.
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.
The offer from Pergolettese for Gianmarco Angiolini 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Niccolò Fortini is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
“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.
Still no offer on the table, and Lucas Beltrán’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
In brief
The dugoutTomás Muñoz has become a man the manager trusts
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Fiorentina will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Fiorentina have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The deal with Udinese 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Grégoire Defrel has just signed for Fiorentina, and for once the answer mattered.
“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 Fiorentina hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fiorentina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
With 6 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like one.
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 Alieu Njie is on it.
28 goals in 30 games at Como — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Fiorentina updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Fiorentina have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Fiorentina can pretend not to have heard.
The deal with Cittadella 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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Fiorentina heard it as anything else.
Pote 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.
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 Tomás Muñoz is on 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 Fiorentina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
7 goals in 36 games at Venezia — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Fiorentina updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“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 Fiorentina will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
30 appearances away from home and 28 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
Match8 May 2027
Tomás Muñoz wins it after the whistle should have gone
92 minutes played. Tomás Muñoz found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Parma went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Position 7 on 66 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.
Pote 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.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
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.
Marked 8.36 — 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.
Marked 8.13 — 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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Aleksandar Stanković is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Leandro Palmieri on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Álex Jiménez did not need any: 7.71, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Gabriele Bertolini will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Fiorentina the goodbyes have quietly begun.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Fiorentina and Pisa in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.00, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
30 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Fiorentina lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.
Marked 8.38 — 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.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 96. Bologna had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
39 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Fiorentina lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Two goals and a mark of 9.26 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Fiorentina can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Pote 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.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Fiorentina and Como in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
46 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Fiorentina lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Alieu Njie did not need any: 7.74, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Fiorentina is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fiorentina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at Fiorentina training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Wilfried Gnonto 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 hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Franco Mastantuono did not need any: 8.11, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
He is 19 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
Wilfried Gnonto was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.76. 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 ambition story running backwards, and the one nobody tells: a footballer who wants a smaller ground, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is rarely reported as anything else.
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 Tomás Muñoz is on it.
Two goals and a mark of 9.16 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Two goals and a mark of 9.05 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Pote 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 9 goals between Fiorentina and Sassuolo, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Wilfried Gnonto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 7.81 for the rest of it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Fiorentina they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Fiorentina can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fiorentina 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.
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.