The deal with Palermo is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Carter Tavares Roache has agreed terms with Udinese for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Akanni Lawal has, at Perugia, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Perugia 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Gerardo Pugliese has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Carlo Medici has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Emanuele D'Angelo 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 clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Perugia people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The deal with Sassuolo is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Luigi Canotto 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.
Valerio Brutto was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $290.0K. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
Signings arrive with a picture of the club in their head, and this one’s picture was bigger than the building. He will play well and he will be gone, in that order, and everybody knows it.
In brief
Squad6 new faces, and Perugia are still learning each other
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Perugia have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Flavio Guerra had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Perugia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Jun 2031
Words at Perugia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luigi Canotto 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.
Perugia asked and Lazio said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Bruno Bonetti will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Perugia the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Andrea Bottaro 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.
Squad2 Jun 2031
Words at Perugia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luigi Canotto is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The phone has started ringing about Leonardo Vinti again, and this time the name on the line is Sorrento. Perugia are listening politely and promising nothing.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Benedetto Scalavino is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Nobody at Perugia 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Perugia, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Perugia can pretend not to have heard.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Benedetto Scalavino and Perugia agree another 3 years.
Andrea Bottaro and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 May 2031
Words at Perugia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luigi Canotto is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Perugia are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Perugia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 May 2031
Words at Perugia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luigi Canotto is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Michele Marano trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Perugia would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Not a month, not a run of form — a whole season of being the best 19-year-old anybody in this division could put on a pitch. This is the honour that gets mentioned for the rest of his career.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Bruno Bonetti will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Perugia 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 Perugia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market5 May 2031
Michele Marano returns from a loan that taught him nothing
34 appearances and 0 clean sheets. A goalkeeper learns his job by playing it, and a season that gave him neither the games nor the shut-outs is a year taken off the front of a career.
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.
Squad5 May 2031
Kevin Comert is the division's best young player this month
At 19 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Perugia will try very hard not to make too much of 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 Luca Gemello is on it.
20 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Perugia 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 Perugia can pretend not to have heard.
Antonio Sabbatani 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.
Squad28 Apr 2031
Words at Perugia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luigi Canotto 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 ambition story running the other way, and the one nobody tells: a footballer asking for a smaller stage, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is very rarely reported as anything else.
Market28 Apr 2031
Michele Marano returns from a loan that taught him nothing
34 appearances and 0 clean sheets. A goalkeeper learns his job by playing it, and a season that gave him neither the games nor the shut-outs is a year taken off the front of a career.
27 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Perugia lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Position 10 on 48 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 agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Perugia is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Flavio Guerra did not need any: 7.99, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
“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 Perugia, and it is not being withdrawn.
Successful dribbles: 29. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
A season average of 7.46 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Perugia know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Kevin Comert did not need any: 7.96, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Luigi Canotto 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 particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Zalán Kugyela has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Perugia can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings7 Apr 2031
A brace, and Kevin Comert takes the afternoon — 8.97
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Kevin Comert provided it, and the 8.97 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Bruno Bonetti will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Perugia the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Antonio Sabbatani 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 Luigi Canotto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is 19 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.
Andrea Bottaro 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.
Squad31 Mar 2031
Words at Perugia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luigi Canotto is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Antonio Sabbatani provided it, and the 8.74 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Perugia they have already started talking about him 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 Perugia, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings24 Mar 2031
Sandro Bartoli, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.96
A mark of 7.96 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Luigi Canotto 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 nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Perugia can pretend not to have heard.
A season average of 7.41 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Perugia know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Perugia 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 Perugia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Mar 2031
Words at Perugia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luigi Canotto is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Perugia pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Perugia told Andrea Bottaro something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Perugia can pretend not to have heard.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The first defeat in 10 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Sambenedettese; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Perugia they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Antonio Sabbatani 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.
Squad10 Mar 2031
Words at Perugia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luigi Canotto is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout10 Mar 2031
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 Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
In brief
Squad5 new faces, and Perugia are still learning each other
At 2 goals adrift this was a formality, and the formality lasted right up until it did not. Perugia found something the first half had given no notice of, and Pineto could not hold what they had.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Perugia have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Kevin Comert. 4‑3 against Pineto, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 9.18 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Perugia is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“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 Perugia, and it is not being withdrawn.
Alessandro Scacchetti 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 Luigi Canotto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Perugia can pretend not to have heard.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Kevin Comert did not need any: 8.36, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad17 Feb 2031
At 19, Kevin Comert is already the best thing here
An average of 7.38 in a first team he is several years too young for. Perugia have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Perugia 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 Luigi Canotto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Two goals and a mark of 9.49 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Pro Vercelli keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Perugia they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Perugia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. AS Roma have kept their man, and Perugia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
16 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Perugia lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Kevin Comert did not need any: 7.76, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
At 36 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.34, and nobody on the pitch better.
Boardroom3 Feb 2031
Deadline passes with 4 signed and 5 gone
That is the business done at Perugia until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Perugia have done the hard part with Pro Vercelli, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Antonio Sabbatani and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Monza have kept their man, and Perugia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
In brief
SquadLuigi Canotto falls out with a teammate over standards
The words a physio says slowly. 23 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Perugia they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Perugia people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Antonio Sabbatani and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad27 Jan 2031
Words at Perugia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luigi Canotto 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Venezia have kept their man, and Perugia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The first defeat in 4 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Pontedera; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
30 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Perugia lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Kevin Comert did not need any: 8.35, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Pineto had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Perugia and Ternana have settled on $470.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
He is 19, he is averaging 7.27, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Perugia can pretend not to have heard.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Benedetto Scalavino has, at Perugia, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
37 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Perugia lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 5‑0 against Gubbio, and it could have been more.
Player ratings13 Jan 2031
A brace, and Kevin Comert takes the afternoon — 10.00
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Kevin Comert provided it, and the 10.00 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The offer from Pineto for Bruno Bonetti was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Fiorentina is saying, and nobody at Perugia is enjoying the guessing.
Antonio Sabbatani 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 particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Antonio Sabbatani provided it, and the 9.17 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Successful dribbles: 27. 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.
“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 Perugia, and it is not being withdrawn.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Perugia have done the hard part with Fiorentina, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Perugia they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Perugia have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Luigi Canotto 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 nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Perugia can pretend not to have heard.
He is 19, he is averaging 7.00, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Alessandro Scacchetti 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.
500 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.
Position 13, 14 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
0‑3 to Ascoli, 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.
Antonio Sabbatani 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 Luigi Canotto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Perugia can tell you which week it ends in.
“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.
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 Luca Gemello is on it.
0‑4 to Arezzo, 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 most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Perugia will quote 16 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout9 Dec 2030
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 0‑4 Interim Coach left the room before anybody could ask which.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Perugia is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luigi Canotto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The young player of the month award goes to a 19-year-old at Perugia who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout2 Dec 2030
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
Two goals and a mark of 9.26 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Perugia, 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 Perugia 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 Luigi Canotto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
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.
Successful dribbles: 36. 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.29 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.11 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Perugia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
0‑3 against Sambenedettese, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Antonio Sabbatani 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.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 5 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Squad11 Nov 2030
Luigi Canotto 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.
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.
10 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 Perugia they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Luigi Canotto 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 was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Perugia has been clear about where Alessandro Scacchetti stands, which is more than many ever get.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Perugia can pretend not to have heard.
Luigi Canotto 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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Interim Coach after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The ambition story running the other way, and the one nobody tells: a footballer asking for a smaller stage, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is very rarely reported as anything else.
19 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Perugia 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.” Perugia have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Luigi Canotto was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
At 19 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Level with 94 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Perugia had all but put away. Carpi will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
26 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Perugia lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Luigi Canotto and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Perugia and Ravenna in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
33 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Perugia 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.” Perugia have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Perugia they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Four weeks in which nobody in the division did his job better. The award goes on a shelf and the player goes back into the side, which is the order Perugia prefer.
40 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Perugia lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Perugia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
17 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Perugia lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Ternana the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Perugia will enjoy reviewing.
Luigi Canotto 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.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 5 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
9.54. 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.
24 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Perugia lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Bruno Bonetti had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Luigi Canotto 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.
8.54. 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.
31 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Perugia lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Antonio Sabbatani will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Perugia escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Perugia have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Picerno waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Perugia is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.20 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
The words a physio says slowly. 38 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The hardest thing about being 18 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Flavio Guerra did not need any: 8.16, 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 Perugia can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom2 Sep 2030
Perugia close the window on a squad of their own making
21 in and 18 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Perugia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Perugia and Pianese in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
The words a physio says slowly. 75 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The deal with Arezzo is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Giulio Carraro is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Monopoli moved on, Bruno Bonetti reports back to Perugia, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Perugia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom26 Aug 2030
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Perugia
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Venezia have kept their man, and Perugia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Angelo Giuliani has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
82 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Perugia lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
At 23 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luigi Canotto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Antonio Sabbatani signs something — a contract at Perugia or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Antonio Sabbatani has written the date down.
89 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Perugia lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Perugia have lost him in all but the paperwork.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Fabrizio Gai will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Perugia the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Fiorentina keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
The offer went to Sambenedettese 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.
96 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Perugia lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Siracusa have accepted the money. What Perugia do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Bruno Bonetti had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Antonio Sabbatani was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Brando Fontana is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luigi Canotto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Perugia asked and Juventus said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
103 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Perugia lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Perugia and Altamura have settled on $320.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Giugliano keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Alessandro Scacchetti 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 Luigi Canotto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Lazio keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Luigi Canotto and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. AS Roma have kept their man, and Perugia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
7 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Perugia know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Perugia. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Brando Fontana trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
In brief
BoardroomThe Perugia production line keeps running
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Romano Alberti has agreed terms with Ravenna for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Antonio Sabbatani and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad15 Jul 2030
Luigi Canotto 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.
Perugia asked and Venezia 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 injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 15 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
“I watch every Perugia game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Lumezzane runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Perugia will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Perugia have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Perugia can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Perugia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Giulio Carraro is living that version at Perugia, and it tends to show in the first month.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ferencvaros have kept their man, and Perugia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad8 Jul 2030
Zalán Kugyela 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 Perugia can pretend not to have heard.
Perugia had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Giugliano, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Luigi Canotto 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.
$140.0K was the most the club would pay and Altamura 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.
Perugia asked and Hellas Verona 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 phone has started ringing about Bruno Bonetti again, and this time the name on the line is Südtirol. Perugia are listening politely and promising nothing.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Vincenzo Pellegrino is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Brando Fontana was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Salernitana have accepted the money. What Perugia do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Perugia 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.
Alessandro Scacchetti 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.
Squad24 Jun 2030
Luigi Canotto 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.
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Alessandro Cantalino signs something — a contract at Perugia or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Vincenzo Pellegrino has written the date down.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Perugia have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Alessandro Scacchetti has just signed for Perugia, and for once the answer mattered.
Perugia have gone to AS Roma with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Perugia have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Antonio Sabbatani 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 Luigi Canotto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Venezia have kept their man, and Perugia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The deal with Salernitana is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Andrea Occhione has just signed for Perugia, and for once the answer mattered.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Perugia can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from Südtirol for Bruno Bonetti was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
The 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.
Squad10 Jun 2030
Luigi Canotto 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.
Andrea Occhione was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Perugia 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 Luigi Canotto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Palermo have kept their man, and Perugia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Add another name to the list: Reggiana have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Michele Marano. The answer from Perugia has not changed — yet.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Fabrizio Gai 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 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.
Antonio Sabbatani and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad27 May 2030
Words at Perugia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luigi Canotto 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Perugia know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Perugia, and both men came out saying it was fine.
44 graduates, from a department now rated 9 out of 20. Nothing about the academy appears in a result, and nothing about the club’s future exists without 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 Perugia can pretend not to have heard.
Antonio Sabbatani 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 Luigi Canotto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Vincenzo Pellegrino has written the date down.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Perugia they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Antonio Sabbatani 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 Luigi Canotto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Mattia Almaviva has his answer from Perugia; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Perugia know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
14 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Perugia lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Perugia may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad6 May 2030
Words at Perugia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luigi Canotto 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Perugia, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Perugia, another week without a signature from Fabrizio Gai.
Nobody at Perugia will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
21 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Perugia 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 Perugia, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luigi Canotto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Perugia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The ambition story running backwards, and the one nobody tells: a footballer who wants a smaller ground, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is rarely reported as anything else.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Perugia know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Perugia. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
2 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Perugia could ask drops and the wages Mattia Almaviva can ask rise.
The words a physio says slowly. 28 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Two goals and a mark of 8.75 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Antonio Sabbatani and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
6 goals in one match, Antonio Sabbatani on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Perugia and Guidonia Montecelio.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luigi Canotto 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 Perugia is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Antonio Sabbatani 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.
Squad15 Apr 2030
Words at Perugia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luigi Canotto is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Perugia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad8 Apr 2030
Luigi Canotto 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.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
“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 Perugia, and it is not being withdrawn.
Antonio Sabbatani and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad1 Apr 2030
Words at Perugia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luigi Canotto is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Zalán Kugyela has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.22 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Antonio Sabbatani 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 Luigi Canotto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Interim Coach on a 3‑2 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
In brief
The dugoutMatteo Forni asks for a word with the manager
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Michele Marano
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Elvis Kabashi
7.78, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Michele Marano will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Perugia the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad18 Mar 2030
Luigi Canotto 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.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Michele Marano 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 afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 11 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
A season average of 7.37 with 15 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad11 Mar 2030
Luigi Canotto 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 point taken on 96 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
“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 Perugia, and it is not being withdrawn.
13 goals and a season average of 7.32. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad4 Mar 2030
Luigi Canotto 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.
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout4 Mar 2030
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Interim Coach left the room before anybody could ask which.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Successful dribbles: 24. 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.
Antonio Sabbatani 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 Luigi Canotto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Campobasso left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout25 Feb 2030
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 Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Pineto in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Perugia they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Antonio Sabbatani 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 Luigi Canotto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Perugia asked and Palermo 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 pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Antonio Sabbatani, and the manager let it.
Player ratings18 Feb 2030
Matteo Polizzi was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.18. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
A point taken on 89 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Perugia can pretend not to have heard.
Antonio Sabbatani and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad11 Feb 2030
Words at Perugia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luigi Canotto 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Venezia have kept their man, and Perugia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Perugia will try again when the window opens; Latina may not be selling by then.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Tommaso Rossetti is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Perugia can pretend not to have heard.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Perugia have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 5 arrived, 6 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The deal with Genoa is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Christian Dottori has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Perugia asked and Palermo said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.86 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The offer from Monza for Christian Dottori 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 had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Atalanta keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Perugia asked and Cesena said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luigi Canotto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Perugia, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Empoli is saying, and nobody at Perugia is enjoying the guessing.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Cittadella have kept their man, and Perugia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Picerno moved on, Michele Marano reports back to Perugia, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
14 goals and a season average of 7.24. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad21 Jan 2030
Luigi Canotto 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.
Add another name to the list: Monza have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Christian Dottori. The answer from Perugia has not changed — yet.
Two goals and a mark of 9.25 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Perugia can pretend not to have heard.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Trapani have kept their man, and Perugia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad14 Jan 2030
Luigi Canotto 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.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Perugia can pretend not to have heard.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Perugia 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 Luigi Canotto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Venezia have kept their man, and Perugia 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 Perugia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Alessandro Cantalino and Perugia agree another 3 years.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Perugia told Matteo Forni something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 86th, and Guidonia Montecelio spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
Two goals and a mark of 8.79 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings24 Dec 2029
Armando Cassano, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.88
A mark of 7.88 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nicola Costantini will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Perugia the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Antonio Sabbatani 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.
Luigi Canotto 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.
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
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.
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.
Luigi Canotto 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 could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Squad17 Dec 2029
Words at Perugia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mattia Almaviva 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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Luca Gemello signs something — a contract at Perugia or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
1‑4 to Arezzo, 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.
“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 Perugia, and it is not being withdrawn.
Luigi Canotto 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.
Marked 8.36 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Two goals and a mark of 9.18 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luigi Canotto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Edoardo Morucci has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
Minute 90, against Livorno, 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nicola Costantini will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Perugia 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.
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.
Livorno next, and one man in the Perugia dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
1‑4 against Vis Pesaro, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑4, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version 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.
Beaten 4 times, 1 saves, and an afternoon that will go on his record whether it was his fault or the defence’s. It is the quiet unfairness of the position.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 17 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Matteo Forni scored in the 88th minute, Sambenedettese had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Perugia took the lot.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Perugia 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 Luigi Canotto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Perugia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Armando Cassano was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Alessandro Cantalino has come out of that comparison in the side, and Perugia have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The dugout5 Nov 2029
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.” Interim Coach kept it short after the 4‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Perugia is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Marked 8.23 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
There is a 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.
The ambition story running the other way, and the one nobody tells: a footballer asking for a smaller stage, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is very rarely reported as anything else.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Interim Coach could afford to be generous.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Perugia will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Antonio Sabbatani and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad22 Oct 2029
Luigi Canotto 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.
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout22 Oct 2029
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Perugia know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Perugia can pretend not to have heard.
Luigi Canotto 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 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 dugout15 Oct 2029
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
Squad15 Oct 2029
Words at Perugia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mattia Almaviva is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
At 20 he is being measured against the rest of the division's kids and coming out in front. The senior version of this award is where the club would like this to lead.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Perugia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 9.55 — 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.
At 17 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Successful dribbles: 15. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Matteo Forni is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑0, Interim Coach could afford to be generous.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Perugia they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Antonio Sabbatani and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
6 goals in one match, Antonio Sabbatani on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Perugia and Pontedera.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luigi Canotto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout1 Oct 2029
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑5 defeat, delivered by Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
Whether it was the goalkeeper or the ten in front of him is the argument that will fill every conversation in town this week. 3 saves does not settle it either way.
Perugia interviewed the field and appointed the corridor: Interim Coach keeps the job he had been doing in all but title. Sometimes the safest pair of hands is the one already holding the wheel.
Successful dribbles: 29. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Player ratings24 Sep 2029
Bruno Bonetti, 17, plays like he has been here for years — 7.60
A mark of 7.60 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 17-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Luigi Canotto and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Perugia and Ternana in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Luigi Canotto 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 now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Union Brescia have kept their man, and Perugia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Interim Coach could afford to be generous.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Perugia can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Squad10 Sep 2029
Luigi Canotto 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.
Armando Cassano 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 particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Zalán Kugyela has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Leonardo Bellini had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Pianese were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Boardroom3 Sep 2029
Perugia close the window on a squad of their own making
11 in and 14 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Perugia is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Four paragraphs on the club website, none of them about football. The board thanked him, wished him well, and had the search under way before the page went up.
The words a physio says slowly. 93 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The coaching staff has emptied out entirely and there was nobody internal to promote, so the club has appointed a name almost none of its supporters will recognise. Clubs recover from this; none of them enjoy explaining it.
“I am not thinking past Saturday, and I would advise nobody else to.” The caretaker’s first rule is to pretend the job is small; Interim Coach recited it perfectly.
The deal with Parma is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Luigi Canotto 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.
Boardroom27 Aug 2029
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Perugia
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 100 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Perugia can pretend not to have heard.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Perugia have done the hard part with Inter, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The offer went to Vicenza 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 Perugia 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 Luigi Canotto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Venezia have kept their man, and Perugia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The words a physio says slowly. 108 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The deal with Sassuolo is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
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.
Squad13 Aug 2029
Words at Perugia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luigi Canotto 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.
Armando Cassano 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. Vincenzo Castelli has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Bruno Paganelli is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Luca Raimondi is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Sebastiano Verdi 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.
115 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Perugia lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Perugia they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Achille Ruggiero is 17, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Perugia 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 122 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Perugia is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Perugia people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
At 35 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.