“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 The request is on a desk at Empoli, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 21 arrived, 21 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The instruction came from the boardroom and the dugout did not agree with it. Somebody will go, the fee will be called good business, and the manager will spend the season rebuilding around the space.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alfonso Álvarez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Empoli the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emmanuel Gyasi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Slaven Belupo waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Empoli is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Empoli is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Empoli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Aug 2032
Words at Empoli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emmanuel Gyasi 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.
10 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Maj Blažič had Empoli level again within 4 minutes, and Venezia never got to play with a lead at all.
“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; Empoli are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
There is nobody left to promote and nobody left to run a session. The board have brought in a name the supporters do not know, and the question of how a club gets here will outlast whoever answers it.
“Somebody has to pick the team on Saturday, and this week that is me.” An interim appointment with no promises attached, which is how most of them start.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Empoli they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Empoli have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Joseph Ceesay 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 Emmanuel Gyasi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
10 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.
“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 Empoli, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Empoli is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Joseph Ceesay 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.
Squad16 Aug 2032
Words at Empoli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emmanuel Gyasi 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 year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Empoli would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Ospitaletto waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Empoli is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Empoli can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Empoli is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Gerard Yepes 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 Emmanuel Gyasi 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Empoli, another week without a signature from Filippo Distefano.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Empoli would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
In brief
The dugoutMehdi Chafii knocks on the manager’s door
“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 Empoli, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Empoli is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Empoli heard it as anything else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Empoli 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.
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. Matías Lucero has moved up it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Empoli they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Kilian Toscano 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.
Joseph Ceesay 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 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad26 Jul 2032
Words at Empoli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emmanuel Gyasi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Empoli can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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.
Joseph Ceesay 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 a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 17 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.
Squad19 Jul 2032
Words at Empoli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emmanuel Gyasi 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Stanislav Cerny is living that version at Empoli, and it tends to show in the first month.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Empoli, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Cagliari waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Empoli is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Empoli, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
11 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.
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.
At 28 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
The end came on a Tuesday, as these things usually do: a short meeting, a shorter statement, and Interim Coach clearing his office by noon. Football’s cruellest ritual, performed to schedule.
There is nobody left to promote and nobody left to run a session. The board have brought in a name the supporters do not know, and the question of how a club gets here will outlast whoever answers it.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Empoli, 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. Empoli have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I am not thinking past Saturday, and I would advise nobody else to.” The caretaker’s first rule is to pretend the job is small; Interim Coach recited it perfectly.
“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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Empoli is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“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 Empoli, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alfonso Álvarez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Empoli the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Joseph Ceesay 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 Emmanuel Gyasi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Cristóbal Cáceres arrives at 36 with nothing left to prove and plenty left to pass on. Legs are a young man's currency; knowing where to stand never ages.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Empoli would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Empoli people have started saying his name in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Empoli 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.
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.
“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; Empoli are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“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.
The dugout21 Jun 2032
The manager has not finished forgetting Kavian Rahmani's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emmanuel Gyasi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The name of Nouroudine Faye has come up in conversations Empoli were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Empoli can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Empoli can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Empoli 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.
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.
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Emmanuel Gyasi is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Mehdi Chafii has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Empoli is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Empoli heard it as anything else.
Joseph Ceesay 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.
Squad31 May 2032
Words at Empoli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emmanuel Gyasi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Empoli know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Joseph Ceesay 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.
Squad24 May 2032
Words at Empoli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emmanuel Gyasi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I have 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 Empoli know 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 ambition story running backwards, and the one nobody tells: a footballer who wants a smaller ground, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is rarely reported as anything else.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Empoli, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Empoli can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nouroudine Faye will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Empoli 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.
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 7.86 for the rest of it.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Empoli 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.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Gerard Yepes. 2‑0 against Südtirol, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“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 Empoli know it.
The club looked outside for a month, found nothing it preferred, and handed the job to the man who had been doing it anyway. He knows the building; now he has to prove he knows the rest.
Balance sheets do not care about form or about who the manager was planning to build around. The board have decided a sale is required, and the only question left is which name ends up carrying it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Empoli they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“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.
Gerard Yepes and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 May 2032
Words at Empoli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emmanuel Gyasi 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.
Successful dribbles: 20. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“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; Empoli are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
19 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Empoli lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Joseph Ceesay and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad26 Apr 2032
Words at Empoli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emmanuel Gyasi 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.
200 times in these colours, in all weathers and under four or five different managers. That kind of service is quietly disappearing from the game.
The dugout26 Apr 2032
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Interim Coach was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Empoli dressing room was either.
The words a physio says slowly. 26 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 last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Empoli have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Empoli is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emmanuel Gyasi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 20. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Marked 7.47 on 9 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
“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; Empoli are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
33 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Empoli lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 Empoli, and it is not being withdrawn.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.90 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
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.
11 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.
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.
Four paragraphs on the club website, none of them about football. The board thanked him, wished him well, and had the search under way before the page went up.
The coaching staff has emptied out entirely and there was nobody internal to promote, so the club has appointed a name almost none of its supporters will recognise. Clubs recover from this; none of them enjoy explaining it.
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.
“Somebody picks the team on Saturday. This week it is me, and that is as far as I have thought.” No promises were made in either direction, which is how these usually begin.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alfonso Álvarez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Empoli the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Joseph Ceesay 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.
10 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Empoli can pretend not to have heard.
“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 Empoli hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Joseph Ceesay and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emmanuel Gyasi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Empoli can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nouroudine Faye will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Empoli the goodbyes have quietly begun.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Francesco Dell'Aquila is living that version at Empoli, and it tends to show in the first month.
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 Real Salt Lake for Matías Fernández 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.
Gerard Yepes and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad15 Mar 2032
Words at Empoli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emmanuel Gyasi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I watch every Empoli game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Giana Erminio runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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 Empoli, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Empoli is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Emmanuel Gyasi was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Successful dribbles: 21. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad8 Mar 2032
Words at Empoli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vittorio Magni 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.
20 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Empoli lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Emmanuel Gyasi 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Fawzi Ouaamar will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Empoli the goodbyes have quietly begun.
A point taken on 90 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
27 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Empoli lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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, terms agreed, medical booked. Nouroudine Faye will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Empoli the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Empoli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Feb 2032
Words at Empoli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emmanuel Gyasi 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.
Minute 89, against Bari, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
34 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Empoli 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 Empoli, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Empoli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Squad16 Feb 2032
Words at Empoli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vittorio Magni is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Every 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Empoli can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Empoli people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Empoli is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Empoli 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.
Successful dribbles: 19. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
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.
“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 Empoli know it.
Empoli interviewed the field and appointed the corridor: Interim Coach keeps the job he had been doing in all but title. Sometimes the safest pair of hands is the one already holding the wheel.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Empoli may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Boardroom2 Feb 2032
Deadline passes with 3 signed and 6 gone
That is the business done at Empoli until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Empoli heard it as anything else.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Empoli they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Empoli people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Empoli, and it is not being withdrawn.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Empoli will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Empoli they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Filippo Distefano was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Empoli scored in the 92th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Román Calderón 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.
Joseph Ceesay was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Ivan Abramović has just signed for Empoli, and for once the answer mattered.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emmanuel Gyasi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Empoli know it.
Successful dribbles: 26. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Empoli can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Empoli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
7 goals in one match, Stiven Shpendi on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Empoli and Venezia.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Kilian Toscano has just signed for Empoli, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad12 Jan 2032
Words at Empoli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emmanuel Gyasi 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
Player ratingsStiven Shpendi was on a different afternoon to everybody else
Four paragraphs on the club website, none of them about football. The board thanked him, wished him well, and had the search under way before the page went up.
Not an interim appointment — an institution with an empty coaching office. Somebody unfamiliar will run the sessions this week, and the question of how a club gets into this state is one the board will be asked and will not answer.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Virtus Entella waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Empoli is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“Somebody picks the team on Saturday. This week it is me, and that is as far as I have thought.” No promises were made in either direction, which is how these usually begin.
The phone has started ringing about Santiago García again, and this time the name on the line is Atletico Goianiense. Empoli are listening politely and promising nothing.
Emmanuel Gyasi 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.
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.
Squad5 Jan 2032
Words at Empoli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Filippo Distefano 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.
Successful dribbles: 33. 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 clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Empoli people have started saying his name in the past tense.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.31 at 37, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Joseph Ceesay 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.
Squad29 Dec 2031
Words at Empoli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emmanuel Gyasi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Empoli can pretend not to have heard.
“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.
Joseph Ceesay 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.
Squad22 Dec 2031
Words at Empoli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emmanuel Gyasi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Every 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 8.07 — 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.
Pescara go through and Empoli go home, 0‑3 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Santiago García had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The terraces15 Dec 2031
Empoli are taken apart by Pescara — and the town wants answers
It finished 0-3. 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Empoli is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Emmanuel Gyasi was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Filippo Distefano was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Add another name to the list: Sport Huancayo have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Santiago García. The answer from Empoli has not changed — yet.
Gerard Yepes 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.
Successful dribbles: 28. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Joseph Ceesay and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emmanuel Gyasi 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 Empoli can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Emmanuel Gyasi was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Interim Coach on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Position 18 and 9 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Empoli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Filippo Distefano was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“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; Empoli are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Empoli they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Gerard Yepes 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.
Squad17 Nov 2031
Words at Empoli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emmanuel Gyasi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I have 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 Empoli know it.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Empoli can tell you which week it ends in.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Empoli can pretend not to have heard.
Joseph Ceesay and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad10 Nov 2031
Words at Empoli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emmanuel Gyasi 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; Empoli are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Nobody at Empoli 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.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout10 Nov 2031
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Interim Coach chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Edoardo Saporiti's mistake
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Empoli scored in the 92th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Player ratings3 Nov 2031
Elia Ventura could not have asked for more on his first appearance — 7.44
Debuts are survived rather than enjoyed. This one was enjoyed: 7.44, 0 goals, and a manager already being asked whether he starts again next week.
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.
“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 Empoli hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Every paper's favourite story and every manager's least. What happened is being dealt with internally, which is the phrase clubs use when they would rather nobody asked again.
Joseph Ceesay 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.
Squad27 Oct 2031
Words at Empoli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emmanuel Gyasi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Every 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.
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 dugout27 Oct 2031
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 Interim Coach left the room before anybody could ask which.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Empoli they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Gerard Yepes and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emmanuel Gyasi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Empoli can pretend not to have heard.
Emmanuel Gyasi 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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Filippo Distefano was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
“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; Empoli are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Interim Coach after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Joseph Ceesay
Joseph Ceesay and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Filippo Distefano is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
“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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Empoli know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
In brief
The dugoutMaj Blažič asks for a word with the manager
“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 Empoli, 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emmanuel Gyasi 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 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 Empoli know it.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Interim Coach after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Empoli is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Emmanuel Gyasi 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 Filippo Distefano was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
8.09. 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.
“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 Empoli know it.
Successful dribbles: 26. 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.
“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 Empoli, and it is not being withdrawn.
“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 Empoli hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
At 23 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.
Squad15 Sep 2031
Words at Empoli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emmanuel Gyasi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I have 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 Empoli know it.
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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Interim Coach after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Filippo Distefano reports back to Empoli with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Santiago García is living that version at Empoli, and it tends to show in the first month.
438 appearances across 11 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
Every paper's favourite story and every manager's least. What happened is being dealt with internally, which is the phrase clubs use when they would rather nobody asked again.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
18 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Empoli lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Successful dribbles: 30. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Empoli can pretend not to have heard.
437 appearances across 11 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 20 arrived, 11 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Dealt with internally, which is the phrase a club uses when it would rather nobody asked twice. He will be fined, he will apologise, and he will play on Saturday.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Empoli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The words a physio says slowly. 25 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 last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Empoli have lost him in all but the paperwork.
$8.1M was the most the club would pay and Monza 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 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Empoli is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Empoli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
11 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Cristiano Canali 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.
32 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Empoli lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Empoli and Monza have settled on $8.1M. 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Edoardo Zanaga is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Gregorio Luperini will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Empoli 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.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 39 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Empoli have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gerard Yepes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The words a physio says slowly. 46 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Virtus Entella waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Empoli is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Empoli they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Empoli, and it is not being withdrawn.
Joseph Ceesay 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 23 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.
In brief
SquadWords at Empoli training over how hard people work
53 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Empoli 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 Empoli, 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 Empoli heard it as anything else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Empoli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Nicolò Donati is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Manuel Fontana 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Davide Tarantino is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
60 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Empoli lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Parma waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Empoli is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Emmanuel Gyasi 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.
Squad21 Jul 2031
Words at Empoli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gerard Yepes is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Marco Curto signs something — a contract at Empoli 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 Maj Blažič has written the date down.
67 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Empoli lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Empoli people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The offer from Sport Huancayo for Maj Blažič was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Empoli is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Joseph Ceesay 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 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 74 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.
“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 Empoli, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Empoli they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Empoli asked and Lecce 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 worse way to lose a footballer. Louis Bury 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.
Joseph Ceesay and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
81 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Empoli lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Aalborg waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Empoli is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Empoli, and it is not being withdrawn.
Emmanuel Gyasi 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.
Squad30 Jun 2031
Gerard Yepes falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Stiven Shpendi signs something — a contract at Empoli or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Empoli people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Emmanuel Gyasi 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.
Squad23 Jun 2031
Words at Empoli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Filippo Distefano 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; Empoli are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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.
95 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Empoli lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Empoli people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Joseph Ceesay 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 is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Karamoko Kaba is living that version at Empoli, and it tends to show in the first month.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emmanuel Gyasi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
102 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Empoli lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The offer from Reggiana for Tomás Attis 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. Gregorio Luperini will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Empoli the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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 rules permit it and it stings anyway. Diego Pisani has agreed terms with Pisa for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Joseph Ceesay 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: Criciuma have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Edoardo Saporiti. The answer from Empoli has not changed — yet.
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 end came on a Tuesday, as these things usually do: a short meeting, a shorter statement, and Interim Coach clearing his office by noon. Football’s cruellest ritual, performed to schedule.
There is nobody left to promote and nobody left to run a session. The board have brought in a name the supporters do not know, and the question of how a club gets here will outlast whoever answers it.
“I am not thinking past Saturday, and I would advise nobody else to.” The caretaker’s first rule is to pretend the job is small; Interim Coach recited it perfectly.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Tomás Attis will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Empoli the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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 Empoli, and it is not being withdrawn.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Gregorio Luperini has agreed terms with Pescara for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Emmanuel Gyasi and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Vittorio Magni is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable 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 Empoli 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 have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Empoli 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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Empoli. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
0‑3 to Pisa, 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emmanuel Gyasi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Empoli can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“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.
Emmanuel Gyasi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 May 2031
Words at Empoli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Filippo Distefano 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: Filippo Distefano. 1‑0 against Südtirol, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Empoli can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout12 May 2031
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Interim Coach, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Nobody at Empoli 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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Empoli is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Empoli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 May 2031
Words at Empoli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emmanuel Gyasi 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.
Successful dribbles: 20. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Luca Belardinelli scored, was marked 7.90, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Empoli 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.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Carrarese scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
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.
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 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 Empoli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Apr 2031
Words at Empoli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Filippo Distefano 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.
0‑1 to Cesena, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout21 Apr 2031
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 Interim Coach left the room before anybody could ask which.
Joseph Ceesay and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emmanuel Gyasi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout14 Apr 2031
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Interim Coach left the room before anybody could ask which.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Empoli can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Empoli is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
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 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.
Emmanuel Gyasi 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 Filippo Distefano was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Filippo Bandinelli will call it something else in private.
Successful dribbles: 32. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Empoli can pretend not to have heard.
Joseph Ceesay 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.
Marked 7.54 on 10 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Spezia scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
“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; Empoli are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Jacopo Seghetti 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.
Squad17 Mar 2031
Words at Empoli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emmanuel Gyasi 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.
Three points for Empoli, 1‑0 the final word against Hellas Verona in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings17 Mar 2031
Joseph Ceesay was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.11. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Empoli can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Interim Coach on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Empoli is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Empoli heard it as anything else.
Emmanuel Gyasi and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
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.
Emmanuel Gyasi 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 Gerard Yepes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Thomas Campaniello and Empoli agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout3 Mar 2031
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Joseph Ceesay 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 chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Interim Coach after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Joseph Ceesay and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emmanuel Gyasi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Empoli people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Tomás Attis will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Empoli the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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.
Emmanuel Gyasi and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad10 Feb 2031
Gerard Yepes 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.
9 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Atalanta have kept their man, and Empoli go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The coaching staff has emptied out entirely and there was nobody internal to promote, so the club has appointed a name almost none of its supporters will recognise. Clubs recover from this; none of them enjoy explaining it.
“Somebody has to pick the team on Saturday, and this week that is me.” An interim appointment with no promises attached, which is how most of them start.
“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 Empoli, 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.
1 for Gerard Yepes, marked 7.96, 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.
Boardroom3 Feb 2031
Deadline passes with 2 signed and 3 gone
That is the business done at Empoli 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.
Successful dribbles: 41. 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 last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Empoli have lost him in all but the paperwork.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Empoli can pretend not to have heard.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Juventus have kept their man, and Empoli go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The fee is $410.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Lecco drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emmanuel Gyasi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Empoli can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Empoli they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The deal with Lecco is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gerard Yepes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Empoli know 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 Empoli can pretend not to have heard.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Empoli heard it as anything else.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Juventus is saying, and nobody at Empoli is enjoying the guessing.
Joseph Ceesay and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad13 Jan 2031
Words at Empoli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emmanuel Gyasi 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 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.
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.
“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 Empoli, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deal with Juventus is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Empoli 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 Emmanuel Gyasi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
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 7.99 for the rest of it.
Joseph Ceesay 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 Gerard Yepes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Südtirol held the lead for 1 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Empoli answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
Successful dribbles: 44. 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emmanuel Gyasi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Empoli can tell you which week it ends in.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Empoli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Empoli, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout23 Dec 2030
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Interim Coach chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emmanuel Gyasi 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.
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout16 Dec 2030
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Interim Coach chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Sport Huancayo had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gerard Yepes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.10 — 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.
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.
“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; Empoli are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Empoli heard it as anything else.
Joseph Ceesay 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 Emmanuel Gyasi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Empoli know it.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Vittorio Magni has come out of that comparison in the side, and Empoli have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Joseph Ceesay and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Interim Coach after 0‑5, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Beaten 5 times, with 5 saves for company. Goalkeepers carry these scorelines on their record whoever actually caused them, which is the quiet injustice of the job.
“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 Empoli know 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 Empoli, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Emmanuel Gyasi 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.
Squad18 Nov 2030
Gerard Yepes 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.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Reggiana tried to reorganise, Empoli did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
“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 Empoli know it.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Interim Coach on a 3‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Empoli 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 Emmanuel Gyasi 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.
“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; Empoli are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The dugout11 Nov 2030
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Interim Coach chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
15 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Empoli lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Diego Perillo obliged against Virtus Entella. 1‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Empoli.
Player ratings4 Nov 2030
Diego Perillo, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.20
A mark of 8.20 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.
“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 Empoli hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Gerard Yepes and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad4 Nov 2030
Words at Empoli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emmanuel Gyasi 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Thomas Campaniello 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.
22 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Empoli lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Emmanuel Gyasi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Oct 2030
Gerard Yepes 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.
Pineto will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Kristijan Lovrić has pre-agreed a move to Empoli, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Marked 8.14. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Empoli.
The dugout28 Oct 2030
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
9 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Empoli they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Jacopo Seghetti 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 Emmanuel Gyasi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Something was said to Filippo Distefano and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Interim Coach after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Empoli 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 Tomás Attis was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.