19 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Cremonese lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cremonese can pretend not to have heard.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Manuel De Luca reports back to Cremonese with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Cremonese they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
Cremonese asked and Inter said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The words a physio says slowly. 27 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
“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 The request is on a desk at Cremonese, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Cremonese people have started saying his name in the past tense.
He arrived for a fee and leaves for a fraction of it. $2.1M of what Cremonese paid for Luca Palmiero is money the club will not see again, and the boardroom will be asked about it for two seasons.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Cremonese close the window on a squad of their own making
2 in and 10 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.
Cremonese had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Inter, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Christian Stefani 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.
35 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Cremonese lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Palermo had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
“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 Cremonese, and it is not being withdrawn.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Cremonese have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Cremonese have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Cremonese have done the hard part with Palermo, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The offer from Salernitana for Simone Pontisso 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.
Jari Vandeputte 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 Sebastiano Luperto 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. AC Milan have kept their man, and Cremonese go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Cremonese people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cremonese can pretend not to have heard.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Alberto Grassi 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.
Marco Silvestri 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.
Add another name to the list: Salernitana have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Simone Pontisso. The answer from Cremonese has not changed — yet.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Words at Cremonese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sebastiano Luperto is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Inter have kept their man, and Cremonese go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Cesena waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Cremonese is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Davide Pavesi 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Cremonese can tell you which week it ends in.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Fiorentina have kept their man, and Cremonese go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Manuel De Luca has his answer from Cremonese; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Cremonese is running low.
“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 Cremonese, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sebastiano Luperto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Cremonese asked and Inter said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Sebastiano Luperto has his answer from Cremonese; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Add another name to the list: Cittadella have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Alberto Grassi. The answer from Cremonese has not changed — yet.
The dugoutYoussef Maleh has become a man the manager trusts
74Edition
The Cremonese Gazette
27 Dec 2027
From our football correspondentUneasy
Squad27 Dec 2027
Words at Cremonese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sebastiano Luperto is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cremonese this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Marco Silvestri trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout27 Dec 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Fabrizio Romano was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Cremonese dressing room was either.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Lorenzo Moretti has his answer from Cremonese; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Nobody at Cremonese 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.
Palermo go through and Cremonese go home, 2‑3 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 88th, and Cesena spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Andres Lioi, and the manager let it.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Youssef Maleh 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 want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Cremonese hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Giacomo Gabbiani is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cremonese this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Words at Cremonese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sebastiano Luperto 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 point taken on 91 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.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Cremonese hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Jari Vandeputte and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Words at Cremonese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sebastiano Luperto is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Federico Baschirotto and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
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 music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑4 Fabrizio Romano left the room before anybody could ask which.
Jari Vandeputte was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Successful dribbles: 16. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Michele Collocolo is on it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Cremonese, and both men came out saying it was fine.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Cremonese has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Lecce in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Cremonese, another week without a signature from Davide Pavesi.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 13 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
0‑3 to Napoli, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Match3 Nov 2027
Yuri Rocchetti wins it after the whistle should have gone
92 minutes played. Yuri Rocchetti found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Cittadella went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Two goals and a mark of 8.20 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Martín Payero and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Giacomo Gabbiani 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“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 Cremonese, and it is not being withdrawn.
“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.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Words at Cremonese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sebastiano Luperto 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.
Martín Payero 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.
“Three loans in three years. At some point a club has to decide if I am their player or their asset.” The spell at Darmstadt 98 continues; the message travels home.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Michele Collocolo scored, was marked 7.87, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Cremonese is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sebastiano Luperto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Cremonese has been clear about where Martín Payero stands, which is more than many ever get.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 6 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cremonese 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 Salvatore Elia was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom18 Oct 2027
Nobody left the Cremonese dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Federico Baschirotto 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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Words at Cremonese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sebastiano Luperto is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Nobody at Cremonese 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Tommaso Barbieri trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Jari Vandeputte signs something — a contract at Cremonese or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Yuri Rocchetti’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Cremonese needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Cremonese have no good answer.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cremonese this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 5 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Fabrizio Romano after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Karamoko Kaba will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Cremonese the goodbyes have quietly begun.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Cremonese and Como in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
4 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Words at Cremonese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Youssef Maleh 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.
0‑3 against Fiorentina, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cremonese can pretend not to have heard.
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
The 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 offer from Winterthur for Giacomo Gabbiani was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Cremonese hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
At 21 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.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Words at Cremonese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sebastiano Luperto 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.
Martín Payero and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Inter have kept their man, and Cremonese go back to a list with one name crossed off 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 Cremonese can pretend not to have heard.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 17 arrived, 31 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Marco Silvestri 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.
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.
1‑4 to Lazio, 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.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Federico Bonazzoli was one of the reasons people came, and $27.5M does not replace that by itself.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Cremonese they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Jari Vandeputte 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.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Words at Cremonese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sebastiano Luperto 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.
Cremonese 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.
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.
21 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cremonese can pretend not to have heard.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 19 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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.
The name of Federico Bonazzoli has come up in conversations Cremonese were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The board have signed the man in the dugout to a longer contract, which says more than any statement of support. Stability is easy to promise and costly to keep.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Cremonese will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Add another name to the list: Union Brescia have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Michele Collocolo. The answer from Cremonese has not changed — yet.
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Youssef Maleh falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I watch every Cremonese game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Greuther Fürth 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.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Cremonese that is a harder question to answer.
In brief
The dugoutLuca Palmiero knocks on the manager's door
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 34 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
Cremonese asked and Atalanta said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
25 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.
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 Youssef Maleh is on it.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Cremonese will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Giacomo Gabbiani had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that 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 Cremonese, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Cremonese heard it as anything else.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Words at Cremonese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sebastiano Luperto is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cremonese this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Cremonese know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Cremonese will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. AC Milan have kept their man, and Cremonese go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Youssef Maleh was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Cremonese will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Add another name to the list: Union Brescia have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Michele Collocolo. The answer from Cremonese has not changed — yet.
Marco Silvestri 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.
Cosenza paid $98.0K and Cremonese took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Inter have kept their man, and Cremonese go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Cremonese will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cremonese 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 Federico Baschirotto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad12 Jul 2027
25 new faces, and Cremonese 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.
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.
Mathematically certain, and nobody in this town is going to bed early. Whatever else happened this season, it finishes a division above where it started.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 75 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Jari Vandeputte was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
“I 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 Cremonese know it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 83 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Bari have kept their man, and Cremonese go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Jari Vandeputte 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Mattia Della Rocca is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Words at Cremonese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sebastiano Luperto 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.
Giana Erminio paid $100.0K and Cremonese took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
In brief
MarketYoussef Maleh comes back from a loan that worked
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 90 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Add another name to the list: Union Brescia have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Michele Collocolo. The answer from Cremonese has not changed — yet.
Cagliari paid $830.0K and Cremonese took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sebastiano Luperto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Cremonese 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.
Costanzo Heredia 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.
Cremonese have made the call to Fiorentina. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Bolton Wanderers have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
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. Cremonese will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Cremonese hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
15 clean sheets from 37 appearances at Empoli. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Vitoria Guimaraes have kept their man, and Cremonese go back to a list with one name crossed off 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 Cremonese this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 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 last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 78 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Cremonese hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Jari Vandeputte was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Words at Cremonese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sebastiano Luperto 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.
14 goals in 30 games at Pescara — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Cremonese updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
20 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 Cremonese can pretend not to have heard.
Jari Vandeputte and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Cremonese can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad31 May 2027
Words at Cremonese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sebastiano Luperto is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Federico Bonazzoli. 3‑1 against Südtirol, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Charlie Wilson and Cremonese agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Player ratings31 May 2027
Jari Vandeputte was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.03. 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.
In brief
Loan watchFederico Agazzi’s loan is measured in nothing happening
75 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.
Nobody at Cremonese 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.
19 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.55 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Cremonese have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sebastiano Luperto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
35 appearances at Empoli and the goals have stopped going in. Cremonese lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
8.17. 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.
Sakhalou Niakaté was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
In brief
Boardroom92% of the income goes out in wages at Cremonese
18 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
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.
Jari Vandeputte 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.
14 goals in 30 games at Pescara — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Cremonese updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.01, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout10 May 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.” Fabrizio Romano, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
In brief
Player ratingsAndres Lioi beats them one at a time
“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 Cremonese know it.
12 clean sheets from 29 appearances at Alcione Milano. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Federico Bonazzoli has come out of that comparison in the side, and Cremonese have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
17 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
69 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.
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.
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Padova spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
Successful dribbles: 16. 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.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Cremonese pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sebastiano Luperto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
31 appearances at Empoli and the goals have stopped going in. Cremonese lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Claudio Salto, and the manager let it.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Fabrizio Romano left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
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 Faris is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Federico Bonazzoli signs something — a contract at Cremonese or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Benevento the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Cremonese will enjoy reviewing.
16 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.
“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 Cremonese, and it is not being withdrawn.
Jari Vandeputte 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.
14 goals in 29 games at Pescara — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Cremonese updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
13 clean sheets from 30 appearances at Empoli. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Cremonese have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Jari Vandeputte 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.
A 1‑0 win over Hellas Verona, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
28 appearances at Alcione Milano and the goals have stopped going in. Cremonese lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Cremonese people have started saying his name in the past tense.
62 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Cremonese have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Cremonese can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Cremonese will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
Costanzo Heredia was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Cremonese told Tommaso Marras something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
15 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
12 shut-outs in 28 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Andrea Fulignati has been having a lot of them.
11 shut-outs in 27 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Federico Agazzi has been having a lot of them.
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 Warren Bondo.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 10 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Sakhalou Niakaté is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sebastiano Luperto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Cremonese can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Carrarese kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Cremonese will be asked about the last half hour all week.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Federico Bonazzoli provided it, and the 8.75 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
7.93, 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 offer from FF Jaro for Lapo Nava 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Francesco Cassata and Cremonese agree another 4 years.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Words at Cremonese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sebastiano Luperto 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.
60 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 Cremonese this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
25 appearances at Empoli and the goals have stopped going in. Cremonese lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Lapo Nava has his answer from Cremonese; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Jari Vandeputte and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at Cremonese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sebastiano Luperto 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.
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.
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
9 shut-outs in 24 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Andrea Fulignati has been having a lot of them.
9 shut-outs in 23 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Federico Agazzi has been having a lot of them.
13 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
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.
Jari Vandeputte 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at Cremonese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sebastiano Luperto 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.
11 goals in 22 games at Pescara — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Cremonese updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Federico Bonazzoli provided it, and the 8.85 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“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 Cremonese, and it is not being withdrawn.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Cremonese heard it as anything else.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Cremonese have lost him in all but the paperwork.
12 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.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Cremonese close the window on a squad of their own making
7 in and 6 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cremonese this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Sakhalou Niakaté has, at Cremonese, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
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 particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Michele Collocolo provided it, and the 8.36 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Cremonese have done the hard part with AC Milan, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Cremonese can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Náutico have kept their man, and Cremonese go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Cremonese have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The name of Jari Vandeputte has come up in conversations Cremonese were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Jamie Vardy 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Trento waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Cremonese is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Jamie Vardy and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
At 18 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
The phone has started ringing about Alberto Grassi again, and this time the name on the line is Neuchâtel Xamax. Cremonese are listening politely and promising nothing.
Everyone has stopped pretending: RKC Waalwijk will make the call about Martín Payero this week. Cremonese have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Cremonese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andres Lioi 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Martín Payero
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Cremonese have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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. Cremonese will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
6 goals in one match, Jari Vandeputte on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Cremonese and Catanzaro.
The phone has started ringing about Tommaso Barbieri again, and this time the name on the line is Latina. Cremonese are listening politely and promising nothing.
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Jari Vandeputte was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.28. 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 8.85 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The offer from Racing Club for Martín Payero was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cremonese this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Gabriele Bono is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Filippo Terracciano 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.
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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Davide Garatti is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Davide Garatti 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.
1-4, and long before the end the away end had switched from encouragement to something considerably more pointed. Nobody rings a phone-in about losing narrowly.
Gabriele Bono 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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Davide Garatti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
4‑1, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
A brace, and Jamie Vardy takes the afternoon — 8.71
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Jamie Vardy provided it, and the 8.71 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Two goals and a mark of 8.39 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Martín Payero 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.
8 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Marked 8.09 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cremonese can pretend not to have heard.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.06 at 39, and nobody on the pitch was better.
5 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.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cremonese this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cremonese can pretend not to have heard.
At 39 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.80 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Jamie Vardy was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Cremonese are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Jamie Vardy. 2‑0 against Hellas Verona, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Morten Thorsby 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mattia Della Rocca and Cremonese agree another 4 years.
Jamie Vardy 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 decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mattia Della Rocca and Cremonese agree another 4 years.
Mattia Della Rocca is 20, and Cremonese have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Cremonese are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Nobody at Cremonese 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Cremonese know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Hellas Verona next, and one man in the Cremonese dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
In brief
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Frank Tsadjout’s exile
1 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.88 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
7.94, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
“I 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.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Cremonese heard it as anything else.
A 2‑0 win over Virtus Entella, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
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. Faris is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Fabrizio Romano could afford to be generous.
In brief
SquadWords at Cremonese training over how hard people work
“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 Cremonese, and it is not being withdrawn.
Successful dribbles: 25. 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.
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.
Davide Garatti 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 dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Fabrizio Romano kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cremonese this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The first defeat in 5 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Cesena; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Francesco Cassata had Cremonese level again within 4 minutes, and Cesena never got to play with a lead at all.
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Fabrizio Romano was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Cremonese dressing room was either.
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.
Carrarese next, and one man in the Cremonese dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at Cremonese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Davide Garatti 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.
Cesena next, and one man in the Cremonese dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cremonese this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Davide Garatti is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
Marked 8.15 — 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.
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.
Jamie Vardy was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
500 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.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad28 Sep 2026
9 new faces, and Cremonese 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.50 at 39, and nobody on the pitch was better.
1 for Morten Thorsby, marked 7.78, 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.
Sebastiano Luperto 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Cremonese and Sampdoria, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
A 4‑2 win over Sampdoria, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Jari Vandeputte was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.26. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 4‑2, Fabrizio Romano could afford to be generous.
In brief
SquadDavide Garatti falls out with a teammate over standards
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Spezia keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Alessandro Vogliacco had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
1 for Warren Bondo, marked 7.69, 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cremonese this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Cremonese close the window on a squad of their own making
2 in and 9 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $5.4M — a club that wants Giuseppe Di Serio enough to be asked twice.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cremonese this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Cremonese than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Cremonese are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The fee is $3.2M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Avellino drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Spezia have kept their man, and Cremonese go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
1 for Morten Thorsby, marked 7.62, 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.
8.30. 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.
Cremonese had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at DAC Dunajska Streda, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
The offer from Avellino for Jari Vandeputte 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.
$10.4M was the most the club would pay and Como 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.
Cremonese have gone to Avellino 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 $3.3M — a club that wants Luca Palmiero enough to be asked twice.
Jamie Vardy 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 name of Lapo Nava has come up in conversations Cremonese were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
In brief
BoardroomCremonese say no to the training-ground money
$7.3M settles it between the clubs for Ammar Ramadan
DAC Dunajska Streda have accepted the money. What Cremonese do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The offer from Atalanta for Sebastiano Luperto 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.
Cremonese offered $12.4M; Udinese 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.
Cremonese asked and Como said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Cremonese have no good answer.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Cremonese has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Cremonese have gone to Udinese 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.
$2.5M on the table at Udinese. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Cremonese hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $13.3M — a club that wants Jurgen Ekkelenkamp enough to be asked twice.
Jamie Vardy 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.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Cremonese hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Federico Baschirotto 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
9 new faces, and Cremonese 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Cremonese has been clear about where Matteo Bianchetti stands, which is more than many ever get.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Cremonese, and both men came out saying it was fine.
49 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.