“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.
Moise Kean and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 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.
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.
Marked 9.96 — 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Fiorentina and Parma, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
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.
23 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 medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Fiorentina have done the hard part with Torino, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Federico Matarán is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
At 28 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
A clause somebody insisted on years ago, in a negotiation nobody remembers, has just paid Fiorentina $1.0M. Oliver Christensen left a long time ago; the paperwork stayed.
31 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.
“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 The request is on a desk at Fiorentina, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Luzern for Federico Di Francesco was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fiorentina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Nicolò Fagioli has improved at 26, 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.
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.
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 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 Marco Brescianini has written the date down.
38 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.
Moise Kean 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 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
The phone has started ringing about Federico Di Francesco again, and this time the name on the line is Luzern. Fiorentina are listening politely and promising nothing.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Fiorentina has been clear about where Andrés Desábato stands, which is more than many ever get.
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.
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.
Moise Kean and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
The name of Christ Inao Oulaï has come up in conversations Fiorentina were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“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 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
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 Christ Inao Oulaï 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.
27 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Riccardo Spaggiari was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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.
“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.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
The name of Bassidy Sanogo has come up in conversations Fiorentina were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
In brief
The dugoutMoise Kean asks for a word with the manager
The dugoutMarin Pongračić has become a man the manager trusts
The offer from Roda for Ante Rebić 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.
Moise Kean was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
29 games, 0 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at Fiorentina now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
“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.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Pietro Comuzzo is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
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.
Fiorentina have gone to Catanzaro 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.
Fiorentina asked and Udinese said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Federico Di Francesco has just signed for Fiorentina, and for once the answer mattered.
$1.3M was the most the club would pay and Juventus 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Bassidy Sanogo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Fiorentina the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Fiorentina people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“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.
Lazio paid $7.7M 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.
The chase for Alessio Furlanetto ended with $2.3M changing hands and Lazio out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Fiorentina have gone to Juventus 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Massimo Zilli has just signed for Fiorentina, and for once the answer mattered.
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.
“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.
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.
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.
The fee is $4.8M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Venezia drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Albion Rrahmani has, at Fiorentina, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marin Pongračić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“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.
Pote 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 Marin Pongračić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Fiorentina has been clear about where Daniele Rugani stands, which is more than many ever get.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Sascha Britschgi is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
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.
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.
In brief
BoardroomOpen for business: Fiorentina enter the window
The terracesSupporters make their feelings known about Mateo Pellegrino
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.
“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.
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.
“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.
Squad31 May 2027
Majkol Luka 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 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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Fiorentina. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Cher Ndour signs something — a contract at Fiorentina or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
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 Daniele Rugani is on it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Fiorentina, and both men came out saying it was fine.
3 goals in 38 games at Carrarese — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Fiorentina updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Nobody writes a headline about a tutor. Nobody has to be told, either, what happens to a signing who spends two years being the man nobody can talk to at lunch.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. David De Gea has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
In brief
SquadDavid De Gea is the talk of the training ground
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Wilfried Gnonto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
7 goals in 37 games at Venezia — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Fiorentina updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
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 Marin Pongračić is on it.
6 goals in 27 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.
In brief
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Roberto Piccoli’s exile
Position 7 on 60 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.
Pote 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.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 4 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Boardroom10 May 2027
Nobody left the Fiorentina 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 dugout10 May 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 Paolo Pasquali left the room before anybody could ask which.
“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
SquadMajkol Luka falls out with a teammate over standards
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Franco Mastantuono did not need any: 7.77, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
4 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.
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.
Involvement in 2 goals, from a player who spent the ninety minutes doing the thing a manager actually wants: being where the ball was going to end up. 7.95 beside his name.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Udinese tried to reorganise, Fiorentina did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
8.31. 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.
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.
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.
Marked 7.87. There is a kind of forward whose value only shows up when you count what he was involved in rather than what he finished, and this is the day that argument makes itself.
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.
200 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at Fiorentina training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marin Pongračić is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Franco Mastantuono has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Franco Mastantuono. 1‑0 against AS Roma, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“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 dugout19 Apr 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.” Paolo Pasquali kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Majkol Luka 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.
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: Pote. 1‑0 against Bologna, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Christ Inao Oulaï and Fiorentina agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marin Pongračić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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.
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.
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.
Pote 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.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 90. Como had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Christ Inao Oulaï has come out of that comparison in the side, and Fiorentina have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
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.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Fiorentina can tell you which week it ends in.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Paolo Pasquali after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Wilfried Gnonto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Fiorentina can tell you which week it ends in.
4 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Andrés Desábato, and the manager let it.
The dugout22 Mar 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.” Paolo Pasquali chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Pote and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words at Fiorentina training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Wilfried Gnonto 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.
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
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 0‑2 Paolo Pasquali left the room before anybody could ask which.
“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.
A muscle injury sidelines David De Gea for 14 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Fiorentina will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Fiorentina they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Pote was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Fiorentina has been clear about where Beto stands, which is more than many ever get.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Sascha Britschgi has come out of that comparison in the side, and Fiorentina have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Paolo Pasquali after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Angelo Lorusso was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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.
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.
“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 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Mateo Miglino has, at Fiorentina, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
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.
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.52 on the card, and the Fiorentina support went home talking about one name.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
Luca Ranieri 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.
10 goals and a season average of 7.27 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Pote was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.26. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Every long career reaches the week the player starts thinking about the last one. He would like it to be at the club that first put him on a pitch, and Fiorentina now know that too.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Paolo Pasquali on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Majkol Luka falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Fiorentina hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
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.
Pote 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.
9 goals and a season average of 7.25 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at Fiorentina training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marin Pongračić 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 clubs have shaken hands with Pisa; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
The offer from Clermont Foot for Ante Rebić 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.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 1 signed and 1 gone
That is the business done at Fiorentina until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
“I 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.
“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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Atalanta have kept their man, and Fiorentina go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Fiorentina have paid $12.9M for Giuseppe Di Serio, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Pote provided it, and the 8.49 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Campobasso waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Fiorentina is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Giuseppe Di Serio has, at Fiorentina, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
$12.9M on the table at Spezia. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Fiorentina asked and Catanzaro 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 oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
In brief
The dugoutLuca Ranieri asks for a word with the manager
The dugoutMarin Pongračić has become a man the manager trusts
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Roda waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Fiorentina is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Pote 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 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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
The dugout11 Jan 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.” Paolo Pasquali chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Successful dribbles: 12. 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.
Fiorentina have gone to River Plate 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.
“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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Wilfried Gnonto has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
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.
Half the programme played, position 6, 34 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Fiorentina training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marin Pongračić 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 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Wilfried Gnonto. 3‑1 against Udinese, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Arthur Atta has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Marked 8.39 — 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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Beto provided it, and the 8.94 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Viery did not need any: 8.25, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Pote was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Successful dribbles: 21. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Viery has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
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 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.
“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.
“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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Fiorentina training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marin Pongračić 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 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.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Beto 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.
In brief
The dugoutLuca Ranieri asks for a word with the manager
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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Pablo Negro Villarreal is living that version at Fiorentina, and it tends to show in the first month.
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.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Wilfried Gnonto was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.11. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Fiorentina told David De Gea something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Fiorentina told Marco Brescianini something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
9 goals in 12 games at River Plate — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Fiorentina updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
It needed Mateo Pellegrino to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Como, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Paolo Pasquali was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Fiorentina dressing room was either.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Majkol Luka 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 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.
Successful dribbles: 26. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Pote 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 Marin Pongračić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Paolo Pasquali after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
4 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.
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.
The ambition story running backwards, and the one nobody tells: a footballer who wants a smaller ground, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is rarely reported as anything else.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Fiorentina told Danilo Veiga something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Christ Inao Oulaï did not need any: 7.90, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“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.
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.
0‑5 to Lazio, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
“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.
Cher Ndour 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 Dodo something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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.
4 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.
Marked 8.38 — 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marin Pongračić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager’s verdict
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Lucas Beltrán’s exile
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. Mateo Pellegrino wants continental football; whether Fiorentina can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
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.
Pote 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. Brando Mazzeo is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Diego Farías is living that version at Fiorentina, and it tends to show in the first month.
Marked 8.88 — 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 51 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
95 minutes played. Pote found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Hellas Verona went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
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 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.
Successful dribbles: 20. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
A 2‑1 win over Hellas Verona, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Pote was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.40. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Two goals and a mark of 9.18 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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.
Marked 9.16 — 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Wilfried Gnonto has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
“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.
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 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.
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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Fiorentina training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marin Pongračić is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
10 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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Paolo Pasquali after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Luca Ranieri trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Pote was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Successful dribbles: 14. 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.” Paolo Pasquali after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Majkol Luka was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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.
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 deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Fiorentina will try again when the window opens; Parma may not be selling by then.
7.65, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Fiorentina and Cremonese in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
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 offer went to Parma 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Cesena have kept their man, and Fiorentina go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 7 arrived, 4 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.
Marked 8.36 — 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Fiorentina asked and Sassuolo 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Majkol Luka 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.
10 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Paolo Pasquali after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer 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.
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.
Pote 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.
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.
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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Luciano Colletti 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Marco Rossi is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
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.
The fee is $5.9M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Lecce drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Modena paid $5.4M 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Danilo Veiga has, at Fiorentina, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
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 oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The offer from Lecce for Marco Brescianini 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.
Fiorentina asked and Stoke 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.
Fiorentina have gone to Lecce 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Sascha Britschgi is living that version at Fiorentina, and it tends to show in the first month.
“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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mateo Pellegrino and Fiorentina agree another 5 years.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. AC Milan have kept their man, and Fiorentina go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Andrés Desábato has just signed for Fiorentina, and for once the answer mattered.
“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.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
The phone has started ringing about Abdelhamid Sabiri again, and this time the name on the line is Sassuolo. Fiorentina are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Fiorentina training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marin Pongračić 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.