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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Forli they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
11 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
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.
Squad8 Oct 2040
Tiago Costa 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.
Lukáš Raběčný 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 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Emiljano Mihana will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Novara the goodbyes have quietly begun.
4 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Novara this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Oct 2040
Jacopo Mirra 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.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Triestina? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
The words a physio says slowly. 19 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Forli have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
1 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.99 at 37, and nobody on the pitch was better.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Forli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 26 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.80 at 37, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Daniel Arnaud is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Forli they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Jean Chrétien has agreed terms with Virtus Entella for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
10 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.
Leonardo Santer 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tiago Costa 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Emiljano Mihana will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Novara the goodbyes have quietly begun.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Lovro Mikulčić provided it, and the 8.30 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The instruction has come from upstairs rather than from the dugout, which is the version of this conversation no manager enjoys. Somebody in that squad is now available whether the man who picks the team thinks so or not.
“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 Novara, and it is not being withdrawn.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Emiljano Mihana has agreed terms with Lazio for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Lovro Mikulčić 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.
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
In brief
SquadJacopo Mirra falls out with a teammate over standards
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Daniel Arnaud is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Forli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Aug 2040
Tahir Cevher 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Novara can pretend not to have heard.
Stefano Trio 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Ivan Gordeichuk is living that version at Novara, and it tends to show in the first month.
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.
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.
“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 Novara, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
The best deals are the ones the accountants never notice. Ivan Gordeichuk arrives at Novara 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 Forli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniel Arnaud 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Forli can pretend not to have heard.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Daniel Arnaud is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tiago Costa 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 level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Forli know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Novara can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Novara this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Squad2 Jul 2040
Jacopo Mirra 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.
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.
The offer from Salernitana for Daniel Arnaud 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Novara have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Novara this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The name of Kristoffer Tankovic has come up in conversations Novara were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Daniel Arnaud commits to Novara for another 5 years.
Squad11 Jun 2040
Words at Novara training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emiljano Mihana 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.
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Squad4 Jun 2040
Words at Novara training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lovro Mikulčić 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Novara this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Novara can pretend not to have heard.
Lovro Mikulčić 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.
Squad21 May 2040
Words at Novara training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marco Da Graca 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.
7 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.
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.
Vladimir Dziov 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 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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Daniel Arnaud is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Novara can pretend not to have heard.
Squad26 Mar 2040
Words at Novara training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marco Da Graca 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Novara this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Novara know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“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 Novara, and it is not being withdrawn.
Lovro Mikulčić 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.
Squad27 Feb 2040
Words at Novara training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marco Da Graca 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.
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.
28 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Novara lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Novara may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad30 Jan 2040
Words at Novara training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marco Da Graca 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.
Tomas Hrosovsky 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 words a physio says slowly. 50 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.
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.
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 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.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 18 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Andrea Vailati and Novara agree another 2 years.
Squad2 Jan 2040
Words at Novara training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marco Da Graca 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.
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Gabriele Osti has his answer from Novara; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Mateus Jorge damages knee ligaments — 121 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 121 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Novara can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Novara they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Novara have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Novara did not have in the autumn.
Squad31 Oct 2039
Words at Novara training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marco Da Graca 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Novara this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
Boardroom99% of the income goes out in wages at Novara
“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 Novara, and it is not being withdrawn.
Lovro Mikulčić 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.
Boardroom22 Aug 2039
10 academy players handed senior numbers at Novara
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Squad22 Aug 2039
Words at Novara training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marco Da Graca 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Flavio Sanna is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Cristiano Gatti 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Filippo Ranieri has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
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.
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.
In brief
BoardroomNovara turn down the training-ground plan
“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 Novara, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Novara they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Squad8 Aug 2039
Words at Novara training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marco Da Graca 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.
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Novara is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Marco Da Graca 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
Squad11 Jul 2039
Jacopo Mirra 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.24 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Novara have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Giacomo Seminari will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Novara 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.
Dominik Čeko 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.
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.
1 for Daniel Arnaud, marked 7.32, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Marco Da Graca 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.
Squad17 Jan 2039
Words at Novara training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lovro Mikulčić 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 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Giuseppe Agyemang signs something — a contract at Novara or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.