Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Albert Guðmundsson will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Atalanta the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Gerard has agreed terms with Pisa for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
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.
Albert Guðmundsson 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.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 37 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Atalanta is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
13 goals in 26 games at Académica — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Atalanta updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Atalanta is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad18 Feb 2030
Words at Atalanta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sead Kolašinac 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.
Atalanta asked and Braga 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 rules permit it and it stings anyway. Gelana Affronti has agreed terms with Parma for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next 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 Atalanta this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Lazio have kept their man, and Atalanta go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The goal that put Lecce ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Atalanta equalised, 1 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
11 goals in 24 games at Académica — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Atalanta updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Atalanta they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Boardroom4 Feb 2030
Deadline passes with 6 signed and 3 gone
That is the business done at Atalanta until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Mathías Laborda wants continental football; whether Atalanta can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Pineto have kept their man, and Atalanta go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Atalanta is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Atalanta had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Pineto, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atalanta this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
In brief
SquadSead Kolašinac falls out with a teammate over standards
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Atalanta have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The fee is $1.2M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Virtus Entella drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Atalanta they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Atalanta have done the hard part with Cracovia, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Atalanta can tell you which week it ends in.
Atalanta asked and Napoli 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 last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Atalanta have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The phone has started ringing about Lorenzo Bernasconi again, and this time the name on the line is Cosenza. Atalanta are listening politely and promising nothing.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Atalanta have done the hard part with Parma, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Atalanta hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sead Kolašinac was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“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 Atalanta, and it is not being withdrawn.
He is going to Juventus, the club has $39.2M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Atalanta hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
The offer from Pergolettese for Giorgio Cittadini was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
“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 Atalanta know it.
In brief
SquadWords at Atalanta training over how hard people work
Minute 86, against Cagliari, 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.
It needed Stiven Shpendi to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Cagliari, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout31 Dec 2029
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.” Interim Coach chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sead Kolašinac was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout24 Dec 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 Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
2 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Luigi Palomba obliged against Bologna. 1‑1 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Atalanta.
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Player ratings17 Dec 2029
Up for the corner, and Luigi Palomba delivers — 7.88
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Luigi Palomba scored, was marked 7.88, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Atalanta have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sead Kolašinac was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Atalanta will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Atalanta have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Giorgio Cittadini will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Atalanta the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 22 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Two goals and a mark of 8.27 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atalanta this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sead Kolašinac was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Everybody at Atalanta saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 37 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Atalanta can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 36 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Atalanta is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Squad26 Nov 2029
Words at Atalanta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sead Kolašinac is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Stiven Shpendi. 1‑0 against Udinese, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Atalanta can pretend not to have heard.
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 Giacomo Manzari is on it.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Udinese in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Atalanta know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Davide Zappacosta trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
33 graduates, from a department now rated 15 out of 20. Nothing about the academy appears in a result, and nothing about the club’s future exists without it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Atalanta is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sead Kolašinac was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Interim Coach after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mario Pašalić trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
0‑6 to AS Roma, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
“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 Atalanta know it.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Atalanta heard it as anything else.
Match3 Nov 2029
Nobody could stop scoring
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Atalanta and AS Roma in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad5 Nov 2029
Words at Atalanta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sead Kolašinac 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atalanta this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Damián Pizarro trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Interim Coach after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
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.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Bologna? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
AS Roma next, and one man in the Atalanta dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
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 Atalanta have no good answer.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 11 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Successful dribbles: 17. 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 dugout22 Oct 2029
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.” Interim Coach, on a 3‑2 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Atalanta have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Atalanta know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Atalanta they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Mario Pašalić 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.
Something was said to Alex Scott and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Atalanta, and 3 appearances in 18 say he has earned the hearing.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Atalanta, and both men came out saying it was fine.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Atalanta has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Empoli in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Atalanta hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atalanta this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Atalanta, another week without a signature from Emil Audero.
“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 Atalanta, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Atalanta heard it as anything else.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Atalanta and Juventus, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Albert Guðmundsson 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Atalanta can pretend not to have heard.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Atalanta can tell you which week it ends in.
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.
Squad24 Sep 2029
9 new faces, and Atalanta are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout24 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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Atalanta is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“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 Atalanta know 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 Atalanta 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. Spezia have kept their man, and Atalanta 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.
“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 Atalanta, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Atalanta can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Atalanta ran out of time with Virtus Entella. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
“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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Atalanta are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Atalanta, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The deal with Virtus Entella 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.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Atalanta have paid $1.3M for Lorenzo Cordaro, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 20 arrived, 31 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Juve Stabia will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Tomi Petrovic has pre-agreed a move to Atalanta, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Atalanta have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The clubs have shaken hands with Pergolettese; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Atalanta offered $5.7M; Oldham Athletic 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 phone has started ringing about Stiven Shpendi again, and this time the name on the line is Catanzaro. Atalanta are listening politely and promising nothing.
Mario Pašalić 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.
$30.2M was the most the club would pay and Young Boys 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.
“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 Atalanta, and it is not being withdrawn.
Inter paid $22.3M and Atalanta took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Spezia have kept their man, and Atalanta go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 36 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Add another name to the list: Altamura have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Adrien Tamèze. The answer from Atalanta has not changed — yet.
Albert Masson 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Nicola Zalewski's mistake
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Atalanta have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Atalanta have gone to Young Boys 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Atalanta can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Atalanta they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Atalanta have gone to Oldham Athletic 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.
Add another name to the list: Benevento have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Stiven Shpendi. The answer from Atalanta has not changed — yet.
Atalanta asked and Virtus Entella 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 Sead Kolašinac was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Albert Guðmundsson was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Atalanta, and it is not being withdrawn.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Atalanta have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The offer from Benevento for Stiven Shpendi was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Udinese have kept their man, and Atalanta go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Atalanta can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sead Kolašinac was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Pro Vercelli waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Atalanta is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Atalanta, and it is not being withdrawn.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Atalanta can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Atalanta asked and Atletico Nacional said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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 Atalanta, and it is not being withdrawn.
$900.0K was the most the club would pay and Parma 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.
Squad23 Jul 2029
Words at Atalanta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sead Kolašinac 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atalanta this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Add another name to the list: Catania have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Giorgio Cittadini. The answer from Atalanta has not changed — yet.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
10 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Inter paid $21.4M and Atalanta took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told 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 Atalanta can pretend not to have heard.
Raoul Bellanova has gone, the accounts have $21.4M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Atalanta have paid $2.0M for Emil Audero, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Atalanta have paid $1.5M for Filippo Alessio, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Filippo Alessio has just signed for Atalanta, and for once the answer mattered.
$900.0K on the table at Parma. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Atalanta offered $180.0K; Cagliari 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.
In brief
SquadSead Kolašinac falls out with a teammate over standards
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Atalanta people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The fee is $8.6M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Udinese drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
The deal with Como 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Udinese have kept their man, and Atalanta go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Atalanta have gone to Vicenza with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Nicolò Baldo has agreed terms with Crotone for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
$180.0K on the table at Cagliari. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The clubs have shaken hands with Udinese; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Atalanta can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Atalanta can pretend not to have heard.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Atalanta have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The offer from Benevento for Stiven Shpendi was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Modena have kept their man, and Atalanta go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
In brief
SquadAlbert Masson arrives at the club he grew up with
SquadWords at Atalanta training over how hard people work
Add another name to the list: Perugia have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Stiven Shpendi. The answer from Atalanta has not changed — yet.
$440.0K on the table at Cagliari. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Arijanet Murić 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.
$180.0K on the table at Cagliari. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Atalanta offered $440.0K; Genoa 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 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. Genoa have kept their man, and Atalanta go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Fulham had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
He is going to Inter, the club has $16.5M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Atalanta had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
The offer went to Genoa 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 Atalanta this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
$190.0K was the most the club would pay and Cagliari were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
The offer from AC Milan for Arijanet Murić was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Catania waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Atalanta is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Atalanta have gone to Cagliari 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.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Atalanta hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
$720.0K on the table at Union Brescia. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The name of Dion Cakolli has come up in conversations Atalanta were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
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.
Atalanta have gone to Union Brescia 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.
Arijanet Murić 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Atalanta can pretend not to have heard.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 38 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atalanta this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Arijanet Murić was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Albert Guðmundsson wants continental football; whether Atalanta can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Match19 May 2029
Nobody could stop scoring
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Atalanta and AC Milan in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Beaten 6 times, 5 saves, and an afternoon that will go on his record whether it was his fault or the defence’s. It is the quiet unfairness of the position.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
The dugout21 May 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 0‑6 defeat, delivered by Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Sead Kolašinac
Aldo Martano, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.66
A mark of 7.66 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Giorgio Cittadini will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Atalanta the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Atalanta hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Aldo Martano has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atalanta this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Atalanta, 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. El Bilal Touré provided it, and the 8.81 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Atalanta can pretend not to have heard.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Atalanta heard it as anything else.
Day 36 of the vacancy. Candidates have been priced, sounded out and quietly ruled out — and the caretaker’s win ratio is becoming an argument all by itself.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
“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 Atalanta, and it is not being withdrawn.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.95 for the rest of it.
32 appearances at AS Roma and the goals have stopped going in. Atalanta lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
Player ratings30 Apr 2029
El Bilal Touré was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.48. 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.
100 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mathías Laborda was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Mario Pašalić 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.
The dugout23 Apr 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 1‑4 Interim Coach left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Giorgio Cittadini will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Atalanta the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Mario Pašalić 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.
30 appearances at AS Roma and the goals have stopped going in. Atalanta lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
Successful dribbles: 17. 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.
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.51 on the card, and the Atalanta support went home talking about one name.
The dugout16 Apr 2029
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.” Interim Coach chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Atalanta can pretend not to have heard.
8 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.
“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 Atalanta, and it is not being withdrawn.
The coaching staff has emptied out entirely and there was nobody internal to promote, so the club has appointed a name almost none of its supporters will recognise. Clubs recover from this; none of them enjoy explaining it.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
“I am not thinking past Saturday, and I would advise nobody else to.” The caretaker’s first rule is to pretend the job is small; Interim Coach recited it perfectly.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atalanta this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Something was said to Arijanet Murić and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout2 Apr 2029
Mario Pašalić is playing like a man with something to prove
The oldest phenomenon in the sport: a new voice in the dressing room and suddenly everybody is available for everything. Mario Pašalić is training as though the last team sheet never existed, because as far as he is concerned it does not.
Two goals and a mark of 8.08 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Atalanta have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It finished 2‑0, and it was Albert Guðmundsson’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Atalanta.
Loan watch26 Mar 2029
Marvin Keller’s loan is measured in nothing happening
14 clean sheets from 28 appearances at AS Roma. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Mathías Laborda wants continental football; whether Atalanta can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
5 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.
Jay Enem and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout26 Mar 2029
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” the manager kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
20 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Atalanta lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Atalanta they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Arijanet Murić 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.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 35 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
13 shut-outs in 27 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Marvin Keller has been having a lot of them.
The words a physio says slowly. 28 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Atalanta heard it as anything else.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Successful dribbles: 20. 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.
Vid Chinoso Juvančič 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Sead Kolašinac trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
1 for Ibrahim Sulemana, marked 7.93, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Atalanta heard it as anything 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 Atalanta this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.09 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Mario Pašalić 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Arijanet Murić, and the manager let it.
Loan watch26 Feb 2029
Marvin Keller’s loan is measured in nothing happening
12 clean sheets from 24 appearances at AS Roma. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
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.
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 dugout26 Feb 2029
the manager: “We have to be better”
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 11 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Atalanta they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Mario Pašalić 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.
Squad19 Feb 2029
Words at Atalanta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Albert Guðmundsson 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.
Atalanta asked and Napoli said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.02 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Atalanta hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
$230.0K was the most the club would pay and Cagliari were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
The phone has started ringing about Stiven Shpendi again, and this time the name on the line is Salernitana. Atalanta are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad12 Feb 2029
Words at Atalanta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Albert Guðmundsson 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. Catanzaro have kept their man, and Atalanta go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Atalanta, and 8 appearances in 22 say he has earned the hearing.
“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; Atalanta 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 Atalanta can pretend not to have heard.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Arijanet Murić reports back to Atalanta with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
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.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Atalanta may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Boardroom5 Feb 2029
Atalanta close the window on a squad of their own making
0 in and 8 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.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Atalanta hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
The offer from Perugia for Stiven Shpendi was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Arijanet Murić 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.
Atalanta have gone to Torino 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.
3 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Atalanta can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Salernitana waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Atalanta is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
He is going to Napoli, the club has $25.1M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Marked 7.68 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Atalanta had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout22 Jan 2029
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.” the manager chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The offer from Empoli for Arijanet Murić was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Atalanta people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
He is going to Inter, the club has $17.7M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Atalanta have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at AlbinoLeffe is saying, and nobody at Atalanta is enjoying the guessing.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Catanzaro had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Atalanta 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 Atalanta 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. Fiorentina have kept their man, and Atalanta go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Atalanta scored in the 91th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Two goals and a mark of 8.56 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Successful dribbles: 28. 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.
Mario Pašalić 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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Atalanta heard it as anything else.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Daniel Maldini. 3‑2 against Como, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Arijanet Murić 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.
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad25 Dec 2028
Words at Atalanta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniel Maldini 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 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.
The ambition story running backwards, and the one nobody tells: a footballer who wants a smaller ground, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is rarely reported as anything else.
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.
There were 87 minutes on the clock and Bologna had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Atalanta did not stop to explain themselves.
Position 18 and 8 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Player ratings18 Dec 2028
A brace, and Adrien Tamèze takes the afternoon — 8.45
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Adrien Tamèze provided it, and the 8.45 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
0‑3 to Lecce, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Atalanta can pretend not to have heard.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Atalanta heard it as anything 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 Atalanta this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
3 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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Atalanta, and 4 appearances in 17 say he has earned the hearing.
“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; Atalanta are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atalanta this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Atalanta, and 5 appearances in 12 say he has earned the hearing.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Kamaldeen Sulemana is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
The dugout4 Dec 2028
the manager on the point
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” the manager after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
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.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The dugout27 Nov 2028
the manager faces the questions
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” the manager after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer 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 Atalanta, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
14 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Atalanta lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Atalanta will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Atalanta can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Atalanta, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The words a physio says slowly. 21 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Atalanta will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atalanta this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Successful dribbles: 20. 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.
Marked 8.22 — 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 words a physio says slowly. 29 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Atalanta will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
0‑3 to AS Roma, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Atalanta have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Atalanta hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Arijanet Murić 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.
36 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Atalanta lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Atalanta will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Atalanta have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Francesco Gasparello is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atalanta this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Something was said to Nicola Zalewski and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout30 Oct 2028
the manager answers for it
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
In brief
Looking aheadAtalanta take on the side everybody is chasing
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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Atalanta will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Cremonese spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.06, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout23 Oct 2028
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” the manager, on a 3‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
In brief
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Jay Enem
The words a physio says slowly. 51 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Atalanta will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Atalanta 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 Atalanta this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Oct 2028
Words at Atalanta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrea Oliveri 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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Atalanta, and 2 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Atalanta know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Lorenzo Bernasconi’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Atalanta needing him to play as if none of it matters.
61 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Atalanta lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I have watched this squad. There is more in it than the table says.” First press conference, first promise — the manager made the one every new manager makes, and now comes the part where it gets checked.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 64 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Atalanta has been clear about where El Bilal Touré stands, which is more than many ever get.
69 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Atalanta lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Atalanta will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
43 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.
Mario Pašalić 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.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
77 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Atalanta lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 79 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Isak Hien, and the manager let it.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Words at Atalanta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrea Oliveri 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 dugout25 Sep 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.” Adriano Parise chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
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.
Nobody at Atalanta is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
The words a physio says slowly. 84 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Atalanta will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Atalanta 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 Atalanta this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 Atalanta know it.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Atalanta can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
93 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Atalanta lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Atalanta will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about 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 Atalanta, and it is not being withdrawn.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Marco Sportiello reports back to Atalanta with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Arijanet Murić 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.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 15 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. AS Roma have kept their man, and Atalanta go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
In brief
The dugoutJay Enem asks for a word with the manager
The words a physio says slowly. 101 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Atalanta will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The bid was some way short and Atalanta did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Boardroom4 Sep 2028
Atalanta close the window on a squad of their own making
20 in and 27 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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Atalanta heard it as anything else.
108 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Atalanta lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Atalanta have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Atalanta can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from Levski for Daniel Maldini was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 32 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atalanta this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
116 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Atalanta lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 41 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Dolomiti Bellunesi waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Atalanta is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“Somebody picks the team on Saturday. This week it is me, and that is as far as I have thought.” No promises were made in either direction, which is how these usually begin.
$770.0K on the table at Sassuolo. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $822.5K — a club that wants Justin Kumi enough to be asked twice.
123 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Atalanta lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 48 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 Atalanta, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Atalanta heard it as anything else.
The offer went to Monza 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.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $877.7K — a club that wants Andrea Colpani enough to be asked twice.
Mario Pašalić 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 board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Gennaro Donati has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 58 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The whole football department in one room on a weekday morning. Nothing was announced afterwards, which is what a board announces when it has run out of patience.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Vid Chinoso Juvančič had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Atalanta asked and Juve Stabia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Atalanta will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The chase for Giacomo Manzari ended with $3.9M changing hands and Bari out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $2.1M — a club that wants Giuseppe Ambrosino enough to be asked twice.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atalanta this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Add another name to the list: Bologna have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Marco Sportiello. The answer from Atalanta has not changed — yet.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sead Kolašinac was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 73 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The chase for Jay Enem ended with $10.4M changing hands and Bologna out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Giovanni Bonfanti had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The offer from Bellinzona for Dion Cakolli was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Atalanta asked and Bari said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Add another name to the list: Bari have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Gianluca Gaetano. The answer from Atalanta has not changed — yet.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $411.2K — a club that wants Fernando Alarcón enough to be asked twice.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Andrea Tiritiello is living that version at Atalanta, and it tends to show in the first month.
17 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Atalanta lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bologna have accepted the money. What Atalanta do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Arezzo did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $10.4M for Camillo Tavernelli, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
The offer from Cittadella for Marco Sportiello was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Arijanet Murić 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.
Atalanta have gone to Bari with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Atalanta asked and Napoli said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
26 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Atalanta lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Atalanta have done the hard part with Arezzo, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
The deal that would have taken Vid Chinoso Juvančič to Pianese has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Atalanta with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Arijanet Murić 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.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Atalanta hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
The phone has started ringing about Marco Sportiello again, and this time the name on the line is Cittadella. Atalanta are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Words at Atalanta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Albert Guðmundsson 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. 34 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.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Atalanta can pretend not to have heard.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Atalanta asked and Arezzo 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 rules permit it and it stings anyway. Filippo Galafassi has agreed terms with Ospitaletto for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
The words a physio says slowly. 42 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Guidonia Montecelio waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Atalanta is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $12.9M — a club that wants Aldo Florenzi enough to be asked twice.
Gubbio paid $340.0K and Atalanta took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Atalanta are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The words a physio says slowly. 50 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.
Fiorentina did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $15.1M for Albert Guðmundsson, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
The deal with Como 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.
Mario Pašalić 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.
Atalanta asked and Torino 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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
57 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Atalanta lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The clubs have shaken hands with Fiorentina; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Monza had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Atalanta have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Atalanta heard it as anything else.
Mario Pašalić 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.
Add another name to the list: Pescara have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Marco Sportiello. The answer from Atalanta has not changed — yet.
The words a physio says slowly. 66 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.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Gennaro Donati has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Atalanta 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.
The offer from AS Roma for Giorgio Scalvini was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Atalanta and Bari have settled on $1.5M. 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.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Atalanta have done the hard part with Reggiana, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
75 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Atalanta 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 Atalanta can pretend not to have heard.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 40 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Jegors Olijars is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Atalanta can tell you which week it ends in.
18 appearances and 1 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
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.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Mario Pašalić 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 Gianluca Gaetano.
A mark of 7.58, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout22 May 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Gennaro Donati was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Atalanta dressing room was either.
Nobody at Atalanta 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 90 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Vid Chinoso Juvančič will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Atalanta the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Arijanet Murić 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.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Atalanta, and 26 appearances in 45 say he has earned the hearing.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Atalanta, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad15 May 2028
Words at Atalanta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maximiliano Casa is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Danilo Ravelli
The words a physio says slowly. 97 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.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Gennaro Donati has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Atalanta can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Atalanta hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atalanta this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Sead Kolašinac will call it something else in private.
The words a physio says slowly. 104 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 ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Gabriel Ramaj 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.
111 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Atalanta lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
6 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.
Mario Pašalić 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.
119 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Atalanta lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
5 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Atalanta they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Gennaro Donati after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marcello Fugazzola was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
127 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Atalanta lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
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.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Atalanta can tell you which week it ends in.
0‑2 to Napoli, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Words at Atalanta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrea Oliveri 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 dugout10 Apr 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 Gennaro Donati left the room before anybody could ask which.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atalanta this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
136 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Atalanta lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
“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.
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 Dion Cakolli is on it.