Marked for Mark Watson
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market26 Jul 2038
Mark Watson hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Juventus can pretend not to have heard.
Squad26 Jul 2038
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Juventus this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Jul 2038
Kenan Yıldız 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.
Market26 Jul 2038
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Juventus will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Squad26 Jul 2038
Vasilije Adžić has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Juventus 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.
Market26 Jul 2038
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Juventus know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market5 Jul 2038
“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 The request is on a desk at Juventus, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad5 Jul 2038
“The easiest signature of my career.” Khéphren Thuram and Juventus agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Market5 Jul 2038
“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.
Market5 Jul 2038
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Juventus is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Boardroom5 Jul 2038
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Mattia Scaringi 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.
Market5 Jul 2038
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings26 Apr 2038
Kenan Yıldız, 33, rolls back the years — 9.32
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.32 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad26 Apr 2038
“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.
Loan watch26 Apr 2038
The goals keep arriving from Benit Borasio’s exile
21 goals in 29 games at Südtirol — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Juventus updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Squad26 Apr 2038
Kenan Yıldız is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.67 with 7 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Player ratings26 Apr 2038
Defensive actions: 24, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Squad26 Apr 2038
Rafiu Durosinmi 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 Apr 2038
Words at Juventus training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Destiny Elimoghale 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 ratings26 Apr 2038
Marked 8.80. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Juventus.
Match24 Apr 2038
It finished 1‑0, and it was Kenan Yıldız’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Juventus.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market1 Feb 2038
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Juventus is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad1 Feb 2038
602 appearances across 13 seasons in these colours. Careers like that are not built any more, and Juventus know what they have.
Player ratings1 Feb 2038
Rafiu Durosinmi, 35, rolls back the years — 8.21
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.21 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Match30 Jan 2038
Rafiu Durosinmi among the goals in a wild afternoon
6 goals in one match, Rafiu Durosinmi on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Juventus and Atalanta.
Squad1 Feb 2038
Pierre Kalulu 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 Feb 2038
Defences have started doubling up on Kenan Yıldız
6 goals and a season average of 7.57 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad1 Feb 2038
Words at Juventus training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Destiny Elimoghale 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 ratings1 Feb 2038
Ninety minutes of Kenan Yıldız at his very best
Marked 9.27. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Juventus.
Loan watch1 Feb 2038
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Juventus, and 2 appearances in 32 say he has earned the hearing.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad14 Dec 2037
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match9 Dec 2037
The cup run ends for Cremonese
1‑2 against Palermo, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Market14 Dec 2037
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cremonese can pretend not to have heard.
Market14 Dec 2037
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. François Schmitt will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Cremonese the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad14 Dec 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cremonese this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Dec 2037
Defences have started doubling up on Alfie Lynskey
9 goals and a season average of 7.51 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad14 Dec 2037
Michele Collocolo 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.
Boardroom14 Dec 2037
Wages eat 174% of everything Cremonese 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.
Player ratings14 Dec 2037
Ninety minutes of Mark Watson at his very best
Marked 8.69. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Cremonese.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad7 Dec 2037
Defences have started doubling up on Vasilije Adžić
15 goals and a season average of 7.72 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Player ratings7 Dec 2037
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.83 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad7 Dec 2037
Kenan Yıldız in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Juventus this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Dec 2037
“The easiest signature of my career.” Rafiu Durosinmi and Juventus agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Match5 Dec 2037
Beaten 2‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Loan watch7 Dec 2037
“I watch every Juventus game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Cremonese runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad7 Dec 2037
Andrea Cambiaso 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 ratings7 Dec 2037
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.61, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings7 Dec 2037
Ulises Piedrabuena was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.61. 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
Crisis
Squad2 Nov 2037
“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.
Squad2 Nov 2037
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad2 Nov 2037
Words at Juventus training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kenan Yıldız 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.
Squad2 Nov 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Juventus this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match31 Oct 2037
AC Milan left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings2 Nov 2037
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Loan watch2 Nov 2037
“I watch every Juventus game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Cremonese runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Loan watch2 Nov 2037
The goals keep arriving from Benit Borasio’s exile
10 goals in 10 games at Südtirol — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Juventus updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Player ratings2 Nov 2037
Shots: 10, enough of them from close enough that a striker in form scores two. He is not a striker in form.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Sep 2037
Fabio Miretti breaks a bone — 32 days out
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.
Squad28 Sep 2037
Vasilije Adžić 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.
Market28 Sep 2037
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Juventus they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad28 Sep 2037
Words at Juventus training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrea Cambiaso 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.
Squad28 Sep 2037
21 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Loan watch28 Sep 2037
“I watch every Juventus game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Cremonese runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Player ratings28 Sep 2037
10 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
Match26 Sep 2037
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Market28 Sep 2037
The Kenan Yıldız story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Kenan Yıldız signs something — a contract at Juventus or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Sep 2037
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market21 Sep 2037
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Cremonese is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad21 Sep 2037
Words at Cremonese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Michele Collocolo 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.
Squad21 Sep 2037
Samir Haribou 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.
Match19 Sep 2037
Empoli left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad21 Sep 2037
Mark Watson gets it from the manager
“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.
Boardroom21 Sep 2037
100% of the income goes out in wages at Cremonese
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Player ratings21 Sep 2037
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market21 Sep 2037
Cristiano Bartoli is 19, and Cremonese have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Sep 2037
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Cremonese may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad14 Sep 2037
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings14 Sep 2037
Marco Nasti, 34, 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 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Market14 Sep 2037
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Cremonese they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad14 Sep 2037
Francesco Folino 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.
Squad14 Sep 2037
Michele Collocolo 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.
Boardroom14 Sep 2037
Cremonese are $79.6M in the red
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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2037
Shots: 14. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
Loan watch14 Sep 2037
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Cremonese, and 0 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad31 Aug 2037
Fabio Miretti breaks a bone — 64 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 64 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match29 Aug 2037
No clean sheets in sight for Juventus
9 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Market31 Aug 2037
Juventus say no — this time
The offer from Bari for Rafiu Durosinmi 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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2037
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.86 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market31 Aug 2037
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Juventus is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad31 Aug 2037
Michele Di Gregorio 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.
Squad31 Aug 2037
Words at Juventus training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kenan Yıldız 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.
Squad31 Aug 2037
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Santiago Bravo is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Match29 Aug 2037
Juve Stabia left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market27 Jul 2037
“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.
Squad27 Jul 2037
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Elia Bartoli is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad27 Jul 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Juventus this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market27 Jul 2037
Everyone has stopped pretending: Bari will make the call about Rafiu Durosinmi this week. Juventus have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Squad27 Jul 2037
Andrea Cambiaso 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.
Squad27 Jul 2037
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Weston McKennie, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom22 Jun 2037
The scrutiny sharpens at Cremonese
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Cremonese is running low.
Squad22 Jun 2037
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Cremonese have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad22 Jun 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cremonese this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Jun 2037
Michele Collocolo 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.
Boardroom22 Jun 2037
Cremonese are $76.8M in the red
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.
Market22 Jun 2037
Everyone has stopped pretending: Como will make the call about Emanuele Monti this week. Cremonese have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Market22 Jun 2037
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Francesco Folino signs something — a contract at Cremonese or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Squad22 Jun 2037
“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
Uneasy
Market15 Jun 2037
“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.
Market15 Jun 2037
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Juventus heard it as anything else.
Squad15 Jun 2037
Kenan Yıldız in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Juventus this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market15 Jun 2037
Avellino come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Juventus did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market15 Jun 2037
Crotone are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Juventus will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Squad15 Jun 2037
Vasilije Adžić has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Juventus 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.
In brief
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Squad
The manager makes an example of Weston McKennie
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Squad
5 new faces, and Juventus are still learning each other
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Boardroom
The Juventus production line keeps running
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match7 Feb 2037
No clean sheets in sight for Juventus
18 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Squad9 Feb 2037
28 goals and a season average of 8.03. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Player ratings9 Feb 2037
A brace, and Ulises Piedrabuena takes the afternoon — 8.74
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ulises Piedrabuena provided it, and the 8.74 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings9 Feb 2037
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 10.00 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad9 Feb 2037
Vasilije Adžić 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.
Market9 Feb 2037
Juventus say no — this time
The offer from Catanzaro for Mark Watson 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.
Squad9 Feb 2037
Words at Juventus training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bremer 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.
Match7 Feb 2037
It finished 5‑4, and it was Ulises Piedrabuena’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Juventus.
Squad9 Feb 2037
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Andrea Cambiaso commits to Juventus for another 2 years.