Lugano U20

17 Oct 2030
Thursday
Process
220 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

14 Oct 2030
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

The knee: Rayan Raveloson out for 38 days

38 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Lugano lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Squad

9 saves: David Von Ballmoos was the team

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.

Squad

Words exchanged at Lugano

Daniel Dos Santos 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.

Squad

A row about effort at Lugano

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Xherdan Shaqiri was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout

No hiding place for Xherdan Shaqiri

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Xherdan Shaqiri, and the manager let it.

Match

Basel take the points off Lugano

Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.

The dugout

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.

The dugout

Víctor Rofino left out for tactical reasons at Lugano

The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.

Player ratings

Claudio Cassano could have had three

7 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.

In brief

Back issues
219 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

7 Oct 2030
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Rayan Raveloson

45 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Lugano lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Squad

A falling-out at Lugano

Mattia Zanotti and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Hannes Delcroix 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.

Match

Luzern take the points off Lugano

Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.

Squad

Enrique Aguilar makes it 100

100 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 dugout

The view from the dugout

“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.

The dugout

Marc Gutbub gets it from the manager

“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 dugout

Xherdan Shaqiri asks for a word with the manager

“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.

Player ratings

Claudio Cassano beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 13. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

In brief

218 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

30 Sep 2030
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

The knee: Rayan Raveloson out for 52 days

52 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Lugano lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Market

Only the photograph left for Thomas Pledl

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Thomas Pledl will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Lugano the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

Mattia Zanotti in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lugano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Xherdan Shaqiri 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.

Player ratings

Claudio Cassano in the eights

A performance of 8.87 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.

Match

Claudio Cassano the difference as Lugano beat St. Gallen

Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Claudio Cassano. 2‑0 against St. Gallen, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.

Player ratings

Nikolas Muci was on a different afternoon to everybody else

8.17. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.

Player ratings

Yanis Cimignani was unplayable

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.

The dugout

The manager’s verdict

“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Interim Coach kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.

In brief

217 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

23 Sep 2030
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

The knee: Rayan Raveloson out for 59 days

59 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Lugano lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Yanis Cimignani

Successful dribbles: 29. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Squad

Tempers go at Lugano

Mattia Zanotti 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.

Squad

Words at Lugano training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hannes Delcroix 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.

Match

A bad afternoon for Lugano against Grasshopper

1‑2 to Grasshopper, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Hannes Delcroix

“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 dugout

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.

Squad

The first one for Xherdan Shaqiri

Every signing waits for it and every press conference asks about it until it comes. It has come, Lugano have their man off the mark, and the second one is always easier.

Market

The Yanis Cimignani question follows Lugano around

Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Yanis Cimignani’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.

In brief

216 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

16 Sep 2030
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Rayan Raveloson

66 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Lugano lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Squad

Tempers go at Lugano

Xherdan Shaqiri 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.

Squad

Hannes Delcroix 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.

Match

Lugano find a way past Vaduz

Vaduz made Lugano work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.

Player ratings

Ninety minutes of Yanis Cimignani at his very best

Marked 8.41. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Lugano.

Squad

No place for Xherdan Shaqiri in the new shape

He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Lugano are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.

Match

Halfway: Lugano sit in position 5

13 points at the turn. The first half of a season is a promise; the second is a bill, and the town is about to find out which of the two this one was.

The dugout

Interim Coach: “That is the standard”

“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 1‑0, already talking about the next one.

The dugout

The plan did not have a place for Xherdan Shaqiri

Nobody at Lugano 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.

In brief

215 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

9 Sep 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

The knee: Rayan Raveloson out for 73 days

73 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Lugano lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Transfer targets

No thanks: Jordan Longhi rejects the move

Lugano had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Monza, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.

Squad

Renato Steffen stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Renato Steffen and Lugano agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Squad

A falling-out at Lugano

Mattia Zanotti and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Víctor Rofino wants to go home

“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Lugano can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.

Transfer targets

Lugano rebuffed over Kaïs Anelka

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sion have kept their man, and Lugano go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Boardroom

Lugano beat the market to Miloš Krunić from St. Gallen

St. Gallen will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Miloš Krunić has pre-agreed a move to Lugano, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.

Player ratings

A masterclass from Claudio Cassano

Marked 8.16 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.

Match

Lugano share the spoils with Young Boys

A 1‑1 draw with Young Boys leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.

In brief

214 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

2 Sep 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Rayan Raveloson damages knee ligaments — 80 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 80 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.

Squad

David Von Ballmoos keeps Lugano in it on his own

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.

Boardroom

Lugano close the window on a squad of their own making

17 in and 13 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.

Market

Only the photograph left for Thomas Pledl

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Thomas Pledl will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Lugano the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Transfer targets

The paperwork begins on Tomás Nasif

A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Lugano have done the hard part with Independiente, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.

Squad

Renato Steffen stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Renato Steffen and Lugano agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Squad

Mattia Zanotti in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lugano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Transfer targets

The window shuts on the Renato Zakaria deal

Lugano ran out of time with Basel. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.

The dugout

Gregory Wüthrich gets it from the manager

“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.

In brief

  • Player ratings Hannes Delcroix was immovable
  • The dugout The view from the dugout
  • Looking ahead A test against the best for Lugano
213 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

26 Aug 2030
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Rayan Raveloson

87 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Lugano lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Match

Claudio Cassano leads the rout of Zurich

4‑0, and Claudio Cassano took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Lugano tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.

Player ratings

Claudio Cassano scores twice — 9.84

Two goals and a mark of 9.84 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.

Player ratings

Both of them Nikolas Muci's — 9.16

2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.16, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.

Squad

Tempers go at Lugano

Daniel Dos Santos 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.

Squad

Words at Lugano training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hannes Delcroix 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.

Player ratings

Yanis Cimignani beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 20. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

The dugout

No hiding place for Víctor Rofino

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Víctor Rofino, and the manager let it.

Squad

Mark Natta has improved at 27, which nobody expected

Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.

In brief

212 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

19 Aug 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

The knee: Rayan Raveloson out for 94 days

94 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Lugano lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Boardroom

The caretaker keeps it: Interim Coach confirmed

A month of looking elsewhere ended where it started. He already knows every name in the building; the rest of it he now has to prove in public.

Market

Damian Kelvin has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Lugano they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Player ratings

Yanis Cimignani runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 25. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Match

The wait goes on for Lugano

4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.

Squad

Words exchanged at Lugano

Mattia Zanotti 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.

Squad

A row about effort at Lugano

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Claudio Cassano was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Squad

Late improvement for Antonio Verinac

At 25 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 3 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.

The dugout

No hiding place for Junior Zé

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Junior Zé, and the manager let it.

In brief

211 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

12 Aug 2030
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

Rayan Raveloson damages knee ligaments — 101 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 101 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.

Squad

Uwe Arnold arrives at the club he grew up with

Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Uwe Arnold has, at Lugano, and the first month will show what that does to a man.

Boardroom

Thomas Pledl has agreed to leave Lugano for nothing

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.

Squad

A falling-out at Lugano

Mattia Zanotti and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Transfer targets

Lugano rebuffed over Kaïs Anelka

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sion have kept their man, and Lugano go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Squad

Real improvement from Denis Zakaria at Lugano

Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Denis Zakaria is 17, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.

Match

A bad afternoon for Lugano against Basel

1‑2 to Basel, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.

The dugout

Interim Coach: “No excuses”

“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.

Market

Lugano buy the years ahead of Uwe Arnold

He is 18, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.

In brief

210 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

5 Aug 2030
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

The knee: Rayan Raveloson out for 108 days

108 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Lugano lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

The dugout

Damian Kelvin: that is not what I was promised

“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Lugano have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Squad

Mattia Zanotti in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lugano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Rayan Raveloson signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Rayan Raveloson and Lugano agree another 2 years.

Squad

A row about effort at Lugano

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hannes Delcroix was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Market

Anto Grgic is free to find somewhere else

“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Lugano has been clear about where Anto Grgic stands, which is more than many ever get.

Player ratings

Yanis Cimignani was the difference for Lugano

Marked 7.52. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.

The dugout

Marc Gutbub gets it from the manager

“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 dugout

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 Lugano dressing room was either.

In brief

209 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

29 Jul 2030
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

Rayan Raveloson damages knee ligaments — 115 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 115 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.

Squad

A fracture rules Tom Bradshaw out for 91 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Lugano will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

The dugout

Nikolas Muci says Lugano went back on their word

“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.

Market

Terms done: Damian Kelvin is going

Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Vaduz waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Lugano is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.

Squad

A one-man rearguard from Diego Mina

There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.

Squad

A falling-out at Lugano

Víctor Rofino and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Boardroom

Still nobody in the Lugano dugout

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.

Match

A bad afternoon for Lugano against St. Gallen

0‑2 to St. Gallen, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Yanis Cimignani

Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

In brief

208 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

22 Jul 2030
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Boardroom

Lugano part company with Denis Fassnacht

The statement thanked him for his efforts and wished him well, in that order and in about that many words. The search begins immediately.

Squad

David Von Ballmoos damages knee ligaments — 20 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 20 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.

Squad

Tom Bradshaw breaks a bone — 98 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 98 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Boardroom

An empty coaching office at Lugano

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.

Boardroom

Interim Coach minds the shop at Lugano

“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.

Market

Damian Kelvin asks to leave Lugano

“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.

Player ratings

Yanis Cimignani beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 24. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Transfer targets

Manuel Leto turns down Lugano

The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Empoli keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.

Squad

Words exchanged at Lugano

Mattia Zanotti and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

In brief

207 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

15 Jul 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

The knee: David Von Ballmoos out for 27 days

27 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Lugano lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Squad

Tom Bradshaw breaks a bone — 105 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 105 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Squad

Víctor Rofino gets the move he always wanted

Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Víctor Rofino has just signed for Lugano, and for once the answer mattered.

Transfer targets

Fee done, terms next for Renato Zakaria

Lugano and Basel have settled on $600.0K. 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.

Squad

The step up is real for Denis Zakaria

At 17 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.

Market

Tom Bradshaw is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Lugano is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Kaïs Anelka

Lugano asked and Sion said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

Boardroom

Jan Bamert will join Lugano for nothing

The paperwork is done long before the player is. Jan Bamert has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Lugano have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Denis Zakaria

“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.

In brief

206 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

8 Jul 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

The knee: David Von Ballmoos out for 34 days

34 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Lugano lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Squad

A fracture rules Tom Bradshaw out for 112 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Lugano will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Squad

David Von Ballmoos stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” David Von Ballmoos and Lugano agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Squad

Mattia Zanotti in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lugano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Transfer targets

Lugano ask about Tomás Vidal

A loan enquiry to Barcelona: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.

Boardroom

7 new boys at the Lugano academy

Signed today, seen by nobody for years, and one of them may one day be the reason the club exists. That is the whole of the argument for an academy, and it is a good one.

The dugout

Yanis Cimignani gets picked when it counts

Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Yanis Cimignani is on it.

The dugout

Nikolas Muci asks for a word with the manager

“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.

Market

The Yanis Cimignani story refuses to die

It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Yanis Cimignani signs something — a contract at Lugano or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.

In brief

205 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

1 Jul 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for David Von Ballmoos

41 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Lugano lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Squad

119 days out for Tom Bradshaw after a fracture

A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Lugano will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.

The dugout

Denis Zakaria says Lugano went back on their word

“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.

Boardroom

The scrutiny sharpens at Lugano

Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Lugano is running low.

Squad

Tempers go at Lugano

Mattia Zanotti 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.

Squad

Denis Zakaria signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Denis Zakaria commits to Lugano for another 4 years.

The dugout

Antonios Papadopoulos has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Lugano 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.

Market

The Daniel Dos Santos talk will not go away

Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Lugano know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.

The dugout

Emir Kuhinja knocks on the manager's door

“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Lugano, and both men came out saying it was fine.

In brief

204 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

24 Jun 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for David Von Ballmoos

48 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Lugano lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Market

Thomas Pledl asks to leave Lugano

“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.

Squad

Víctor Villalba arrives at the club he grew up with

Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Víctor Villalba has, at Lugano, and the first month will show what that does to a man.

Squad

Words exchanged at Lugano

Mattia Zanotti 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.

Market

Víctor Villalba comes home

The shirt still fits. Víctor Villalba is back at Lugano, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.

Transfer targets

No deal for Steven Ndoye at that price

Lugano offered $81.0K; Basel said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.

Squad

A row about effort at Lugano

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hannes Delcroix was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Transfer targets

Luzern tell Lugano: Loris Zakaria is not for sale

The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.

The dugout

When it matters, Mattia Zanotti plays

It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.

In brief

203 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

17 Jun 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for David Von Ballmoos

55 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Lugano lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Market

Only the photograph left for Tom Bradshaw

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Tom Bradshaw will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Lugano the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Boardroom

Tom Bradshaw has agreed to leave Lugano for nothing

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.

Squad

A falling-out at Lugano

Mattia Zanotti and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Transfer targets

Lugano bid $81.0K for Steven Ndoye

The offer went to Basel this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.

Transfer targets

Sion tell Lugano: Kaïs Anelka is not for sale

The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.

Squad

A row about effort at Lugano

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nikolas Muci was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Squad

Malcolm Cacutalua signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Malcolm Cacutalua commits to Lugano for another 1 years.

Transfer targets

Lugano try to borrow Tomás Vidal

Barcelona have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.

In brief

202 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

10 Jun 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

David Von Ballmoos damages knee ligaments — 62 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 62 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.

Transfer targets

$780.0K settles it between the clubs for Renato Zakaria

Basel have accepted the money. What Lugano do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.

Transfer targets

No thanks: Haakon Norda rejects the move

Lugano had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Feyenoord, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.

Squad

A row about effort at Lugano

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hannes Delcroix was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Squad

Emir Kuhinja stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Emir Kuhinja and Lugano agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Squad

Rayan Raveloson in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lugano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Transfer targets

Lugano rebuffed over Alessandro Longoni

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Paris Saint-Germain have kept their man, and Lugano go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Junior Zé

“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.

Market

Lugano sign Renato Mvogo, one for the future

Renato Mvogo is 20, and Lugano have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.

In brief

201 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

3 Jun 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

David Von Ballmoos damages knee ligaments — 69 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 69 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.

Boardroom

Pressure builds in the Lugano boardroom

The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.

Market

Lucas Blondel hands in a written request

“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lugano can pretend not to have heard.

Squad

Tempers go at Lugano

Mattia Zanotti 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.

Squad

Words at Lugano training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hannes Delcroix 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.

Boardroom

Lugano beat the market to Jorge Segura from Zurich

Zurich will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Jorge Segura has pre-agreed a move to Lugano, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.

Transfer targets

Lugano try to borrow Robin Mirisola

Racing Genk have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.

Transfer targets

A loan move for Haakon Norda is in the works

Lugano have made the call to Feyenoord. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.

Squad

Noa Bezeme stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Noa Bezeme and Lugano agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

In brief

200 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

27 May 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

The knee: David Von Ballmoos out for 76 days

76 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Lugano lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Market

Noa Boutin has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Lugano they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

Words exchanged at Lugano

Mattia Zanotti 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.

Squad

Nikolas Muci falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

The dugout

Mattia Zanotti gets picked when it counts

Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Mattia Zanotti is on it.

The dugout

Nikolas Muci asks for a word with the manager

“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.

In brief

199 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

20 May 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

David Von Ballmoos damages knee ligaments — 83 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 83 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.

Squad

A falling-out at Lugano

Mattia Zanotti and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

A row about effort at Lugano

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hannes Delcroix was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout

No hiding place for Hannes Delcroix

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Hannes Delcroix, and the manager let it.

The dugout

Renato Steffen has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Lugano will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.

The dugout

Nikolas Muci asks for a word with the manager

“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.

In brief

198 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

13 May 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for David Von Ballmoos

90 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Lugano lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Squad

Mattia Zanotti in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lugano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Words at Lugano training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hannes Delcroix 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.

Squad

Kevin Behrens signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Kevin Behrens commits to Lugano for another 2 years.

The dugout

When it matters, Yanis Cimignani plays

It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.

Market

The Yanis Cimignani story refuses to die

It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Yanis Cimignani signs something — a contract at Lugano or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.

In brief

197 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

6 May 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

The knee: David Von Ballmoos out for 97 days

97 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Lugano lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Boardroom

The silence upstairs is getting loud at Lugano

Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.

Squad

Tempers go at Lugano

Mattia Zanotti 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.

Squad

A row about effort at Lugano

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nikolas Muci was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Squad

Kevin Behrens signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Kevin Behrens and Lugano agree another 2 years.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Emir Kuhinja

“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 dugout

Antonios Papadopoulos has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Lugano 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.

Boardroom

$14.9M taken back off the Lugano table

What was available in the summer has quietly gone. Upstairs nobody will call it a change of ambition; downstairs nobody will call it anything else.

Market

The shop window has Carlo Faedo in it

Lugano have let the market know Carlo Faedo can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.

In brief

  • The dugout The manager makes Damian Kelvin a promise
  • The dugout Mark Natta knocks on the manager's door
  • Boardroom The Lugano academy earns its keep
196 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

29 Apr 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

The knee: David Von Ballmoos out for 104 days

104 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Lugano lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Market

Noa Boutin is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Lugano is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Squad

Words exchanged at Lugano

Mattia Zanotti 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.

Squad

Hannes Delcroix falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

The dugout

When it matters, Mattia Zanotti plays

It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.

Market

The Daniel Dos Santos question follows Lugano around

Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Daniel Dos Santos’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.

In brief

195 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

22 Apr 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

David Von Ballmoos damages knee ligaments — 111 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 111 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 dugout

Denis Zakaria says Lugano went back on their word

“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.

Squad

A falling-out at Lugano

Mattia Zanotti and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

A row about effort at Lugano

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hannes Delcroix was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout

When it matters, Renato Steffen plays

It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.

Market

The Mattia Zanotti story refuses to die

It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Mattia Zanotti signs something — a contract at Lugano or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.

In brief

194 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

15 Apr 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for David Von Ballmoos

118 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Lugano lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Squad

Mattia Zanotti in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lugano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Carlo Faedo signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Carlo Faedo commits to Lugano for another 3 years.

Squad

A row about effort at Lugano

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nikolas Muci was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout

Yanis Cimignani gets picked when it counts

Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Yanis Cimignani is on it.

Market

The Yanis Cimignani story refuses to die

It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Yanis Cimignani signs something — a contract at Lugano or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.

In brief

193 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

8 Apr 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

David Von Ballmoos damages knee ligaments — 125 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 125 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.

Squad

A fracture rules Enrique Aguilar out for 18 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Lugano will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Squad

Tempers go at Lugano

Mattia Zanotti 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.

Squad

Words at Lugano training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hannes Delcroix 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 dugout

Antonios Papadopoulos has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Lugano will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.

The dugout

Enrique Aguilar gets it from the manager

“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 dugout

Nikolas Muci asks for a word with the manager

“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.

Market

Talks stall between Lugano and Antonio Verinac

“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.

The dugout

The manager makes Hannes Delcroix a promise

Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Lugano. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.

In brief

  • Market Lugano shop where it costs nothing
  • Boardroom Lugano keep producing them
192 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

1 Apr 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

A fracture rules Enrique Aguilar out for 25 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Lugano will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

The dugout

Nikolas Muci says Lugano went back on their word

“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.

Market

Noa Boutin is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Lugano is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Squad

Words exchanged at Lugano

Mattia Zanotti 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.

Squad

A row about effort at Lugano

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hannes Delcroix was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Squad

Bastian Demichelis stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Bastian Demichelis and Lugano agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

The dugout

Mattia Zanotti has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Lugano 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.

Market

The Daniel Dos Santos question follows Lugano around

Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Daniel Dos Santos’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.

The dugout

Enrique Aguilar asks for a word with the manager

“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.

In brief

191 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

25 Mar 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

32 days out for Enrique Aguilar after a fracture

A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Lugano will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.

Market

Noa Boutin asks to leave Lugano

“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.

Squad

A falling-out at Lugano

Mattia Zanotti and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Words at Lugano training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikolas Muci 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.

Market

Lugano sign Bastian Demichelis, one for the future

Bastian Demichelis is 20, and Lugano have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.

Squad

Bastian Demichelis stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Bastian Demichelis and Lugano agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

The dugout

When it matters, Renato Steffen plays

It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.

Market

The Mattia Zanotti story refuses to die

It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Mattia Zanotti signs something — a contract at Lugano or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.

The dugout

Emir Kuhinja knocks on the manager’s door

“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Emir Kuhinja trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.

In brief

190 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

18 Mar 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

A fracture rules Enrique Aguilar out for 39 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Lugano will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Squad

Mattia Zanotti in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lugano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

A row about effort at Lugano

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hannes Delcroix was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout

No hiding place for Hannes Delcroix

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Hannes Delcroix, and the manager let it.

The dugout

Yanis Cimignani gets picked when it counts

Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Yanis Cimignani is on it.

Market

The Yanis Cimignani story refuses to die

It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Yanis Cimignani signs something — a contract at Lugano or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.

In brief

189 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

11 Mar 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

A fracture rules Enrique Aguilar out for 46 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Lugano will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

The dugout

Damian Kelvin: that is not what I was promised

“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Lugano have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Squad

Tempers go at Lugano

Mattia Zanotti 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.

Squad

A row about effort at Lugano

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hannes Delcroix was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Squad

Anto Grgic signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Anto Grgic and Lugano agree another 4 years.

The dugout

When it matters, Antonios Papadopoulos plays

It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.

In brief

  • The dugout The manager plants his flag on Hannes Delcroix
  • Boardroom The Lugano production line keeps running
188 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

4 Mar 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

A fracture rules Enrique Aguilar out for 56 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Lugano will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

The dugout

Diego Mina: that is not what I was promised

“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Lugano have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Market

Only the photograph left for Noa Boutin

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Noa Boutin will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Lugano the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

Words exchanged at Lugano

Mattia Zanotti 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.

Squad

A row about effort at Lugano

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nikolas Muci was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Squad

Anto Grgic signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Anto Grgic commits to Lugano for another 4 years.

The dugout

When it matters, Mattia Zanotti plays

It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.

The dugout

Damian Kelvin gets it from the manager

“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.

Market

The Daniel Dos Santos question follows Lugano around

Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Daniel Dos Santos’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.

In brief

187 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

25 Feb 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Enrique Aguilar breaks a bone — 63 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 63 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Market

Sebastián Romero is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Lugano is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Squad

A falling-out at Lugano

Mattia Zanotti and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Words at Lugano training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hannes Delcroix 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 dugout

Renato Steffen has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Lugano 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.

Market

The Mattia Zanotti story refuses to die

It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Mattia Zanotti signs something — a contract at Lugano or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.

In brief

186 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

18 Feb 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Enrique Aguilar breaks a bone — 70 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 70 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Squad

Mattia Zanotti in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lugano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Words at Lugano training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hannes Delcroix 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.

Squad

Home is on Sebastián Romero's mind

“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; Lugano are dealing with a man who wants a different country.

The dugout

When it matters, Yanis Cimignani plays

It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.

Market

The Yanis Cimignani story refuses to die

It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Yanis Cimignani signs something — a contract at Lugano or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.

In brief

185 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

11 Feb 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

A fracture rules Enrique Aguilar out for 77 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Lugano will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

The dugout

Denis Zakaria keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Lugano may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Squad

Words exchanged at Lugano

Mattia Zanotti 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.

Squad

Nikolas Muci 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.

Squad

A last season at home is what Sebastián Romero is after

It is sentimental, it is completely genuine, and it is the beginning of a departure nobody has announced. The club can be gracious about it or it can pretend not to have heard.

The dugout

When it matters, Antonios Papadopoulos plays

It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.

In brief

184 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

4 Feb 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

A fracture rules Enrique Aguilar out for 85 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Lugano will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

The dugout

Diego Mina says Lugano went back on their word

“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.

Boardroom

Lugano close the window on a squad of their own making

0 in and 1 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.

Market

Noa Boutin has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Lugano they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

Renato Steffen signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Renato Steffen and Lugano agree another 2 years.

Squad

Tempers go at Lugano

Mattia Zanotti 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.

Squad

Words at Lugano training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hannes Delcroix 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 dugout

The manager makes an example of Emir Kuhinja

“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 dugout

When it matters, Mattia Zanotti plays

It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.

In brief

183 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

28 Jan 2030
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

95 days out for Enrique Aguilar after a fracture

A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Lugano will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.

Market

Tom Bradshaw asks to leave Lugano

“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.

Market

Only the photograph left for Sebastián Romero

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Sebastián Romero will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Lugano the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Boardroom

Lugano to lose Sebastián Romero for free

There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Sebastián Romero 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.

Squad

Mattia Zanotti in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lugano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Hannes Delcroix 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.

Squad

Elias Lenz signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Elias Lenz commits to Lugano for another 3 years.

The dugout

Renato Steffen gets picked when it counts

Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Renato Steffen is on it.

Market

Mattia Zanotti linked with a move away

The name of Mattia Zanotti keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Lugano say nothing, which says plenty.

In brief

182 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

21 Jan 2030
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

A fracture rules Enrique Aguilar out for 102 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Lugano will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Squad

Gjan Ajdin damages knee ligaments — 19 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 19 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.

Market

Noa Boutin has said yes to St. Gallen

The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Lugano have lost him in all but the paperwork.

Market

Nikola Miličić puts it in writing

“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 Lugano, and it is not being withdrawn.

Squad

A falling-out at Lugano

Mattia Zanotti and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Words at Lugano training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikolas Muci 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 dugout

No hiding place for Hannes Delcroix

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Hannes Delcroix, and the manager let it.

The dugout

Yanis Cimignani gets picked when it counts

Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Yanis Cimignani is on it.

Market

Lucas Blondel is free to find somewhere else

“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Lugano has been clear about where Lucas Blondel stands, which is more than many ever get.

In brief

181 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

14 Jan 2030
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Gjan Ajdin damages knee ligaments — 26 days out

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.

Market

Rogelio Espínola hands in a written request

“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lugano can pretend not to have heard.

Squad

Words exchanged at Lugano

Mattia Zanotti 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.

Squad

A row about effort at Lugano

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hannes Delcroix was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Market

Noa Boutin attracts admirers

The name of Noa Boutin has come up in conversations Lugano were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.

Squad

Thomas Pledl signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Thomas Pledl commits to Lugano for another 1 years.

The dugout

Antonios Papadopoulos gets picked when it counts

Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Antonios Papadopoulos is on it.

Boardroom

$833.3K lands at Lugano thanks to Beckham Castro

A clause somebody insisted on years ago, in a negotiation nobody remembers, has just paid Lugano $833.3K. Beckham Castro left a long time ago; the paperwork stayed.

The dugout

Junior Zé knocks on the manager's door

“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Lugano, and both men came out saying it was fine.

In brief

180 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

7 Jan 2030
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

The knee: Gjan Ajdin out for 34 days

34 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Lugano lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Market

Francesco Corradini hands in a written request

“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lugano can pretend not to have heard.

Boardroom

Gjan Ajdin has agreed to leave Lugano for nothing

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.

Squad

Tempers go at Lugano

Mattia Zanotti 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.

Squad

Hannes Delcroix 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.

Squad

Junior Zé stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Junior Zé and Lugano agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Transfer targets

Lugano ask about Romain Del Castillo

A loan enquiry to Barcelona: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.

The dugout

When it matters, Mattia Zanotti plays

It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.

Boardroom

$1.3M lands at Lugano thanks to Lukas Mai

A clause somebody insisted on years ago, in a negotiation nobody remembers, has just paid Lugano $1.3M. Lukas Mai left a long time ago; the paperwork stayed.

In brief

179 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

31 Dec 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

The knee: Gjan Ajdin out for 41 days

41 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Lugano lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Market

Universidad de Concepcion come back empty-handed

The bid was some way short and Lugano did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.

Squad

Mattia Zanotti in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lugano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Nikolas Muci falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

The dugout

Renato Steffen has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Lugano 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.

Squad

Denis Zakaria wants out of the dugout

“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and Lugano will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.

In brief

178 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

24 Dec 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

The dugout

Enrique Aguilar: that is not what I was promised

“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Lugano have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Squad

A falling-out at Lugano

Mattia Zanotti and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

A row about effort at Lugano

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hannes Delcroix was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Junior Zé

“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.

Squad

No place for Carlo Faedo in the new shape

He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Lugano are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.

The dugout

Yanis Cimignani gets picked when it counts

Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Yanis Cimignani is on it.

In brief

177 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

17 Dec 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Words exchanged at Lugano

Mattia Zanotti 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.

Squad

A row about effort at Lugano

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hannes Delcroix was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Squad

A muscle injury and 16 days out for Gregory Wüthrich

The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Lugano will quote 16 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.

Squad

Sebastián Romero wants to go home

“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Lugano can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.

The dugout

Antonios Papadopoulos gets picked when it counts

Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Antonios Papadopoulos is on it.

Market

Still no ink between Lugano and Carlo Faedo

“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Lugano, another week without a signature from Carlo Faedo.

In brief

176 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

10 Dec 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Hannes Delcroix signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Hannes Delcroix and Lugano agree another 3 years.

Squad

Tempers go at Lugano

Mattia Zanotti 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.

Squad

Nikolas Muci 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.

Squad

No place for Nikolas Muci in the new shape

He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Lugano are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.

The dugout

Mattia Zanotti gets picked when it counts

Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Mattia Zanotti is on it.

The dugout

Hannes Delcroix asks for a word with the manager

“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.

Market

The Daniel Dos Santos talk will not go away

Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Lugano know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.

The dugout

The manager makes Thomas Pledl a promise

Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Lugano. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.

Market

Francesco Corradini placed on the list

Lugano have made Francesco Corradini available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.

In brief

175 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

3 Dec 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Nikolas Muci arrives at the club he grew up with

Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Nikolas Muci has, at Lugano, and the first month will show what that does to a man.

Squad

David Von Ballmoos signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” David Von Ballmoos and Lugano agree another 2 years.

Squad

Mattia Zanotti in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lugano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Market

Nikolas Muci is a Lugano player again

He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.

Squad

Hannes Delcroix 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.

Boardroom

Lugano agree a free transfer for Marcin Urynowicz

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.

The dugout

Hannes Delcroix gets it from the manager

“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.

Market

Talks stall between Lugano and Hannes Delcroix

“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.

The dugout

Renato Steffen has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Lugano will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.

In brief

174 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

26 Nov 2029
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

The small margins put Lugano out

Out, 0‑1 to Zurich, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.

Squad

David Von Ballmoos stands alone

6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.

Squad

A falling-out at Lugano

Mattia Zanotti and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Lugano lose Djibril Embolo

14 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.

Squad

A row about effort at Lugano

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hannes Delcroix was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Junior Zé

“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 dugout

The view from the dugout

“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Denis Fassnacht to a room that had heard them before.

The dugout

Yanis Cimignani has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Lugano will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.

The dugout

Antonios Papadopoulos left out for tactical reasons at Lugano

The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.

In brief

173 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

19 Nov 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Player ratings

Yanis Cimignani was unplayable

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.

Match

Lugano finish in position 6

24 points, and the season has a number on it. Whatever it felt like from the inside, this is what it will look like in a book.

Squad

Gregory Wüthrich signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Gregory Wüthrich and Lugano agree another 2 years.

Squad

Words exchanged at Lugano

Mattia Zanotti 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.

Squad

Gregory Wüthrich 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.

Match

Lugano get the job done against Vaduz

A 1‑0 win over Vaduz, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.

Player ratings

Ninety minutes of Marc Gutbub at his very best

Marked 8.30. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Lugano.

The dugout

Gregory Wüthrich left out for the big one

A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Gregory Wüthrich will call it something else in private.

The dugout

No hiding place for Emir Kuhinja

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Emir Kuhinja, and the manager let it.

In brief

172 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

12 Nov 2029
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

7 saves: David Von Ballmoos was the team

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.

Squad

Tempers go at Lugano

Mattia Zanotti 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.

Squad

A row about effort at Lugano

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hannes Delcroix was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Match

Lugano come up short against Young Boys

Young Boys left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.

Squad

Defences have started doubling up on Claudio Cassano

11 goals and a season average of 7.23 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.

Match

Lugano hit back inside 2 minutes

Young Boys held the lead for 2 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Lugano answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.

The dugout

Denis Fassnacht answers for it

“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.

The dugout

No place for Emir Kuhinja on the big day

He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Lugano pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.

The dugout

Mattia Zanotti has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Lugano will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.

In brief

171 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

5 Nov 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Only the photograph left for Ezgjan Alioski

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ezgjan Alioski will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Lugano the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Player ratings

Renato Steffen, 38, rolls back the years — 7.81

There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.81 at 38, and nobody on the pitch was better.

Squad

Mattia Zanotti in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lugano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Hannes Delcroix 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.

Player ratings

Claudio Cassano was on a different afternoon to everybody else

8.03. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.

Player ratings

A masterclass from Daniel Dos Santos

Marked 8.02 — 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.

Squad

Claudio Cassano is in the form of his life

A season average of 7.21 with 10 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.

The dugout

A promise honoured at Lugano

Something was said to Yanis Cimignani and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.

Match

Daniel Dos Santos rescues a point for Lugano

It needed Daniel Dos Santos to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against Sion, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.

In brief

170 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

29 Oct 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Víctor Villalba has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Lugano they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

A falling-out at Lugano

Mattia Zanotti and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Player ratings

Yanis Cimignani runs at them all day

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.

Match

Lugano see off Zurich

Three points for Lugano, 1‑0 the final word against Zurich in a contest settled by the finer margins.

Player ratings

Claudio Cassano was on a different afternoon to everybody else

8.18. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.

The dugout

No hiding place for Hannes Delcroix

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Hannes Delcroix, and the manager let it.

Squad

Words at Lugano training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Anto Grgic 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 dugout

The manager’s verdict

“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Denis Fassnacht kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.

The dugout

Yanis Cimignani has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Lugano will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.

In brief

169 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

22 Oct 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Match

The wait goes on for Lugano

4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.

Squad

Words exchanged at Lugano

Mattia Zanotti 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.

Squad

Hannes Delcroix 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.

Player ratings

Yanis Cimignani takes the honours

Marked 7.54 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Lugano had the best player on the pitch.

The dugout

When it matters, Antonios Papadopoulos plays

It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.

The dugout

No hiding place for Thomas Pledl

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Thomas Pledl, and the manager let it.

The dugout

Half-satisfied: Denis Fassnacht on the draw

“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.

The dugout

Hannes Delcroix asks for a word with the manager

“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.

Match

Point won or two lost for Lugano?

Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Thun? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.

In brief

168 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

15 Oct 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Emir Kuhinja breaks a bone — 16 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 16 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Squad

Tempers go at Lugano

Mattia Zanotti 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.

Squad

Hannes Delcroix 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.

Player ratings

A masterclass from Marc Gutbub

Marked 8.17 — 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.

Squad

Sebastián Romero wants to go home

“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 Lugano know it.

The dugout

No hiding place for Kevin Behrens

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Kevin Behrens, and the manager let it.

The dugout

When it matters, Mattia Zanotti plays

It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.

Match

Marc Gutbub rescues a point for Lugano

It needed Marc Gutbub to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Basel, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.

The dugout

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.” Denis Fassnacht chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.

In brief

167 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

8 Oct 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

24 days out for Emir Kuhinja after a fracture

A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Lugano will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.

Market

Ezgjan Alioski is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Lugano is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Squad

Mattia Zanotti in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lugano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Francesco Ruberto in trouble away from the ground

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.

Player ratings

Yanis Cimignani was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 17. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.

Squad

A row about effort at Lugano

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Anto Grgic was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout

Renato Steffen gets picked when it counts

Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Renato Steffen is on it.

The dugout

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.” Denis Fassnacht chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.

The dugout

The form table has caught Thomas Pledl

Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.

In brief

166 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

1 Oct 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

32 days out for Emir Kuhinja after a fracture

A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Lugano will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.

Market

Víctor Villalba has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Lugano they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Player ratings

Yanis Cimignani beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 23. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Squad

A falling-out at Lugano

Mattia Zanotti and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Francesco Ruberto in trouble away from the ground

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.

Match

A bad afternoon for Lugano against St. Gallen

0‑1 to St. Gallen, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.

The dugout

Emir Kuhinja gets it from the manager

“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.

Squad

Words at Lugano training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Anto Grgic 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 dugout

Denis Fassnacht: “No excuses”

“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.

In brief

165 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

24 Sep 2029
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

Ezgjan Alioski damages knee ligaments — 20 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 20 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.

Squad

Claudio Cassano takes the match ball home

3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.

Squad

A one-man rearguard from David Von Ballmoos

There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.

The dugout

Diego Mina keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Lugano may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Squad

Words exchanged at Lugano

Mattia Zanotti 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.

Player ratings

One of those days for Claudio Cassano

There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.66, and no argument anywhere in the ground.

Match

Lugano find a way past Grasshopper

Grasshopper made Lugano work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑2 at the end and the table does not ask how.

Player ratings

A masterclass from Marc Gutbub

Marked 8.31 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.

The dugout

No hiding place for Junior Zé

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Junior Zé, and the manager let it.

In brief

164 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

17 Sep 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

The knee: Ezgjan Alioski out for 27 days

27 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Lugano lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Player ratings

Claudio Cassano scores twice — 9.16

Two goals and a mark of 9.16 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.

Squad

Tempers go at Lugano

Mattia Zanotti 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.

Match

Lugano find a way past Vaduz

Vaduz made Lugano work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.

Squad

Words at Lugano training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emir Kuhinja 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.

Match

Lugano at the halfway mark

Half the programme played, position 6, 11 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.

The dugout

The manager’s verdict

“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Denis Fassnacht kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.

The dugout

Mattia Zanotti has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Lugano will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Enrique Aguilar

“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.

In brief

163 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

10 Sep 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Ezgjan Alioski

34 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Lugano lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Market

Only the photograph left for Ezgjan Alioski

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ezgjan Alioski will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Lugano the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Market

Aaron Seydel’s move to Zurich falls through

The deal that would have taken Aaron Seydel to Zurich has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Lugano with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.

Boardroom

Ezgjan Alioski signs for Zurich while still at Lugano

The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Ezgjan Alioski has agreed terms with Zurich for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.

Transfer targets

The window shuts on the Žan Celar deal

Lugano ran out of time with Basel. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.

Squad

Mattia Zanotti in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lugano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Transfer targets

Lugano rebuffed over Arnas Voitinovičius

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Benfica have kept their man, and Lugano go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Player ratings

Ninety minutes of Claudio Cassano at his very best

Marked 8.46. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Lugano.

Squad

A row about effort at Lugano

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hannes Delcroix was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

In brief

162 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

3 Sep 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

The knee: Ezgjan Alioski out for 41 days

41 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Lugano lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Transfer targets

Lugano agree $2.2M for Žan Celar

The clubs have shaken hands with Basel; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.

The dugout

Hannes Delcroix says Lugano went back on their word

“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.

Boardroom

Lugano close the window on a squad of their own making

17 in and 15 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.

Market

Víctor Villalba has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Lugano they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

A falling-out at Lugano

Mattia Zanotti and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Pape Meïssa Bâ

Lugano asked and LOSC Lille said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

Match

Lugano end the wait against Sion

It had gone 5 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.

Match

Marc Gutbub sends Lugano past Sion

It finished 1‑0, and it was Marc Gutbub’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Lugano.

In brief

161 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

27 Aug 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Ezgjan Alioski damages knee ligaments — 48 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 48 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.

Match

Lugano sink to position 9

4 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.

Market

Aaron Seydel has said yes to Zurich

The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Lugano have lost him in all but the paperwork.

The dugout

Nikola Miličić: that is not what I was promised

“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Lugano have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Match

The wait goes on for Lugano

5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.

Boardroom

Simon Fassnacht signs for Vaduz while still at Lugano

The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Simon Fassnacht has agreed terms with Vaduz for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.

Squad

Words exchanged at Lugano

Mattia Zanotti 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.

Player ratings

Yanis Cimignani runs at them all day

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.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Adrian Grbić

Lugano asked and Zurich said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

In brief

160 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

20 Aug 2029
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

Ezgjan Alioski damages knee ligaments — 56 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 56 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.

Squad

A fracture rules Kevin Behrens out for 18 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Lugano will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

The dugout

Francesco Ruberto says Lugano went back on their word

“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.

Player ratings

Yanis Cimignani runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Transfer targets

Lugano rebuffed over Žan Celar

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Basel have kept their man, and Lugano go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Transfer targets

No thanks: Sankara Karamoko rejects the move

Lugano had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Wolfsberger AC, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.

Match

4 matches without a win for Lugano

The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Lugano are no longer polite ones.

Boardroom

Víctor Villalba has agreed to leave Lugano for nothing

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.

Squad

Tempers go at Lugano

Mattia Zanotti was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

In brief

159 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

13 Aug 2029
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

Ezgjan Alioski damages knee ligaments — 65 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 65 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.

Squad

26 days out for Kevin Behrens after a fracture

A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Lugano will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.

Market

Lugano say no — this time

The offer from Basel for David Von Ballmoos 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.

Market

Aaron Seydel says no to Thun

“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Aaron Seydel had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.

The dugout

Ryan Kessler keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Lugano may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Transfer targets

The paperwork begins on Sankara Karamoko

A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Lugano have done the hard part with Wolfsberger AC, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.

Squad

Mattia Zanotti in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lugano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

David Von Ballmoos out for 16 days

The medical room confirms 16 days on the sidelines for David Von Ballmoos, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.

Match

Basel take the points off Lugano

Beaten 2‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.

In brief

  • Transfer targets Door shut on Rafael Nel
  • The dugout The view from the dugout
  • Market Hannes Delcroix is free to find somewhere else
158 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

6 Aug 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

The knee: Ezgjan Alioski out for 75 days

75 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Lugano lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Yanis Cimignani

Successful dribbles: 37. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Squad

Kevin Behrens breaks a bone — 33 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 33 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Transfer targets

Žan Celar due for a Lugano medical

Everything agreed with Basel, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.

Market

David Von Ballmoos attracts admirers

The name of David Von Ballmoos has come up in conversations Lugano were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.

Squad

A falling-out at Lugano

Mattia Zanotti and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Leonardo Vonić

Lugano asked and Porto said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

Match

Lugano come up short against Luzern

Luzern left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.

Squad

A late step up for Víctor Villalba

At 31 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.

In brief

157 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

30 Jul 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Ezgjan Alioski

84 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Lugano lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Squad

Kevin Behrens breaks a bone — 41 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 41 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Transfer targets

The paperwork begins on Albian Ajeti

A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Lugano have done the hard part with Basel, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.

Squad

Words exchanged at Lugano

Mattia Zanotti 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.

Squad

Late improvement for Nikola Miličić

At 25 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 4 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.

Player ratings

Yanis Cimignani beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 20. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Transfer targets

Fiorentina tell Lugano: Lisandro Cabrera is not for sale

The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.

Match

St. Gallen take the points off Lugano

Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.

Market

No place for Nikola Miličić in the plan

“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Nikola Miličić has his answer from Lugano; what he does with it is the next window’s story.

In brief

156 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

23 Jul 2029
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

The knee: Ezgjan Alioski out for 91 days

91 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Lugano lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Squad

Kevin Behrens breaks a bone — 50 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 50 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Player ratings

A brace, and Claudio Cassano takes the afternoon — 9.22

There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Claudio Cassano provided it, and the 9.22 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.

Market

Noa Boutin puts it in writing

“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 Lugano, and it is not being withdrawn.

Player ratings

Rayan Raveloson pops up at the right end — 7.98

7.98, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.

Market

Lugano turn down Zurich for Aaron Seydel

The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.

Squad

Tempers go at Lugano

Mattia Zanotti 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.

Squad

Elias Lenz is a better footballer than he was

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.

Player ratings

Yanis Cimignani beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 22. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

In brief

155 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

16 Jul 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

The knee: Ezgjan Alioski out for 101 days

101 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Lugano lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Squad

Kevin Behrens breaks a bone — 58 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 58 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Market

Aaron Seydel puts it in writing

“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 Lugano, and it is not being withdrawn.

Squad

Lugano count the cost of losing David Von Ballmoos

48 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.

Squad

Enrique Aguilar is a better footballer than he was

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.

Transfer targets

Lugano rebuffed over Adrian Grbić

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Zurich have kept their man, and Lugano go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Market

Zurich watching Aaron Seydel

The interest is real enough to have reached print. Lugano have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.

The dugout

Antonios Papadopoulos has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Lugano 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.

Boardroom

$330.0K lands at Lugano thanks to Ahmed Kendouci

A clause somebody insisted on years ago, in a negotiation nobody remembers, has just paid Lugano $330.0K. Ahmed Kendouci left a long time ago; the paperwork stayed.

In brief

154 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

9 Jul 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

The knee: Ezgjan Alioski out for 109 days

109 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Lugano lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Squad

Kevin Behrens breaks a bone — 66 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 66 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Market

Nikola Miličić hands in a written request

“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lugano can pretend not to have heard.

Squad

Renato Steffen signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Renato Steffen and Lugano agree another 2 years.

Squad

A falling-out at Lugano

Mattia Zanotti and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Transfer targets

Lugano rebuffed over Pape Meïssa Bâ

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. LOSC Lille have kept their man, and Lugano go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Transfer targets

Lugano ask about Guglielmo Mignani

A loan enquiry to Frosinone: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.

The dugout

Yanis Cimignani has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Lugano 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.

Market

The Daniel Dos Santos story refuses to die

It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Daniel Dos Santos signs something — a contract at Lugano or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.

In brief

153 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

2 Jul 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

The knee: Ezgjan Alioski out for 118 days

118 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Lugano lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Squad

Kevin Behrens breaks a bone — 75 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 75 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

The dugout

Denis Zakaria says Lugano went back on their word

“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.

Market

Francesco Cerretelli asks to leave Lugano

“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.

Squad

Renato Steffen stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Renato Steffen and Lugano agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Squad

Words exchanged at Lugano

Mattia Zanotti 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.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Freddy Bernal

Lugano asked and Preston said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

Transfer targets

Lugano try to borrow Pape Meïssa Bâ

LOSC Lille have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.

Boardroom

Intake day at the Lugano academy

7 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.

In brief

152 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

25 Jun 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Ezgjan Alioski

125 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Lugano lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Squad

A fracture rules Kevin Behrens out for 86 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Lugano will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Squad

Tempers go at Lugano

Mattia Zanotti 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.

Transfer targets

No deal for Giacomo Toniolo at that price

Lugano offered $170.0K; Vaduz said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.

Transfer targets

Lugano rebuffed over Rafael Nel

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sporting CP have kept their man, and Lugano go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Squad

A row about effort at Lugano

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Anto Grgic was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout

Renato Steffen gets picked when it counts

Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Renato Steffen is on it.

The dugout

No hiding place for Lucas Blondel

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Lucas Blondel, and the manager let it.

Market

The Yanis Cimignani question follows Lugano around

Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Yanis Cimignani’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.

In brief

151 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

18 Jun 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Ezgjan Alioski

133 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Lugano lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Squad

95 days out for Kevin Behrens after a fracture

A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Lugano will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.

Squad

Mattia Zanotti in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lugano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Transfer targets

An offer of $170.0K for Giacomo Toniolo

Lugano have gone to Vaduz with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.

Market

Paul Milde comes home

The shirt still fits. Paul Milde is back at Lugano, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.

Transfer targets

Lugano rebuffed over Antonio Caballero

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Borussia Dortmund have kept their man, and Lugano go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Squad

Anto Grgic 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.

Transfer targets

A loan move for Lisandro Cabrera is in the works

Lugano have made the call to Fiorentina. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.

The dugout

Antonios Papadopoulos gets picked when it counts

Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Antonios Papadopoulos is on it.

In brief

150 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

11 Jun 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

The knee: Ezgjan Alioski out for 141 days

141 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Lugano lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Squad

103 days out for Kevin Behrens after a fracture

A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Lugano will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.

Transfer targets

Luka Mikulić will not be coming to Lugano

Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Grasshopper is saying, and nobody at Lugano is enjoying the guessing.

Squad

A falling-out at Lugano

Mattia Zanotti and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Marc Gutbub signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Marc Gutbub commits to Lugano for another 4 years.

Boardroom

Gregory Wüthrich will join Lugano for nothing

The paperwork is done long before the player is. Gregory Wüthrich has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Lugano have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.

Transfer targets

Lugano rebuffed over Pape Meïssa Bâ

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. LOSC Lille have kept their man, and Lugano go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Transfer targets

Lugano try to borrow Antonio Caballero

Borussia Dortmund have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.

Market

No place for Francesco Cerretelli in the plan

“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Francesco Cerretelli has his answer from Lugano; what he does with it is the next window’s story.

In brief

149 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

4 Jun 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

The knee: Ezgjan Alioski out for 149 days

149 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Lugano lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Squad

111 days out for Kevin Behrens after a fracture

A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Lugano will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.

Market

Víctor Villalba puts it in writing

“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 Lugano, and it is not being withdrawn.

Squad

Words exchanged at Lugano

Mattia Zanotti 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.

Squad

Emir Kuhinja signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Emir Kuhinja commits to Lugano for another 4 years.

Transfer targets

Door shut on M'Bala Nzola

Lugano asked and Inter said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

Transfer targets

Lugano try to borrow Pape Meïssa Bâ

LOSC Lille have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.

Transfer targets

Lugano ask about Jérémie Boga

A loan enquiry to Juventus: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.

Market

No place for Mario Palomino in the plan

“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Mario Palomino has his answer from Lugano; what he does with it is the next window’s story.

In brief

148 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

28 May 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Ezgjan Alioski damages knee ligaments — 158 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 158 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.

Market

Mario Palomino has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Lugano they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

Mattia Zanotti in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lugano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

A row about effort at Lugano

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Anto Grgic was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout

Nikola Miličić gets it from the manager

“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.

Squad

Damian Kelvin signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Damian Kelvin commits to Lugano for another 4 years.

The dugout

When it matters, Renato Steffen plays

It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.

Market

The Yanis Cimignani story refuses to die

It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Yanis Cimignani signs something — a contract at Lugano or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.

The dugout

Francesco Cerretelli asks for a word with the manager

“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.

In brief

147 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

21 May 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

The knee: Ezgjan Alioski out for 166 days

166 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Lugano lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Squad

Tempers go at Lugano

Mattia Zanotti 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.

Squad

Words at Lugano training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Anto Grgic 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.

Squad

Damian Kelvin signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Damian Kelvin commits to Lugano for another 4 years.

The dugout

When it matters, Antonios Papadopoulos plays

It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.

The dugout

Nikola Miličić has been promised minutes

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 Nikola Miličić has written the date down.

In brief

146 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

14 May 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Words exchanged at Lugano

Mattia Zanotti 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.

Squad

Anto Grgic falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

The dugout

Hannes Delcroix gets it from the manager

“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 dugout

When it matters, Yanis Cimignani plays

It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.

Match

Continental football is in reach for Lugano

24 points from position 5. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.

The dugout

Nikola Miličić has been promised minutes

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 Nikola Miličić has written the date down.

In brief

145 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

7 May 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Mario Palomino

18 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Lugano lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

The dugout

Anto Grgic keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Lugano may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Squad

David Von Ballmoos signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” David Von Ballmoos commits to Lugano for another 2 years.

Squad

A falling-out at Lugano

Mattia Zanotti and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

A row about effort at Lugano

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Anto Grgic was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout

Mattia Zanotti has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Lugano will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.

The dugout

Lucas Blondel gets it from the manager

“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.

Market

The Daniel Dos Santos story refuses to die

It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Daniel Dos Santos signs something — a contract at Lugano or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.

The dugout

Nikola Miličić has been promised minutes

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 Nikola Miličić has written the date down.

In brief

144 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

30 Apr 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

The knee: Mario Palomino out for 25 days

25 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Lugano lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Market

Only the photograph left for Mario Palomino

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mario Palomino will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Lugano the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

Mattia Zanotti in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lugano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

A row about effort at Lugano

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Anto Grgic was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout

Renato Steffen gets picked when it counts

Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Renato Steffen is on it.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Filip Mladenović

“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.

In brief

143 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

23 Apr 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Mario Palomino

33 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Lugano lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Squad

Tempers go at Lugano

Mattia Zanotti 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.

Squad

A row about effort at Lugano

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Anto Grgic was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

In brief

142 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

16 Apr 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Mario Palomino damages knee ligaments — 40 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 40 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.

Squad

Words exchanged at Lugano

Mattia Zanotti 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.

Squad

A row about effort at Lugano

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Anto Grgic was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Squad

Sebastián Romero wants to go home

“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Lugano can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.

The dugout

Yanis Cimignani has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Lugano will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.

The dugout

Ryan Kessler gets it from the manager

“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.

In brief

141 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

9 Apr 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

The knee: Mario Palomino out for 48 days

48 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Lugano lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Squad

A falling-out at Lugano

Mattia Zanotti and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

A row about effort at Lugano

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Anto Grgic was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Squad

Carlos Rolón wants to go home

“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 Lugano know it.

The dugout

When it matters, Mattia Zanotti plays

It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.

Market

The Daniel Dos Santos story refuses to die

It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Daniel Dos Santos signs something — a contract at Lugano or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.

In brief

140 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

2 Apr 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Mario Palomino

56 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Lugano lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Market

Only the photograph left for Mario Palomino

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mario Palomino will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Lugano the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

Mattia Zanotti in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lugano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Martim Marques falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

The dugout

Renato Steffen has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Lugano 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.

Squad

The armband comes off Antonios Papadopoulos

Lugano will explain it as a decision about the team, and it may well be one. A dressing room has never once read it that way.

Market

The Yanis Cimignani story refuses to die

It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Yanis Cimignani signs something — a contract at Lugano or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.

The dugout

The manager makes Nikola Miličić a promise

Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Lugano. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.

The dugout

Francesco Cerretelli asks for a word with the manager

“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.

In brief

139 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

26 Mar 2029
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

Lugano do the business in Europe

1‑0. Continental football is where a club finds out what it actually is, and Lugano came through the finding-out well against Estrela da Amadora.

Match

Cruel end for Estrela da Amadora as Lugano pounce

There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Lugano scored in the 117th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.

Squad

David Von Ballmoos keeps Lugano in it on his own

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.

Squad

Tempers go at Lugano

Mattia Zanotti 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.

Squad

Words at Lugano training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Anto Grgic 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.

Player ratings

A masterclass from Yanis Cimignani

Marked 8.33 — 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.

Squad

Mark Natta stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Mark Natta and Lugano agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

The dugout

No hiding place for Hannes Delcroix

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Hannes Delcroix, and the manager let it.

The dugout

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.” Denis Fassnacht, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.

In brief

138 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

19 Mar 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

The dugout

Francesco Ruberto says Lugano went back on their word

“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.

Squad

Words exchanged at Lugano

Mattia Zanotti 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.

Squad

Martim Marques 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.

Squad

Too much change too quickly at Lugano

5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.

The dugout

Yanis Cimignani gets picked when it counts

Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Yanis Cimignani is on it.

The dugout

Ryan Kessler gets it from the manager

“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.

In brief

137 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

12 Mar 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

The dugout

Lucas Blondel says Lugano went back on their word

“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.

Market

Mark Natta has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Lugano they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

A falling-out at Lugano

Mattia Zanotti and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Words at Lugano training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Martim Marques 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.

Squad

Tom Bradshaw signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Tom Bradshaw commits to Lugano for another 1 years.

The dugout

No hiding place for Nikola Miličić

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nikola Miličić, and the manager let it.

The dugout

Mattia Zanotti has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Lugano will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.

The dugout

Daniel Dos Santos asks for a word with the manager

“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.

Market

The Daniel Dos Santos story refuses to die

It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Daniel Dos Santos signs something — a contract at Lugano or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.

In brief

136 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

5 Mar 2029
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

David Von Ballmoos stands alone

10 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.

The dugout

Daniel Dos Santos says Lugano went back on their word

“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.

Match

Lugano beaten on the continent

1‑2 against Estrela da Amadora, and an evening that measured the gap rather than the ninety minutes. Nothing about it was a disgrace and nothing about it was close.

Market

Mario Palomino is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Lugano is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Squad

Antonios Papadopoulos signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Antonios Papadopoulos commits to Lugano for another 4 years.

Squad

Mattia Zanotti in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lugano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

A row about effort at Lugano

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Anto Grgic was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Yanis Cimignani

Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

The dugout

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 Denis Fassnacht to a room that had heard them before.

In brief

135 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

26 Feb 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Tempers go at Lugano

Mattia Zanotti 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.

Squad

A row about effort at Lugano

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Anto Grgic was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout

When it matters, Antonios Papadopoulos plays

It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.

Market

The Yanis Cimignani question follows Lugano around

Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Yanis Cimignani’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.

Squad

Carlos Rolón remains an outsider

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 Lugano would admit. It shows on Saturdays.

The dugout

A door opens for Nikola Miličić

He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.

In brief

134 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

19 Feb 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Words exchanged at Lugano

Mattia Zanotti 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.

Transfer targets

The window shuts on the Gustavo Ramírez deal

Lugano ran out of time with Zurich. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.

Squad

Words at Lugano training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Martim Marques 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.

Squad

5 new faces, and Lugano are still learning each other

A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.

The dugout

When it matters, Yanis Cimignani plays

It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.

The dugout

No hiding place for Ryan Kessler

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ryan Kessler, and the manager let it.

Squad

The formation has left Rogelio Espínola behind

Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Lugano will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.

Match

Continental football is in reach for Lugano

24 points from position 5. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.

The dugout

Nikola Miličić has been promised minutes

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 Nikola Miličić has written the date down.

In brief

133 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

12 Feb 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Transfer targets

The window shuts on the Erison deal

Lugano ran out of time with Basel. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.

Market

Mark Natta has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Lugano they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

A falling-out at Lugano

Mattia Zanotti and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

A move Rogelio Espínola would have made for nothing

There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Rogelio Espínola is living that version at Lugano, and it tends to show in the first month.

Squad

Carlos Rolón stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Carlos Rolón and Lugano agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Transfer targets

Lazio tell Lugano: Arkadiusz Milik is not for sale

The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.

Squad

A row about effort at Lugano

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Anto Grgic was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout

When it matters, Mattia Zanotti plays

It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.

The dugout

No hiding place for Filip Mladenović

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Filip Mladenović, and the manager let it.

In brief

132 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

5 Feb 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

The dugout

Hannes Delcroix keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Lugano may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Transfer targets

Fee done, terms next for Gustavo Ramírez

Lugano and Zurich have settled on $37.0K. 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.

Market

Mario Palomino has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Lugano they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Boardroom

Deadline passes with 5 signed and 5 gone

That is the business done at Lugano 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.

Squad

Mattia Zanotti in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lugano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Carlos Rolón signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Carlos Rolón and Lugano agree another 1 years.

Boardroom

Lugano beat the market to Nico Schulz from St. Gallen

St. Gallen will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Nico Schulz has pre-agreed a move to Lugano, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.

Transfer targets

Lugano rebuffed over Facundo Rodríguez

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Granada have kept their man, and Lugano go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Squad

Words at Lugano training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Anto Grgic 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

131 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

29 Jan 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Mark Natta has said yes to Sion

The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Lugano have lost him in all but the paperwork.

Market

Sebastián Romero puts it in writing

“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 Lugano, and it is not being withdrawn.

Squad

Tempers go at Lugano

Mattia Zanotti 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.

Transfer targets

Lugano rebuffed over Ivan Sergeev

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. FCSB have kept their man, and Lugano go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Squad

Francesco Cerretelli signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Francesco Cerretelli and Lugano agree another 3 years.

Transfer targets

Lugano try to borrow Arkadiusz Milik

Lazio have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.

The dugout

When it matters, Antonios Papadopoulos plays

It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Francesco Cerretelli

“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 dugout

news_h_reunited_with_his_manager

news_b_reunited_with_his_manager

In brief

130 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

22 Jan 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

The knee: Filip Mladenović out for 14 days

14 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Lugano lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Transfer targets

Erison is a medical away from Lugano

The deal with Basel 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.

Market

Slobodan Simović hands in a written request

“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lugano can pretend not to have heard.

Squad

Words exchanged at Lugano

Mattia Zanotti 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.

Transfer targets

Lugano rebuffed over Vladimir Nikolov

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ludogorets have kept their man, and Lugano go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Squad

Words at Lugano training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Anto Grgic 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.

Transfer targets

Lugano try to borrow Gonzalo Aquilino

Deportivo La Coruña have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.

The dugout

When it matters, Yanis Cimignani plays

It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.

Squad

Thomas Pledl is a square peg at Lugano

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.

In brief

129 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

15 Jan 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Filip Mladenović damages knee ligaments — 21 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 21 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.

Transfer targets

Žan Celar due for a Lugano medical

Everything agreed with Basel, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.

Squad

A falling-out at Lugano

Mattia Zanotti and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Giulio Anghileri arrives at the club he grew up with

Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Giulio Anghileri has, at Lugano, and the first month will show what that does to a man.

Transfer targets

Lugano rebuffed over Lawrence Ati-Zigi

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Basel have kept their man, and Lugano go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Squad

Words at Lugano training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Anto Grgic 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.

Transfer targets

A loan move for Rémy Gauthier is in the works

Lugano have made the call to Paris Saint-Germain. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.

The dugout

When it matters, Mattia Zanotti plays

It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.

The dugout

Ryan Kessler gets it from the manager

“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.

In brief

128 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

8 Jan 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

The knee: Filip Mladenović out for 29 days

29 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Lugano lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Market

Lukas Mai moves on

Young Boys pay $6.9M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.

The terraces

Supporters turn on the $6.9M sale of Lukas Mai

He is going to Young Boys, the club has $6.9M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.

Transfer targets

$37.0K settles it between the clubs for Gustavo Ramírez

Zurich have accepted the money. What Lugano do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.

Market

Mario Palomino is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Lugano is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Market

Lucian Carracedo asks to leave Lugano

“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.

Boardroom

Mario Palomino has agreed to leave Lugano for nothing

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.

Market

Fotis Pseftis moves on

Young Boys pay $1.3M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.

Squad

Rayan Raveloson signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Rayan Raveloson and Lugano agree another 3 years.

In brief

127 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

1 Jan 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Filip Mladenović

38 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Lugano lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Market

Zachary Brault-Guillard asks to leave Lugano

“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.

The dugout

Djibril Fassnacht: that is not what I was promised

“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Lugano have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Squad

Tempers go at Lugano

Mattia Zanotti 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.

Squad

A row about effort at Lugano

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lukas Mai was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout

Lukas Mai gets picked when it counts

Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Lukas Mai is on it.

The dugout

No hiding place for Francesco Cerretelli

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Francesco Cerretelli, and the manager let it.

Market

Slobodan Simović told to find a new club

“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Slobodan Simović has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Lugano.

Market

The Yanis Cimignani question follows Lugano around

Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Yanis Cimignani’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.

In brief

126 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

25 Dec 2028
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Filip Mladenović

47 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Lugano lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Market

Lukas Mai is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Lugano is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

The dugout

Kevin Behrens says Lugano went back on their word

“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.

Squad

Words exchanged at Lugano

Mattia Zanotti 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.

Squad

Lukas Mai 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.

Squad

Diego Mina stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Diego Mina and Lugano agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

In brief

125 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

18 Dec 2028
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

Filip Mladenović damages knee ligaments — 54 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 54 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.

Match

A European night to remember for Lugano

2‑0 against FC Lahti, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.

Player ratings

A brace, and Claudio Cassano takes the afternoon — 9.27

There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Claudio Cassano provided it, and the 9.27 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.

Player ratings

Yanis Cimignani runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 31. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Squad

A falling-out at Lugano

Mattia Zanotti and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Words at Lugano training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lukas Mai 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 dugout

No place for Denis Zakaria on the big day

He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Lugano pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.

The dugout

A satisfied Denis Fassnacht

“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Denis Fassnacht could afford to be generous.

The dugout

Mattia Zanotti has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Lugano will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.

In brief

124 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

11 Dec 2028
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Filip Mladenović

61 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Lugano lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Market

Lukas Mai puts it in writing

“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 Lugano, and it is not being withdrawn.

The dugout

Francesco Cerretelli: that is not what I was promised

“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Lugano have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Squad

Mattia Zanotti in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lugano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Market

Jeron Al-Hazaimeh has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Lugano they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

A row about effort at Lugano

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lukas Mai was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Anto Grgic

“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.

Squad

Sebastián Romero wants to go home

“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 Lugano know it.

The dugout

When it matters, Antonios Papadopoulos plays

It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.

In brief

123 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

4 Dec 2028
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

David Von Ballmoos keeps Lugano in it on his own

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 11 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.

Squad

Filip Mladenović damages knee ligaments — 69 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 69 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.

Match

Besiktas take Lugano apart in Europe

0‑4. There is a level at which football is played every single week by clubs that have been doing it for fifty years, and an evening like this is what it feels like to arrive there without having done it.

Squad

A fracture rules Slobodan Simović out for 19 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Lugano will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Squad

Renato Steffen stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Renato Steffen and Lugano agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

The dugout

Rayan Raveloson gets it from the manager

“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.

Boardroom

Nobody left the Lugano dressing room in a hurry

The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.

The dugout

The view from the dugout

“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑4 defeat, delivered by Denis Fassnacht to a room that had heard them before.

The dugout

No place for Nikola Miličić on the big day

He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Lugano pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.

In brief

122 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

27 Nov 2028
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

The knee: Filip Mladenović out for 78 days

78 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Lugano lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Match

Lugano out of the cup

Zurich ended it 2‑3. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.

Market

Lukas Mai has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Lugano they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

Slobodan Simović breaks a bone — 27 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 27 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Squad

Words exchanged at Lugano

Mattia Zanotti 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.

Squad

Words at Lugano training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lukas Mai 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.

Player ratings

Aaron Seydel was on a different afternoon to everybody else

8.23. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.

The dugout

Denis Fassnacht answers for it

“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 2‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.

The dugout

Yanis Cimignani gets picked when it counts

Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Yanis Cimignani is on it.

In brief

121 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

20 Nov 2028
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Filip Mladenović

86 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Lugano lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Match

No mercy from Lugano

Vaduz will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Lugano were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.

Match

The season ends: position 5 for Lugano

The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 24 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.

Squad

Amin Chiakha takes the match ball home

3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.

Squad

A fracture rules Slobodan Simović out for 35 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Lugano will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Squad

A falling-out at Lugano

Mattia Zanotti and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Player ratings

One of those days for Amin Chiakha

There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.79, and no argument anywhere in the ground.

The terraces

Lugano supporters have found a favourite in Ryan Kessler

There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Ryan Kessler 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.

Player ratings

One of those days for Yanis Cimignani

There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.09, and no argument anywhere in the ground.

In brief