“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Alcione Milano can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Lorenzo Zini will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Alcione Milano the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Jonathan Pitou 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Yari Pitzeri is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Giorgio Galli 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 words a physio says slowly. 65 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.
Jonathan Pitou 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.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Giorgio Galli 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.
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.
Karst de Leeuw 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.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Giorgio Galli 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Samuel Quiñonez is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Alcione Milano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom23 Aug 2027
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Alcione Milano
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Words at Alcione Milano training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giorgio Galli 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Domenico Calabrese has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Samuele Marchetti is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Giovanni Grassi 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Ciro Piras 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.
In brief
BoardroomNo investment in the facilities at Alcione Milano
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Alcione Milano can pretend not to have heard.
Jonathan Pitou 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.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Kevin Bright 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.
7 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Alcione Milano has been clear about where Tommaso Mocchi stands, which is more than many ever get.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Mahmoud Al-Burayh is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Daniele Ciappellano 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.
In brief
SquadThe manager has not finished forgetting Mattia Muroni's mistake
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Alcione Milano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.