It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Antonino Gallo wants continental football; whether Lecce can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
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.
Hugo Bolin 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.
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Tiago Gabriel signs something — a contract at Lecce or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
49 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Borussia Mönchengladbach lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Borussia Mönchengladbach this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jonas Adjetey 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.
Hugo Bolin 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.
It finished 2‑0, and it was Riccardo Sottil’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Lecce.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Lameck Banda 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 one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
The words a physio says slowly. 82 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Borussia Mönchengladbach this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jonas Adjetey 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.
Marked 7.92 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Borussia Mönchengladbach had the best player on the pitch.
The words a physio says slowly. 119 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.
Franck Honorat 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.
Franck Honorat 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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Fabio Chiarodia signs something — a contract at Borussia Mönchengladbach or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Antonino Gallo 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.
A new face in his position, and Riccardo Sottil suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. Lecce have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.
242 appearances across 10 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
“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 Borussia Mönchengladbach hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Kevin Stöger and Borussia Mönchengladbach agree another 2 years.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Borussia Mönchengladbach this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Shuto Machino 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.