The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Renate is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Renate and Cittadella in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Player ratings13 Sep 2038
Giacomo Iuliani was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.05. 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 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.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.63 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
200 appearances across 11 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
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 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.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Ruben Comert 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.
8 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Fabrizio De Simone has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Arturo Marini has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Giorgio Pellegrini is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Renate is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Renate have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad16 Aug 2038
Words at Renate training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lorenzo De Leo 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 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Alejandro Vergaz signs something — a contract at Renate or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Renate 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. John Ward is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad19 Jul 2038
Words at Renate training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lorenzo De Leo 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 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Alejandro Vergaz signs something — a contract at Renate or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A new face in his position, and Aboubacar Doumbia suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. Renate have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.
What was a back-page story is now a matter for the terraces, and the terraces do not do nuance. Renate would like it dealt with before it becomes the only question anybody asks.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Renate, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The best deals are the ones the accountants never notice. Jason Brown arrives at Renate with his wages the only cost and something to prove the only clause.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Renate 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Renate have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The name of John Ward has come up in conversations Renate were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad28 Jun 2038
Words at Renate training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lorenzo De Leo 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 embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Renate will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
The words a physio says slowly. 27 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.
“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 Renate, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad14 Jun 2038
Words at Renate training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lorenzo De Leo 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Renate know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
35 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Renate lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Renate can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
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 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.
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 Renate, another week without a signature from Ruben Comert.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Alejandro Vergaz is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The words a physio says slowly. 57 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 30 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.91 at 38, and nobody on the pitch was better.
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.
“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 Renate, and it is not being withdrawn.
Marked 9.25 — 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. 37 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
A season average of 7.51 with 16 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Player ratings10 May 2038
Ruben Comert, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.60
A mark of 7.60 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Renate this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A performance of 9.00 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings10 May 2038
Giacomo Iuliani was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.91. 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.
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.
Marked 8.45 — 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. 88 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Javier Pérez had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Pro Patria were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.47, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings22 Mar 2038
Ruben Comert, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.46
A mark of 8.46 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.91 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad22 Mar 2038
Words at Renate training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lorenzo De Leo 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 a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Ruben Comert has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
In brief
Player ratingsAlejandro Vergaz was on a different afternoon to everybody else
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 95 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. John Ward did not need any: 9.34, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Renate can pretend not to have heard.
8 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Renate and Triestina in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
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.
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 ratings15 Mar 2038
Javier Pérez was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.88. 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Renate will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Renate this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 20 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 19 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
19 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Renate will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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.
Lorenzo De Leo 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. 6 goals between Renate and Cittadella, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
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.
Marked 8.73 — 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.
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Pro Vercelli kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Renate will be asked about the last half hour all week.
“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; Renate are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad11 Jan 2038
Words at Renate training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lorenzo De Leo 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.
Marked 8.97 — 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.
Player ratings11 Jan 2038
Giacomo Iuliani was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.79. 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.
Player ratings11 Jan 2038
Lorenzo De Leo was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.72. 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.
“I have watched this squad. There is more in it than the table says.” First press conference, first promise — Christoph Schubert made the one every new manager makes, and now comes the part where it gets checked.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Renate will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.48 at 38, and nobody on the pitch was better.
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 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.
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Renate will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad30 Nov 2037
Words at Renate training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lorenzo De Leo 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.
13 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
7 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
2 behind and going nowhere, until Lorenzo De Leo decided otherwise. Lecco had done the hard part and then watched it come apart, and the noise at the final whistle was the sort a ground keeps.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Renate will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Two goals and a mark of 8.59 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
At 38 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.70 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
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.
Squad16 Nov 2037
Words at Renate training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lorenzo De Leo 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.
Marked 9.19 — 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.