It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Raoul Bellanova wants continental football; whether Atalanta can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Marked 8.32 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
“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.
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Atalanta told Isak Hien something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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 oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The words a physio says slowly. 23 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.
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 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.
“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.
31 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.
“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.
“I watch every Atalanta game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Sorrento runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Atalanta told Gianluca Gaetano something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Words at Atalanta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vinko Kolaković 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.
40 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.
7.84, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
“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.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout4 Oct 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Isak Hien's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
“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 9 say he has earned the hearing.
47 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.
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 watch every Atalanta game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Livorno runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sebastian Otoa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Gennaro Donati chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
54 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.
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.
0‑2 to Lazio, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Words at Atalanta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ibrahim Sulemana 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 did not go to Campobasso to sit and watch. I want to come back to Atalanta and fight for my place.” 3 appearances in 11 matches say the rest.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Gennaro Donati left the room before anybody could ask which.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Gianluca Gaetano is on it.
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.
Atalanta ran out of time with Udinese. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
“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.
“I watch every Atalanta game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at FCSB runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Mario Pašalić at his very best
Squad13 new faces, and Atalanta are still learning each other
58Edition
The Atalanta Courier
6 Sep 2027
From our football correspondentSteady
Transfer targets6 Sep 2027
$20.0M settles it between the clubs for Unai Gómez
Udinese 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.
The offer from PSV for Charles De Ketelaere 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 know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Venezia had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 24 arrived, 36 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
“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.
Atalanta offered $1.1M; Padova 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 number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $1.2M — a club that wants Gianluca Caprari 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.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Giacomo Raspadori was one of the reasons people came, and $69.9M does not replace that by itself.
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.
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
The phone has started ringing about Lorenzo Bernasconi again, and this time the name on the line is Venezia. Atalanta are listening politely and promising nothing.
Everything agreed with Crystal Palace, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Pescara have kept their man, and Atalanta go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The chase for Tommaso Milanese ended with $3.9M changing hands and Ascoli out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
The name of Giacomo Raspadori has come up in conversations Atalanta were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
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.
Involvement in 2 goals, from a player who spent the ninety minutes doing the thing a manager actually wants: being where the ball was going to end up. 7.81 beside his name.
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
“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.
Atalanta asked and Spezia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Luciano Costantini has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Sandro Melis has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Romano Guidi has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
15 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.
“I watch every Atalanta game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at FCSB runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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 number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $4.3M — a club that wants Tommaso Milanese 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.
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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Giacomo Raspadori signs something — a contract at Atalanta or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
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 transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Adrien Tamèze is a Atalanta player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
“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.
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 phone has started ringing about Flavio Rossetti again, and this time the name on the line is ASA Târgu Mureș. Atalanta are listening politely and promising nothing.
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 29 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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 Torino; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Atalanta asked and Botosani 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 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.
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.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Words at Atalanta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vinko Kolaković 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.
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 Davide Zappacosta is on 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.
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.
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.
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 number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $30.6M — a club that wants Andrea Colpani enough to be asked twice.
Cosenza paid $260.0K 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.
Zenit paid $40.6M 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.
The offer went to Cosenza 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 45 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Monza have kept their man, and Atalanta go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Franck Kessié has gone, the accounts have $40.6M 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.
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 number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $15.9M — a club that wants Simone Mazzocchi enough to be asked twice.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Zenit waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Atalanta is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The chase for Stiven Shpendi ended with $12.8M changing hands and Empoli out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
“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.
Franck Kessié 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.
Atalanta asked and AS Roma said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Davide Zappacosta and Atalanta agree another 2 years.
Atalanta and Empoli have settled on $12.8M. 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 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.
Add another name to the list: Zenit have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Franck Kessié. 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 $7.6M — a club that wants Cristiano Bani enough to be asked twice.
Franck Kessié 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 approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Words at Atalanta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jonathan Rowe 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nikola Krstović trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
“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 offer from Fiorentina for Giacomo Raspadori 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 Sassuolo said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Maximiliano Casa 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.
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
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.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Nicola Zalewski had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The name of Nikola Krstović has come up in conversations Atalanta were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Atalanta asked and Cagliari said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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 Aarau for Danilo Ravelli 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.
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 a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Words at Atalanta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jonathan Rowe is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Atalanta can pretend not to have heard.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 17 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 Nicola Zalewski again, and this time the name on the line is Modena. Atalanta are listening politely and promising nothing.
$750.0K on the table at Catanzaro. 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 deal with Genoa 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.
Franck Kessié 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 asked and AS Roma said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 27 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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.
Franck Kessié and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
17 games, 2 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at Atalanta now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
Something was said to Raoul Bellanova and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Andrea Michieletto and Atalanta agree another 4 years.
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.
Position 10 on 54 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 34 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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 7.87 for the rest of 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.
10 combined actions and 7.13. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
Squad24 May 2027
Jonathan Rowe falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“It is not 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.
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.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Isak Hien scored, was marked 7.43, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
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.
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.
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad17 May 2027
Jonathan Rowe falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Gennaro Donati after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Giacomo Raspadori signs something — a contract at Atalanta or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
Franck Kessié 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑0, Gennaro Donati could afford to be generous.
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.
Shots: 9. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
“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.
“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.
Juan Rodríguez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 May 2027
Words at Atalanta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jonathan Rowe 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 much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Atalanta told Franck Kessié something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Juan Rodríguez is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
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.
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Jonathan Rowe falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑4, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
The first defeat in 4 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Lazio; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
“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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vinko Kolaković was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 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 Davide Zappacosta is on it.
4 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.
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 pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Luca Moro, and the manager let it.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Jonathan Rowe falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Gennaro Donati on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
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.
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.
At 18 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Marked 8.20. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Atalanta.
Player ratings5 Apr 2027
Eljif Elmas was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.19. 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.
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 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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Giorgio Scalvini signs something — a contract at Atalanta or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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 speculation has reached the stands, and the stands have answered. Atalanta would like this settled before it becomes the only thing anybody asks about.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Jonathan Rowe has written the date down.
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.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.09, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Jonathan Rowe falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Something was said to Yunus Musah and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Gennaro Donati on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
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.
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.
“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 rules permit it and it stings anyway. Henry Camara has agreed terms with Ascoli for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
“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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jonathan Rowe was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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.
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.
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.
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
“It is 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.88 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
1 for Franck Kessié, marked 7.90, 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 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 8 goals between Atalanta and Bologna, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
The name of Jegors Olijars has come up in conversations Atalanta were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Como left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Jonathan Rowe falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I watch every Atalanta game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Académico de Viseu runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Gennaro Donati left the room before anybody could ask which.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Charles De Ketelaere provided it, and the 8.73 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
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 7.94 for the rest of it.
Franck Kessié 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.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Atalanta and Juventus in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
“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 Inter for Franck Kessié 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.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Atalanta will try again when the window opens; Como may not be selling by then.
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.
Marked 7.52 on 12 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Giacomo Raspadori. 1‑0 against Lecce, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.14, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at Atalanta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jonathan Rowe 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 have gone to Como 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.
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.
Add another name to the list: Inter have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Franck Kessié. The answer from Atalanta has not changed — yet.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 3 arrived, 6 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
“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.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Franck Kessié will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Atalanta escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Two goals and a mark of 8.29 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Beroe had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Add another name to the list: RC Lens have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Charles De Ketelaere. The answer from Atalanta has not changed — yet.
Juan Rodríguez 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 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Arzignano waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Atalanta is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Maximiliano Casa has, at Atalanta, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Franck Kessié wants continental football; whether Atalanta can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
The deal with Cagliari 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Cagliari have kept their man, and Atalanta go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Napoli paid $29.2M 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.
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 listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Davide Zappacosta had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
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 7.77 for the rest of it.
7.72, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Franck Kessié 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 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 Napoli for Marco Carnesecchi 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.
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 is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Raoul Bellanova wants continental football; whether Atalanta can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Marco Carnesecchi 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.
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.
Everyone has stopped pretending: AC Milan will make the call about Gianluca Scamacca this week. Atalanta have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
At 18 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
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.
Cagliari left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Gennaro Donati left the room before anybody could ask which.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Atalanta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vinko Kolaković 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.
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 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 Nicola Zalewski is on it.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
0‑1 to Inter, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
Franck Kessié is still being punished for one mistake
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.
A goalkeeper’s error has no defender behind it to tidy it away. He knew before the ball crossed the line, the crowd knew a second later, and there is nothing anybody can say tonight.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Gianluca Scamacca signs something — a contract at Atalanta or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
In brief
Player ratingsAn afternoon Franck Kessié will want back
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Dion Cakolli obliged against Spezia. 4‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Atalanta.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Dion Cakolli, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 8.23
A mark of 8.23 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
“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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Dion Cakolli will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Atalanta the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Franck Kessié 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.
At 19 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.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Spezia tried to reorganise, Atalanta did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
“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.
9.58. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
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 dugout7 Dec 2026
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.” Gennaro Donati kept it short after the 3‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
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 Kamaldeen Sulemana is on 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.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 11 combined actions and a mark of 7.42, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
9 combined actions and 7.13. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
Something was said to Charles De Ketelaere and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Successful dribbles: 15. 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.
Franck Kessié and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vinko Kolaković was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Marco Carnesecchi signs something — a contract at Atalanta or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Marco Carnesecchi wants continental football; whether Atalanta can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Thomas Kristensen’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.
The speculation has reached the stands, and the stands have answered. Atalanta would like this settled before it becomes the only thing anybody asks about.
Two goals and a mark of 6.70 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“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 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.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Charles De Ketelaere and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
At 19 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
“I 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.
Marco Carnesecchi 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.
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.
“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.
Franck Kessié 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.
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Gennaro Donati to a room that had heard them before.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Marco Carnesecchi signs something — a contract at Atalanta or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Dion Cakolli will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Atalanta the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Atalanta and Como, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Vinko Kolaković 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.
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Giorgio Scalvini is 22, 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.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad12 Oct 2026
5 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at Atalanta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vinko Kolaković 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.
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 Edoardo Goldaniga’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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Atalanta. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Inter watched Isak Hien again at the weekend, and this time they did not bother hiding it. Clubs only stop hiding when they want the price to start moving.
6 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.
He has had enough of the noise. Whether Atalanta can be a quieter place for him, or whether the only cure is a move somewhere the phone-ins are gentler, is a question for the next few months.
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.
At 18 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Successful dribbles: 18. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
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 Gennaro Donati to a room that had heard them before.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Marco Carnesecchi signs something — a contract at Atalanta or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Lecce left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
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 Gennaro Donati to a room that had heard them before.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Gianluca Scamacca may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vinko Kolaković was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Atalanta will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Napoli the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Atalanta will enjoy reviewing.
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.
“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.
Marco Carnesecchi 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Vid Chinoso Juvančič has just signed for Atalanta, and for once the answer mattered.
“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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 25 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 3 signed and 4 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 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.
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.
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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Campobasso waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Atalanta is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Franck Kessié and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Panathinaikos have kept their man, and Atalanta go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
6 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.
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.
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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.74 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
$8.2M 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.
Atalanta asked and Cremonese said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Franck Kessié 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.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
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.
Juventus paid $25.8M 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.
The offer went to Young Boys 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.
He is going to Benfica, the club has $64.5M 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.
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.
Atalanta asked and Cremonese 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 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.
The offer from AC Milan for Charles De Ketelaere 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 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 easiest signature of my career.” Charles De Ketelaere and Atalanta agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Add another name to the list: Juventus have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Odilon Kossounou. The answer from Atalanta has not changed — yet.
39 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.
144 appearances across 13 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
The phone has started ringing about Éderson again, and this time the name on the line is Benfica. Atalanta are listening politely and promising nothing.
“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.
Charles De Ketelaere 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.
“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 Sead Kolašinac.