5‑0, and Amine Gouiri took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Olympique de Marseille tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings20 Dec 2027
A brace, and Igor Paixão takes the afternoon — 8.47
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Igor Paixão provided it, and the 8.47 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Two goals and a mark of 8.22 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.18 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Rodrigo De Paul 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.
Match18 Dec 2027
Another one collected away from home
4 on the bounce on the road for Olympique de Marseille. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Leonardo Balerdi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Fenerbahce have kept their man, and Olympique de Marseille go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Olympique de Marseille will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The offer from Gaziantep for Ange Lago 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.
“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.
Timothy Weah 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 thought about how hard another man trains, and Rodrigo De Paul was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
12 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Rodrigo De Paul is on it.
14 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Olympique de Marseille lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Olympique de Marseille will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Position 3, 62 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Olympique de Marseille can pretend not to have heard.
“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.
The offer from Salford City for Antoine Valero 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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Neal Maupay and Olympique de Marseille agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about 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 Olympique de Marseille this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Cremonese will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
59 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Cremonese lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Cremonese and Slovan Liberec have settled on $7.9M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Michele Collocolo had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Cosenza waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Cremonese is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Cremonese have gone to Sorrento with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 42 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The words a physio says slowly. 66 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.
Position 19 and 15 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Cremonese people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“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 Cremonese, and it is not being withdrawn.
Federico Baschirotto 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.
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 50 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
74 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Cremonese lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Virtus Entella waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Cremonese is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The chase for Edgaras Dubickas ended with $670.0K changing hands and Ternana out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
David Okereke 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.
“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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 57 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
82 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Cremonese lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Cremonese can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
“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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Lautaro López has just signed for Cremonese, and for once the answer mattered.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Catanzaro have kept their man, and Cremonese go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“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 Cremonese hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Jari Vandeputte 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.
11 clean sheets from 38 appearances at Empoli. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Cremonese will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
89 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Cremonese lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Martín Payero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until David Okereke signs something — a contract at Cremonese or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Alejandro Monsalve trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Marco Festa has written the date down.
Qualification is secured, and next season the big floodlit nights are continental ones. For the players it is a stage; for the accounts it is a lifeline; for the supporters it is passports.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Olympique de Marseille will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Olympique de Marseille will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Olympique de Marseille this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 18 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Benjamin Pavard is on it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Olympique de Marseille, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Cremonese will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
96 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Cremonese lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
David Okereke and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Federico Baschirotto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Jari Vandeputte signs something — a contract at Cremonese or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The mood at Cremonese has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Cremonese will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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 Cremonese, and it is not being withdrawn.
Faris was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Paolo Bighetti is 19, and for one weekend he was the best of everybody his age in the division. Nobody should build a career on it and everybody quietly does.
15 appearances at Alcione Milano and the goals have stopped going in. Cremonese lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Cremonese will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Position 19 on 15 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Martín Payero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom10 May 2027
Nobody left the Cremonese dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
11 clean sheets from 37 appearances at Empoli. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
The dugout10 May 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑4 Pietro Ceccarelli left the room before anybody could ask which.
18 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Hellas Verona were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Cremonese will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Pietro Ceccarelli has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
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.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.85 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
1 for Morten Thorsby, marked 7.77, 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Cremonese will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“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.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Cremonese can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
David Okereke and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Federico Baschirotto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Federico Baschirotto wants continental football; whether Cremonese can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Successful dribbles: 23. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Faris and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at Cremonese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Federico Baschirotto 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Cremonese has been clear about where Morten Thorsby stands, which is more than many ever get.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Lorenzo Piras to a room that had heard them before.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Tadeo Suárez
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Joan Gaona
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Federico Baschirotto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Davide Garatti commits to Cremonese for another 4 years.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting David Okereke's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
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.
Position 20 and 9 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Ternana have accepted the money. What Cremonese do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
6 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.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 0 signed and 0 gone
That is the business done at Cremonese until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Cremonese heard it as anything else.
Faris 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.
David Okereke 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.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 5 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
7 goals in one match, Faris on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Cremonese and Atalanta.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Cremonese heard it as anything else.
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.
Federico Baschirotto and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Davide Garatti is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Giuseppe Pezzella was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Faris was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.32. 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.