The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Pro Vercelli have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Pro Vercelli they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at Pro Vercelli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leonardo Piran is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Südtirol moved on, Pietro Passador reports back to Pro Vercelli, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Leonardo Piran was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Successful dribbles: 20. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Lorenzo Cancila has come out of that comparison in the side, and Pro Vercelli have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 17 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Pro Vercelli close the window on a squad of their own making
4 in and 0 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.
Lorenzo Cancila 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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words at Pro Vercelli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Achraf el Bouchataoui 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.
Vicenza next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
The name of Nicolò Vaccarezza has come up in conversations Pro Vercelli were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Südtirol waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Pro Vercelli is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.92 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
10 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Dean Huiberts and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Pro Vercelli people have started saying his name in the past tense.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.89 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Nicolò Vaccarezza 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.
Renso Pérez 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.
9 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Achraf el Bouchataoui was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Damián Gómez
Position 2, 42 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Pro Vercelli 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 Pro Vercelli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The name of Antonio Satriano has come up in conversations Pro Vercelli were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Achraf el Bouchataoui was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Pro Vercelli asked and Colón said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Successful dribbles: 49. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Pro Vercelli can pretend not to have heard.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Pro Vercelli have had the benefit of it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Pro Vercelli they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Getting past Alessandro Livieri has become the hardest job in the division
17 clean sheets and counting. Forwards used to back themselves here; now they shoot early, shoot wide, and look for somebody to blame.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Pro Vercelli know it.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The 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.
Ilario Iotti was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
“I 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.
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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Gianmario Comi provided it, and the 8.62 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Leonardo Piran and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 18-year-old it feels ownership of. Lorenzo Cancila 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.
A 2‑0 win over Dolomiti Bellunesi, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pro Vercelli 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 Leonardo Piran was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Pro Vercelli will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Pro Vercelli. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Pietro Passador will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Pro Vercelli the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Achraf el Bouchataoui was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Cristiano Furno and Pro Vercelli agree another 3 years.
Dean Huiberts 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Pro Vercelli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Achraf el Bouchataoui 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.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Pro Vercelli told Gianmario Comi something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
At 38 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.14 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
Marked 8.28. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Pro Vercelli.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Damián Gómez
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.
Renso Pérez 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Pro Vercelli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Achraf el Bouchataoui is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Damián Gómez trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Pro Vercelli is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Dean Huiberts 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 Achraf el Bouchataoui was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
7.21, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Pro Vercelli had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Mariano Romano was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Pro Vercelli dressing room was either.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against AlbinoLeffe in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
At 38 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.19 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
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.
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.
Emiliano Pino and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.93 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Renso Pérez 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Pro Vercelli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Achraf el Bouchataoui 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Gianmario Comi. 1‑0 against Alcione Milano, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Pro Vercelli will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Giana Erminio in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pro Vercelli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Nicolò Vaccarezza is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
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.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Pro Vercelli, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Pietro Passador will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Pro Vercelli the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Dean Huiberts 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at Pro Vercelli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leonardo Piran 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.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Pro Vercelli, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
The words a physio says slowly. 20 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pro Vercelli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Pro Vercelli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Achraf el Bouchataoui 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.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
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.
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.
28 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Pro Vercelli lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Lumezzane go through and Pro Vercelli go home, 0‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Achraf el Bouchataoui was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
“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 dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Mariano Romano was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Pro Vercelli dressing room was either.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Damián Gómez trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pro Vercelli 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 Leonardo Piran was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Mohamed Mallahi has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Vicenza in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
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.
Two goals and a mark of 9.21 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Pietro Passador will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Pro Vercelli the goodbyes have quietly begun.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Lorenzo Cancila and Pro Vercelli agree another 3 years.
The deal that would have taken Nicolò Vaccarezza to Trapani has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Pro Vercelli with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Achraf el Bouchataoui was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Mariano Romano could afford to be generous.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Pro Vercelli people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 11 signed and 0 gone
That is the business done at Pro Vercelli 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pro Vercelli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Pro Vercelli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Achraf el Bouchataoui 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 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.
Every signing waits for it and every press conference asks about it until it comes. It has come, Pro Vercelli have their man off the mark, and the second one is always easier.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Campobasso waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Pro Vercelli is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Cardiff City have kept their man, and Pro Vercelli go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Marked 8.31 — 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Mariano Romano on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Triestina next, and one man in the Pro Vercelli dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Pro Vercelli, and it is not being withdrawn.
Renso Pérez 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.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
1 academy players handed senior numbers at Pro Vercelli
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 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Pro Vercelli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Achraf el Bouchataoui 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Teodoro Esposito is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Pro Vercelli know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
The plan went upstairs and came back down. Nothing about that will make a headline anywhere else, and everybody who works at the training ground will remember it for years.
Dean Huiberts was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Pro Vercelli have made the call to Cardiff City. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
A new face in his position and a shirt he thought he owned suddenly up for discussion. Pro Vercelli have promised nothing, which is what clubs promise at this stage.
$1.1M was the most the club would pay and Arezzo 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.
Pro Vercelli asked and Torres 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. Domenico Rizzi 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. Emanuele Basile 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Dario Lucchesi 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. Angelo Piccini 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.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Pro Vercelli know which stage they are at.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Pro Vercelli would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Achraf el Bouchataoui and Pro Vercelli agree another 4 years.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Achraf el Bouchataoui was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ilario Iotti 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.
Still no offer on the table, and Achraf el Bouchataoui’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.