Lugano U20

1 Feb 2032
Sunday
Process
287 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

26 Jan 2032
From our football correspondent Uneasy

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.

Market

Víctor Rofino 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 The request is on a desk at Lugano, and it is not being withdrawn.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.

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

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.

Squad

No place for Philipp Möller 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.

In brief

Back issues
286 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

19 Jan 2032
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Emir Kuhinja has said yes to Luzern

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

Luis Margas 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

Words at Lugano training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yanis Cimignani 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

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.

Squad

Words exchanged at Lugano

Rayan Raveloson 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

A long bet from Lugano on Philipp Möller

He is 18, and nobody at Lugano signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.

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.

Squad

Philipp Möller signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Philipp Möller and Lugano agree another 5 years.

The dugout

Víctor Rofino is still being punished for one mistake

Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.

In brief

285 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

12 Jan 2032
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Florian Rombogouera 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.

Transfer targets

Sankara Karamoko will not be coming to Lugano

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

Market

So close: Francesco Ruberto’s move dies late

The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Grasshopper moved on, Francesco Ruberto reports back to Lugano, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.

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. Yanis Cimignani 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 Mauricio Godoy from Luzern

Luzern will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Mauricio Godoy 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 ask about Federico Ragnoli Galli

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

Market

Lugano buy the years ahead of Anton Lang

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.

Market

The Emir Kuhinja conversation is coming

Everyone has stopped pretending: Luzern will make the call about Emir Kuhinja this week. Lugano have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.

In brief

284 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

5 Jan 2032
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Boardroom

Interim Coach has until the next board meeting

What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Lugano can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.

Market

Francesco Ruberto 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

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.

Transfer targets

Lugano rebuffed over Mateo Maravić

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.

Transfer targets

Lugano try to borrow Sankara Karamoko

Wolfsberger AC 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, Daniel Dos Santos 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

David Von Ballmoos loses the manager who believed in him

A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is David Von Ballmoos's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.

Market

No place for Giulio Anghileri in the plan

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

In brief

283 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

29 Dec 2031
From our football correspondent Uneasy

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.

Market

Adrian Yanga-M'Boyo 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

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. Yanis Cimignani 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

Lugano count the cost of losing Antonio Verinac

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

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.

In brief

282 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

22 Dec 2031
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Víctor Rofino 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

Words at Lugano training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yanis Cimignani 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

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

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.

The dugout

Víctor Rofino is still being punished for one mistake

Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.

In brief

281 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

15 Dec 2031
From our football correspondent Uneasy

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.

Squad

A muscle injury sidelines Marc Gutbub for 17 days

Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Lugano will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.

The dugout

No hiding place for Diego Mina

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

Squad

Carlo Faedo 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

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

280 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

8 Dec 2031
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Junior Zé 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

Marc Gutbub: 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

A row about effort at Lugano

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

Squad

Claudio Cassano makes the team of the month

Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.

The dugout

Daniel Dos Santos 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 Daniel Dos Santos is on it.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Víctor Villalba

“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

Daniel Dos Santos linked with a move away

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

Boardroom

Lugano pull $5.0M back off the table

The money that was there in the summer is not there now. Nobody upstairs calls this a change of ambition, and everybody downstairs reads it as one.

In brief

279 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

1 Dec 2031
From our football correspondent Uneasy

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

Yanis Cimignani 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

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

The manager makes an example of Marc Gutbub

“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

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

278 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

24 Nov 2031
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Víctor Rofino 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

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. 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

Joshua Frau signs on for more

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

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

The manager makes an example of Mark Natta

“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 manager has not finished forgetting Víctor Rofino's mistake

Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.

Market

The Mattia Zanotti question follows Lugano around

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

The dugout

Francesco Ruberto 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 Francesco Ruberto trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.

In brief

  • Boardroom The Lugano production line keeps running
  • Squad Martim Marques makes the division’s eleven — 6.93
277 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

17 Nov 2031
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

Claudio Cassano leads the rout of Vaduz

4‑1, 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 — 9.66

Two goals and a mark of 9.66 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.

Match

Full time on the season at Lugano

Position 7 on 22 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.

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

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 Yanis Cimignani was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

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.

Match

Lugano settle it inside twenty minutes

3 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Vaduz spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.

Player ratings

A masterclass from Mattia Zanotti

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.

In brief

276 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

10 Nov 2031
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

Nowhere to hide for Lugano

1‑5 against Young Boys, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.

Market

Junior Zé 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

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.

Match

Claudio Cassano among the goals in a wild afternoon

6 goals in one match, Claudio Cassano on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Lugano and Young Boys.

Squad

A row about effort at Lugano

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

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 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 1‑5 Interim Coach left the room before anybody could ask which.

Squad

A day to forget for David Von Ballmoos

Beaten 5 times, 5 saves, and an afternoon that will go on his record whether it was his fault or the defence’s. It is the quiet unfairness of the position.

Player ratings

Mattia Zanotti runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

In brief

275 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

3 Nov 2031
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Match

No mercy from Lugano

Sion 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.

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.

Player ratings

Ninety minutes of Yanis Cimignani at his very best

Marked 8.65. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Lugano.

Player ratings

One of those days for Daniel Dos Santos

There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.29, and no argument anywhere in the ground.

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.” Interim Coach, on a 3‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.

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.

Squad

A step back for Marc Gutbub at Lugano

Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.

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.

In brief

  • Player ratings Nikolas Muci runs at them all day
  • Looking ahead The leaders are next for Lugano
  • The dugout The manager makes an example of Marc Gutbub
274 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

27 Oct 2031
From our football correspondent Uneasy

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

Mattia Zanotti 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.

Squad

Yanis Cimignani 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

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.

Match

Daniel Dos Santos the difference as Lugano beat Zurich

Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Daniel Dos Santos. 2‑0 against Zurich, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.

Squad

Goal number 50 for Claudio Cassano

50 goals in these colours now, every one of them somebody’s memory. There is a supporter in the stand who can tell you where he was for most of them.

Player ratings

Daniel Dos Santos was on a different afternoon to everybody else

8.34. 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 Yanis Cimignani

Marked 8.09 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.

Squad

Ryan Kessler reaches 100 appearances

100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.

In brief

  • The dugout The view from the dugout
  • Market Marcin Urynowicz is free to find somewhere else
  • The dugout The manager has not finished forgetting Víctor Rofino's mistake
273 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

20 Oct 2031
From our football correspondent Crisis

Player ratings

Mattia Zanotti runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 34. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Market

Víctor Rofino 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.

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

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 Yanis Cimignani was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Match

Claudio Cassano’s goal not enough for Lugano

Claudio Cassano scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Thun, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of David Von Ballmoos

“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.

Match

Lugano hit back inside 1 minutes

Thun held the lead for 1 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

No place for Hannes Delcroix 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

272 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

13 Oct 2031
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Junior Zé 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 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

Tempers go at Lugano

Junior Zé 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.

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. 8.50, and no argument anywhere in the ground.

Match

Late, late show earns Lugano a point

Minute 90, against Basel, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.

Player ratings

Claudio Cassano was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 16. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.

Match

Honours even between Lugano and Basel

2‑2, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.

The dugout

Daniel Dos Santos 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

Interim Coach: “We have to be better”

“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 2‑2 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.

In brief

271 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

6 Oct 2031
From our football correspondent Uneasy

The terraces

Anger at Lugano spills outside the ground

It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.

Player ratings

Yanis Cimignani runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 29. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

The dugout

Víctor Villalba: 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

Francesco Ruberto 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

Antonios Papadopoulos stays put

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

A row about effort at Lugano

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

Squad

Appearance number 100 for Antonio Verinac

100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.

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

  • The dugout A promise honoured at Lugano
  • The dugout The manager’s verdict
  • Match Lugano and Luzern cancel each other out
270 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

29 Sep 2031
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

Lugano are in real trouble now

Position 8, 11 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Mattia Zanotti

Successful dribbles: 27. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

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

Yanis Cimignani 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

A bad afternoon for Lugano against St. Gallen

1‑3 to St. Gallen, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.

Looking ahead

Everything rides on Luzern

Both clubs in the mire, one fixture between them, and a ground that will be louder and more frightened than at any point in the season. Lugano know what is at stake and so does everybody in the away end.

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 1‑3 defeat, delivered by Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.

The dugout

No hiding place for Rayan Raveloson

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

The terraces

The spotlight tightens on David Von Ballmoos

Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.

In brief

269 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

22 Sep 2031
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Hannes Delcroix damages knee ligaments — 14 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 14 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

Víctor Rofino 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

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

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.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Nikolas Muci

Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Match

Lugano find a way past Grasshopper

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

Player ratings

Daniel Dos Santos in the eights

A performance of 8.08 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.

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

Interim Coach has his say

“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Interim Coach on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.

In brief

268 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

15 Sep 2031
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Hannes Delcroix 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.

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.

Player ratings

Claudio Cassano scores twice — 9.08

Two goals and a mark of 9.08 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.

The dugout

Víctor Rofino 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

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.

Match

Lugano end the wait against Vaduz

It had gone 6 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.

Squad

Words at Lugano training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yanis Cimignani 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

Ninety minutes of Daniel Dos Santos at his very best

Marked 8.06. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Lugano.

Match

Lugano at the halfway mark

Half the programme played, position 9, 8 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.

In brief

267 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

8 Sep 2031
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

The knee: Hannes Delcroix out for 28 days

28 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

Diego Mina breaks a bone — 15 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 15 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Market

Junior Zé 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.

Match

6 matches without a win for Lugano

The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around Lugano are no longer polite ones.

Market

Francesco Ruberto 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

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

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 cannot find the net

3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.

Transfer targets

Deadline beats Lugano to Lion Lauberbach

The clock did what Basel would not, and ended it. Supporters who watched the countdown will spend the next window doing it again.

In brief

266 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

1 Sep 2031
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

Hannes Delcroix damages knee ligaments — 35 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 35 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

Nowhere to hide for Lugano

0‑3 against Sion, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.

Squad

22 days out for Diego Mina 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

Emir Kuhinja 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.

Match

5 matches without a win for Lugano

The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Lugano are no longer polite ones.

Boardroom

Deadline passes with 27 signed and 12 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

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

An offer of $330.0K for Lion Lauberbach

Lugano have gone to Basel 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.

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.

In brief

  • Boardroom Nobody left the Lugano dressing room in a hurry
  • The dugout The view from the dugout
  • The dugout The manager makes an example of Rayan Raveloson
265 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

25 Aug 2031
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Hannes Delcroix damages knee ligaments — 42 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 42 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 out of the cup

Thun ended it 1‑2. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.

Match

Lugano are in real trouble now

Position 9, 4 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.

Squad

A fracture rules Diego Mina out for 29 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.

Market

Francesco Ruberto agrees terms with Grasshopper

The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Lugano people have started saying his name in the past tense.

Player ratings

Laureano Torrejón was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 27. 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.

Market

Víctor Rofino 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.

Match

No end in sight to Lugano's wait for a win

4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Lugano has to find a result from somewhere.

Squad

Words exchanged at Lugano

Hannes Delcroix 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

264 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

18 Aug 2031
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

Hannes Delcroix damages knee ligaments — 49 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 49 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

36 days out for Diego Mina 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

Giulio Anghileri agrees terms with Vorskla

The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Lugano people have started saying his name in the past tense.

Market

Francesco Ruberto 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.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Yanis Cimignani

Successful dribbles: 25. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Market

Lugano say no — this time

The offer from Vitesse for Joshua Frau 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.

Transfer targets

Kevin Quejada turns down Lugano

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

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

Giulio Anghileri 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.

In brief

263 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

11 Aug 2031
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

The knee: Hannes Delcroix out for 56 days

56 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 Diego Mina out for 43 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

Gregory Wüthrich 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

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

A bad afternoon for Lugano against Basel

2‑3 to Basel, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.

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

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.

Market

Vitesse watching Joshua Frau

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

Player ratings

Yanis Cimignani in the eights

A performance of 8.50 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.

In brief

262 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

4 Aug 2031
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Hannes Delcroix

63 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

50 days out for Diego Mina 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.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Mattia Zanotti

Successful dribbles: 30. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Transfer targets

Lion Lauberbach 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

Lugano say no — this time

The offer from San Jose Earthquakes for Giulio Anghileri 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.

Squad

Yanis Cimignani signs on for more

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

Transfer targets

Lugano rebuffed over Will Goodwin

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

Match

Lugano end the wait against Luzern

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.

In brief

261 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

28 Jul 2031
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Hannes Delcroix

70 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.

Player ratings

Mattia Zanotti runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 34. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Squad

57 days out for Diego Mina 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

Francesco Ruberto has said yes to Grasshopper

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

Víctor Rofino 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.

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.

The dugout

Uwe Arnold: 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.

Transfer targets

Lugano rebuffed over Winsley Boteli

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

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.

In brief

260 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

21 Jul 2031
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Hannes Delcroix

77 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

Diego Mina breaks a bone — 64 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 64 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Mattia Zanotti

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

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

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

The step up is real for Giulio Anghileri

At 23 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.

Boardroom

13 academy graduates step up at Lugano

Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.

Match

A bad afternoon for Lugano against Grasshopper

1‑3 to Grasshopper, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.

Transfer targets

Sion tell Lugano: Maksim Minkov 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.

In brief

259 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

14 Jul 2031
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

The knee: Hannes Delcroix out for 84 days

84 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

Diego Mina breaks a bone — 71 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 71 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

Real improvement from Kevin Freuler at Lugano

Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Kevin Freuler is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.

Transfer targets

Lugano rebuffed over Federico Ragnoli Galli

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

Transfer targets

A loan move for Nicolás Castagno is in the works

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

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

No place for Gregory Wüthrich in the plan

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

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

258 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

7 Jul 2031
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Hannes Delcroix

91 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.

Boardroom

Lugano spell it out for Interim Coach

The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.

Squad

Diego Mina breaks a bone — 78 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 78 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Market

Junior Zé 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.

The dugout

Emir Kuhinja: 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.

Transfer targets

Too dear: Lugano walk away from Noah Widmer

$920.0K was the most the club would pay and Basel were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.

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 2 years.

Squad

Hannes Delcroix 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

Door shut on Manuel Pisano

Lugano asked and Cardiff City 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

257 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

30 Jun 2031
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

The knee: Hannes Delcroix out for 98 days

98 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

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.

Squad

A fracture rules Diego Mina 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.

Transfer targets

An offer of $860.0K for Noah Widmer

Lugano have gone to Basel 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.

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 Nikolas Muci was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Transfer targets

Plymouth Argyle tell Lugano: Kian Harratt 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

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.

Transfer targets

A loan move for Federico Ragnoli Galli is in the works

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

In brief

256 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

23 Jun 2031
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

The knee: Hannes Delcroix out for 105 days

105 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

92 days out for Diego Mina 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 turn down Vitesse for Joshua Frau

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

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.

Transfer targets

Lugano rebuffed over Emmanuel Nweke

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

Transfer targets

Lugano try to borrow Kian Harratt

Plymouth Argyle 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

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

No hiding place for Diego Mina

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

In brief

255 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

16 Jun 2031
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

Diego Mina breaks a bone — 99 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 99 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Market

Denis Zakaria 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.

Transfer targets

Luke Plange is a medical away from Lugano

The deal with Grasshopper 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.

Squad

Emanuele Modugno gets the move he always wanted

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

Transfer targets

Too dear: Lugano walk away from Beckham Castro

$740.0K was the most the club would pay and Basel were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.

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. 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

Malamine Efekele will join Lugano for nothing

The paperwork is done long before the player is. Malamine Efekele 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

Wolfsberger AC tell Lugano: Sankara Karamoko 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.

In brief

254 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

9 Jun 2031
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

The knee: Francesco Ruberto 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.

Market

Junior Zé 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.

Transfer targets

Nordan Mukiele turns down Lugano

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

Transfer targets

Grasshopper tell Lugano: Luke Plange 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

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. 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.

Transfer targets

A loan move for Moussa Koné is in the works

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

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

The formation has left Laureano Torrejón 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.

In brief

253 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

2 Jun 2031
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

The knee: Francesco Ruberto out for 21 days

21 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.

Boardroom

Lugano put Interim Coach on notice

The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.

Market

Carlo Faedo 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.

Market

Malcolm Cacutalua 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

Lugano to lose Malcolm Cacutalua for free

There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Malcolm Cacutalua 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

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

Laureano Torrejón signs on for more

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

In brief

252 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

26 May 2031
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

Francesco Ruberto damages knee ligaments — 28 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 28 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

Florian Rombogouera gets the move he always wanted

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

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

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

The manager makes an example of Gregory Wüthrich

“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

251 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

19 May 2031
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Francesco Ruberto

35 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

Hannes Delcroix 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. Claudio Cassano 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

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

Denis Zakaria 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 Denis Zakaria trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.

The dugout

No hiding place for Mark Natta

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

In brief

250 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

12 May 2031
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

Francesco Ruberto damages knee ligaments — 42 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 42 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

Junior Zé 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.

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

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.

The dugout

Antonio Verinac 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

249 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

5 May 2031
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

The knee: Francesco Ruberto out for 49 days

49 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

Lugano put Interim Coach on notice

The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.

Market

Denis Zakaria 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

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.

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.

Squad

A step back for Xherdan Shaqiri at Lugano

Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.

The dugout

When it matters, Daniel Dos Santos 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

Yanis Cimignani loses the manager who believed in him

A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Yanis Cimignani's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.

In brief

248 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

28 Apr 2031
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Francesco Ruberto

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.

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. Xherdan Shaqiri 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

Diego Mina signs on for more

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

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

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

247 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

21 Apr 2031
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Francesco Ruberto damages knee ligaments — 63 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 63 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

Words at Lugano training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Xherdan Shaqiri 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

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.

The dugout

Lugano keep their word to Denis Zakaria

Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.

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.

In brief

246 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

14 Apr 2031
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Francesco Ruberto damages knee ligaments — 70 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 70 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

Junior Zé 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

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.

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.

The dugout

The manager makes Xherdan Shaqiri 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

  • Squad A wage question at Lugano
  • The dugout Marc Gutbub asks for a word with the manager
  • The dugout The manager comes out for Diego Mina
245 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

7 Apr 2031
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Francesco Ruberto damages knee ligaments — 77 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 77 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

Denis Zakaria 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.

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

Mattia Zanotti signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Mattia Zanotti 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 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.

The dugout

Daniel Dos Santos 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

Lugano trim $7.4M from the budget

The money the manager was told he had is now money the manager used to have. $7.4M, gone from the table without a statement, and a dressing room that understands what it means.

In brief

244 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

31 Mar 2031
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

The knee: Francesco Ruberto out for 84 days

84 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

Words at Lugano training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Xherdan Shaqiri 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

A falling-out at Lugano

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

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

No hiding place for Antonio Verinac

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

243 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

24 Mar 2031
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Francesco Ruberto damages knee ligaments — 91 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 91 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

Antonio Verinac 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

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

Mark Natta signs on for more

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

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

242 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

17 Mar 2031
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Francesco Ruberto damages knee ligaments — 98 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 98 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

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 Xherdan Shaqiri was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

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.

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.

The dugout

A door opens for Xherdan Shaqiri

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

241 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

10 Mar 2031
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Francesco Ruberto damages knee ligaments — 105 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 105 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

Junior Zé 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 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

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 Xherdan Shaqiri was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

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.

In brief

240 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

3 Mar 2031
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Francesco Ruberto

112 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

Rayan Raveloson stays put

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

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

No hiding place for Antonio Verinac

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

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.

Boardroom

A $386.1K-a-year partner for Lugano

A signature, a photograph, and a line in the accounts. Nobody sings about it and everything else on this page is paid for by it.

In brief

239 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

24 Feb 2031
From our football correspondent Uneasy

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 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.

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.

The dugout

Marc Gutbub 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

238 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

17 Feb 2031
From our football correspondent Uneasy

The dugout

Gregory Wüthrich 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

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

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.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Víctor Rofino

“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

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.

The dugout

Xherdan Shaqiri 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 Xherdan Shaqiri has written the date down.

In brief

237 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

10 Feb 2031
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Junior Zé 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.

The dugout

Emir Kuhinja: 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

Xherdan Shaqiri 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.

Squad

Luis Margas signs a new deal

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

The dugout

When it matters, Daniel Dos Santos 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 Gregory Wüthrich

“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 Luis Margas 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

Xherdan Shaqiri 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 Xherdan Shaqiri has written the date down.

In brief

236 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

3 Feb 2031
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Francesco Ruberto 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.

Boardroom

Lugano close the window on a squad of their own making

2 in and 2 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.

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

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 Xherdan Shaqiri was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

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.

Squad

Kevin Benito out for 31 days

The medical room confirms 31 days on the sidelines for Kevin Benito, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.

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 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

235 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

27 Jan 2031
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Gregory Wüthrich 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.

Transfer targets

No thanks: Jeremiah Debrah rejects the move

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

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

Lugano lose Granit Zakaria

30 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 Xherdan Shaqiri was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

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.

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

A door opens for Xherdan Shaqiri

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.

Squad

Marcin Urynowicz still has not settled

A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Lugano would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.

In brief

234 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

20 Jan 2031
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Alessandro Bozzollo 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.

Transfer targets

No thanks: Bautista Arricau rejects the move

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

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.

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.

Squad

Kevin Freuler signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Kevin Freuler commits to Lugano for another 5 years.

Market

Carlo Faedo 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 Carlo Faedo stands, which is more than many ever get.

Squad

No place for Kevin Freuler 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.

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

233 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

13 Jan 2031
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Junior Zé 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.

Transfer targets

Bautista Arricau is a medical away from Lugano

The deal with Bristol City 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.

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. Xherdan Shaqiri 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 agree a free transfer for Mario David

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.

Squad

Marcin Urynowicz signs a new deal

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

Transfer targets

A loan move for Jeremiah Debrah is in the works

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

Market

Lugano sign Kevin Freuler, one for the future

Kevin Freuler is 18, 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.

The dugout

Daniel Dos Santos 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 Daniel Dos Santos is on it.

In brief

232 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

6 Jan 2031
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Noa Bezeme 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

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.

Squad

Lugano count the cost of losing Kevin Benito

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

Squad

Home is on Víctor Rofino'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.

Transfer targets

Lugano try to borrow Bautista Arricau

Bristol City 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 Gianluca Contini

A loan enquiry to Cremonese: 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

No hiding place for Marc Gutbub

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Marc Gutbub, 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.

In brief

231 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

30 Dec 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Denis Zakaria 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

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

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

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.

In brief

230 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

23 Dec 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

The dugout

Gregory Wüthrich: 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 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

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.

Squad

Tempers go at Lugano

Rayan Raveloson 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.

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.

The dugout

Xherdan Shaqiri 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 Xherdan Shaqiri has written the date down.

Market

Lugano and Diego Mina are talking past each other

“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.

The dugout

Diego Mina 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.

The dugout

The manager comes out for Antonios Papadopoulos

Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Antonios Papadopoulos has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.

In brief

229 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

16 Dec 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Junior Zé 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

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.

The dugout

Daniel Dos Santos 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 Daniel Dos Santos is on it.

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.

The dugout

Denis Zakaria 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

228 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

9 Dec 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

The dugout

Junior Zé 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

The manager makes an example of Marc Gutbub

“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, 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 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

227 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

2 Dec 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Denis Zakaria 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

Hannes Delcroix 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 Xherdan Shaqiri was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout

No hiding place for Denis Zakaria

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

The dugout

A promise honoured for Hannes Delcroix

It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Lugano told Hannes Delcroix something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.

Squad

A place in the month's best eleven for Hannes Delcroix

Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Hannes Delcroix has come out of that comparison in the side, and Lugano have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.

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.

Squad

“I want to play”: Denis Zakaria speaks

“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.

The dugout

Xherdan Shaqiri 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 Xherdan Shaqiri trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.

In brief

226 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

25 Nov 2030
From our football correspondent Crisis

Player ratings

Mattia Zanotti runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 38. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Match

The cup run ends for Lugano

1‑2 against St. Gallen, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.

The dugout

Carlo Faedo 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

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

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.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Xherdan Shaqiri

“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.

Player ratings

Ninety minutes of Daniel Dos Santos at his very best

Marked 8.21. 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

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.

In brief

225 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

18 Nov 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Match

The season ends: position 7 for Lugano

The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 22 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.

Market

Junior Zé 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

Marc Gutbub: 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

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

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

8.23. 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.

Player ratings

Ninety minutes of Yanis Cimignani at his very best

Marked 8.13. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Lugano.

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.

In brief

224 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

11 Nov 2030
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

Víctor Rofino signs a new deal

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

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.

Match

Lugano come up short against Young Boys

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

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Nikolas Muci

Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

The dugout

Interim Coach: “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.

The dugout

A promise honoured for Enrique Aguilar

It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Lugano told Enrique Aguilar something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.

The dugout

Xherdan Shaqiri 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.

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

223 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

4 Nov 2030
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Rayan Raveloson

17 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

Home is on Víctor Rofino'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.

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 Sion

Sion made Lugano work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.

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. 8.10, and no argument anywhere in the ground.

The dugout

Xherdan Shaqiri 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; Xherdan Shaqiri will call it something else in private.

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 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.

Looking ahead

Lugano take on the side everybody is chasing

Young Boys arrive as leaders. A side at the top is beaten roughly once a month, and the club that does it gets a week it remembers for a year.

In brief

222 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

28 Oct 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Rayan Raveloson

24 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 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.

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.

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.

The dugout

Víctor Rofino 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; Víctor Rofino will call it something else in private.

Squad

Joshua Frau signs a new deal

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

The dugout

Interim Coach: “We have to be better”

“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.

The dugout

No hiding place for Mark Natta

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

In brief

221 Edition

The Lugano Chronicle

21 Oct 2030
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Rayan Raveloson damages knee ligaments — 31 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 31 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

Thun punish Lugano for switching off

2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Nikolas Muci will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Lugano escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.

Match

Every point is an argument now for Lugano

Position 8 and 17 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.

Market

Junior Zé 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.

Player ratings

Up for the corner, and Hannes Delcroix delivers — 7.62

Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Hannes Delcroix scored, was marked 7.62, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.

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.

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

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.

In brief

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

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