The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. JS Kabylie have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The offer from ENPPI for Mohamed Saliou Bangoura 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what JS Kabylie can pretend not to have heard.
Yanis Hamache 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Ali Bounedjah is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Billal Messaoudi 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 Luca Moro is on it.
“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 The request is on a desk at JS Kabylie, and it is not being withdrawn.
Yanis Hamache 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 Idris El Mizouni was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at JS Kabylie 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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Naoufel Khacef trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
1 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee JS Kabylie could ask drops and the wages Will Hondermarck can ask rise.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what JS Kabylie can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at JS Kabylie this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 May 2029
Words at JS Kabylie training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Billal Messaoudi 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 Yanis Hamache is on 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 JS Kabylie, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and JS Kabylie have no good answer.
The least glamorous thing a foreign signing ever does and the one that decides most of them. A player who can hear the shout behind him is a different footballer from one who cannot.
In brief
BoardroomThe JS Kabylie production line keeps running
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at JS Kabylie this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Dieudonné Gaucho and JS Kabylie agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad14 May 2029
Words at JS Kabylie training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Idris El Mizouni 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 JS Kabylie 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.
Abdennour Iheb Belhocini has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at JS Kabylie, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Mohamed Saliou Bangoura may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” JS Kabylie have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Alexis Guendouz 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 Billal Messaoudi 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 Abdennour Iheb Belhocini is on it.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” JS Kabylie have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at JS Kabylie 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 JS Kabylie 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.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 13 combined actions and a mark of 7.27, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
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 Luca Moro is on 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 JS Kabylie can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around JS Kabylie they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Yanis Hamache 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.
A 1‑0 win over CR Belouizdad, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad9 Apr 2029
Words at JS Kabylie training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Billal Messaoudi 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.
Yanis Hamache 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 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 fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Abdelmalek Kelaleche’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and JS Kabylie needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. JS Kabylie know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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 Brahim Dib is on it.
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad26 Mar 2029
Words at JS Kabylie training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Idris El Mizouni 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 point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Ahmed Ghoulam after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Yanis Hamache signs something — a contract at JS Kabylie or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around JS Kabylie they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Alexis Guendouz 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.
Successful dribbles: 21. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad12 Mar 2029
Words at JS Kabylie training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Idris El Mizouni 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, Ahmed Ghoulam could afford to be generous.
MB Rouissat will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. JS Kabylie were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
7.88, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Yanis Hamache 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 never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Billal Messaoudi commits to JS Kabylie for another 3 years.
Squad5 Mar 2029
Words at JS Kabylie training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Idris El Mizouni 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 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Ahmed Ghoulam on a 3‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
“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 JS Kabylie, and it is not being withdrawn.
Position 3, 39 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at JS Kabylie 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.
Marked 7.99. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
The dugout29 Jan 2029
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.” Ahmed Ghoulam, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
A 2‑1 win over JS Saoura, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Match3 Jan 2029
Riad Benayad wins it after the whistle should have gone
115 minutes played. Riad Benayad found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and JS Saoura went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around JS Kabylie people have started saying his name in the past tense.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Luca Moro provided it, and the 8.96 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Two goals and a mark of 8.65 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
JS Kabylie and CR Belouizdad have settled on $1.7M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. JS Kabylie have done the hard part with CR Belouizdad, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
“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 JS Kabylie, and it is not being withdrawn.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. JS Kabylie had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at JS Kabylie 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.
Half the programme played, position 6, 29 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Luca Moro provided it, and the 9.12 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at JS Kabylie this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
200 times in these colours, in all weathers and under four or five different managers. That kind of service is quietly disappearing from the game.
The dugout25 Dec 2028
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.” Ahmed Ghoulam kept it short after the 4‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Idris El Mizouni was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. JS Kabylie will quote 15 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Ahmed Ghoulam on a 3‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at JS Kabylie, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at JS Kabylie this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Words at JS Kabylie training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Idris El Mizouni 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 1‑0, Ahmed Ghoulam could afford to be generous.
10 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
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.
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.01, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad30 Oct 2028
Words at JS Kabylie training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Idris El Mizouni 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 JS Kabylie 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.
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 list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Mohamed Saliou Bangoura may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Yanis Hamache 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.
The dugout23 Oct 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 Ahmed Ghoulam left the room before anybody could ask which.
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 the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
The words a physio says slowly. 15 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what JS Kabylie can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at JS Kabylie this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mohamed Réda Hamidi and JS Kabylie agree another 4 years.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Billal Messaoudi 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.
46 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. JS Kabylie lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Luca Moro provided it, and the 8.40 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.91 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Boardroom4 Sep 2028
Deadline passes with 22 signed and 15 gone
That is the business done at JS Kabylie 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at JS Kabylie this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
The words a physio says slowly. 92 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 JS Kabylie, and it is not being withdrawn.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Qadisiyah have kept their man, and JS Kabylie go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
$1.4M on the table at CSKA 1948. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The offer from MC Oran for Koceila Ait Idir 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at JS Kabylie is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $1.4M — a club that wants Soufiane Bayazid enough to be asked twice.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Luca Moro was one of the reasons people came, and $6.9M does not replace that by itself.
Padova and Perugia have settled on $390.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
99 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. JS Kabylie lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
JS Kabylie have gone to Padova 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.
JS Kabylie asked and Dinamo Zagreb said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Arthur Bada will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around JS Kabylie the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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 injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 15 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
$3.4M on the table at Juventus. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The phone has started ringing about Luca Moro again, and this time the name on the line is JS Kabylie. Padova are listening politely and promising nothing.
The deal with Lazio 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.
Padova asked and Fiorentina said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Words at Padova training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Filippo Sgarbi 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.
Bulelane Nikani 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 have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Padova can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from Bologna for Marco Pompetti 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Padova have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Cagliari have kept their man, and Padova go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Padova 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.
In brief
The dugoutAdriano Nicastro is still being punished for one mistake
Position 18 and 36 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Padova can pretend not to have heard.
5 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Padova can tell you which week it ends in.
“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.
“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; Padova are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Every long career reaches the week the last one is thought about. He would like it to be where he started, and Padova know now that the thought has arrived.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Padova this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I did not go to Al-Faisaly to sit and watch. I want to come back to Padova and fight for my place.” 5 appearances in 9 matches say the rest.
The dugout3 Apr 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 Cesare Donadoni to a room that had heard them before.
Mattia Bortolussi 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 Ahmida Zenasni was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Luca Moro’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Padova needing him to play as if none of it matters.
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.
40 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Padova lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 Padova, and it is not being withdrawn.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 20 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.11 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marco Pompetti 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 Kevin Lasagna, and the manager let it.
The dugout28 Feb 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.” Cesare Donadoni, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Padova will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Luca Moro provided it, and the 8.51 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Padova offered $3.5M; Juventus 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.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Marco Pompetti scored, was marked 7.96, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Padova have done the hard part with Salernitana, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Marco Pompetti 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.
7 goals in one match, Luca Moro on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Padova and Benevento.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. AC Milan have kept their man, and Padova go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Padova will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
5 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 rules permit it and it stings anyway. Emanuele Zuelli has agreed terms with Pescara for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
“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 Jan 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 Cesare Donadoni left the room before anybody could ask which.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Padova will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Emanuele Zuelli had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
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.
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Mohamed Amine Chakir from Ascoli for $1.6M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
Level with 88 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Padova had all but put away. Südtirol will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
Add another name to the list: Vicenza have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Emanuele Zuelli. The answer from Padova has not changed — yet.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Cremonese have kept their man, and Padova go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Giuseppe Coppola was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout3 Jan 2028
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.” Cesare Donadoni chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Padova have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Franco Caro 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 have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Padova can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“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.
Marco Pompetti 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.
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.
The dugout13 Dec 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.” Cesare Donadoni, on a 1‑0 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 Luca Moro trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
At 39, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Padova 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 Coppola was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Cesare Donadoni after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Giuseppe Coppola 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.
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.
5 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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Padova heard it as anything else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Giuseppe Coppola was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Padova this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Padova told Pietro Fusi something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Padova have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Marco Pompetti 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.
“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.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Words at Padova training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giuseppe Coppola 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.
Player ratings25 Oct 2027
Marco Pompetti was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.10. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
A point taken on 93 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.
“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 will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Bari? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
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 Mattia Bortolussi has written the date down.
“I am not asking anybody to be better than they are. I am asking everybody to be as good as they are, every week.” Said out loud, in front of everybody, and the room at Padova was different afterwards.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
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 finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Cesare Donadoni was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Padova dressing room was either.
Nobody at Padova 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.
Cesena next, and one man in the Padova dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Padova know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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.
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.
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.68 on the card, and the Padova support went home talking about one name.
The dugout20 Sep 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.” Cesare Donadoni, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Christian Gambino is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Padova asked and Boca Juniors said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Giuseppe Coppola was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The first defeat in 4 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Torino; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Emiliano Lo Biundo commits to Padova for another 4 years.
Squad13 Sep 2027
8 new faces, and Padova 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Cesare Donadoni after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
That is the business done at Padova 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sassuolo have kept their man, and Padova go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Torino.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Marco Pompetti signs something — a contract at Padova or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Torino next, and one man in the Padova dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
1 for Marco Pompetti, marked 7.92, 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.
Marco Pompetti 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.
Altamura paid $290.0K and Padova took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Padova asked and Sassuolo said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sassuolo have kept their man, and Padova go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Words at Padova training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giuseppe Coppola 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.
Giovanni Giunti 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.