“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Bari can pretend not to have heard.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Leonardo Mendicino is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
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 Mattia Rutigliano is on it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Bari can pretend not to have heard.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Bari have had the benefit of it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Bari have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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 one award on the pitch nobody else can win. 17 games in a season in which nobody scored past him, and a career that will be measured against this one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bari this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Leonardo Mendicino 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.
Gianluca Mancini was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Arthur Gomes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Bari 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Arthur Gomes signs something — a contract at Bari or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ebrima Darboe will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Bari the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Player ratings17 Apr 2028
Sakoba Keita, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 7.81
A mark of 7.81 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.
Gianluca Mancini and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Arthur Gomes is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Sandro Villa kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
16 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Bari can pretend not to have heard.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Giacomo Manzari. 2‑0 against Foggia, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mathías Laborda was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 18. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Marked 8.04 — 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.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
0‑3 to Salernitana, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Bari can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Sakoba Keita will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Bari the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Arthur Gomes 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.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Bari will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Gonçalo Esteves 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 dugout3 Apr 2028
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑3 Sandro Villa left the room before anybody could ask which.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Mathías Laborda wants continental football; whether Bari can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Arthur Gomes 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 fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Bari can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Nobody at Bari 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.
15 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
6 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ebrima Darboe will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Bari the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bari this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Francisco Di Franco.
The dugout20 Mar 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Sandro Villa kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Bari scored in the 94th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
“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 Bari, and it is not being withdrawn.
5 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.
4 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Arthur Gomes 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.
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Bari will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
Player ratings13 Mar 2028
Giulio Maggiore 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.
“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 Bari, and it is not being withdrawn.
Two goals and a mark of 9.11 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
14 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bari this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Bari is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Arthur Gomes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Gianluca Mancini 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.
3 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mathías Laborda was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings28 Feb 2028
Arthur Gomes was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.00. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Player ratings28 Feb 2028
Ebrima Darboe was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.00. 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.94 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ebrima Darboe will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Bari the goodbyes have quietly begun.
13 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Gianluca Mancini 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.
Bari offered $24.0K; Genoa said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Arthur Gomes is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.09 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Bari and Crotone, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Bari offered $220.0K; Cesena 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Arthur Gomes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings14 Feb 2028
Giulio Maggiore was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.08. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Bari had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Sassuolo, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
“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 Bari, and it is not being withdrawn.
12 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Bari close the window on a squad of their own making
3 in and 3 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Matteo Italia has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Bari they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Bari have gone to Cesena 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.
$5.9M on the table at Sassuolo. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Gianluca Mancini 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 offer went to Genoa this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Arthur Gomes 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Bari will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The offer from Lierse for Fernando Alarcón was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Pineto waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Bari is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ebrima Darboe will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Bari the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Bari can pretend not to have heard.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Ebrima Darboe has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Gianluca Mancini 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.
In brief
Transfer targetsToo dear: Bari walk away from Ronaldo
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Bari will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Bari had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Como, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Bari can pretend not to have heard.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Bari will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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 Bari, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
7.95, 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bari this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Bari will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Bari had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bari this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Giulio Maggiore was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Catanzaro have kept their man, and Bari go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Bari will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.89 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
The 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.
Half the programme played, position 1, 38 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
In brief
Player ratingsThe afternoon belonged to Arthur Gomes
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.01 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
14 combined actions and 7.44. 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Giulio Maggiore was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.43 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
“I watch every Bari game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Mantova runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Two goals and a mark of 8.60 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.78 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Bari have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
Successful dribbles: 24. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Mattia Rutigliano has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
29 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bari this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Joseph Liteta has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mathías Laborda was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
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.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Alexandre Duville-Parsemain will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Bari escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Bari have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Gianluca Mancini 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 the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Mathías Laborda wants continental football; whether Bari can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Bari can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Bari can pretend not to have heard.
Gianluca Mancini was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Arthur Gomes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every Bari game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Mantova runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Bari, and both men came out saying it was fine.
22 points and nobody above them. The word is not being said around the ground yet, and it is being thought in every seat.
Player ratings8 Nov 2027
Joseph Liteta, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.86
A mark of 7.86 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Giulio Maggiore scored, was marked 7.81, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Bari can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Successful dribbles: 22. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Arthur Gomes falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Bari can pretend not to have heard.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
“It is 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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Alexandre Duville-Parsemain provided it, and the 8.72 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Two goals and a mark of 8.17 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Arthur Gomes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.42 — 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Sandro Villa on a 4‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
“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 Bari, and it is not being withdrawn.
Gianluca Mancini was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Sandro Villa could afford to be generous.
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 Riccardo Burgio is on it.
Crotone next, and one man in the Bari dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Bari has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bari this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I watch every Bari game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Mantova runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Nobody at Bari 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.
7.68, 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.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Bari and Monopoli in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
9.46. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Arthur Gomes 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.
Gianluca Mancini 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.
“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; Bari 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 Arthur Gomes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 4 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
He has had enough of the noise. Whether Bari 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Bari have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
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 oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Bari know it.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Bari know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
There were 89 minutes on the clock and Potenza had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Bari did not stop to explain themselves.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Arthur Gomes is living that version at Bari, and it tends to show in the first month.
“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 Bari, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
The deal that would have taken Ivan Saio to Empoli has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Bari with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Arthur Gomes is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
A 1‑0 win over Potenza, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad13 Sep 2027
8 new faces, and Bari are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Parma moved on, Ebrima Darboe reports back to Bari, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Bari can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 23 signed and 21 gone
That is the business done at Bari 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Giulio Maggiore was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
“I watch every Bari game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Alcione Milano runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Mariano Bareiro is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Bari, another week without a signature from Francisco Di Franco.
The offer from Avellino for Romano Floriani Mussolini was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Bari, and it is not being withdrawn.
The phone has started ringing about Ebrima Darboe again, and this time the name on the line is Lazio. Bari are listening politely and promising nothing.
Gianluca Mancini and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giulio Maggiore 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.
“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 Bari, and it is not being withdrawn.
The fee is $2.0M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Pro Vercelli drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Gianluca Mancini 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.
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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Filippo Ceccarelli 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mathías Laborda was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Bari will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Napoli is saying, and nobody at Bari is enjoying the guessing.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Giulio Maggiore was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Bari asked and FC Copenhagen said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Vincenzo Ricci 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. Alessio Vannucci has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Samuele Fontana has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Federico Baldini is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 21 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Giulio Maggiore was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Bari asked and AC Milan said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Bari, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Bari will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Bari people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The offer went to Napoli 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.
$270.0K was the most the club would pay and Modena were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Bari asked and Fiorentina said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 37 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Bari people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Palermo is saying, and nobody at Bari is enjoying the guessing.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $295.8K — a club that wants Antonio Imputato enough to be asked twice.
The offer went to Modena 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giulio Maggiore is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 45 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Bari 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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Mathías Laborda wants continental football; whether Bari can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Bari asked and Altamura said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“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; Bari are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Nobody at Bari 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Bari will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mathías Laborda 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.
9 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Giacomo Manzari trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Vasile Mogoş is on it.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Bari will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Bari they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Gianluca Mancini 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 the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Mariano Bareiro wants continental football; whether Bari can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Bari asked and Fiorentina 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 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
The words a physio says slowly. 51 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Bari will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
$7.2M was the most the club would pay and Napoli 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Daouda Traoré is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
“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; Bari are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Godoy Cruz have kept their man, and Bari go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
58 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Bari lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 78 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Bari have gone to Napoli 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.
Virtus Entella did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $2.8M for Niccolò Squizzato, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
The offer from Arzignano for Leonardo Mendicino was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Marco Pissardo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Bari the goodbyes have quietly begun.
$380.0K was the most the club would pay and Bologna were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
The words a physio says slowly. 65 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Bari will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
AS Roma have accepted the money. What Bari do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Bari have paid $3.7M for Alessandro Renzi, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Alessandro Renzi has just signed for Bari, and for once the answer mattered.
“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 Bari, and it is not being withdrawn.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Casarano have kept their man, and Bari go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The offer went to Bologna 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.
73 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Bari lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Bari will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Arezzo have accepted the money. What Bari do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Bari people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Bari asked and Mantova said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Everything agreed with Moreirense, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
81 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Bari lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Bari will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Bari can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
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 Riccardo Burgio is on it.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Bari would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
The words a physio says slowly. 88 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Bari will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Fernando Alarcón wants continental football; whether Bari can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad24 May 2027
Cas Odenthal 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 injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 15 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
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 Flavio Junior Bianchi is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Matteo Della Morte signs something — a contract at Bari or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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 Anthony Partipilo has written the date down.
95 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Bari lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Bari will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cas Odenthal is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Bari are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 122 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Bari 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.” Bari have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Bari is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Stefano Bruno has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Dario De Luca is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bari this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Bari know which stage they are at.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Bari will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Bari had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Mariano Bareiro wants continental football; whether Bari can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cas Odenthal is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Bari, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 136 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Joseph Liteta 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 a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Dailon Livramento was the best thing in any of them.
Nobody at Bari 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Bari, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Matteo Della Morte signs something — a contract at Bari or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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 Christian Gytkjær has written the date down.
Position 4 on 55 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.34 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Dailon Livramento. 3‑1 against Casarano, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Gabriele Moncini.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Sandro Villa, on a 3‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Dailon Livramento was the best thing in any of them.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Bari can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Marco Pissardo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Bari the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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 dugout12 Apr 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Sandro Villa to a room that had heard them before.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Bari pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Bari can pretend not to have heard.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 12 actions, 6.79, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Bari will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
“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; Bari are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 36 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Bari is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Bari, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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 Flavio Junior Bianchi is on it.
Foggia next, and one man in the Bari dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
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.
Position 2, 52 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
3 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.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Fernando Alarcón will call it something else in private.
Alessandro Celli 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 bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Bari will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Marco Pissardo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Bari the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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; Bari are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Joseph Liteta and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Sandro Villa, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Bari will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
8.02. 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 Bari this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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; Bari are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Sandro Villa could afford to be generous.
The words a physio says slowly. 18 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Bari will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Mariano Bareiro wants continental football; whether Bari can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Bari can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Joseph Liteta 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 manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑5 defeat, delivered by Sandro Villa to a room that had heard them before.
15 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Bari lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 48 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Position 2, 43 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Francisco Di Franco provided it, and the 8.33 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Francisco Di Franco. 3‑2 against Cavese, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑2, Sandro Villa could afford to be generous.
Something was said to Alessio Tribuzzi and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The words a physio says slowly. 22 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 deal that would have taken Gabriele Moncini to Hellas Verona has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Bari with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Bari is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
29 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Bari lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 Bari, and it is not being withdrawn.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Cesena moved on, Christian Gytkjær reports back to Bari, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Bari will try again when the window opens; AS Roma may not be selling by then.
Bari asked and Crotone said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
38 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Bari lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The clubs have shaken hands with AS Roma; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
“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 Bari, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Bari close the window on a squad of their own making
3 in and 1 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Add another name to the list: Hellas Verona have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Gabriele Moncini. The answer from Bari has not changed — yet.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: PAOK keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
45 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Bari lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Bari can pretend not to have heard.
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.
36 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
The terraces25 Jan 2027
Bari are taken apart by Fiorentina — and the town wants answers
It finished 0-4. A cup exit is a disappointment; this was a public dismantling, and the difference between the two is the number of people who will still be talking about it in August.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Bari can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
The words a physio says slowly. 53 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.
Bari offered $13.7M; Fiorentina 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 offer went to AS Roma 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Bari have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The chase for Joseph Liteta ended with $1.5M changing hands and Cagliari out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Olympiacos is saying, and nobody at Bari is enjoying the guessing.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Giugliano waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Bari is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The offer went to Fiorentina 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.
Bari and Cagliari have settled on $1.5M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Juve Stabia had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Bari had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Frosinone, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Daouda Traoré is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Panathinaikos have kept their man, and Bari go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Bari will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Bari can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Bari know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Position 3, 29 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bari this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Half the programme played, position 3, 29 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Sandro Villa, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
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.
Two goals and a mark of 9.04 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Marked 7.20 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.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Cosenza tried to reorganise, Bari did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
2 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Flavio Junior Bianchi obliged against Bologna. 1‑1 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Bari.
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.
Every touch weighed, every quote parsed, every mistake replayed. Some players grow into that; some are quietly finished by it; nobody knows which until afterwards.
In brief
Looking aheadBari take on the side everybody is chasing
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
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 Salernitana; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Four weeks in which nobody in the division did his job better. The award goes on a shelf and the player goes back into the side, which is the order Bari prefer.
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
The dugout7 Dec 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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Sandro Villa to a room that had heard them before.
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Matteo Della Morte. 2‑0 against Casertana, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 11 actions, 6.80, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
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.
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Bari have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Kevin Piscopo. 2‑1 against Catania, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.44 — 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Sandro Villa could afford to be generous.
Every signing waits for it and every press conference asks about it until it comes. It has come, Bari have their man off the mark, and the second one is always easier.
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
Somebody watched every match in the division at the weekend and decided he was the best thing in any of them. A small honour, and most careers end without one.
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 Riccardo Burgio is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Bari know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Bari, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Alessandro Celli’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Bari needing him to play as if none of it matters.
5‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
A brace, and Kevin Piscopo takes the afternoon — 9.34
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Kevin Piscopo provided it, and the 9.34 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
A brace, and Guido Gomez takes the afternoon — 8.74
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Guido Gomez provided it, and the 8.74 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The hardest thing about being 18 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Vincenzo Prisco did not need any: 7.66, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
1 for Francisco Di Franco, marked 7.95, 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.
He is 18 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Cavese scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Bari, another week without a signature from Francisco Di Franco.
19 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.
“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.
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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Bari. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
1 for Romano Floriani Mussolini, marked 7.95, 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.
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.
A point taken on 93 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.
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.
Goalkeepers do not get to make mistakes; they get to make goals. He made one, he knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Sandro Villa after the 2‑2 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Everybody at Bari saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 35 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Bari. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Bari know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Bari would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
16 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Bari lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
At 20 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.
“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.
23 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Bari lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
18 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.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Sandro Villa, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Marco Pissardo has his answer from Bari; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
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.
30 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Bari lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Dynamo Kyiv is saying, and nobody at Bari is enjoying the guessing.
Ebrima Darboe 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Sandro Villa could afford to be generous.
Nobody at Bari is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
The words a physio says slowly. 38 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Cremonese is saying, and nobody at Bari is enjoying the guessing.
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
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.” Sandro Villa chose the glass-half-full version of 2‑2; the supporters left with the other one.
Every signing waits for it and every press conference asks about it until it comes. It has come, Bari have their man off the mark, and the second one is always easier.
“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 Bari, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 8 arrived, 1 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Everything agreed with Cremonese, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Anthony Partipilo is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Guido Gomez has moved up it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Bari, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $307.1K — a club that wants Giovanni Giunti enough to be asked twice.
$300.0K on the table at Padova. 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 fee is $180.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Pescara drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dinamo Zagreb have kept their man, and Bari go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
8.14. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Giulio Maggiore was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.01. 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.
18 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.
$7.6M was the most the club would pay and Pisa 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.
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.
Bari 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Valentino Mariani has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Leandro Riva has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Bruno Fiorentino 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.
Bari have made the call to Dinamo Zagreb. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The plan went upstairs and came back down. Nothing about that will make a headline anywhere else, and everybody who works at the training ground will remember it for years.
“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.
Bari have gone to Pisa with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $204.8K — a club that wants Sergio Kalaj enough to be asked twice.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Dinamo Zagreb keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
The offer went to Spezia 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.
$230.0K was the most the club would pay and Padova 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.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Bari know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
$6.6M was the most the club would pay and Lecce 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Bari have done the hard part with Dinamo Zagreb, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: La Equidad keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Bari know which stage they are at.
The offer went to Lecce this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bari this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Bari will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Bari, another week without a signature from Romano Floriani Mussolini.
15 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.
Bari have made the call to Dinamo Zagreb. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.