“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sporting Baku can pretend not to have heard.
Erik Gyurákovics and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sebastian Acuña was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Sporting Baku, another week without a signature from Simone Albè.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Sporting Baku, and both men came out saying it was fine.
4 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Sporting Baku could ask drops and the wages Simone Albè can ask rise.
The deal with Sabah 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.
Sporting Baku asked and Zagatala said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sebastian Acuña was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sporting Baku they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Théo Jolivet 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 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 borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Sporting Baku has been clear about where Jonathan Murphy stands, which is more than many ever get.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Sporting Baku, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Sporting Baku would admit. It shows on Saturdays.