There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Michele Ambrosini provided it, and the 8.53 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Jacopo Desogus 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mihai Gusu and AlbinoLeffe agree another 2 years.
Squad8 Oct 2029
Words at AlbinoLeffe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alessandro Lombardi 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 8.38 — 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.
In brief
Player ratingsAndrea Mandelli ran the middle of the pitch — 7.41
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Alessandro Lombardi provided it, and the 8.37 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Jacopo Desogus 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.
Squad1 Oct 2029
Words at AlbinoLeffe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alessandro Lombardi 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.
At 2 goals adrift this was a formality, and the formality lasted right up until it did not. AlbinoLeffe found something the first half had given no notice of, and Campobasso could not hold what they had.
Player ratings24 Sep 2029
A brace, and Luca Tedesco takes the afternoon — 9.20
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Luca Tedesco provided it, and the 9.20 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Nicolò Martire did not need any: 8.33, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Jacopo Desogus and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 Sep 2029
Words at AlbinoLeffe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Michele Avella 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.
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.
Successful dribbles: 24. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AlbinoLeffe this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alessandro Lombardi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Michele Avella is on it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at AlbinoLeffe, and both men came out saying it was fine.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Andrea De Paoli provided it, and the 8.85 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Jacopo Desogus 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 Alessandro Lombardi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Salernitana have kept their man, and AlbinoLeffe go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“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.
The dugout10 Sep 2029
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 2‑3 defeat, delivered by Daniele Amato to a room that had heard them before.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 18 arrived, 15 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
AlbinoLeffe offered $430.0K; Lumezzane 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.
Jacopo Desogus 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 Michele Avella was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Milton Keynes Dons have kept their man, and AlbinoLeffe go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Flavio Messina is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
AlbinoLeffe have made the call to CSKA 1948. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AlbinoLeffe 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.” AlbinoLeffe have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The deal with Hellas Verona 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.
Jacopo Desogus and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom27 Aug 2029
5 academy players handed senior numbers at AlbinoLeffe
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.
Squad27 Aug 2029
Words at AlbinoLeffe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alessandro Lombardi 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.
AlbinoLeffe asked and Swindon Town said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Luigi Pavone 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. Marcello Bernardi is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” AlbinoLeffe 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 AlbinoLeffe this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Aug 2029
Words at AlbinoLeffe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alessandro Lombardi 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 done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one AlbinoLeffe will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
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.
Position 4 on 63 points, and the places that carry a European ticket are close enough to count. Seasons like this are decided by two results in April, and the club knows which two.
Hellas Verona have accepted the money. What AlbinoLeffe do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Jacopo Desogus 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 Romano Graziani was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Martino Ferri 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. Pierpaolo Marino is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Salvatore Montanari 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. Emanuele Borghi 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.
AlbinoLeffe and Cavese have settled on $65.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Tobiáš Šopík will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around AlbinoLeffe the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Jacopo Desogus 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.
AlbinoLeffe offered $280.0K; Picerno 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Troy Savage has just signed for AlbinoLeffe, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad6 Aug 2029
Words at AlbinoLeffe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alessandro Lombardi 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 injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 18 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
“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 AlbinoLeffe, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Giacomo Sciacca will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around AlbinoLeffe the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. AlbinoLeffe will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Renate is saying, and nobody at AlbinoLeffe is enjoying the guessing.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Alessio Minei is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Lumezzane have kept their man, and AlbinoLeffe go back to a list with one name crossed off 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Edoardo Sottini will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around AlbinoLeffe the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
$410.0K was the most the club would pay and Lumezzane 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AlbinoLeffe this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
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.
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 Edoardo Sottini is on it.
In brief
The dugoutMichele Avella asks for a word with the manager
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Gabriele Boloca was one of the reasons people came, and $520.0K does not replace that by itself.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Cavese keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Alessandro Di Maria is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Jacopo Desogus 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 Alessandro Lombardi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. AlbinoLeffe have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around AlbinoLeffe they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Michele Avella 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. Giuseppe Mungari is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Alessandro Garattoni and AlbinoLeffe agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Every club 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 it has been tried.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Giacomo Sciacca will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around AlbinoLeffe the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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 AlbinoLeffe, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
At 28 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
AlbinoLeffe offered $100.0K; Renate 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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Alessandro Garattoni and AlbinoLeffe agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Bologna waiting with a shirt. Nobody at AlbinoLeffe is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AlbinoLeffe can pretend not to have heard.
Pro Vercelli have accepted the money. What AlbinoLeffe do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at AlbinoLeffe is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AlbinoLeffe this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Südtirol have kept their man, and AlbinoLeffe go back to a list with one name crossed off 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.
Squad25 Jun 2029
Words at AlbinoLeffe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giacomo Sali 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. AlbinoLeffe will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Jacopo Desogus 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.
AlbinoLeffe asked and Avellino said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
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 Michele Avella is on it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at AlbinoLeffe, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around AlbinoLeffe people have started saying his name in the past tense.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. AlbinoLeffe will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The deal with Pro Vercelli 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.
Jacopo Desogus 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 Gabriele Boloca was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Boardroom11 Jun 2029
92% of the income goes out in wages at AlbinoLeffe
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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at AlbinoLeffe is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Edoardo Sottini has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
AlbinoLeffe asked and Lecco said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Giacomo Sali was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Michele Avella trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AlbinoLeffe can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around AlbinoLeffe they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Jacopo Desogus 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.
Squad28 May 2029
Words at AlbinoLeffe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gabriele Boloca 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.
Nobody at AlbinoLeffe 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AlbinoLeffe can pretend not to have heard.
Michele Avella and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad21 May 2029
Words at AlbinoLeffe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gabriele Boloca 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 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at AlbinoLeffe, and both men came out saying it was fine.
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Alessandro Lombardi has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
Two goals and a mark of 8.31 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Alessandro Lombardi. 2‑1 against Lumezzane, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
At 20 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Romano Graziani, and the manager let it.
Squad14 May 2029
Words at AlbinoLeffe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giacomo Sali 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 nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AlbinoLeffe can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Giacomo Sciacca will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around AlbinoLeffe the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Jacopo Desogus 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.
Three points for AlbinoLeffe, 3‑1 the final word against Novara in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad7 May 2029
Words at AlbinoLeffe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gabriele Boloca 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 8.57 — 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at AlbinoLeffe is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Jacopo Desogus 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.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Giacomo Sciacca.
In brief
Player ratingsGiacomo Sali beats them one at a time
SquadThe division's best last weekend was a AlbinoLeffe man
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 92th minute. Cittadella will replay every second of the added time for a week.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AlbinoLeffe this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Marked 8.20 — 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.
Squad23 Apr 2029
Words at AlbinoLeffe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giacomo Sali 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 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.
Marked 6.59 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.
Boardroom16 Apr 2029
Nobody left the AlbinoLeffe dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout16 Apr 2029
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 0‑3 defeat, delivered by Daniele Amato to a room that had heard them before.
“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 AlbinoLeffe, and it is not being withdrawn.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at AlbinoLeffe is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Riccardo Baroni and AlbinoLeffe agree another 3 years.
Jacopo Desogus 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.
8.58. 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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at AlbinoLeffe is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Michele Avella 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 Giacomo Sali was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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; AlbinoLeffe are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. AlbinoLeffe told Edoardo Sottini something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AlbinoLeffe this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Mar 2029
Words at AlbinoLeffe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gabriele Boloca 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.
50 for the club now, each one filed in somebody’s memory with a date and a scoreline. Numbers like this are what supporters argue about in twenty years.
8.05. 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gabriele Boloca was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Michele Ambrosini scored in the 85th minute, Trento had already begun thinking about the journey home, and AlbinoLeffe took the lot.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around AlbinoLeffe they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Jacopo Desogus 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.
Marked 8.60 — 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Michele Ambrosini. 1‑0 against Trento, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Giacomo Sali 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. AlbinoLeffe told Giacomo Sciacca something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
In brief
The dugoutEdoardo Sottini has become a man the manager trusts
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at AlbinoLeffe is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Michele Ambrosini and AlbinoLeffe agree another 4 years.
Jacopo Desogus 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.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 8 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Successful dribbles: 22. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AlbinoLeffe 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.
“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.
The dugout26 Feb 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 Daniele Amato left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
3 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
Three points for AlbinoLeffe, 1‑0 the final word against Virtus Verona in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad19 Feb 2029
Giacomo Sali 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around AlbinoLeffe they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“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 AlbinoLeffe, and it is not being withdrawn.
Michele Avella 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.
Successful dribbles: 18. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
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 Edoardo Sottini is on it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at AlbinoLeffe is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Boardroom5 Feb 2029
AlbinoLeffe close the window on a squad of their own making
4 in and 5 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Giacomo Sciacca has agreed terms with Bari for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Jacopo Desogus 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Pro Vercelli have kept their man, and AlbinoLeffe go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Marked 8.58 — 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Reggiana is saying, and nobody at AlbinoLeffe is enjoying the guessing.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AlbinoLeffe this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Arzignano made AlbinoLeffe work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad29 Jan 2029
Giacomo Sali 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 have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at AlbinoLeffe can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“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 AlbinoLeffe, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Daniele Amato on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AlbinoLeffe can pretend not to have heard.
Jacopo Desogus 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. Lecce have kept their man, and AlbinoLeffe 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 Gabriele Boloca was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Gregorio Tombesi 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. Arturo Orlando 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 18 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 AlbinoLeffe can pretend not to have heard.
AlbinoLeffe have gone to Parma 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.
Jacopo Desogus 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Alessandro Di Maria and AlbinoLeffe agree another 5 years.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Pro Vercelli have kept their man, and AlbinoLeffe go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Edoardo Sottini, and the manager let it.
Squad8 Jan 2029
Giacomo Sali 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.
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 Edoardo Sottini is on it.
28 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. AlbinoLeffe lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Successful dribbles: 33. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“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 AlbinoLeffe, 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 AlbinoLeffe this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Jan 2029
Giacomo Sali 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 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 35 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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Andrea De Paoli provided it, and the 9.52 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AlbinoLeffe this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 Dec 2028
Words at AlbinoLeffe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gabriele Boloca 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. 44 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.
Successful dribbles: 37. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Jacopo Desogus 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.
Vicenza left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad18 Dec 2028
Words at AlbinoLeffe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giacomo Sali 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 dugout18 Dec 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 0‑2 Daniele Amato left the room before anybody could ask which.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
52 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. AlbinoLeffe lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AlbinoLeffe can pretend not to have heard.
Jacopo Desogus 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.
“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 dugout11 Dec 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 Daniele Amato to a room that had heard them before.
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 Edoardo Sottini is on it.
The words a physio says slowly. 59 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.
Successful dribbles: 27. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AlbinoLeffe this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
67 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. AlbinoLeffe lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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.
Squad27 Nov 2028
Words at AlbinoLeffe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giacomo Sali 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.
“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; AlbinoLeffe are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Daniele Amato after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The words a physio says slowly. 74 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.
Jacopo Desogus 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 Gabriele Boloca was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Minute 85, against Pro Patria, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout20 Nov 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.” Daniele Amato chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Jacopo Desogus 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 Gabriele Boloca was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at AlbinoLeffe, another week without a signature from Gabriele Boloca.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Daniele Amato on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
In brief
The dugoutEdoardo Sottini has become a man the manager trusts
The words a physio says slowly. 89 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.
Successful dribbles: 32. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Giacomo Sali was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at AlbinoLeffe, another week without a signature from Giacomo Sciacca.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Daniele Amato after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at AlbinoLeffe than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
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.
Successful dribbles: 36. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
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.
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 Michele Avella is on it.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Daniele Amato after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Squad30 Oct 2028
The division's best last weekend was a AlbinoLeffe man
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Andrea De Paoli was the best thing in any of them.
104 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. AlbinoLeffe lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 AlbinoLeffe, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” AlbinoLeffe have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Jacopo Desogus 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Andrea De Paoli. 3‑2 against Renate, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gabriele Boloca was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings23 Oct 2028
Andrea De Paoli was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.09. 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.
Player ratings23 Oct 2028
Andrea Mandelli was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.10. 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.
111 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. AlbinoLeffe lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Jacopo Desogus 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.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad16 Oct 2028
Words at AlbinoLeffe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giacomo Sali 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Daniele Amato after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Nobody at AlbinoLeffe 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.
Successful dribbles: 13. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Michele Avella’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and AlbinoLeffe needing him to play as if none of it matters.
In brief
The dugoutGiacomo Sali knocks on the manager's door
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AlbinoLeffe this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Oct 2028
Words at AlbinoLeffe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gabriele Boloca 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at AlbinoLeffe, another week without a signature from Giacomo Sciacca.
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.” Daniele Amato chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one AlbinoLeffe will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
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.
He is 23 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Andrea De Paoli. 2‑0 against Alcione Milano, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings2 Oct 2028
Andrea De Paoli was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.52. 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.
“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; AlbinoLeffe are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AlbinoLeffe can pretend not to have heard.
Jacopo Desogus 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.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.18, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Words at AlbinoLeffe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mattia Agostinelli 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.
Michele Avella 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 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Daniele Amato on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. AlbinoLeffe know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gabriele Boloca was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings11 Sep 2028
Andrea De Paoli was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.52. 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.
Marked 8.32 — 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.
8.15. 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Giacomo Sali, and the manager let it.
Boardroom11 Sep 2028
86% of the income goes out in wages at AlbinoLeffe
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.
AlbinoLeffe close the window on a squad of their own making
15 in and 16 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AlbinoLeffe this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Alessio Minei is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad4 Sep 2028
Words at AlbinoLeffe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mattia Agostinelli 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 nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AlbinoLeffe can pretend not to have heard.
At 16 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Jacopo Desogus 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 paperwork is done long before the player is. Daniel da Costa has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means AlbinoLeffe have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Words at AlbinoLeffe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gabriele Boloca 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at AlbinoLeffe, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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 AlbinoLeffe have no good answer.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Hatayspor waiting with a shirt. Nobody at AlbinoLeffe is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.
Jacopo Desogus 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.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gabriele Boloca was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Franco Graziani is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Valentino Ferrari 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Davide Morelli 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Michele Avella
BoardroomA promise the AlbinoLeffe board did not keep
BoardroomAlbinoLeffe turn down the training-ground plan
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Empoli is saying, and nobody at AlbinoLeffe is enjoying the guessing.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Alessandro Di Maria is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
At 28 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 5 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Cristian Minneci and AlbinoLeffe agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at AlbinoLeffe, another week without a signature from Gabriele Boloca.
AlbinoLeffe offered $580.0K; Monza 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AlbinoLeffe this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Nicolò Martire is living that version at AlbinoLeffe, and it tends to show in the first month.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AlbinoLeffe can pretend not to have heard.
The deal with AS Roma 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Lorenzo Facchetti is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Jacopo Desogus 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.
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
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. Mattia Angeloni is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Jacopo Desogus 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.
At 28 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 3 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Words at AlbinoLeffe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Simone Potop 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.
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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Alessandro Di Maria is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
At 28 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 3 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Words at AlbinoLeffe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Simone Potop 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 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.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Salernitana keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
AlbinoLeffe asked and Empoli 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 AlbinoLeffe this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Words at AlbinoLeffe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gabriele Boloca 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at AlbinoLeffe, another week without a signature from Alessandro Lombardi.
17 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. AlbinoLeffe lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AlbinoLeffe can pretend not to have heard.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Empoli is saying, and nobody at AlbinoLeffe is enjoying the guessing.
$1.4M was the most the club would pay and Inter 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.
Jacopo Desogus 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.
Squad3 Jul 2028
Words at AlbinoLeffe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Simone Potop 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.
24 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. AlbinoLeffe lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
$1.7M was the most the club would pay and Modena 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.
Jacopo Desogus 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 Simone Potop was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Michele Avella trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
32 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. AlbinoLeffe lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Modena have accepted the money. What AlbinoLeffe do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
AlbinoLeffe had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Inter, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. AlbinoLeffe will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
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.
40 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. AlbinoLeffe lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The offer went to Inter this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AlbinoLeffe this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Simone Potop 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Gabriele Boloca trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AlbinoLeffe can pretend not to have heard.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jacopo Desogus and AlbinoLeffe agree another 4 years.
Jacopo Desogus 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 Jun 2028
Simone Potop 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 now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Colchester United have kept their man, and AlbinoLeffe go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
AlbinoLeffe have made the call to AS Roma. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Giuseppe Mungari is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” AlbinoLeffe have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Simone Potop 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 Gabriele Boloca was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at AlbinoLeffe, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Jacopo Desogus’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
23 graduates, from a department now rated 9 out of 20. Nothing about the academy appears in a result, and nothing about the club’s future exists without it.
56 points in position 8: too many to go down, too few to go anywhere. The honest description of a season like this is a shrug, and the supporters have already given it.
Jacopo Desogus and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad22 May 2028
Words at AlbinoLeffe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Simone Potop 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Paolo Altieri 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. Simone De Angelis 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Luca Tedesco 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Giorgio Martinelli 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.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and AlbinoLeffe know it.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Riccardo Barberini and AlbinoLeffe agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
In brief
The dugoutGiacomo Sali asks for a word with the manager
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AlbinoLeffe this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 May 2028
Simone Potop 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at AlbinoLeffe can tell you which week it ends in.
Simone Potop 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.
Squad8 May 2028
Words at AlbinoLeffe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alessandro Lombardi 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.
Novara left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout8 May 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 Daniele Amato left the room before anybody could ask which.
Successful dribbles: 14. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jacopo Desogus trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nobody at AlbinoLeffe 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 10 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Simone Potop 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 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.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Giacomo Sciacca.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Daniele Amato after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at AlbinoLeffe, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
11 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Simone Potop and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Words at AlbinoLeffe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alessandro Lombardi 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 8.08 — 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.
“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 AlbinoLeffe, 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 AlbinoLeffe this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alessandro Lombardi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
10 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Simone Potop 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.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Filippo Faggi 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.
He is 23 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.
A performance of 8.05 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings10 Apr 2028
Giacomo Sali was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.04. 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.
“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 dugout10 Apr 2028
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.” Daniele Amato kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Jacopo Desogus 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.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Simone Potop 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.
100 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at AlbinoLeffe, another week without a signature from Michele Avella.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at AlbinoLeffe has been clear about where Lorenzo Facchetti stands, which is more than many ever get.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
9 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Simone Potop was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
5 goals and a season average of 7.23 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
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.” Daniele Amato kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AlbinoLeffe 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 AlbinoLeffe this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It finished 2‑0, and it was Jacopo Desogus’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to AlbinoLeffe.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Words at AlbinoLeffe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Filippo Faggi 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 8.16 — 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at AlbinoLeffe can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Jacopo Desogus 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.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Simone Potop 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.
8 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Michele Ambrosini. 1‑0 against Trento, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.24 — 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at AlbinoLeffe, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AlbinoLeffe can pretend not to have heard.
Jacopo Desogus 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 easiest signature of my career.” Mihai Gusu and AlbinoLeffe agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Words at AlbinoLeffe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Simone Potop 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.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.33, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Words at AlbinoLeffe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Filippo Faggi 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.
Chances created: 12. Nothing on the scoresheet and everything in the match: the pass before the pass, over and over, until the defence stopped guessing right.
The dugout28 Feb 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.” Daniele Amato, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
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.
“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 AlbinoLeffe, 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 AlbinoLeffe this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Simone Potop was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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.
Jacopo Desogus 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.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Words at AlbinoLeffe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Simone Potop 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 easiest signature of my career.” Mattia Agostinelli and AlbinoLeffe agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
7.45, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. AlbinoLeffe had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout14 Feb 2028
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.” Daniele Amato kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 2 arrived, 8 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Successful dribbles: 24. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Simone Potop 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. Colón have kept their man, and AlbinoLeffe go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Filippo Faggi 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.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and AlbinoLeffe know which stage they are at.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at AlbinoLeffe, another week without a signature from Michele Avella.
The chase for Michele Avella ended with $360.0K changing hands and Renate out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Jacopo Desogus and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The terraces31 Jan 2028
AlbinoLeffe spend $650.0K on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $650.0K for Giuseppe Mungari, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Simone Potop 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 now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Bristol Rovers have kept their man, and AlbinoLeffe go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“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 AlbinoLeffe, 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 AlbinoLeffe this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Words at AlbinoLeffe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alessandro Lombardi 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. Chacarita Juniors have kept their man, and AlbinoLeffe go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AlbinoLeffe can pretend not to have heard.
AlbinoLeffe had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Palermo, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Jacopo Desogus 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.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Words at AlbinoLeffe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Filippo Faggi 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.
Half the programme played, position 8, 27 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and AlbinoLeffe know it.
AlbinoLeffe have made the call to Triestina. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Ezequiel Gerez is in the works
“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 AlbinoLeffe, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Atalanta is saying, and nobody at AlbinoLeffe is enjoying the guessing.
Jacopo Desogus 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 Alessandro Lombardi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. AlbinoLeffe had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Jacopo Desogus 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.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Words at AlbinoLeffe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alessandro Lombardi 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 nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AlbinoLeffe can pretend not to have heard.
Jacopo Desogus 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.
Marked 8.21. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at AlbinoLeffe.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Words at AlbinoLeffe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Filippo Faggi 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Daniele Amato after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout27 Dec 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Riccardo Baroni's mistake
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.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AlbinoLeffe 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.
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.
Minute 86, against Vicenza, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
Something was said to Simone Potop and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AlbinoLeffe can pretend not to have heard.
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 dugout13 Dec 2027
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 Daniele Amato left the room before anybody could ask which.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. AlbinoLeffe told Filippo Faggi something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at AlbinoLeffe, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AlbinoLeffe can pretend not to have heard.
Successful dribbles: 22. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Jacopo Desogus 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.
At 22 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Filippo Faggi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Daniele Amato could afford to be generous.
Jacopo Desogus 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.
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
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.” Daniele Amato chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AlbinoLeffe 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at AlbinoLeffe can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Daniele Amato to a room that had heard them before.
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Jacopo Desogus has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Andrea De Paoli trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Jacopo Desogus provided it, and the 8.83 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Filippo Faggi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Daniele Amato on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.