A brace, and Álvaro Morata takes the afternoon — 8.10
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Álvaro Morata provided it, and the 8.10 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Ivan Smolčić 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 2‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Two goals and a mark of 9.15 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Stefan Posch was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Como told Tiziano Manrique something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Como is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad29 Apr 2030
Stefan Posch 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Tiziano Manrique has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Como this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Como can pretend not to have heard.
Álvaro Morata 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stefan Posch 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 goals in 28 games at Pergolettese — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Como updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
The dugout15 Apr 2030
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Elia Rossi left the room before anybody could ask which.
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Pisa kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Como will be asked about the last half hour all week.
“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 Como, and it is not being withdrawn.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Como can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stefan Posch 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.
Federico Giraudo 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.
“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 Como, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Como is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Federico Giraudo 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Roan Veenbrink was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Como than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.82 at 37, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Ivan Smolčić 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stefan Posch 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.
2 goals inside twenty minutes with Iván Azón in the middle of it, and Mantova unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Como told Álvaro Morata something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.97 at 37, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Álvaro Morata 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.
Squad18 Mar 2030
Stefan Posch 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.
At 23 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.
Federico Giraudo 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.
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 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Roan Veenbrink 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. 129 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Nicholas Bonfanti had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Frosinone were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Iván Azón provided it, and the 9.02 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Nicholas Bonfanti provided it, and the 8.66 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The offer from Lecco for Stefan Posch 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.
The chase for David Stückler ended with $2.6M changing hands and Cremonese out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
The deal with Pisa 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.
Álvaro Morata 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.
$25.1M is a serious amount of money and it does not play centre-forward. Everybody in the dressing room knows who used to be looked at when it went wrong.
Two goals and a mark of 9.46 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Como have lost him in all but the paperwork.
He is going to Napoli, the club has $25.1M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 37 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Como is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Como can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Como have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Stefan Posch was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.33 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Marvin Kalushi 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.
“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 Como, and it is not being withdrawn.
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Como can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Como they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad10 Dec 2029
Stefan Posch 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.
Tiziano Manrique and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout10 Dec 2029
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Elia Rossi left the room before anybody could ask which.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Álvaro Morata trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Como this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Dec 2029
Stefan Posch 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 is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Como can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Como can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Como they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Federico Giraudo 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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fernando Alarcón was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The words a physio says slowly. 28 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 Como can pretend not to have heard.
Álvaro Morata 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.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad1 Oct 2029
Stefan Posch 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 general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Como can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
89 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Como lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Como will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The offer from Basel for Iván Azón 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.
“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 Como, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deal with Altamura 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stefan Posch 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 words a physio says slowly. 96 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.
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Como 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 Como can pretend not to have heard.
The chase for Alexandru Borbei ended with $1.1M changing hands and Lecce out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
$180.0K was the most the club would pay and Cagliari were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
In brief
SquadStefan Posch falls out with a teammate over standards
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Como will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Tommaso Fumagalli had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The offer from Lanús for Iván Azón 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.
Como have gone to Casarano 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.
The chase for Nicholas Bonfanti ended with $2.4M changing hands and Pisa out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
$99.0K on the table at Novara. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Position 19 and 21 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.
The fee is $540.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Casarano drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad18 Jun 2029
Stefan Posch 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Como will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Position 18 and 21 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Como they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ignace Van Der Brempt 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Iván Azón. 2‑0 against Genoa, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings23 Apr 2029
Máximo Perrone was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.08. 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.
25 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Como will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Como and Juventus, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ignace Van Der Brempt 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.
Whether it was the goalkeeper or the ten in front of him is the argument that will fill every conversation in town this week. 5 saves does not settle it either way.
In brief
The dugoutThe team sheet said everything about Jesper Karlsson
BoardroomNobody left the Como dressing room in a hurry
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Como will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ignace Van Der Brempt was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Juan Caggiano 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Como, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Como know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Lecce in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Como will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ignace Van Der Brempt 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.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Como told Lucas Çekrezi something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ignace Van Der Brempt signs something — a contract at Como or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
0‑3 to Sassuolo, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Palermo waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Como is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Add another name to the list: Lumezzane have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Tommaso Fumagalli. The answer from Como has not changed — yet.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 5 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ignace Van Der Brempt was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Como asked and Hellas Verona said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Como this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Como can pretend not to have heard.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Iván Azón 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.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Como and AC Milan in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
In brief
SquadWords at Como training over how hard people work
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Devis Vásquez: 3 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.83 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 Como is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ignace Van Der Brempt was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Como have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Como this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout27 Nov 2028
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Elia Rossi left the room before anybody could ask which.
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 Ludovico D'Orazio is on it.
Álvaro Morata 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.
Involvement in 2 goals, from a player who spent the ninety minutes doing the thing a manager actually wants: being where the ball was going to end up. 7.77 beside his name.
Álvaro Morata scored, and precious little else went right: 2‑3 to Udinese, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Augusto Bando 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 Como, and 4 appearances in 20 say he has earned the hearing.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Elia Rossi after 2‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Máximo Perrone trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.12 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Player ratings6 Nov 2028
Up for the corner, and Fabio Rispoli delivers — 7.94
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Fabio Rispoli scored, was marked 7.94, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Iván Azón 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ignace Van Der Brempt was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
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.
Pisa next, and one man in the Como dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fernando Alarcón 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.
Leandro Ilari 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 dugout23 Oct 2028
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Elia Rossi to a room that had heard them before.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ignace Van Der Brempt signs something — a contract at Como or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
AS Roma next, and one man in the Como dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Nobody at Como is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Como heard it as anything else.
Marked 8.19 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Leandro Pellegrini is 17, and Como have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
The dugout9 Oct 2028
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Elia Rossi, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
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.
Every signing waits for it and every press conference asks about it until it comes. It has come, Como have their man off the mark, and the second one is always easier.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Como can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ignace Van Der Brempt 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 7.37 on 9 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Squad18 Sep 2028
9 new faces, and Como 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.
37 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Como lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Como will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The fee is $1.5M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Cosenza drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Tomás Nosei is living that version at Como, and it tends to show in the first month.
The phone has started ringing about Alieu Fadera again, and this time the name on the line is Juventus. Como are listening politely and promising nothing.
Como asked and Sorrento said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.