“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Juventus 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 Juventus this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The offer from Ascoli for Demba Samb 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.
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.
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 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.
Vasilije Adžić, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.92
A mark of 8.92 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Dušan Vlahović 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.
14 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Como kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Juventus will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Simone Pafundi has just signed for Juventus, and for once the answer mattered.
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.
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 phone has started ringing about Marco Tiozzo Pagio again, and this time the name on the line is Ravenna. Juventus are listening politely and promising nothing.
33 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
26 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.
Kenan Yıldız 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 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 Juventus hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad6 Dec 2027
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 78 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Sebastiano Nava is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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. 4 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Dani Ceballos has his answer from Juventus; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
“I watch every Juventus game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Cosenza runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 118 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
“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.
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.
At 29 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 18 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
At 2 goals adrift this was a formality, and the formality lasted right up until it did not. Juventus found something the first half had given no notice of, and Pisa could not hold what they had.
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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
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.
Andrea Cambiaso 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Bremer. 3‑2 against Pisa, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Juventus will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. AS Roma kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Juventus will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Dušan Vlahović 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.
“I watch every Juventus game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Lazio runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Mattia Perin: 3 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 34 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Successful dribbles: 33. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad25 Jan 2027
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.
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.
There was one mistake and it ended in the net. Defenders are judged on the worst thing they did rather than on the eighty-nine minutes either side of it, which is unfair and is also the job.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 43 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The chase for Roberto Piccoli ended with $10.4M changing hands and Fiorentina out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
The offer from Cremonese for Lloyd Kelly 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Roberto Piccoli has just signed for Juventus, and for once the answer mattered.
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.
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.
The phone has started ringing about Marcello Villa again, and this time the name on the line is Campobasso. Juventus are listening politely and promising nothing.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Juventus will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The offer from Le Havre AC for Arkadiusz Milik 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.
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.
“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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Riccardo Paonessa is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Add another name to the list: Sambenedettese have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Alessandro Cipriani. The answer from Juventus has not changed — yet.
Marked 8.06 — 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Juventus will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The offer from Tours for David Alaba 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.05 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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. Juventus 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 Juventus this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 Juventus hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
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.
1‑0 against Pogon, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Kenan Yıldız was at the centre of the description.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Edon Zhegrova obliged against Forli. 4‑2 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Juventus.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Kenan Yıldız, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.25
A mark of 8.25 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
1 for Teun Koopmeiners, marked 7.88, 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.
“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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
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.
6 goals in one match, Edon Zhegrova on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Juventus and Forli.
Loïs Openda 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.