Marked for Ivan Smolčić
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market31 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market31 Aug 2026
Pisa paid $1.4M and Pescara took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Market31 Aug 2026
Udinese pay $1.3M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Pescara training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gustavo Silva 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.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Pescara asked and La Equidad said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Sebastiano Desplanches, and the manager let it.
Match29 Aug 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match22 Aug 2026
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Moise Kean scored in the 88th minute, Parma had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Como took the lot.
Market24 Aug 2026
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Como people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Como have gone to Arezzo 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.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
$1.2M was the most the club would pay and Sassuolo were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $1.2M — a club that wants Fali Candé enough to be asked twice.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Como
Trevoh Chalobah 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.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
5 academy graduates step up at Como
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Paris FC have kept their man, and Como go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
At 20 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market24 Aug 2026
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Pescara have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market24 Aug 2026
Torino come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Pescara did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market24 Aug 2026
Ivan Saio 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 Pescara can pretend not to have heard.
Market24 Aug 2026
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Pescara have done the hard part with Como, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
1 academy players handed senior numbers at Pescara
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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Gustavo Silva 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Pescara
Abdoulaye Ndiaye and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Arezzo have kept their man, and Pescara go back to a list with one name crossed off it.