119 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Genoa lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Junior Messias will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Genoa the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Genoa 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.
With 4 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like one.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Daniel Mosquera's mistake
126 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Genoa lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 7 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Genoa have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Stephan El Shaarawy and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The words a physio says slowly. 134 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.
Two goals and a mark of 9.11 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Stephan El Shaarawy 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.
8 goals in one match, Seydou Fini on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Genoa and Atalanta.
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.
Marked 8.68 — 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.
141 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Genoa lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Vitinha provided it, and the 8.95 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Patrizio Masini 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.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Genoa and Cagliari in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
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.
Two goals and a mark of 9.04 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Junior Messias will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Genoa the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Genoa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
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 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.
Mikael Egill Ellertsson 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 had been thinking. Stephan El Shaarawy is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
A 0‑4 beating by Lazio was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Boardroom3 Sep 2029
Deadline passes with 14 signed and 17 gone
That is the business done at Genoa until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Genoa hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Mikael Egill Ellertsson and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Genoa will try again when the window opens; Bari may not be selling by then.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑4, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
$8.3M settles it between the clubs for Anas Alaoui
Lecco have accepted the money. What Genoa do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Genoa 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 Genoa can pretend not to have heard.
6 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. Domenico Ventura is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Renato Iannuzzi 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.
In brief
SquadWords at Genoa training over how hard people work
$1.7M was the most the club would pay and Empoli 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.
Patrizio Masini 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 shirt still fits. Giorgio Tumbarello is back at Genoa, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Stephan El Shaarawy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Niccolò Bagatti has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Genoa have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
“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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Genoa have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Genoa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stephan El Shaarawy 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 phone has started ringing about Matteo Casarotto again, and this time the name on the line is Elche. Genoa are listening politely and promising nothing.
21 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Genoa lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Pisa waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Genoa is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Mikael Egill Ellertsson and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Tommaso Marras has his answer from Genoa; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Genoa know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The words a physio says slowly. 28 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Groningen waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Genoa is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The clubs have shaken hands with Lazio; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
At 23 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
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 not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Genoa 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 Genoa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stephan El Shaarawy 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 phone has started ringing about Adam Žulevič again, and this time the name on the line is Groningen. Genoa are listening politely and promising nothing.
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.
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.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Genoa people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Mikael Egill Ellertsson 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. Andrea Mariotti is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
$240.0K was the most the club would pay and Casarano 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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sebastian Otoa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Genoa have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Mikael Egill Ellertsson 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 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.
Genoa offered $450.0K; Juve Stabia 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Stephan El Shaarawy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Genoa can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Lorenzo Colombo signs something — a contract at Genoa or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Genoa is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Genoa can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Patrizio Masini and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Stephan El Shaarawy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 27 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
The offer from AC Milan for Lorenzo Colombo was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Groningen waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Genoa is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Unión de Santa Fe had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sebastian Otoa 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 injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 15 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Genoa people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Rio Ave had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Genoa can pretend not to have heard.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Ernestas Lysionok 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.
Mikael Egill Ellertsson 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 Stephan El Shaarawy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
In brief
The dugoutCody Drameh has become a man the manager trusts
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Genoa people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The offer from Juventus for Vitinha 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.
He is going to Juventus, the club has $10.4M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Mikael Egill Ellertsson and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
With 6 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like one.
The offer from Sport Recife for Pierluigi Gollini 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 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sebastian Otoa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Genoa can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Klāvs Bethers
“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 Genoa, and it is not being withdrawn.
Mikael Egill Ellertsson 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Genoa they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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. Cody Drameh wants continental football; whether Genoa can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
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.
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 Seydou Fini is on it.
In brief
The dugoutKlāvs Bethers knocks on the manager’s door
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Genoa 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Emanuele Basile 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. Flavio Armani is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Nicolò Fiorini 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. Sandro De Luca 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.
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 16 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Genoa have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Genoa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alessandro Debenedetti 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 dugout14 May 2029
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 Mauro Colombo to a room that had heard them before.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 24 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
6 goals in one match, Vitinha on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Genoa and Frosinone.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Vitinha. 4‑2 against Frosinone, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
5 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Frosinone were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 32 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Two goals and a mark of 8.90 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Genoa can pretend not to have heard.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Leo Østigård wants continental football; whether Genoa can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Mikael Egill Ellertsson 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Genoa they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Genoa and Sassuolo, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Genoa will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Genoa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“There 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.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 14 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 46 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stephan El Shaarawy is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Lorenzo Palmisani, and the manager let it.
The dugout16 Apr 2029
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑3 defeat, delivered by Mauro Colombo to a room that had heard them before.
“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 Genoa know it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Genoa will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 10 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Sebastian Otoa scored, was marked 7.63, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Mikael Egill Ellertsson and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Stephan El Shaarawy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A point taken on 86 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
Something was said to Stephan El Shaarawy and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Genoa 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 Genoa, and it is not being withdrawn.
Mikael Egill Ellertsson 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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Genoa is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Successful dribbles: 17. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The dugout2 Apr 2029
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑3 Mauro Colombo left the room before anybody could ask which.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 68 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 Genoa, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Genoa scored in the 91th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Two goals and a mark of 9.11 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Patrizio Masini was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Seydou Fini 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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Genoa have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Patrizio Masini and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Stephan El Shaarawy 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.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Genoa, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Mikael Egill Ellertsson 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 name of Ianis Dobrescu has come up in conversations Genoa were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
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.
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Lorenzo Palmisani knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
The dugout12 Mar 2029
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 Mauro Colombo left the room before anybody could ask which.
“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.
Squad12 Mar 2029
Hugo Cuenca 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Genoa have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Genoa heard it as anything else.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Johan Felipe Vásquez and Genoa agree another 3 years.
Mikael Egill Ellertsson 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 had been thinking. Stephan El Shaarawy 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.
“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 Genoa, and it is not being withdrawn.
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 Genoa 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 Stephan El Shaarawy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Genoa is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“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; Genoa are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sebastian Otoa 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 dugout19 Feb 2029
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 Mauro Colombo left the room before anybody could ask which.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Stephan El Shaarawy trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Heidenheim waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Genoa is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Mikael Egill Ellertsson and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stephan El Shaarawy is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Player ratings12 Feb 2029
Vitinha was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.76. 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.
Manchester City arrived with $55.8M and left with the best player in the building. The board will call it business; the queue at the ticket office will use other words.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Gil Vicente waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Genoa is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Nicolás González has gone, the accounts have $55.8M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Boardroom5 Feb 2029
Genoa close the window on a squad of their own making
1 in and 6 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Genoa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadWords at Genoa training over how hard people work
Fiorentina go through and Genoa go home, 3‑4 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Daniel Mosquera will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Genoa escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Genoa people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Venezia had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The offer from Udinese for Sebastian Otoa was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The 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 afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 10 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Genoa can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Genoa they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and USM Khenchela waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Genoa is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Famalicao had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Genoa can pretend not to have heard.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Genoa can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Mikael Egill Ellertsson and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Stephan El Shaarawy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
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.
Mikael Egill Ellertsson 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 not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Genoa can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
“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 Genoa, and it is not being withdrawn.
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 Genoa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Position 9, 24 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sebastian Otoa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Seydou Fini
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Genoa 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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Stephan El Shaarawy 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: Lorenzo Colombo. 2‑1 against Frosinone, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
There were 89 minutes on the clock and Sassuolo had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Genoa did not stop to explain themselves.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Adam Žulevič did not need any: 8.71, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Genoa have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Stephan El Shaarawy 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.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Genoa 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.
8.06. 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.
A point taken on 90 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Genoa told Lorenzo Colombo something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
“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 Genoa 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 Stephan El Shaarawy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
19 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Genoa lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a 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 Genoa can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sebastian Otoa 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 dugout27 Nov 2028
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 Mauro Colombo left the room before anybody could ask which.
“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 Genoa know it.
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 Nikola Štulić is on it.
28 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Genoa lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Mikael Egill Ellertsson and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
At 37 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 3 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.
The dugout20 Nov 2028
Djibril Sow 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.
The dugout20 Nov 2028
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Mauro Colombo left the room before anybody could ask which.
37 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Genoa lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Genoa have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.89 for the rest of it.
1 for Djibril Sow, marked 7.80, 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.
“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 Genoa know it.
Mikael Egill Ellertsson 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.
6 goals in one match, Leo Østigård on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Genoa and Lecce.
The words a physio says slowly. 17 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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Genoa 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 Genoa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 9.83 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
The words a physio says slowly. 24 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.89 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 Genoa, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Patrizio Masini and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Mauro Colombo on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
33 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Genoa lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Stephan El Shaarawy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
The dugout23 Oct 2028
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 Mauro Colombo left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
41 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Genoa lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Two goals and a mark of 9.20 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Mikael Egill Ellertsson 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 had been thinking. Stephan El Shaarawy 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.
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.
49 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Genoa lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Two goals and a mark of 8.76 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Genoa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Mauro Colombo after 2‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
19 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Genoa lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stephan El Shaarawy is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Successful dribbles: 16. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
27 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Genoa lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.
Mikael Egill Ellertsson and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Stephan El Shaarawy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
34 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Genoa lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
Player ratings18 Sep 2028
Up for the corner, and Djibril Sow delivers — 7.56
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Djibril Sow scored, was marked 7.56, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Genoa can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Mikael Egill Ellertsson 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.
Djibril Sow scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Inter, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
The dugout18 Sep 2028
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Mauro Colombo left the room before anybody could ask which.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
The words a physio says slowly. 44 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.
Patrizio Masini and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Stephan El Shaarawy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Minute 86, against Lazio, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
Successful dribbles: 16. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
8 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Genoa has been clear about where Junior Messias stands, which is more than many ever get.
The words a physio says slowly. 53 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Genoa, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom4 Sep 2028
Deadline passes with 23 signed and 19 gone
That is the business done at Genoa until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Genoa hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Patrizio Masini 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 had been thinking. Stephan El Shaarawy 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.
61 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Genoa lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Genoa people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Mikael Egill Ellertsson 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 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Gianluca Busio 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. 4 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Genoa can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
The words a physio says slowly. 70 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
At 23 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Lorenzo Palmisani wants continental football; whether Genoa can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Mikael Egill Ellertsson and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Djibril Sow has improved at 31, 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. 4 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
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.
The phone has started ringing about Adam Žulevič again, and this time the name on the line is Leganés. Genoa are listening politely and promising nothing.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Leandro Bonaventura 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Raffaele Orlando 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.
78 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Genoa 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. Stefano Sabelli had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that 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 Genoa, and it is not being withdrawn.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Trapani have kept their man, and Genoa go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Lorenzo Colombo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
86 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Genoa lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The fee is $2.7M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Catania drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
The offer from Pro Vercelli for Stefano Sabelli 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 Genoa 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 Genoa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The words a physio says slowly. 94 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The clubs have shaken hands with Catania; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
“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 Genoa, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Genoa is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Mikael Egill Ellertsson was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
At 26 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.
102 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Genoa lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Seydou Fini had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Franz-Ethan Meichtry is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
The offer from Sport Recife for Adam Žulevič 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.
$130.0K was the most the club would pay and Lazio 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.
110 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Genoa lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The chase for Nicolás González ended with $32.4M changing hands and Juventus out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, and a scan that said otherwise. He goes back to Reggiana; Genoa go back to the market; and both will insist there is no story here.
Genoa asked and Reggiana said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Genoa and Juventus have settled on $32.4M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
“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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Genoa have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The offer went to Reggiana 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. Trapani have kept their man, and Genoa go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Genoa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 23 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Stephan El Shaarawy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Genoa can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from Latina for Stefano Sabelli 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 Genoa 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.
Virtus Entella will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Fernando Magaldi has pre-agreed a move to Genoa, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
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 clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Genoa people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The chase for Emanuele Scipioni ended with $9.8M changing hands and Monopoli out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
“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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Emanuele Scipioni has just signed for Genoa, and for once the answer mattered.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Leo Østigård wants continental football; whether Genoa can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Mikael Egill Ellertsson and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stephan El Shaarawy 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.
Genoa and Monopoli have settled on $9.8M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Francesco Rossi had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The name of Lorenzo Colombo has come up in conversations Genoa were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Genoa can pretend not to have heard.
Genoa 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stephan El Shaarawy 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 last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Genoa have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Lorenzo Venturino was one of the reasons people came, and $42.7M does not replace that by itself.
“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 Genoa, and it is not being withdrawn.
The chase for Destiny Efosa Egharevba ended with $1.5M changing hands and Picerno out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Genoa 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.
$68.0K was the most the club would pay and Reggiana 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.
Genoa and Picerno have settled on $1.5M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Genoa heard it as anything else.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Genoa can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Genoa have done the hard part with Venezia, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.21, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Mikael Egill Ellertsson was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Ignacio Giacinti is living that version at Genoa, and it tends to show in the first month.
In brief
SquadWords at Genoa training over how hard people work
Mikael Egill Ellertsson and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Stephan El Shaarawy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Stephan El Shaarawy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Mikael Egill Ellertsson signs something — a contract at Genoa or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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 Genoa. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
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.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Genoa know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Genoa that is a harder question to answer.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 29 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
Successful dribbles: 29. 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 season average of 7.21 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Genoa know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Mikael Egill Ellertsson 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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Genoa is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“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 Genoa hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Stephan El Shaarawy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
7 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
A mark of 7.95 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Genoa hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Mikael Egill Ellertsson and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The 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 is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Leo Østigård wants continental football; whether Genoa can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Genoa can tell you which week it ends in.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Patrizio Masini 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.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Marco Bleve.
“I watch every Genoa game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Pandurii runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stephan El Shaarawy 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 paperwork is done long before the player is. Gastón Tedesco has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Genoa have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
“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 Genoa, and 11 appearances in 43 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
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 Mauro Colombo left the room before anybody could ask which.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Marco Bleve
He is 21, he is averaging 7.22, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Mikael Egill Ellertsson 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Simone Calvani will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Genoa the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stephan El Shaarawy is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Genoa are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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.
Mikael Egill Ellertsson and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Patrizio Masini is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Successful dribbles: 20. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The young player of the month award goes to a 21-year-old at Genoa who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Lorenzo Colombo has come out of that comparison in the side, and Genoa have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Lorenzo Venturino did not need any: 8.07, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stephan El Shaarawy 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.
Level with 91 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Genoa had all but put away. AC Milan will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
“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 Genoa, and 8 appearances in 33 say he has earned the hearing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Genoa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Genoa and Juventus in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stephan El Shaarawy 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.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.17, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Mikael Egill Ellertsson 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Simone Calvani will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Genoa the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Orazio Pannitteri has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Genoa have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
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.
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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Lorenzo Palmisani is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
“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.
Mikael Egill Ellertsson 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.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Genoa and Napoli in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Stephan El Shaarawy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Stephan El Shaarawy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Lorenzo Palmisani 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.
90 minutes played. Lorenzo Venturino found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Venezia went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Lorenzo Venturino did not need any: 8.32, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Leo Østigård wants continental football; whether Genoa can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
“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.
Player ratings21 Feb 2028
Lorenzo Colombo was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.59. 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Patrizio Masini 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.
Mikael Egill Ellertsson 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Simone Calvani will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Genoa the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stephan El Shaarawy 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 last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Genoa have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Lorenzo Venturino did not need any: 7.80, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 5 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 Genoa hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Marco Bleve was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
6 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Atalanta were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Position 18 and 15 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
The fee is $1.5M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Virtus Entella drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Pescara paid $680.0K and Genoa took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stephan El Shaarawy is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Successful dribbles: 19. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Stefano Sabelli had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
7 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
The terraces24 Jan 2028
Genoa are taken apart by Fiorentina — and the town wants answers
It finished 1-4. A cup exit is a disappointment; this was a public dismantling, and the difference between the two is the number of people who will still be talking about it in August.
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.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Simone Calvani 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Parma waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Genoa is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The fee is $3.8M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Frosinone drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Genoa have done the hard part with AS Roma, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
“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 Genoa, and it is not being withdrawn.
Mikael Egill Ellertsson 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 season average of 7.01 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Genoa know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Ramiro Soperez has, at Genoa, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
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.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
“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 Genoa, and it is not being withdrawn.
Stephan El Shaarawy was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“The 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.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Ricardo Pepi is in the works
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Lorenzo Colombo provided it, and the 8.60 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Stephan El Shaarawy 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 name of Alessandro Debenedetti has come up in conversations Genoa were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Standard Liege have kept their man, and Genoa go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Domenico Brambilla 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Giacomo Monteleone 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 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.
Mikael Egill Ellertsson 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 not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Genoa can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Half the programme played, position 18, 12 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 85th, and Virtus Entella spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
A mark of 8.25 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.24 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Leo Østigård wants continental football; whether Genoa can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.03, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Genoa have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Genoa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
A point taken on 95 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stefano Sabelli is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Some 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.
“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 Genoa, and it is not being withdrawn.
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
“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 Genoa hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Mikael Egill Ellertsson 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Genoa and AS Roma, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
2‑5 to Bologna, 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.
A mark of 7.68 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.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.96 for the rest of it.
Mikael Egill Ellertsson 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.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Genoa and Bologna in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stephan El Shaarawy 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 most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Genoa will quote 14 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Successful dribbles: 19. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
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 Genoa, and 7 appearances in 22 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout22 Nov 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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Mauro Colombo to a room that had heard them before.