Marked for Manuel Piazza
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad26 Feb 2035
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Match24 Feb 2035
Still nobody has beaten AC Milan
The unbeaten run reaches 9. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Market26 Feb 2035
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at AC Milan is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad26 Feb 2035
Thiago Almada 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.
Squad26 Feb 2035
Words at AC Milan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mike Maignan 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.
Squad26 Feb 2035
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Fabio Miretti, and the manager let it.
Match24 Feb 2035
Three points for AC Milan, 1‑0 the final word against Lazio in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings26 Feb 2035
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.21, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings26 Feb 2035
A masterclass from Pedro
Marked 8.18 — 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match23 Dec 2034
Still nobody has beaten AC Milan
The unbeaten run reaches 21. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad25 Dec 2034
Thiago Almada 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.
Squad25 Dec 2034
Words at AC Milan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mike Maignan 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.
Player ratings25 Dec 2034
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad25 Dec 2034
Thiago Almada is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.29 with 7 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad25 Dec 2034
A smaller club would suit Arnau Martínez now
He has had enough of the noise. Whether AC Milan can be a quieter place for him, or whether the only cure is a move somewhere the phone-ins are gentler, is a question for the next few months.
Loan watch25 Dec 2034
“I did not go to Spezia to sit and watch. I want to come back to AC Milan and fight for my place.” 4 appearances in 25 matches say the rest.
Market25 Dec 2034
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. AC Milan know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Match23 Dec 2034
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Atalanta came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match18 Nov 2034
AC Milan make home a hard place to visit
38 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.
Match18 Nov 2034
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 15 matches without defeat is a foundation AC Milan did not have in the autumn.
Match18 Nov 2034
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Empoli, and it could have been more.
Squad20 Nov 2034
Mateo Retegui: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” AC Milan have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad20 Nov 2034
The medical room confirms 79 days on the sidelines for Christian Pulisic, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Player ratings20 Nov 2034
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.30 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad20 Nov 2034
“The easiest signature of my career.” Charles De Ketelaere and AC Milan agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad20 Nov 2034
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AC Milan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings20 Nov 2034
Petar Sučić was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.33. 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match21 Oct 2034
35 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Squad23 Oct 2034
A fracture rules Mateo Retegui out for 15 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason AC Milan will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings23 Oct 2034
Thiago Almada, 33, rolls back the years — 7.88
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.88 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad23 Oct 2034
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AC Milan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match21 Oct 2034
AC Milan make it 3 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now AC Milan have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad23 Oct 2034
Mike Maignan 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.
Match21 Oct 2034
A 2‑0 win over Juventus, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings23 Oct 2034
A performance of 8.30 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad23 Oct 2034
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match14 Oct 2034
15 matches without a win for Spezia
The run now stands at 15, and the questions being asked around Spezia are no longer polite ones.
The terraces16 Oct 2034
Anger at Spezia spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Squad16 Oct 2034
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 52 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market16 Oct 2034
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Leonardo Consiglio will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Spezia the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match14 Oct 2034
Spezia cannot find the net
6 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Market16 Oct 2034
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Spezia can pretend not to have heard.
Squad16 Oct 2034
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Spezia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Oct 2034
Petko Hristov 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.
Squad16 Oct 2034
The manager makes an example of Manuel Piazza
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match23 Sep 2034
AC Milan make home a hard place to visit
33 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.
Squad25 Sep 2034
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 39 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad25 Sep 2034
Giorgio Lombardo damages knee ligaments — 45 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 45 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.
Player ratings25 Sep 2034
A brace, and Thiago Almada takes the afternoon — 8.45
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Thiago Almada provided it, and the 8.45 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Match23 Sep 2034
AC Milan cannot stop winning
6 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.
Squad25 Sep 2034
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AC Milan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 Sep 2034
Lucas Bergvall 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.
Match23 Sep 2034
A 3‑1 win over Udinese, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings25 Sep 2034
A performance of 8.51 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad11 Sep 2034
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 87 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match9 Sep 2034
The wait goes on for Spezia
10 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.
Squad11 Sep 2034
Manuel Piazza: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Spezia have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad11 Sep 2034
Tempers go at Spezia
Antonio Candela 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.
Squad11 Sep 2034
Words at Spezia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Petko Hristov 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.
Match9 Sep 2034
Bari take the points off Spezia
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Boardroom11 Sep 2034
Wages eat 87% of everything Spezia earn
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.
Market11 Sep 2034
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Alex Ramku’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Player ratings11 Sep 2034
Nobody could get near Alex Ramku
Successful dribbles: 11. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad7 Aug 2034
Giorgio Lombardo damages knee ligaments — 112 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 112 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.
Squad7 Aug 2034
Rasmus Højlund breaks a bone — 104 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 104 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad7 Aug 2034
229 appearances across 13 seasons in these colours. Careers like that are not built any more, and AC Milan know what they have.
Market7 Aug 2034
“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 AC Milan hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad7 Aug 2034
Thiago Almada 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.
Market7 Aug 2034
The phone has started ringing about Lorenzo Venturino again, and this time the name on the line is Arsenal. AC Milan are listening politely and promising nothing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom3 Jul 2034
The statement thanked him for his efforts and wished him well, in that order and in about that many words. The search begins immediately.
Boardroom3 Jul 2034
A stranger takes charge at Spezia
The coaching staff has emptied out entirely and there was nobody internal to promote, so the club has appointed a name almost none of its supporters will recognise. Clubs recover from this; none of them enjoy explaining it.
Boardroom3 Jul 2034
“Somebody has to pick the team on Saturday, and this week that is me.” An interim appointment with no promises attached, which is how most of them start.
Squad3 Jul 2034
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Antonio Candela and Spezia agree another 2 years.
Squad3 Jul 2034
Tempers go at Spezia
Antonio Candela 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.
Squad3 Jul 2034
Words at Spezia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Petko Hristov 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.
Boardroom3 Jul 2034
$1.9M of the owner's money at Spezia
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
Squad3 Jul 2034
5 new faces, and Spezia are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Market3 Jul 2034
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Santiago Monzón has his answer from Spezia; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad15 May 2034
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market15 May 2034
Dion Beljo has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around AC Milan they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market15 May 2034
Mario Gila wants to know where this is going
“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 AC Milan hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad15 May 2034
Mario Gila 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.
Squad15 May 2034
Words at AC Milan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thiago Almada 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.
Squad15 May 2034
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Lorenzo Venturino commits to AC Milan for another 5 years.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces15 May 2034
Anger at Südtirol spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Player ratings15 May 2034
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.38 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad15 May 2034
Patryk Peda 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.
Squad15 May 2034
Words at Südtirol training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Simone Davi 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 terraces15 May 2034
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.
Match13 May 2034
Carrarese made Südtirol work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings15 May 2034
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.
Squad15 May 2034
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.
Squad15 May 2034
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to a squad player, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market8 May 2034
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad8 May 2034
“The easiest signature of my career.” Thiago Almada and AC Milan agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Market8 May 2034
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at AC Milan heard it as anything else.
Market8 May 2034
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at AC Milan is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad8 May 2034
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AC Milan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad8 May 2034
Words at AC Milan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexis Saelemaekers 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.
Squad8 May 2034
Defences have started doubling up on Diego Moreira
10 goals and a season average of 7.38 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Match6 May 2034
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Market8 May 2034
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Thiago Almada’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom1 May 2034
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Südtirol
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Player ratings1 May 2034
Karim Zedadka, 33, rolls back the years — 8.26
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.26 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad1 May 2034
Patryk Peda 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.
Squad1 May 2034
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad1 May 2034
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.
Match29 Apr 2034
A 1‑1 draw with Empoli leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Squad1 May 2034
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.
Player ratings1 May 2034
Successful dribbles: 10. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market1 May 2034
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match22 Apr 2034
Chastening afternoon for Südtirol
A 2‑5 beating by Lecce was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Player ratings24 Apr 2034
Nobody's fault and entirely his: a goal that goes into the book with his name against it and nothing about it intended. Südtirol deserved better, and so did he.
Squad24 Apr 2034
Patryk Peda 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.
Match22 Apr 2034
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Südtirol and Lecce in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad24 Apr 2034
Words at Südtirol training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Simone Davi 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.
Squad24 Apr 2034
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Luigi Pedaci, and the manager let it.
Boardroom24 Apr 2034
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The terraces24 Apr 2034
Everybody has an opinion about Alessio Cragno
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
Squad24 Apr 2034
One booking too many, and Marco Frigerio sits out. Südtirol lose him for the sort of avoidable reason that makes a manager's week longer.