A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Universitatea Craiova will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about 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 Universitatea Craiova can pretend not to have heard.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Shakhtar is saying, and nobody at Universitatea Craiova is enjoying the guessing.
Sebastian Mailat and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad10 Jun 2030
Matteo Duţu 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 decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Giuseppe Mungari and Universitatea Craiova agree another 4 years.
Oleksandr Romanchuk 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 Sheriff Sinyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
14 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.
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 Steven Nsimba 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Steven Nsimba signs something — a contract at Universitatea Craiova or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Tomás Verón Lupi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Grasshopper the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Grasshopper have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Flavius Daniliuc was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Grasshopper 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mika Walther trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“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 Grasshopper, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Grasshopper they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Tomás Verón Lupi 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.
Squad9 Apr 2029
Words at Grasshopper training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Óscar Clemente 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.
7 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.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Saidy Janko trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Grasshopper have no good answer.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Grasshopper they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Tomás Verón Lupi 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.
In brief
SquadGrasshopper are still strangers to each other
The dugoutÓscar Clemente has become a man the manager trusts
Grasshopper had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Juventus, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Grasshopper they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Tomás Verón Lupi 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.
Grasshopper ran out of time with Zurich. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Flavius Daniliuc was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Mergim Qarri has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Grasshopper have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Grasshopper will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Grasshopper have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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 Grasshopper, and it is not being withdrawn.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Kévin Simon has agreed terms with Thun for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Grasshopper is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Tomás Verón Lupi 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.