“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AlbinoLeffe can pretend not to have heard.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Sassuolo is saying, and nobody at AlbinoLeffe is enjoying the guessing.
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Words at AlbinoLeffe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emanuele Zuelli 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.
Successful dribbles: 20. 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.
“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 The request is on a desk at AlbinoLeffe, and it is not being withdrawn.
“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; AlbinoLeffe are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Giacomo Sciacca has his answer from AlbinoLeffe; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The phone has started ringing about Lorenzo Facchetti again, and this time the name on the line is Vis Pesaro. AlbinoLeffe are listening politely and promising nothing.
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.
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.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout20 Dec 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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Armando Testa to a room that had heard them before.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mihai Gusu trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“Nobody outside is coming to save us.” It was short, it was not comfortable, and by all accounts the AlbinoLeffe squad were quieter afterwards than they had been all season.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Armando Testa kept it short after the 3‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
“If we are going to be beaten, let it not be because somebody in here could not be bothered.” He stood up and said it in front of everybody, which is a thing a squad remembers about a man for years.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emanuele Zuelli was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at AlbinoLeffe has been clear about where Andrea De Paoli stands, which is more than many ever get.
“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; AlbinoLeffe are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“I watch every AlbinoLeffe game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Rizespor runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at AlbinoLeffe, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and AlbinoLeffe will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Giacomo Sciacca’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and AlbinoLeffe needing him to play as if none of it matters.
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.54, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Words at AlbinoLeffe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emanuele Zuelli 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.
Tommaso Ferrari 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: Francesco Castaldo. 2‑0 against Lumezzane, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Match16 Oct 2027
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for AlbinoLeffe. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. AlbinoLeffe told Andrea Astrologo something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” AlbinoLeffe may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Words at AlbinoLeffe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emanuele Zuelli 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 young player of the month award goes to a 20-year-old at AlbinoLeffe who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
Boardroom4 Oct 2027
108% of the income goes out in wages at AlbinoLeffe
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.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Emanuele Zuelli has come out of that comparison in the side, and AlbinoLeffe have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
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.
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” AlbinoLeffe have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 17 signed and 17 gone
That is the business done at AlbinoLeffe 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.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
An order from above at AlbinoLeffe: somebody has to go
Balance sheets do not care about form or about who the manager was planning to build around. The board have decided a sale is required, and the only question left is which name ends up carrying it.
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 given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and AlbinoLeffe know it.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Guidonia Montecelio have kept their man, and AlbinoLeffe go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
65 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. AlbinoLeffe lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
AlbinoLeffe had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Spezia, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Avellino have kept their man, and AlbinoLeffe go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
AlbinoLeffe have made the call to Avellino. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
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 Michelangelo Duranti is on it.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at AlbinoLeffe. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“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 AlbinoLeffe, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Simone Potop was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at AlbinoLeffe than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one AlbinoLeffe will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
Simone Potop 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Squad12 Apr 2027
The division's best last weekend was a AlbinoLeffe man
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Andrea De Paoli was the best thing in any of them.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Andrea Mandelli’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and AlbinoLeffe needing him to play as if none of it matters.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Edoardo Sottini trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Words at AlbinoLeffe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Simone Potop 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 pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Giacomo Sali, and the manager let it.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Armando Testa, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Riccardo Baroni trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Somebody watched every match in the division at the weekend and decided he was the best thing in any of them. A small honour, and most careers end without one.
“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 AlbinoLeffe, and it is not being withdrawn.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Gabriele Boloca scored, was marked 7.65, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Simone Potop was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Gabriele Ferrarini 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 has re-ordered his thinking and Gabriele Baldi has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Armando Testa, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Mattia Angeloni, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.94
A mark of 7.94 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.
It finished 2‑0, and it was Andrea De Paoli’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to AlbinoLeffe.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at AlbinoLeffe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jacopo Desogus 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Armando Testa could afford to be generous.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Filippo Faggi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Carpi next, and one man in the AlbinoLeffe dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jacopo Desogus trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“If we are going to be beaten, let it not be because somebody in here could not be bothered.” He stood up and said it in front of everybody, which is a thing a squad remembers about a man for years.
Successful dribbles: 24. 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.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Alessandro Lombardi. 1‑0 against Alcione Milano, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Armando Testa could afford to be generous.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Giacomo Sciacca’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and AlbinoLeffe needing him to play as if none of it matters.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mihai Gusu trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 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 it has been tried.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 89. Union Brescia had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at AlbinoLeffe than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.