The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fiorentina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Squad15 Nov 2027
The division's best last weekend was a Fiorentina man
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Lucas Beltrán was the best thing in any of them.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Fiorentina know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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 Fiorentina would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Lazio in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Vis Pesaro are out and Fiorentina go through, 5‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Player ratings8 Nov 2027
A brace, and Lucas Beltrán takes the afternoon — 8.90
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Lucas Beltrán provided it, and the 8.90 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mateo Pellegrino provided it, and the 8.68 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings8 Nov 2027
A brace, and Antonín Barák takes the afternoon — 8.16
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Antonín Barák provided it, and the 8.16 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings8 Nov 2027
Niccolò Fortini, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.39
A mark of 8.39 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Fiorentina can pretend not to have heard.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Fiorentina can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Lucas Beltrán. 3‑1 against Monza, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Fiorentina have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Tasos Douvikas, and the manager let it.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Robin Gosens 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 ratings1 Nov 2027
Lucas Beltrán was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.41. 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.
Matías Moreno and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Fiorentina told Lucas Beltrán something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fiorentina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Fiorentina are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Fiorentina told Moise Kean something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
David De Gea and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Words at Fiorentina training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Robin Gosens is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The 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.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Fiorentina hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Tasos Douvikas was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Robin Gosens was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 David De Gea is on it.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Fiorentina have no good answer.
“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 Fiorentina, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Fiorentina hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fiorentina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 4 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Fiorentina told Fabiano Parisi something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
90 minutes played. Mateo Pellegrino found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Cesena went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Robin Gosens was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mateo Pellegrino. 1‑0 against Cesena, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Matías Moreno and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad27 Sep 2027
20 new faces, and Fiorentina are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
“I watch every Fiorentina game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Parma runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Mariano Mancini on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The words a physio says slowly. 15 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 bid was some way short and Fiorentina did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Words at Fiorentina training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Robin Gosens is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Fiorentina can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Fiorentina, another week without a signature from Marco Brescianini.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fiorentina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
22 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Fiorentina lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Fiorentina have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
A brace, and Lucas Beltrán takes the afternoon — 8.31
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Lucas Beltrán provided it, and the 8.31 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Amir Richardson and Fiorentina agree another 4 years.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Pietro Comuzzo
29 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Fiorentina lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The offer from Cremonese for Giovanni Fabbian 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.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Fiorentina will try again when the window opens; Udinese may not be selling by then.
“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.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Fiorentina close the window on a squad of their own making
11 in and 39 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Fiorentina heard it as anything else.
David De Gea 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.
38 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Fiorentina lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fiorentina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 15 actions, 6.76, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Fiorentina can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Fiorentina can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad30 Aug 2027
21 new faces, and Fiorentina are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Fiorentina, and 1 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
46 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Fiorentina lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Hellas Verona waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Fiorentina is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
AS Roma paid $13.0M and Fiorentina took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Fiorentina can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fiorentina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Simone Pellegrino is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
54 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Fiorentina lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Fiorentina will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
The phone has started ringing about Álex Valle again, and this time the name on the line is Monza. Fiorentina are listening politely and promising nothing.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. IF Elfsborg have kept their man, and Fiorentina go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Robin Gosens was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
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 David De Gea is on it.
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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Fiorentina will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Fiorentina can pretend not to have heard.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Fiorentina can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Fiorentina asked and Juventus said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Words at Fiorentina training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Robin Gosens 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.
70 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Fiorentina lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Fiorentina will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Fiorentina, and it is not being withdrawn.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Matías Moreno wants continental football; whether Fiorentina can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Matías Moreno and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad2 Aug 2027
23 new faces, and Fiorentina are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Elba Rashani has his answer from Fiorentina; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Fiorentina, and both men came out saying it was fine.
79 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Fiorentina lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Fiorentina will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Albert Guðmundsson wants continental football; whether Fiorentina can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Robin Gosens falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fiorentina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 Mateo Pellegrino is on it.
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.
87 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Fiorentina lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Fiorentina will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The offer from Cagliari for Abdelhamid Sabiri 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.
David De Gea 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.
Fiorentina asked and Napoli said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Robin Gosens falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Nobody at Fiorentina 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.
97 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Fiorentina lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Robin Gosens had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 59 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The offer went to Cosenza this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
The offer went to Cagliari 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.
Fiorentina offered $7.0M; Hellas Verona 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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Fiorentina heard it as anything else.
105 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Fiorentina lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
$7.0M on the table at Hellas Verona. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Fiorentina heard it as anything else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fiorentina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Fiorentina asked and O'Higgins said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Mateo Pellegrino wants continental football; whether Fiorentina can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Union Brescia waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Fiorentina is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The phone has started ringing about Luca Ranieri again, and this time the name on the line is Virtus Entella. Fiorentina are listening politely and promising nothing.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Spezia have kept their man, and Fiorentina go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Marin Pongračić was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Fiorentina, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nobody at Fiorentina 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.
Fiorentina asked and Atalanta said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
He is 19, he is averaging 7.11, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
The offer from Hellas Verona for Abdelhamid Sabiri was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Dodo wants continental football; whether Fiorentina can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fiorentina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Crotone waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Fiorentina is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The fee is $5.6M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Lazio drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Tijjani Noslin is living that version at Fiorentina, and it tends to show in the first month.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Padova waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Fiorentina is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Fiorentina, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fiorentina asked and Coventry 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.
The offer from Südtirol for Viery was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Fiorentina hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Gianmarco Angiolini 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.
Qualification is secured, and next season the big floodlit nights are continental ones. For the players it is a stage; for the accounts it is a lifeline; for the supporters it is passports.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Fiorentina can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fiorentina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at Fiorentina will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Fiorentina know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Position 7 on 61 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.
He is 19, he is averaging 7.11, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Fiorentina they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
David De Gea and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Fiorentina know it.
Nobody at Fiorentina 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.39 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“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 Fiorentina, and it is not being withdrawn.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Marin Pongračić 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Fiorentina can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Fiorentina have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Marin Pongračić was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
At 19 he was better than everybody his age in the division for four weeks running, which is harder than one good afternoon. Fiorentina will try not to make too much of it.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 9 combined actions and a mark of 6.23, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
The dugout3 May 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Mariano Mancini to a room that had heard them before.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
A season average of 7.08 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Fiorentina know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Fiorentina has been clear about where Luca Lezzerini stands, which is more than many ever get.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Fiorentina can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fiorentina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Fiorentina pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 12 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Napoli go through and Fiorentina go home, 0‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
24 goals in 32 games at Como — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Fiorentina updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Tasos Douvikas was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fiorentina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alieu Njie, and the manager let it.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Mariano Mancini chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Fiorentina know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Fiorentina can pretend not to have heard.
A mark of 7.96 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Fiorentina they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Fiorentina can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fiorentina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 19 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Fiorentina can pretend not to have heard.
He is 19, he is averaging 7.08, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Fiorentina is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Nobody at Fiorentina 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.
6 goals in 23 games at Lazio — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Fiorentina updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Álex Jiménez and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mateo Pellegrino. 1‑0 against Monza, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Fiorentina can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mateo Pellegrino, and the manager let it.
Squad22 Mar 2027
5 new faces, and Fiorentina are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
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.” Mariano Mancini kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
In brief
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Antonín Barák’s exile
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Fiorentina can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Marin Pongračić 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.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Fiorentina pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Mariano Mancini left the room before anybody could ask which.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Mateo Pellegrino obliged against Lazio. 3‑2 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Fiorentina.
There were 88 minutes on the clock and Lazio had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Fiorentina did not stop to explain themselves.
“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 Fiorentina, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fiorentina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Fiorentina can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“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 Fiorentina, and it is not being withdrawn.
A season average of 7.09 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Fiorentina know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Fiorentina hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Fiorentina they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“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; Fiorentina are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Tasos Douvikas and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 13 actions, 6.79, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
The phone has started ringing about Beto again, and this time the name on the line is Spartak Moscow. Fiorentina are listening politely and promising nothing.
Álex Jiménez and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Mateo Pellegrino wants continental football; whether Fiorentina can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
AS Roma left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Mariano Mancini left the room before anybody could ask which.
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Fiorentina told Beto something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Fiorentina have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Fiorentina can pretend not to have heard.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Successful dribbles: 23. 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.
Two of the goals had his name somewhere on them, which is the afternoon a manager wants from anybody asked to both create and finish. 7.95, and 2 involvements.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Junior Messias has just signed for Fiorentina, and for once the answer mattered.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Fiorentina, and it is not being withdrawn.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Nicolò Fagioli reports back to Fiorentina with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Cagliari have kept their man, and Fiorentina go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
$5.4M settles it between the clubs for Pedro Morisco
Coritiba have accepted the money. What Fiorentina do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Fiorentina can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Fiorentina have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Franco Mastantuono did not need any: 8.03, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 4 arrived, 5 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
A season average of 7.07 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Fiorentina know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
18 goals in 22 games at Como — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Fiorentina updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Fiorentina can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Perugia waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Fiorentina is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
$4.9M on the table at Coritiba. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, and a scan that said otherwise. He goes back to Napoli; Fiorentina go back to the market; and both will insist there is no story here.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Fiorentina have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Javier García has, at Fiorentina, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
The clubs have shaken hands with Napoli; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
16 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Fiorentina lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and AJ Auxerre waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Fiorentina is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The words a physio says slowly. 23 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dinamo Moscow have kept their man, and Fiorentina go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The offer went to Como 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.
He is 19, he is averaging 7.02, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
The words a physio says slowly. 32 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 hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Franco Mastantuono did not need any: 8.29, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Fiorentina can pretend not to have heard.
David De Gea and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Carlo Evangelista is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Level with 95 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Fiorentina had all but put away. Sassuolo will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 2‑2, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
39 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Fiorentina lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Tasos Douvikas provided it, and the 8.86 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Fiorentina is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
15 goals in 16 games at Como — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Fiorentina updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
He is 19 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Cagliari tried to reorganise, Fiorentina did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
Marin Pongračić 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.
A 4‑1 win over Cremonese, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
A brace, and Tom Cannon takes the afternoon — 7.91
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Tom Cannon provided it, and the 7.91 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Bassidy Sanogo, 18, plays like he has been here for years — 7.70
A mark of 7.70 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 18-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Fiorentina hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Marin Pongračić 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.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Dodo wants continental football; whether Fiorentina can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Álex Jiménez was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Arthur Atta has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 88th, and Lazio spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
1 for Nicolò Fagioli, marked 7.96, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Álex Jiménez 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.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Luca Ranieri has his answer from Fiorentina; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Tasos Douvikas had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Monza were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Álex Jiménez did not need any: 7.67, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Fiorentina is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fiorentina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Fiorentina, and both men came out saying it was fine.
In brief
The terracesThe spotlight tightens on David De Gea
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fiorentina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Fiorentina can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Nicolò Fagioli has his answer from Fiorentina; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Marco Brescianini trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Marco Brescianini’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Fiorentina needing him to play as if none of it matters.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 6.92 for the rest of it.
David De Gea was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Arthur Atta wants continental football; whether Fiorentina can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Fiorentina and AlbinoLeffe in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Fiorentina can pretend not to have heard.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Fiorentina hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
13 goals in 9 games at Como — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Fiorentina updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fiorentina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 Nov 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Álex Jiménez
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Álex Jiménez has come out of that comparison in the side, and Fiorentina have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Fiorentina is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Marin Pongračić was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Dodo'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.
9 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Mariano Mancini to a room that had heard them before.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Fiorentina will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Franco Mastantuono did not need any: 7.74, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Wilfried Gnonto is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Mateo Pellegrino wants continental football; whether Fiorentina can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fiorentina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Fiorentina will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
At 24 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Álex Jiménez 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 31 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Two goals and a mark of 8.44 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Tasos Douvikas 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Carlo Evangelista is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Fiorentina know it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 38 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fiorentina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Mariano Mancini after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 45 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fiorentina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 22. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Mariano Mancini after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Chances created: 10. Not on the scoresheet and not remotely anonymous — a passing performance that pulled a defence apart without leaving a mark on the column that gets read.
Every signing waits for it and every press conference asks about it until it comes. It has come, Fiorentina have their man off the mark, and the second one is always easier.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Fiorentina will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Fiorentina have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Tasos Douvikas. 2‑0 against Juventus, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Mariano Mancini could afford to be generous.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, and a scan that said otherwise. He goes back to Lazio; Fiorentina go back to the market; and both will insist there is no story here.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 62 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Fiorentina ran out of time with Spezia. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 8 arrived, 3 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Fiorentina hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
The phone has started ringing about Viery again, and this time the name on the line is Südtirol. Fiorentina are listening politely and promising nothing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fiorentina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Lazio have accepted the money. What Fiorentina do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
“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 Fiorentina, and it is not being withdrawn.
Successful dribbles: 28. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fiorentina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Avellino have kept their man, and Fiorentina go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Marcello D'Angelo has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Luciano Caruso has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Vincenzo Spinelli has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $19.4M has been paid because Tasos Douvikas is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
Como did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $15.0M for Álex Valle, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
The most awkward business a club does is signing tomorrow's answer while today's is still in the building. Tom Cannon comes from Sheffield United for exactly that purpose, and the handover will not be discussed publicly by anybody.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Tasos Douvikas has just signed for Fiorentina, and for once the answer mattered.
David De Gea 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Fiorentina are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Fiorentina training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Carlo Evangelista is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Christ Inao Oulaï signs something — a contract at Fiorentina or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Everything agreed with Sheffield United, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Veracruz have kept their man, and Fiorentina go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The offer went to Como 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.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Fiorentina hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fiorentina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Fiorentina training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Majkol Luka 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 offer went to Veracruz 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.
$23.0M was the most the club would pay and AS Roma 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.
Fiorentina have gone to Sheffield United 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Elba Rashani has, at Fiorentina, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Fiorentina hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fiorentina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
49 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.