0‑3 to Atalanta, 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.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Mathis Lambourde did not need any: 8.05, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Yellu Santiago scored, was marked 7.97, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
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 Hellas Verona hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hellas Verona this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Hellas Verona can tell you which week it ends in.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Hellas Verona told Josep Martínez something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Caleb Ekuban 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Hellas Verona can tell you which week it ends in.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Flavio Antonucci after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Words at Hellas Verona training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dino Mehic is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Fallou Cham will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Hellas Verona the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Caleb Ekuban 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.
0‑1 to Genoa, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Flavio Antonucci left the room before anybody could ask which.
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Dino Mehic falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Simone Perilli has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Hellas Verona have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Hellas Verona, another week without a signature from Cheikh Niasse.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Amin Sarr signs something — a contract at Hellas Verona or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Genoa next, and one man in the Hellas Verona dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Hellas Verona have no good answer.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Isaac trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Hellas Verona have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Caleb Ekuban and Hellas Verona agree another 2 years.
Up for the corner, and Sandi Lovrić delivers — 7.94
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Sandi Lovrić scored, was marked 7.94, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Caleb Ekuban 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Josep Martínez trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fallou Cham was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Nunzio Lella's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Nobody at Hellas Verona will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Hellas Verona is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Caleb Ekuban and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Hellas Verona will try again when the window opens; AS Roma may not be selling by then.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Hellas Verona will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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.
Hellas Verona and AS Roma have settled on $68.0M. 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.
The offer from Monza for Kieron Bowie was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Hellas Verona 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 Hellas Verona, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Hellas Verona close the window on a squad of their own making
22 in and 25 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.
$920.0K 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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Antoine Bernede and Hellas Verona agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than 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 Hellas Verona this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Novara moved on, Edoardo Iannoni reports back to Hellas Verona, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
$920.0K was the most the club would pay and Juventus were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Caleb Ekuban 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 mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Hellas Verona are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Flavio Antonucci after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Simone Perilli
The dugoutSuat Serdar asks for a word with the manager
The dugoutCheikh Niasse has become a man the manager trusts
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 11 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Hellas Verona asked and Inter said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Hellas Verona have gone to Juventus with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Fallou Cham will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Hellas Verona the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Everything agreed with Fiorentina, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hellas Verona this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
AS Roma have accepted the money. What Hellas Verona do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
“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.
Lorenzo Torriani 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.
24 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrias Edmundsson 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 Amin Sarr signs something — a contract at Hellas Verona or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Hellas Verona asked and AS Roma said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hellas Verona this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Hellas Verona will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Josep Martínez trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Hellas Verona would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Nobody at Hellas Verona will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Hellas Verona have gone to AS Roma with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Hellas Verona can pretend not to have heard.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Juventus have kept their man, and Hellas Verona go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The chase for Francesco Ruocco ended with $930.0K changing hands and Mantova out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
“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.
Stephan El Shaarawy and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The terraces2 Aug 2027
Hellas Verona spend $5.0M on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $5.0M for Josep Martínez, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Words at Hellas Verona training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Edoardo Iannoni 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.
Hellas Verona have gone to AS Roma 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.
The clubs have shaken hands with Inter; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Hellas Verona is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Inter have kept their man, and Hellas Verona go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Edoardo Iannoni was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Cheikh Niasse is on it.
$5.7M was the most the club would pay and Inter 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.
He is going to Avellino, the club has $7.3M 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.
The offer from Empoli for Kacper Sezonienko 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.
Pergolettese paid $280.0K and Hellas Verona took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Hellas Verona asked and Fiorentina said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
22 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.
$18.5M on the table at AS Roma. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Hellas Verona asked and AS Roma said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Hellas Verona people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Hellas Verona have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Hellas Verona have gone to Inter 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.
The fee is $560.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Benevento drove a hard bargain; time will say who won 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 Hellas Verona this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Mathematically certain, and nobody in this town is going to bed early. Whatever else happened this season, it finishes a division above where it started.
$500.0K on the table at Genoa. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Caleb Ekuban 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 offer went to AS Roma 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.
$4.7M was the most the club would pay and Ravenna 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Hellas Verona have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The offer went to Fiorentina this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
The chase for Alessio Furlanetto ended with $930.0K changing hands and Lazio out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Hellas Verona asked and Inter said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
12 appearances and 2 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Hellas Verona people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Position 3, 69 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
The offer went to Ravenna this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Hellas Verona can pretend not to have heard.
Hellas Verona offered $1.8M; Fiorentina 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.
Caleb Ekuban and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Words at Hellas Verona training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Edoardo Iannoni 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.
Squad21 Jun 2027
5 new faces, and Hellas Verona are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Sandi Lovrić had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. AS Roma have kept their man, and Hellas Verona go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Hellas Verona can pretend not to have heard.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Hellas Verona had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Inter have accepted the money. What Hellas Verona do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Hellas Verona have gone to Fiorentina 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hellas Verona 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 Edoardo Iannoni was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Trento waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Hellas Verona is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Hellas Verona, and it is not being withdrawn.
Hellas Verona have gone to Arezzo 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Arezzo have kept their man, and Hellas Verona go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $2.9M — a club that wants Pietro Cianci enough to be asked twice.
Caleb Ekuban 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.
Gabriele Zappa 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.
24 appearances and 6 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
Squad31 May 2027
Words at Hellas Verona training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Edoardo Iannoni 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 here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout31 May 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Flavio Antonucci chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Squad31 May 2027
The division's best last weekend was a Hellas Verona man
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Samuele Mulattieri was the best thing in any of them.
7 goals in 35 games at Sassuolo — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Hellas Verona updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“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 Hellas Verona, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hellas Verona this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 8.22 — 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.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 86. Sampdoria had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
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 Suat Serdar.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Hellas Verona can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Hellas Verona they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Player ratings17 May 2027
Up for the corner, and Sandi Lovrić delivers — 7.83
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Sandi Lovrić scored, was marked 7.83, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Piotr Johansson 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.
Going 2 down does something to a side, and what it usually does is finish them. Not here. Hellas Verona rebuilt the afternoon goal by goal, and Palermo had no answer to any of it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Edoardo Iannoni was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑2, Flavio Antonucci could afford to be generous.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Hellas Verona have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Antoine Bernede 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Sandi Lovrić. 2‑1 against Pisa, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Karlson Nwanege and Hellas Verona agree another 4 years.
Squad3 May 2027
Words at Hellas Verona training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Edoardo Iannoni 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 Hellas Verona, and it is not being withdrawn.
Position 3, 57 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Flavio Antonucci left the room before anybody could ask which.
In brief
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Kieron Bowie’s exile
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Avellino kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Hellas Verona will be asked about the last half hour all week.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Hellas Verona can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Hellas Verona have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Hellas Verona they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Marked 8.45 — 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.
Kacper Sezonienko 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 player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Caleb Ekuban will call it something else in private.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Words at Hellas Verona training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Edoardo Iannoni 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 Hellas Verona, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Words at Hellas Verona training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Edoardo Iannoni is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
8 goals in 26 games at Vojvodina — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Hellas Verona updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Catanzaro defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Nobody at Hellas Verona will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Cosimo Patierno’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Hellas Verona needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Gabriele Zappa and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
At 21 he is 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. Daniel Mosquera wants continental football; whether Hellas Verona can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 7 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
“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 Hellas Verona know it.
The award is a small thing with a heavy meaning: for four weeks nobody in this division did his job better. Hellas Verona have the trophy on a shelf and the player in the side.
Position 2, 55 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Hellas Verona have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Cremonese next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at Hellas Verona training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Edoardo Iannoni 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 was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Hellas Verona has been clear about where Kacper Sezonienko stands, which is more than many ever get.
Nobody at Hellas Verona will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
7 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Abdou Harroui will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Hellas Verona the goodbyes have quietly begun.
7.94, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
1 for Suat Serdar, marked 7.42, 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Mattia Buniotto is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Sandi Lovrić. 2‑1 against Juve Stabia, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Match20 Mar 2027
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for Hellas Verona. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Edoardo Iannoni was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
15 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
A brace, and Sandi Lovrić takes the afternoon — 8.51
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Sandi Lovrić provided it, and the 8.51 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Antoine Bernede and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“I have 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 Hellas Verona know it.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Flavio Antonucci on a 3‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Samuele Mulattieri provided it, and the 8.91 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
5 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Caleb Ekuban was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I have 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 Hellas Verona know 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 Hellas Verona, and it is not being withdrawn.
Position 2, 46 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
14 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
4 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Hellas Verona can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Marked 8.36 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Every long career reaches the week the player starts thinking about the last one. He would like it to be at the club that first put him on a pitch, and Hellas Verona now know that too.
Kacper Sezonienko 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.
13 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Hellas Verona they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
6 goals in one match, Antoine Bernede on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Hellas Verona and Ascoli.
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 8.21 — 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.
Gabriele Zappa 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.
8.33. 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.
Marked 6.77 on 10 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Cesena will make the call about Abdou Harroui this week. Hellas Verona have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Flavio Antonucci on a 3‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
In brief
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Stefan Mitrović’s exile
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Pol Lirola's mistake
SquadThe division's best last weekend was a Hellas Verona man
Hellas Verona ran out of time with Como. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
12 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Hellas Verona have done the hard part with Racing Club, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.24, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Antoine Bernede was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.13. 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.
Hellas Verona and Como have settled on $6.3M. 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.
The offer went to Bari 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.
1 for Sandi Lovrić, marked 7.92, 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.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Hellas Verona close the window on a squad of their own making
4 in and 3 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.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Lazio keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Daniel Mosquera wants continental football; whether Hellas Verona can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Hellas Verona have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The offer from Cremonese for Suat Serdar 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.
Hellas Verona asked and Como said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Julius Biada 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Lumezzane waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Hellas Verona is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Hellas Verona have gone to Como 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.
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Hellas Verona and Modena, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Daniel Mosquera was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.51. 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Sorrento waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Hellas Verona is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The offer went to AC Milan this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
The offer went to Virtus Entella 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.
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Hellas Verona asked and Austin FC said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Hellas Verona have had the benefit of 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 Hellas Verona, and it is not being withdrawn.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Diego Vianello is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Add another name to the list: Sorrento have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Abdou Harroui. The answer from Hellas Verona has not changed — yet.
9 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Hellas Verona has been clear about where Domagoj Bradarić stands, which is more than many ever get.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Renate will make the call about Cheikh Niasse this week. Hellas Verona have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
“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 Hellas Verona, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hellas Verona this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Flavio Antonucci chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
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.
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Isaac’s exile
21Edition
The Hellas Verona Herald
21 Dec 2026
From our football correspondentSteady
The dugout21 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Flavio Antonucci was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Hellas Verona dressing room was either.
Somebody watched every match in the division at the weekend and decided he was the best thing in any of them. A small honour, and most careers end without one.
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 Abdou Harroui is on it.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Pisa defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
3 goals in 12 games at Aris — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Hellas Verona updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Out, 0‑0 to Parma, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
A brace, and Caleb Ekuban takes the afternoon — 9.34
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Caleb Ekuban provided it, and the 9.34 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Two goals and a mark of 8.33 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Giacomo Toniolo: 1 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
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.
8 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Julius Biada 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 dugout7 Dec 2026
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 Flavio Antonucci left the room before anybody could ask which.
7 goals in 14 games at Vojvodina — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Hellas Verona updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Südtirol next, and one man in the Hellas Verona dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
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.
“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 Hellas Verona, and it is not being withdrawn.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Hellas Verona can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Antoine Bernede. 2‑0 against Catanzaro, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Flavio Antonucci on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Hellas Verona told Dailon Livramento something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
6 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
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 Julius Biada is on it.
In brief
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Stefan Mitrović’s exile
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 10 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped 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 Hellas Verona this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
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 Flavio Antonucci left the room before anybody could ask which.
He has had enough of the noise. Whether Hellas Verona can be a quieter place for him, or whether the only cure is a move somewhere the phone-ins are gentler, is a question for the next few months.
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.
Gabriele Zappa 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.
Nobody at Hellas Verona will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
A 3‑0 win over Gubbio, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
A brace, and Julius Biada takes the afternoon — 8.35
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Julius Biada provided it, and the 8.35 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Gabriele Zappa and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Abdou Harroui was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.20. 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.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.18, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Nunzio Lella was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.09. 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 defender's mistake gets tidied up by somebody else; a goalkeeper's ends up in the net. He knew before the ball crossed the line, and so did everybody in the ground.
It needed Samuele Mulattieri to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against Juve Stabia, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
“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 Hellas Verona, and it is not being withdrawn.
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 7.77 for the rest of it.
Minute 90, against Padova, 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.
Four weeks in which nobody in the division did his job better. The award goes on a shelf and the player goes back into the side, which is the order Hellas Verona prefer.
Something was said to Amin Sarr and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Sandi Lovrić. 3‑1 against Vicenza, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.37 — 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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Daniel Mosquera has his answer from Hellas Verona; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Squad26 Oct 2026
10 new faces, and Hellas Verona 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 dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Flavio Antonucci kept it short after the 3‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Sandi Lovrić has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Nunzio Lella's mistake
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Junior Ajayi and Hellas Verona agree another 3 years.
7.34, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Hellas Verona had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Flavio Antonucci was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Hellas Verona dressing room was 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.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Benevento defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Nobody at Hellas Verona is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Hellas Verona will quote 14 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Julius Biada has written the date down.
2 goals in 9 games at Istra 1961 — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Hellas Verona updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
They sit in position 5 and they will be waiting. Away form is where a season shows its true character, and this side has a point to make about its own.
Ascoli will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Hellas Verona were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
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 7.69 for the rest of it.
“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 Hellas Verona know it.
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.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Flavio Antonucci, on a 4‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Hellas Verona can pretend not to have heard.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Samuele Mulattieri provided it, and the 8.56 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Gabriele Zappa was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
10 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Hellas Verona, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Player ratingsThe chances came and went for Sandi Lovrić
8Edition
The Hellas Verona Herald
21 Sep 2026
From our football correspondentUpbeat
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
A brace, and Caleb Ekuban takes the afternoon — 8.67
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Caleb Ekuban provided it, and the 8.67 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
7.70, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Gabriele Zappa 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Caleb Ekuban. 3‑1 against Virtus Entella, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Flavio Antonucci on a 3‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Hellas Verona, and both men came out saying it was fine.
In brief
SquadThe division's best last weekend was a Hellas Verona man
“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 Hellas Verona, and it is not being withdrawn.
Two goals and a mark of 8.72 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Two goals and a mark of 8.23 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Flavio Antonucci on a 5‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Caleb Ekuban has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
The bid was some way short and Hellas Verona did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 1 signed and 3 gone
That is the business done at Hellas Verona 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.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Spezia keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Ali Al Musrati is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
The captaincy has been taken off Antoine Bernede. Hellas Verona will call it a decision about the team; a dressing room reads it as a verdict on a man.
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
Hellas Verona opened the door and nobody walked through it. So Suat Serdar stays — listed, trained, and available — while both sides mark the days to January on the same calendar.
“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 Hellas Verona, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Lazio for Cheikh Niasse 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Huracán is saying, and nobody at Hellas Verona is enjoying the guessing.
Hellas Verona asked and Estudiantes said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
10 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
“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 manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
The words a physio says slowly. 21 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
$18.1M was the most the club would pay and Sassuolo 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.
Hellas Verona had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at FC Metz, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Hellas Verona would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
They sit in position 5 and they will be waiting. Away form is where a season shows its true character, and this side has a point to make about its own.
30 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Hellas Verona lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
$18.1M on the table at Sassuolo. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Hellas Verona offered $14.2M; Atalanta 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.
Modena paid $2.8M and Hellas Verona took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $18.7M — a club that wants Arijanet Murić enough to be asked twice.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Hellas Verona are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Julius Biada is 34 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
The words a physio says slowly. 38 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.
Tomáš Suslov has gone, the accounts have $4.9M 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.
Slovan Bratislava paid $4.9M and Hellas Verona took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Gabriele Zappa 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.
Hellas Verona have made the call to Boca Juniors. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hellas Verona this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 Hellas Verona hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Hellas Verona can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Squad3 Aug 2026
8 new faces, and Hellas Verona 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.