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.
5 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.
“I watch every Genoa game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Hellas Verona runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Sandro Grassi on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Nils Zätterström, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.22
A mark of 8.22 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.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.03 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Morten Frendrup was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I 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.
“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.
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.
A point taken on 96 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.
Successful dribbles: 15. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The 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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Sandro Grassi after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Morten Frendrup wants continental football; whether Genoa can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
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.
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.
17 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Sandro Grassi after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
Alessandro Buongiorno 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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The 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.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Parma defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Lorenzo Colombo’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Genoa needing him to play as if none of it matters.
“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 watch every Genoa game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Hellas Verona runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 4 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Sandro Grassi could afford to be generous.
In brief
SquadWords at Genoa training over how hard people work
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Léo Bonatini
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.
Morten Frendrup 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.
It needed Mikael Egill Ellertsson to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Pisa, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
“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.
6 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
17 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.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Sandro Grassi to a room that had heard them before.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Djibril Sow trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 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.
“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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The deal that would have taken Morten Frendrup to AS Roma has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Genoa with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Genoa had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Hellas Verona, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Genoa have done the hard part with Hellas Verona, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Morten Frendrup and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“I 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.
Minute 87, against Fiorentina, 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.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Djibril Sow has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
5 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.
Alessandro Buongiorno 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 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
14 new faces, and Genoa are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Sandro Grassi to a room that had heard them before.
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.
The chase for Alessandro Buongiorno ended with $37.6M changing hands and Napoli out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Atalanta have kept their man, and Genoa go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Alessandro Buongiorno 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 morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Alessandro Buongiorno from Napoli for $37.6M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Riccardo Peretti 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.
“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.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
The ground is getting bigger
The plans are signed off at a capacity of 43250. Decisions like this are judged twenty years later, by people who were not in the room when they were taken.
Genoa have gone to Napoli with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Genoa offered $35.8M; Juventus 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.
Genoa have gone to Atalanta with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Toluca is saying, and nobody at Genoa is enjoying the guessing.
Morten Frendrup 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.
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.
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.
In brief
SquadThe training reports on Sebastian Otoa are not good
$35.8M on the table at Juventus. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
“I 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 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.
“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.
Morten Frendrup 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 now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Hellas Verona have kept their man, and Genoa go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
24 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
Squad3 Aug 2026
9 new faces, and Genoa are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Morten Frendrup trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
His past walked in ahead of him. Players who have been where he has been get a hearing in a dressing room before they have earned one, and he has it for as long as his form does.
In brief
The terracesEverybody has an opinion about Léo Bonatini