Successful dribbles: 19. 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 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.
Vinko Kolaković 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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Fabio Iannuzzi 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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Jegors Olijars provided it, and the 8.79 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Prince Amoako, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 8.00
A mark of 8.00 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 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Vinko Kolaković will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Atalanta the goodbyes have quietly begun.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Marked 8.16 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
“I 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Giacomo Raspadori. 2‑0 against Monza, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Fabio Iannuzzi on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Atalanta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ibrahima Camara 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.
Parma will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Atalanta were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
A brace, and Franck Kessié takes the afternoon — 8.27
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Franck Kessié provided it, and the 8.27 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“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 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.
“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 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout23 Nov 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 Fabio Iannuzzi to a room that had heard them before.
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 Éderson 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 is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Atalanta told Nicola Zalewski something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Atalanta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ibrahima Camara 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 Lazar Samardžić trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Charles De Ketelaere provided it, and the 9.31 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“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.
Éderson 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Atalanta and AS Roma, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Beaten 6 times, with 5 saves for company. Goalkeepers carry these scorelines on their record whoever actually caused them, which is the quiet injustice of the job.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Franck Kessié has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout2 Nov 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 0‑6 Fabio Iannuzzi left the room before anybody could ask which.
“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 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Fabio Iannuzzi after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Vinko Kolaković 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 is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Atalanta told Nikola Krstović something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Atalanta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ibrahima Camara 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 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.
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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 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.
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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
8 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.
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
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.
4 goals in 6 games at Cagliari — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Atalanta updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Atalanta will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
“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.
7.50, 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 was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Atalanta has been clear about where Lazar Samardžić stands, which is more than many ever get.
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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Fabio Iannuzzi could afford to be generous.
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.
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 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.
A point taken on 90 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
“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.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Vinko Kolaković will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Atalanta the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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 for the club now, each one filed in somebody’s memory with a date and a scoreline. Numbers like this are what supporters argue about in twenty years.
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.
8 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.
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 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.
Minute 88, against Napoli, 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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Fabio Iannuzzi after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
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 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.
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 8 signed and 6 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 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 from Jadran Luka Ploce for Vinko Kolaković 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 Inter 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 manager has re-ordered his thinking and Eljif Elmas has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Prince Amoako is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
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.
Juventus paid $25.9M 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 listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Marco Sportiello had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
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.
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.
7 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.
The offer from AC Milan 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.
The chase for Valentin Antov ended with $11.9M changing hands and Monza out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Atalanta have done the hard part with FC Nordsjaelland, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The phone has started ringing about Gianluca Scamacca again, and this time the name on the line is Borussia Dortmund. Atalanta are listening politely and promising nothing.
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.
Atalanta asked and Reggiana said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Charles De Ketelaere. 2‑1 against Venezia, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
In brief
Player ratingsGianluca Scamacca was on a different afternoon to everybody else
Squad6 new faces, and Atalanta are still learning each other
Monza 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.
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 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 Valentin Antov enough to be asked twice.
The deal with Sassuolo 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.
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 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.
What was a back-page story is now a matter for the terraces, and the terraces do not do nuance. Atalanta would like it dealt with before it becomes the only question anybody asks.
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.
The offer from Parma 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.
Atalanta asked and Monza 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 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: Ospitaletto have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Dion Cakolli. The answer from Atalanta has not changed — yet.
Squad10 Aug 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.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
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.
“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.
Atalanta asked and Como said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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.
49 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.