“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at AlbinoLeffe, and it is not being withdrawn.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. AlbinoLeffe have done the hard part with Frosinone, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
AlbinoLeffe asked and Avellino said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
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.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at AlbinoLeffe, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” AlbinoLeffe have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
A mark of 7.80 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Words at AlbinoLeffe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emanuele Zuelli is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Pro Vercelli scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 2 arrived, 1 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
$510.0K on the table at Atalanta. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Words at AlbinoLeffe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emanuele Zuelli is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
AlbinoLeffe asked and Virtus Entella said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Emanuele Zuelli has come out of that comparison in the side, and AlbinoLeffe have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The captaincy has been taken off Alessandro Lombardi. AlbinoLeffe will call it a decision about the team; a dressing room reads it as a verdict on a man.
The loan was meant to give him football. 1 games and 0 goals later he is back at AlbinoLeffe no further forward, and everybody involved will explain why it was not their doing.
The dugout7 Feb 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Armando Testa was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the AlbinoLeffe dressing room was either.
In brief
The dugoutFilippo Faggi asks for a word with the manager
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at AlbinoLeffe, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; AlbinoLeffe are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Giacomo Sciacca has his answer from AlbinoLeffe; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The phone has started ringing about Lorenzo Facchetti again, and this time the name on the line is Vis Pesaro. AlbinoLeffe are listening politely and promising nothing.
The words a physio says slowly. 30 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 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.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Venezia have had the benefit of it.
Add another name to the list: AlbinoLeffe have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Simone Panada. The answer from Venezia has not changed — yet.
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.
45 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Venezia lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alessandro Pietrelli was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The goal that put Union Brescia ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Venezia equalised, 4 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
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.
10 clean sheets from 18 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.
It needed Gaetano Oristanio to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Union Brescia, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
21 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Venezia 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 Venezia, and it is not being withdrawn.
8 clean sheets from 13 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 dugout15 Nov 2027
Simone Panada is still being punished for one mistake
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.
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 Venezia would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Kevin Cannavò’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Venezia needing him to play as if none of it matters.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Venezia, and both men came out saying it was fine.
6 goals in 14 games at St. Gallen — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Venezia updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
In brief
The dugoutEdoardo Mariani has become a man the manager trusts
The words a physio says slowly. 120 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.
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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Federico Tavernaro and Venezia agree another 4 years.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Venezia know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Mantova next, and one man in the Venezia dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
In brief
The dugoutMarco Ladisa has become a man the manager trusts
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.
Add another name to the list: Cesena have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Kike Pérez. The answer from Venezia has not changed — yet.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Venezia they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Juan Jesus 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.
5 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.
Venezia asked and Torino 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 is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Diego Medici 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. Elia Marchetti is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Venezia people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The offer from Austria Klagenfurt for Emil Bohinen 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Simone Panada will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Venezia the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kike Pérez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The phone has started ringing about Matteo Grandi again, and this time the name on the line is Torres. Venezia are listening politely and promising nothing.
Saad El Haddad 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.
17 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.
“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 settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Venezia people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Davide Guarneri is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kike Pérez 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 Venezia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Position 18 and 31 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 Venezia can pretend not to have heard.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Venezia heard it as anything else.
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.
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Thierry Rendall Correia was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Venezia 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.
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.
Squad10 May 2027
Words at Venezia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kike Pérez is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Venezia, and 5 appearances in 35 say he has earned the hearing.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Ciro Sanna after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Lion Lauberbach.
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.
In brief
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Antonio Casas’s exile
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Venezia they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Juan Jesus 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.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Kike Pérez 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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Venezia, and 5 appearances in 31 say he has earned the hearing.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Gianluca Busio.
It needed Andrea Adorante to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Udinese, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout12 Apr 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.” Ciro Sanna chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
Nobody at Venezia 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.
In brief
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Antonio Casas’s exile
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.80 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
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.
“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; Venezia are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Kike Pérez 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 Venezia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
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.
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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Vis Pesaro waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Venezia is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The offer from Paradou for Redouane Halhal 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Venezia they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at Venezia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kike Pérez is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 51 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alessandro Pietrelli was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Ciro Sanna could afford to be generous.
“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 last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Venezia have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Add another name to the list: St. Pauli have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Lion Lauberbach. The answer from Venezia has not changed — yet.
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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Venezia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrea Adorante 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.
11 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.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Ciro Sanna was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Venezia dressing room was either.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
“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.
Juan Jesus 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 name of Simone Panada has come up in conversations Venezia were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.