The deal with Lumezzane 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.
“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; Mantova are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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 Flavio Paoletti has written the date down.
“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 The request is on a desk at Mantova, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Mantova they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Mantova have gone to Torres 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.
Mantova offered $150.0K; AlbinoLeffe 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Mantova can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Lazio waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Mantova is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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 The request is on a desk at Mantova, and it is not being withdrawn.
$300.0K on the table at Lecco. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
$67.0K on the table at Ravenna. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tommaso Del Lungo 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Mantova will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
At 21 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.
Squad28 May 2029
Words at Mantova training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tommaso Del Lungo 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.
Nicolò Camarda and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout28 May 2029
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.” Gennaro Guerra kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Mantova know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Mantova may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Words at Mantova training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicolò Radaelli 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Cesena have kept their man, and Mantova go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Add another name to the list: Cavese have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Daniel Theiner. The answer from Mantova has not changed — yet.
8.38. 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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Gennaro Guerra could afford to be generous.
26 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Mantova lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Mantova will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about 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.
“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 Mantova will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ettore Gliozzi signs something — a contract at Mantova or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Bari in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Nobody at Mantova 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 70 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
At 21 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Diego Cinetti. 1‑0 against Catanzaro, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 108 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad9 Oct 2028
Words at Mantova training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicolò Radaelli 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 have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Mantova can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Mantova, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout9 Oct 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.” Gennaro Guerra chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Manuel Gasparini has his answer from Mantova; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Federico Vietto 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. Cagliari have kept their man, and Carpi 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 Matteo Figoli was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Carpi, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Carpi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
51 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad1 May 2028
Matteo Figoli 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 mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Carpi are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Riccardo Gatti trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Kirill Boyarskikh is living that version at Mantova, and it tends to show in the first month.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Andrea Di Siena has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Mantova have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Carlos Ramos 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 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.
Squad1 May 2028
5 new faces, and Mantova 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.
Squad1 May 2028
Héctor Urias 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.
Words at Mantova training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicolò Radaelli 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.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Alessio Castellini has come out of that comparison in the side, and Mantova have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Mantova will explain it as a decision about the team, and it may well be one. A dressing room has never once read it that way.
The dugout3 Apr 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Gennaro Guerra was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Mantova dressing room was either.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ettore Gliozzi signs something — a contract at Mantova or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nicolò Radaelli was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Simone Trimboli signs something — a contract at Mantova or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
3 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Mantova could ask drops and the wages Alessio Castellini can ask rise.
The clubs have shaken hands with Latina; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Carpi can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Deadline passes with 3 signed and 4 gone
That is the business done at Carpi 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 Carpi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stredair Appuah Owusu 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Giugliano have kept their man, and Carpi go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Carpi will try again when the window opens; Empoli may not be selling by then.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Alejo Fernández is living that version at Carpi, and it tends to show in the first month.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Carpi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Union Brescia paid $370.0K and Carpi took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stredair Appuah Owusu 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.
Carpi asked and Südtirol said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Luigi Pellegrino after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
A brace, and Erik Gerbi takes the afternoon — 8.79
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Erik Gerbi provided it, and the 8.79 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Position 3, 18 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Carpi 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 Carpi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stredair Appuah Owusu 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 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.