Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Fiorentina is saying, and nobody at Altamura is enjoying the guessing.
Everything agreed with Frosinone, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Every paper's favourite story and every manager's least. What happened is being dealt with internally, which is the phrase clubs use when they would rather nobody asked again.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Altamura this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 Jul 2029
Marco Nazzaro 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.
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.
“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 The request is on a desk at Altamura, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fabrizio Alastra 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Altamura, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nobody at Altamura will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Altamura is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The clubs have shaken hands with Napoli; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Modena keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
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.
Squad18 Jun 2029
Franco Troisi 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Altamura are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Kevin Fustini is in the works
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Altamura is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Juventus keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
$330.0K was the most the club would pay and Juve Stabia 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.
Altamura asked and Perugia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad11 Jun 2029
Franco Troisi 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.
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.
“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 Altamura, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Altamura this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 May 2029
Franco Troisi 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.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Tobia Mogentale trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Altamura is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Altamura this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at Altamura will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Roberto Pirrello has been around long enough to know what the spring feels like when it goes wrong, and he can feel it. A dressing room that is frightened plays like one.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Miloš Bočić will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Altamura the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Franco Troisi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Altamura, another week without a signature from Miloš Bočić.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Altamura, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nicholas Fantoni was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
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.
Something was said to Yuri Kharlamov and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nicholas Fantoni trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Altamura know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 19 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
“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 Altamura, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Altamura they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Tobia Mogentale 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.
Foggia left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad16 Apr 2029
Words at Altamura training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicholas Fantoni 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.
0‑3 to Salernitana, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Altamura will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Altamura they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad9 Apr 2029
Marco Nazzaro 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Ramiro Rúmbolo
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. 23 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Roman Andrieiev 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.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Altamura, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nobody at Altamura will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Altamura know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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.
Fabrizio Alastra 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.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marco Nazzaro was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Fabrizio Alastra 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 Nicholas Fantoni was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 10 actions, 6.74, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Altamura can pretend not to have heard.
Altamura had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Renate, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Fabrizio Alastra 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.
$160.0K was the most the club would pay and Perugia 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Altamura can pretend not to have heard.
6 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Fabrizio Alastra 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.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad1 Jan 2029
Words at Altamura training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicholas Fantoni 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.
Something was said to Vittorio Agostinelli and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
In brief
Player ratingsThe one thing Noam Emeran could not do
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Altamura can pretend not to have heard.
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Marco Nazzaro 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 Nicholas Fantoni was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Miloš Bočić, and the manager let it.
The dugout18 Dec 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Domenico Greco was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Altamura dressing room was either.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Altamura, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Position 16 and 6 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.
Fabrizio Alastra 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 footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Bohdan Zakharov has, at Altamura, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
0‑1 to Cavese, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad4 Dec 2028
Words at Altamura training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marco Nazzaro 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.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 10 actions, 6.83, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Altamura can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Words at Altamura training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicholas Fantoni 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 are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Nobody at Altamura will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Fabrizio Alastra 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 Nicholas Fantoni was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Nobody at Altamura will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
Every paper's favourite story and every manager's least. What happened is being dealt with internally, which is the phrase clubs use when they would rather nobody asked again.
Tobia Mogentale 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.
Tempers went at Altamura this week. Nothing a hard session and a quiet word cannot repair, though the story got out all the same.
Squad2 Oct 2028
Marco Nazzaro 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.
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.71 on the card, and the Altamura support went home talking about one name.
The dugout2 Oct 2028
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.” Domenico Greco, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Altamura had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Napoli, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Altamura asked and Lecco said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Altamura will try again when the window opens; Hellas Verona may not be selling by then.
“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.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Marco Nazzaro 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 dugout11 Sep 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Fabrizio Alastra'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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Altamura this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Altamura have gone to Empoli 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.
$120.0K on the table at Catania. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Tobia Mogentale 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Altamura are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Vittorio Agostinelli trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Altamura had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Juventus, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
The offer went to Catania this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Catanzaro have kept their man, and Altamura go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“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 Altamura know it.
Carlito Thiago 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.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Words at Altamura training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marco Nazzaro 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.
Hellas Verona have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Roko Tudor will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Altamura the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Bologna is saying, and nobody at Altamura is enjoying the guessing.
Altamura offered $470.0K; Sampdoria said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Ramiro Rúmbolo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Words at Altamura training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicholas Fantoni 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.
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.
“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 Altamura, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deal with Juventus is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Inter keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
$470.0K on the table at Sampdoria. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Fabrizio Alastra 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. AC Milan have kept their man, and Altamura go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
44 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Words at Altamura training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicholas Fantoni 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.
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 Miloš Bočić is on it.
Everything agreed with Arzignano, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Altamura this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Modena have kept their man, and Altamura go back to a list with one name crossed off 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.
4 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
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.
Fabrizio Alastra 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 Marco Nazzaro was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Miloš Bočić is on it.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Altamura have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fabrizio Alastra 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 Nicholas Fantoni was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Miloš Bočić is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ramiro Rúmbolo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Fabrizio Alastra 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.
“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.
Squad15 May 2028
Words at Altamura training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicholas Fantoni 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.
Something was said to Miloš Bočić and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Matteo Zazza trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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. Altamura will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
“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.
Squad1 May 2028
Words at Altamura training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicholas Fantoni 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.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Altamura than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Altamura 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 Nicholas Fantoni was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Altamura. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Altamura would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Ramiro Rúmbolo 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 injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 18 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
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 0‑2 Domenico Greco left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Words at Altamura training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marco Nazzaro 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.
Nobody at Altamura is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Martim Pereira has just signed for Altamura, and for once the answer mattered.
“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; Altamura are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 4 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
The dugout3 Apr 2028
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 1‑3 Domenico Greco left the room before anybody could ask which.
Fabrizio Alastra 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Vittorio Agostinelli, and the manager let it.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Marco Nazzaro 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.
Nobody at Altamura will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Catania in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
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 Noam Emeran has written the date down.
“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 Altamura will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
A brace, and Mattia Florio takes the afternoon — 8.73
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mattia Florio provided it, and the 8.73 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Fabrizio Alastra 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.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Nicola Dipinto will call it something else in private.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Domenico Greco could afford to be generous.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Altamura, and both men came out saying it was fine.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.12 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Carlito Thiago 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.
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.
Signings arrive with a picture of the club in their head, and this one’s picture was bigger than the building. He will play well and he will be gone, in that order, and everybody knows it.
Edoardo Nicolello is 20, and Altamura have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
The dugout6 Mar 2028
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.” Domenico Greco, on a 3‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Domenico Greco after 0‑4, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Words at Altamura training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicholas Fantoni 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.
Nobody at Altamura will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Beaten 4 times, with 4 saves for company. Goalkeepers carry these scorelines on their record whoever actually caused them, which is the quiet injustice of the job.
In brief
Player ratingsNoam Emeran beats them one at a time
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Altamura this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Altamura ran out of time with Cremonese. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
5 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.
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.
In brief
SquadWords at Altamura training over how hard people work
“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 Altamura, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Altamura have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Altamura asked and Livorno said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrei Moise was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Miloš Bočić is on it.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Altamura people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Giuseppe Simone has gone, the accounts have $1.1M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
Altamura had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at AS Roma, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Cittadella paid $1.1M and Altamura took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 15 combined actions and a mark of 6.83, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Ramiro Rúmbolo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Erick Gabriel 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Altamura this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
“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.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Words at Altamura training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marco Carta 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.
Fabrizio Alastra 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Altamura can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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 music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout13 Dec 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 0‑3 Domenico Greco left the room before anybody could ask which.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Vittorio Agostinelli trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
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.
Tommaso D'Arcangelo 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 dugout29 Nov 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Domenico Greco chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Altamura, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nobody at Altamura will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Altamura this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
6 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.
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Marco Carta 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.
Nobody at Altamura will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Giuseppe Nicolao’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Altamura needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Altamura know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Altamura has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Fabrizio Alastra 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.
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Words at Altamura training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marco Nazzaro 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 not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
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 Miloš Bočić is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Miloš Bočić trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“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; Altamura are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 10 combined actions and a mark of 6.29, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
7 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
19 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Altamura lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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; Altamura are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Words at Altamura training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giuseppe Simone 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 D'Arcangelo 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.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Nicola Dipinto'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.
In brief
BoardroomWages eat 86% of everything Altamura earn
41 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Altamura lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 Altamura, and it is not being withdrawn.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.67 for the rest of it.
Fabrizio Alastra 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 Giuseppe Simone was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 23 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.
56 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Altamura lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 21 arrived, 19 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Altamura 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 Giuseppe Simone was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 dugout6 Sep 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Fabrizio Alastra'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.