Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad11 Dec 2028
Words at Padova training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Faitout Maouassa 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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Padova, and 6 appearances in 22 say he has earned the hearing.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Gianmarco Salvatore after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Padova have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Padova can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Marco Pompetti 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.
Squad4 Dec 2028
Oscar Garrido 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.
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.
8.16. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 12 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Padova 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 Padova this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Nov 2028
Oscar Garrido 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.
Successful dribbles: 12. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Santiago Chamorro has, at Padova, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Daniele Sorrentino will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Padova the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Tasos Douvikas was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Faitout Maouassa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Padova told Robinio Vaz something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Padova will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Robinio Vaz did not need any: 7.77, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Words at Padova training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oscar Garrido 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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Padova, and 6 appearances in 18 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 Padova this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Gianmarco Salvatore on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
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 Emanuele Zuelli is on it.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Daniele Sorrentino provided it, and the 8.95 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Tasos Douvikas provided it, and the 8.68 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Diego Ferrazza did not need any: 8.33, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Padova can pretend not to have heard.
Tasos Douvikas and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Oscar Garrido falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Padova can pretend not to have heard.
Marco Pompetti 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 21 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.
He is 21 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Faitout Maouassa 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 Padova 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 Padova can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oscar Garrido was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Something was said to Emanuele Zuelli and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Francesco Scafetta 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 bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Padova will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Marco Pompetti and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad16 Oct 2028
Words at Padova training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oscar Garrido 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 watch every Padova game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Arzignano runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Padova has been clear about where Daniele Sorrentino stands, which is more than many ever get.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Marco Pompetti signs something — a contract at Padova or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Virtus Entella next, and one man in the Padova dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Padova will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
This is not rotation. Zé Hugo has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Padova is pretending otherwise.
Squad9 Oct 2028
Words at Padova training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Faitout Maouassa 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.
Cagliari held the lead for 3 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Padova answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 9 actions, 6.72, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Padova will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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 Padova, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Padova 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 Padova this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Padova can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad2 Oct 2028
Words at Padova training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oscar Garrido 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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Padova, and 6 appearances in 12 say he has earned the hearing.
In brief
Player ratingsNobody on the pitch touched Matteo Lovato
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Padova will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Padova is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Words at Padova training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oscar Garrido 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 goalkeeper's career is counted in the games nobody scored in, and Alessandro Sorrentino now has 25 of them across 118 appearances. Nothing about that number was luck.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Padova, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Gianmarco Salvatore could afford to be generous.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Padova will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Tasos Douvikas and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Faitout Maouassa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
12 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 56 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Padova offered $4.4M; Inter 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Román Etcheverri has, at Padova, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Zé Hugo reports back to Padova with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Marco Pompetti 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 Oscar Garrido 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 Emanuele Zuelli is on it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Padova will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Padova have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Padova 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.
“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 Padova, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom4 Sep 2028
Deadline passes with 24 signed and 17 gone
That is the business done at Padova 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oscar Garrido was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Pietro Fusi 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 bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Padova 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 Padova, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Cremonese waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Padova is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Padova have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The name of Jarno Slootweg has come up in conversations Padova were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Padova had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Hajduk Split, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Padova will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
$3.1M 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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Oscar Garrido wants continental football; whether Padova can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Tasos Douvikas was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
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.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Words at Padova training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oscar Garrido 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Padova will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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 Padova, 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 Padova this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
“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 Padova 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 Christian Pastina is on it.
The offer went to Hajduk Split 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 accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Exequiel Zeballos was one of the reasons people came, and $33.1M does not replace that by itself.
The offer from Ravenna for Jarno Slootweg 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.
Padova have gone to Sambenedettese 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.
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
The phone has started ringing about Zé Hugo again, and this time the name on the line is Guidonia Montecelio. Padova are listening politely and promising nothing.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Faitout Maouassa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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; Padova are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Padova can pretend not to have heard.
Tasos Douvikas and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Padova can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oscar Garrido was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Add another name to the list: Ravenna have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Jarno Slootweg. The answer from Padova has not changed — yet.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Padova, and both men came out saying it was fine.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Padova the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
“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 Padova, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Carrarese for Zé Hugo 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 Padova 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 Oscar Garrido was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Padova asked and Atalanta said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Padova, another week without a signature from Diego Ferrazza.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Palermo have kept their man, and Padova go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
“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.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Words at Padova training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Faitout Maouassa 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 at Padova 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.
Marco Pompetti 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 Oscar Garrido was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Padova has been clear about where Cristian Buonaiuto stands, which is more than many ever get.
Squad10 Jul 2028
19 new faces, and Padova 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.
“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 Padova, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Padova heard it as anything else.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Parma is saying, and nobody at Padova is enjoying the guessing.
Tasos Douvikas and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oscar Garrido was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
27 appearances and 3 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.
Add another name to the list: Cesena have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Luca Moro. The answer from Padova has not changed — yet.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Padova can pretend not to have heard.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Padova have done the hard part with Parma, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
$800.0K was the most the club would pay and Genoa 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.
Simone Colombi 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.
Padova asked and Cagliari said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Words at Padova training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Faitout Maouassa 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.
Padova offered $1.5M; 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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Oscar Garrido wants continental football; whether Padova can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
The offer went to Campobasso 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.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Words at Padova training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oscar Garrido is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Padova know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Padova have done the hard part with Atalanta, 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 Padova, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Padova have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oscar Garrido was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The offer from Sassuolo for Luca Moro 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 listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Francesco Belli had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Salvador Fortuna is living that version at Padova, and it tends to show in the first month.
“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.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Words at Padova training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Faitout Maouassa 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 have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Padova 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 Padova can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad29 May 2028
Words at Padova training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oscar Garrido 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Padova 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.” Gianmarco Salvatore after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Padova has been clear about where Francesco Belli stands, which is more than many ever get.
Something was said to Pietro Fusi and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Marco Pompetti 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.
Squad22 May 2028
Oscar Garrido 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.
A 1‑0 win over Union Brescia, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Francesco Belli, and the manager let it.
The dugout22 May 2028
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.” Gianmarco Salvatore, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
In brief
The dugoutSimone Colombi asks for a word with the manager
“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 Padova, 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.
Franco Hanashiro 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 Padova know it.
The dugout15 May 2028
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 Gianmarco Salvatore to a room that had heard them before.
Simone Colombi 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Romann Sevagamy has, at Padova, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad8 May 2028
Words at Padova training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oscar Garrido 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 watch every Padova game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Al-Qadisiyah runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“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.
“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 Padova, and it is not being withdrawn.
Simone Colombi 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 tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Padova can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Padova, another week without a signature from Gabriele Artistico.
2 goals and a season average of 7.30 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
The dugout1 May 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Gianmarco Salvatore was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Padova dressing room was either.
Franco Hanashiro 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 tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Padova can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Padova know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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.
Exequiel Zeballos 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 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 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 Gianmarco Salvatore 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.
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.23 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“I watch every Padova game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Al-Qadisiyah runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“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 Padova, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Padova this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Padova can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Padova, another week without a signature from Simone Colombi.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Simone Colombi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
In brief
The dugoutThe view from the dugout
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Emanuele Zuelli’s exile
“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 Padova know it.
Franco Hanashiro 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. Padova know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Simone Colombi’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Padova needing him to play as if none of it matters.
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 Padova that is a harder question to answer.
46 points from position 5. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
Exequiel Zeballos 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Michalis Ladias has, at Padova, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
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.
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Padova, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“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.
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.
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Virtus Entella kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Padova will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Player ratings13 Mar 2028
Up for the corner, and Pietro Fusi delivers — 7.41
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Pietro Fusi scored, was marked 7.41, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Something was said to Alfonso Pedraza and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
Matteo Lovato 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 dugout13 Mar 2028
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 2‑3 defeat, delivered by Gianmarco Salvatore to a room that had heard them before.
“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 Padova, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Padova 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 Padova this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Jarno Slootweg 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.
“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 crowd waited for a goal that never came. Cagliari defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Exequiel Zeballos 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.
Minute 89, against Catanzaro, 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.
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.
“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; Padova are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Franco Hanashiro 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.
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Gianmarco Salvatore to a room that had heard them before.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Oscar Garrido wants continental football; whether Padova can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Luca Moro. 2‑1 against Modena, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The medical room confirms 25 days on the sidelines for Billal Boukaroum, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
The dugout14 Feb 2028
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.” Gianmarco Salvatore, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
In brief
The dugoutJarno Slootweg dropped after a run of poor form
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Francesco Belli's mistake
14 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Padova lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Lazio had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 4 arrived, 6 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 15 actions, 6.87, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Billal Boukaroum has just signed for Padova, and for once the answer mattered.
21 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Padova lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Padova have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The offer from Fiorentina for Luca Moro 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Padova have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Exequiel Zeballos 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.
Renate paid $330.0K and Padova took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Exequiel Zeballos. 1‑0 against Sampdoria, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
29 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Padova lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Giana Erminio waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Padova is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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; Padova are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Franco Hanashiro 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.
Marked 8.06 — 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.
37 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Padova 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 Padova can pretend not to have heard.
“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 phone has started ringing about Jarno Slootweg again, and this time the name on the line is Montana. Padova are listening politely and promising nothing.
“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 Padova know it.
45 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Padova lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 Padova, 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 Padova this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Padova asked and Cremonese said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Pisa 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.
54 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Padova lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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 Padova have had the benefit of it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Padova have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Padova they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“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 Padova hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
In brief
Player ratingsLuca Moro was on a different afternoon to everybody else
61 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Padova lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
6 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.
100 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Gianmarco Salvatore on a 3‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
68 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Padova lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.33 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Padova can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Franco Hanashiro and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
It finished 1‑0, and it was Gianluca Caprari’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Padova.
The dugout20 Dec 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Gianmarco Salvatore kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
75 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Padova lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Oscar Garrido wants continental football; whether Padova can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Padova this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
8.16. 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 8.01 — 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.
In brief
Boardroom92% of the income goes out in wages at Padova
The words a physio says slowly. 82 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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Gianluca Caprari provided it, and the 8.50 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Padova can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Filippo Sgarbi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Padova 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 Padova this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The words a physio says slowly. 89 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.
91 minutes played. Daniele Sorrentino found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Pescara went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Daniele Sorrentino provided it, and the 7.93 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Daniele Sorrentino. 2‑1 against Pescara, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“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; Padova are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Gianmarco Salvatore on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
96 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Padova lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.48 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Padova can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Exequiel Zeballos 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.
104 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Padova lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Exequiel Zeballos 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 figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
“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.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Words at Padova training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matteo Carbone 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.
112 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Padova lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
1‑4 to Palermo, 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.
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.
“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 Padova, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Padova is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Padova this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
120 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Padova lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Padova have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Alessandro Seghetti and Padova agree another 4 years.
A mark of 7.51, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout1 Nov 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.” Gianmarco Salvatore chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Luca Moro has moved up it.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Francesco Belli's mistake
129 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Padova 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 Padova 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.” Padova have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Padova they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Marco Pompetti 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 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matteo Carbone was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
136 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Padova lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Padova 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 Padova this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 Padova know it.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Simone Colombi, and the manager let it.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Gianmarco Salvatore to a room that had heard them before.
“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 Padova, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Padova 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 Padova 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 Padova this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Padova, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Two goals and a mark of 8.98 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Padova heard it as anything else.
Marked 8.33 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Padova are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Padova can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Padova they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Exequiel Zeballos 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.
“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; Padova are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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.
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 dugout27 Sep 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Gianmarco Salvatore was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Padova dressing room was either.
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.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Cristian Buonaiuto scored in the 89th minute, Modena had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Padova took the lot.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Padova can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Marco Pompetti 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Gianmarco Salvatore on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Nobody at Padova 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Padova can pretend not to have heard.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.89 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Padova have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Filippo Sgarbi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Padova 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 Padova this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 6.97 on 11 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
“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 Padova, and it is not being withdrawn.
“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.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 24 signed and 20 gone
That is the business done at Padova 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 phone has started ringing about Faitout Maouassa again, and this time the name on the line is Bologna. Padova are listening politely and promising nothing.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zé Hugo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Frosinone had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Padova have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Two goals and a mark of 8.24 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Padova is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Mattia Bortolussi 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.
Marco Pompetti 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. Simone Colombi is back at Padova, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Padova can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Simone Rocca is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Virtus Entella have accepted the money. What Padova do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Padova can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Padova is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Oscar Garrido wants continental football; whether Padova can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Atalanta have kept their man, and Padova 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 Padova this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Francesco Belli will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Padova the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The offer went to Pineto 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Padova 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.
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. Padova will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $8.3M has been paid because Exequiel Zeballos is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Padova is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
$1.4M was the most the club would pay and Juve Stabia 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.
Padova asked and Alcione Milano said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Marco Pompetti 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.
Exequiel Zeballos was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $8.3M. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
8 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $9.0M — a club that wants Exequiel Zeballos enough to be asked twice.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Juve Stabia have kept their man, and Padova go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The offer went to Carrarese 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.
Filippo Sgarbi and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Padova can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Padova are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Padova have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Guidonia Montecelio waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Padova 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 Padova, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer went to Potenza 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Padova this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The offer went to Pineto 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.
Padova offered $170.0K; Carrarese 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.
Sassuolo paid $270.0K and Padova took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
“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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Padova they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Padova have gone to Juve Stabia with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
The offer went to Carrarese 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 phone has started ringing about Filippo Sgarbi again, and this time the name on the line is Guidonia Montecelio. Padova are listening politely and promising nothing.
The offer from Picerno for Francesco Di Mariano 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 nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Padova can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Padova they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The name of Kevin Lasagna has come up in conversations Padova were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $9.0M — a club that wants Jérémy Le Douaron enough to be asked twice.
Padova have gone to Potenza 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.
Marco Pompetti 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.
Padova asked and Arezzo 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 Padova people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Francesco Di Mariano will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Padova the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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.
$2.1M on the table at Palermo. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
$1.4M on the table at Juve Stabia. 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 rules permit it and it stings anyway. Ángel Cardozo Lucena has agreed terms with Palermo for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Words at Padova training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Faitout Maouassa 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. Padova have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The offer from Giana Erminio for Kevin Lasagna 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.
“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 Padova, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Filippo Sgarbi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Padova the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Lazio is saying, and nobody at Padova is enjoying the guessing.
The offer went to Potenza 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.
Padova 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.
In brief
SquadWords at Padova training over how hard people work
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Kevin Lasagna
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Padova people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“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 Padova, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have shaken hands with Carpi; 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 Padova is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The offer from Giana Erminio for Emanuele Zuelli 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.
Padova had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at AS Roma, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Padova this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Position 15 on 47 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Padova people have started saying his name in the past tense.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.15 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Padova is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Padova have done the hard part with AS Roma, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alessandro Capelli will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Padova the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Marco Pompetti 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 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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Padova know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Padova can pretend not to have heard.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.30 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Padova is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Padova this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.28 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Padova have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Francesco Belli will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Padova the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Padova are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Market17 May 2027
Padova may not be able to give Zé Hugo what he wants
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Zé Hugo wants continental football; whether Padova can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Südtirol scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
“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 Padova, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kevin Varas will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Padova the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Faitout Maouassa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ángel Cardozo Lucena 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 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.
Nobody at Padova 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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Padova is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Padova can tell you which week it ends in.
Ángel Cardozo Lucena 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 board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
The dugout3 May 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Gianmarco Salvatore left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
0‑3 to Cremonese, 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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Padova is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
17 combined actions and 6.77. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
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.” 0‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Padova is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Something was said to Lorenzo Carissoni and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Gianmarco Salvatore after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
“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 Padova, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Padova they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Marco Pompetti 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.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Padova will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
“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 Padova know it.
“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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Emanuele Zuelli will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Padova the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Padova heard it as anything else.
Mattia Bortolussi 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 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
The 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 Padova, and 7 appearances in 11 say he has earned the hearing.
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 Kevin Lasagna.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Padova they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Pietro Carlin is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Padova, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Marco Pompetti signs something — a contract at Padova or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Vicenza in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.05 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Francesco Belli will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Padova the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Gianmarco Salvatore could afford to be generous.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Padova, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words at Padova training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Francesco Varone 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Padova is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Words at Padova training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Faitout Maouassa 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.
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Padova are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Ángel Cardozo Lucena and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Padova can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
The dugout15 Mar 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 1‑3 defeat, delivered by Gianmarco Salvatore to a room that had heard them before.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.01 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Emanuele Zuelli will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Padova the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Gianluca Caprari. 1‑0 against Mantova, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Ángel Cardozo Lucena 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 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Gianmarco Salvatore on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Padova can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Filippo Sgarbi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Padova 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 Padova this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Padova are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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 Padova now know that too.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Gianmarco Salvatore after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Pietro Fusi's mistake
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Padova have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Francesco Belli will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Padova 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 Padova this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
6 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Carrarese were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
A 2‑1 win over Carrarese, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at Padova training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Faitout Maouassa 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 Padova has been clear about where Francesco Di Mariano stands, which is more than many ever get.
“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 Padova, and it is not being withdrawn.
5 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Padova can tell you which week it ends in.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alessandro Capelli will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Padova the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Mattia Bortolussi 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Salvatore Zenoni 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 last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Padova have lost him in all but the paperwork.
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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Padova they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Casarano have kept their man, and Padova go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Ángel Cardozo Lucena 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 settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Padova people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The offer from Neuchâtel Xamax for Kevin Lasagna 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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Padova is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Padova close the window on a squad of their own making
0 in and 1 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.
$350.0K on the table at Torres. 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 phone has started ringing about Luca Moro again, and this time the name on the line is Atalanta. Padova are listening politely and promising nothing.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Giana Erminio waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Padova is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Francesco Belli will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Padova the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The offer from Lumezzane for Alessandro Capelli 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.
Add another name to the list: Neuchâtel Xamax have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Kevin Lasagna. The answer from Padova has not changed — yet.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Padova have done the hard part with Casarano, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Padova asked and Ravenna 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 last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Padova have lost him in all but the paperwork.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.94 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Fiorentina is saying, and nobody at Padova is enjoying the guessing.
Padova asked and Panathinaikos said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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 Padova know it.
Ángel Cardozo Lucena 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.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 87. Palermo had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.