The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Cosenza is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Francesco Folino was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
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 Baldovino Cimino is on it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cosenza can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Biel Ramírez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Cosenza the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Cosenza, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nobody at Cosenza 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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Potenza in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
Pietro Avena wins it after the whistle should have gone
91 minutes played. Pietro Avena found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Giugliano went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
“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 The request is on a desk at Cosenza, and it is not being withdrawn.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 Cosenza people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
At 34 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.00, and nobody on the pitch better.
Player ratings3 Feb 2031
Up for the corner, and Diego Ragone delivers — 7.75
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Diego Ragone scored, was marked 7.75, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Boardroom3 Feb 2031
Cosenza close the window on a squad of their own making
2 in and 4 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
$160.0K on the table at Juve Stabia. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
In brief
MatchAlex Rolfini among the goals in a wild afternoon
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
26 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Cosenza lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Cosenza is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Nobody at Cosenza 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.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Cosenza the difference is visible from the back of the stand.