The offer from Pescara for Lorenzo Montipò 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.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Gianluca Busio scored, was marked 7.96, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
“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 Venezia hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Gianluca Busio 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 Antonio Casas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Avellino have kept their man, and Venezia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Antonio Casas 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.
5 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Juve Stabia were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Marked 8.24 — 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.
Successful dribbles: 15. 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.
30 appearances at AS Saint-Etienne and the goals have stopped going in. Venezia lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Venezia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Words at Venezia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Antonio Casas 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.
Palermo left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Ciro Sanna to a room that had heard them before.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Venezia are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
“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 Venezia, and it is not being withdrawn.
8 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Deadline passes with 2 signed and 4 gone
That is the business done at Venezia 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.
16 clean sheets from 25 appearances at AS Saint-Etienne. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
The words a physio says slowly. 22 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“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 Venezia, and it is not being withdrawn.
Venezia 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Venezia have done the hard part with Penarol, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
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 name of Ridgeciano Haps has come up in conversations Venezia were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
60 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Venezia lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Venezia can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Venezia is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Add another name to the list: Corinthians have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Akor Adams. The answer from Venezia has not changed — yet.
Marked 7.04 on 19 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
“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 Venezia hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
45 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Venezia lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Venezia can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Venezia have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Venezia can pretend not to have heard.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Akor Adams has come out of that comparison in the side, and Venezia have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Ciro Sanna after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Akor Adams has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
“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 Carpi, and it is not being withdrawn.
Federico Vietto 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.
3 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rodrick Tcheuna was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Gregorio Piccini has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Orazio Rocca is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Mirko Caruso is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
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.
Avellino asked and Napoli 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 point taken on 87 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
Successful dribbles: 13. 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.
Nobody at Avellino 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Avellino, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
Abdoulaye Ndiaye 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: 16. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Abdoulaye Ndiaye'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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
10 new faces, and Avellino are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.