93 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ternana 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 The request is on a desk at Ternana, and it is not being withdrawn.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 Ternana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 May 2031
Words at Ternana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maicol Giudice is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Samuele Tupone has his answer from Ternana; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
100 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ternana 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 Ternana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Apr 2031
Words at Ternana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lucas Carrizo is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
1 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Ternana could ask drops and the wages Tomas Blandón can ask rise.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Ternana will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
107 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Ternana lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Position 11 on 47 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Ternana they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Lucas Carrizo 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.
At 18 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 words a physio says slowly. 114 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.
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.
César Falletti 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 Maicol Giudice was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mauro Catalano, and the manager let it.
The dugout14 Apr 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 Jacopo Vignali to a room that had heard them before.
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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lucas Carrizo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Francesco Scafetta. 1‑0 against Pineto, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
In brief
Player ratingsFrancesco Scafetta was on a different afternoon to everybody else
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Ternana have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Ternana is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
César Falletti and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad31 Mar 2031
Words at Ternana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maicol Giudice 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: Marco Garetto. 1‑0 against Campobasso, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Jacopo Vignali could afford to be generous.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Ternana is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Lucas Carrizo 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 Mar 2031
Words at Ternana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maicol Giudice 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.
Level with 89 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Ternana 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.
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.
Lucas Carrizo 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.
Squad17 Mar 2031
Words at Ternana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Francesco Scafetta is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Ternana can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout17 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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Jacopo Vignali to a room that had heard them before.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Two goals and a mark of 8.91 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The hardest thing about being 18 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Alessandro Serra did not need any: 7.62, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ternana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Squad10 Mar 2031
Words at Ternana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maicol Giudice 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 18-year-old it feels ownership of. Alessandro Serra 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 Ternana can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Ternana is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marco Pagliari 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 Ternana, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Ternana is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
César Falletti and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Felipe Dettler has, at Ternana, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marco Pagliari was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Ternana 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Ternana have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Marco Pagliari 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.
Ternana asked and Arezzo said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Maicol Giudice was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Ternana 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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Jacopo Vignali after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Ternana scored in the 93th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ternana 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 Marco Pagliari 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.
Marked 8.77 — 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 settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Ternana people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ternana can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom3 Feb 2031
Deadline passes with 2 signed and 3 gone
That is the business done at Ternana until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Ternana is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The deal with Juventus 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 clock did what Monza would not, and ended it. Supporters who watched the countdown will spend the next window doing it again.
Squad3 Feb 2031
Words at Ternana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marco Pagliari 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. Juventus have kept their man, and Ternana go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Perugia waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Ternana is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Ternana had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Vicenza, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ternana can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Ternana is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
César Falletti 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. Atalanta have kept their man, and Ternana go back to a list with one name crossed off 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 Ternana, and it is not being withdrawn.
César Falletti 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 chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Arezzo have kept their man, and Ternana go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Ternana offered $160.0K; Genoa said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
In brief
SquadMarco Pagliari falls out with a teammate over standards
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Ternana people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Empoli is saying, and nobody at Ternana is enjoying the guessing.
Ternana have gone to Genoa 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.
Denis Franchi 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 Marco Pagliari 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ternana can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Ternana they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
César Falletti and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad6 Jan 2031
Words at Ternana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maicol Giudice 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 Alex Mancini again, and this time the name on the line is Latina. Ternana are listening politely and promising nothing.
Successful dribbles: 26. 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marco Pagliari was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Something was said to Samuele D'Agostino and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ternana can pretend not to have heard.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.91 at 38, and nobody on the pitch was better.
César Falletti 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 Marco Pagliari was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is 22 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.
Marked 8.13 — 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.
Position 10, 23 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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Alessandro Torri provided it, and the 8.71 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Ternana is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ternana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
6 goals in one match, Alessandro Torri on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Ternana and Sambenedettese.
Words at Ternana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maicol Giudice 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Jacopo Vignali after 2‑4, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Luigi Delibra will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ternana the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marco Pagliari was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
The 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 2‑3 Jacopo Vignali left the room before anybody could ask which.
There was one mistake and it ended in the net. Defenders are judged on the worst thing they did rather than on the eighty-nine minutes either side of it, which is unfair and is also the job.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ternana can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Ternana have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
César Falletti 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.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
The dugout2 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 1‑3 Jacopo Vignali left the room before anybody could ask which.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Ternana will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Samuele D'Agostino provided it, and the 8.15 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Marco Pagliari 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.
5 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Carpi were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 26 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alessandro Torri will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ternana 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 Ternana 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. Valentino Riva is living that version at Ternana, and it tends to show in the first month.
17 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Ternana have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Ternana they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Denis Franchi 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.
Squad11 Nov 2030
Words at Ternana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marco Pagliari 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 won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 9 combined actions and a mark of 6.55, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
He has had enough of the noise. Whether Ternana can be a quieter place for him, or whether the only cure is a move somewhere the phone-ins are gentler, is a question for the next few months.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ternana can pretend not to have heard.
César Falletti 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 Maicol Giudice was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
César Falletti 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 Marco Pagliari was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 5 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
The dugout28 Oct 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 Jacopo Vignali 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.
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 Kevin Bonifazi is on it.
16 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.73 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Ternana they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
5 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ternana can pretend not to have heard.
César Falletti 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 goals and a mark of 8.25 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
At 37 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.18 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Luigi Delibra will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ternana the goodbyes have quietly begun.
César Falletti 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.
15 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Two goals and a mark of 8.26 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Denis Franchi 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 Marco Pagliari was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Karol Maria D'Onofrio did not need any: 8.82, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
14 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ternana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 Ternana, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alessandro Torri will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ternana the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Marco Pagliari and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Ternana are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Tomas Blandón is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Luigi Delibra will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ternana the goodbyes have quietly begun.
César Falletti 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.
Ternana asked and Avellino said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Casertana waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Ternana is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Ternana, and it is not being withdrawn.
12 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Domenico Pastore is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
That is the business done at Ternana 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.
Ternana 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.
11 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Everything agreed with Union Brescia, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Parma is saying, and nobody at Ternana is enjoying the guessing.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ternana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Ternana is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Ternana had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at OGC Nice, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
César Falletti 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. Francesco De Witt is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Boardroom26 Aug 2030
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Ternana
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marco Pagliari was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Tomas Blandón is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
The offer from Casertana for Karol Maria D'Onofrio 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 deal with Pro Patria 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.
Denis Franchi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Aug 2030
Words at Ternana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marco Pagliari is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Ternana is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
The 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Avellino have kept their man, and Ternana go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Ternana, another week without a signature from Alex Mancini.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Parma keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Ternana have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Ternana 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Luigi Delibra will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ternana the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Federico Romeo 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 Marco Pagliari was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Maicol Giudice is on it.
Parma have accepted the money. What Ternana do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Ternana 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 Ternana 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 Marco Pagliari 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. Inter have kept their man, and Ternana go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Gubbio waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Ternana is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ternana can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Ternana asked and Torino said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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 Kevin Bonifazi is on it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 17 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Ternana have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Ternana have gone to Pisa 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marco Pagliari was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ternana asked and Inter said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Add another name to the list: Casarano have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Karol Maria D'Onofrio. The answer from Ternana has not changed — yet.
“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 Ternana, and it is not being withdrawn.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Ternana will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Altamura is saying, and nobody at Ternana is enjoying the guessing.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Ternana they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Everything agreed with St. Gallen, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ternana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Ternana will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alessandro Torri will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ternana the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Vicenza is saying, and nobody at Ternana is enjoying the guessing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ternana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Jul 2030
Words at Ternana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maicol Giudice 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 38 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Ternana have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The clubs have shaken hands with Vicenza; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Ternana have done the hard part with Lazio, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
César Falletti 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Karol Maria D'Onofrio is 21, 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.
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 Marco Garetto is on it.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Luigi Delibra
The deal with Juve Stabia 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.
Federico Romeo 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.
Ternana 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 Marco Pagliari was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The phone has started ringing about Luigi Delibra again, and this time the name on the line is Sorrento. Ternana are listening politely and promising nothing.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The offer from Pro Patria for Alessandro Torri 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.
Ternana had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Pisa, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Ternana have gone to Venezia 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.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Karol Maria D'Onofrio reports back to Ternana with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Federico Romeo 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 Maicol Giudice 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. Sassuolo have kept their man, and Ternana go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Karol Maria D'Onofrio and Ternana agree another 4 years.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Ternana is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Tomas Blandón has just signed for Ternana, and for once the answer 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 Ternana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Teodoro Bianchi 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. Massimo Tombesi 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Angelo Scalise 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.
In brief
BoardroomThe Ternana board find $388.0K for the manager
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Ternana is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
César Falletti 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 Marco Pagliari was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Ternana 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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Federico Romeo signs something — a contract at Ternana or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
Federico Romeo 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 Marco Pagliari was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
He has had enough of the noise. Whether Ternana can be a quieter place for him, or whether the only cure is a move somewhere the phone-ins are gentler, is a question for the next few months.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Ternana they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
César Falletti 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Ternana can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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 Jonathan Silva is on it.
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Alex Mancini has moved up 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 Ternana, and it is not being withdrawn.
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 Ternana have had the benefit of it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Luigi Delibra will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ternana the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Maicol Giudice 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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Federico Romeo signs something — a contract at Ternana or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
69 points from position 4. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 69 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
Federico Romeo 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.
Squad22 Apr 2030
Words at Ternana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marco Pagliari 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Jacopo Vignali could afford to be generous.
11 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.
Successful dribbles: 23. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Federico Romeo 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 Ternana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marco Pagliari 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 in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Nobody at Ternana 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.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Ryan Doherty.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Alex Mancini
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Ternana they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The first defeat in 12 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Pineto; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
César Falletti 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.
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.
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.
Two goals and a mark of 9.29 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Ternana they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
César Falletti 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.
Involvement in 2 goals, from a player who spent the ninety minutes doing the thing a manager actually wants: being where the ball was going to end up. 7.98 beside his name.
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.
7 goals in one match, Jonathan Silva on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Ternana and Campobasso.
In brief
SquadMaicol Giudice falls out with a teammate over standards
A mark of 7.70 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.
5 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
Federico Romeo 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 first defeat in 9 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Ravenna; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ternana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings18 Mar 2030
Jonathan Silva was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.49. 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.
9 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Squad18 Mar 2030
Words at Ternana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maicol Giudice 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.
9 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.
Position 3, 58 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Ternana they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.28 at 37, 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 Ternana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 34. 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.
8 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.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Giovanni Percassi did not need any: 7.80, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Ternana they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Federico Romeo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad4 Mar 2030
Words at Ternana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marco Pagliari 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.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Federico Romeo 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.
Squad25 Feb 2030
Words at Ternana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maicol Giudice is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
A performance of 8.05 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings25 Feb 2030
Jonathan Silva was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.01. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
There is a 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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Jonathan Silva provided it, and the 8.85 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
6 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Ternana had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Cesena, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ternana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alessandro Torri will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ternana the goodbyes have quietly begun.
5 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.
César Falletti 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.
Ternana asked and Modena said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
In brief
Player ratingsMarco Pagliari was on a different afternoon to everybody else
Going 3 down does something to a side, and what it usually does is finish them. Not here. Ternana rebuilt the afternoon goal by goal, and Pianese had no answer to any of it.
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 0 arrived, 2 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Ternana they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The name of Alessandro Torri has come up in conversations Ternana were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Ternana have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Pergolettese had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Ternana have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Juve Stabia keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Ternana people have started saying his name in the past tense.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Jonathan Silva provided it, and the 8.63 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“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 Ternana, and it is not being withdrawn.
Ternana had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Cesena, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
The deal with Südtirol 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.
Ternana asked and Catanzaro said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Südtirol is saying, and nobody at Ternana is enjoying the guessing.
César Falletti and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
A season average of 7.00 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Ternana know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
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 8.40 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Dion Cakolli is in the works
“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 Ternana, and it is not being withdrawn.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Ternana have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Ternana is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Ternana have done the hard part with Mantova, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
César Falletti 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.
Successful dribbles: 21. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad7 Jan 2030
Words at Ternana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maicol Giudice 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.
19 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Ternana lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alessandro Torri will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ternana 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 Ternana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
8.36. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Every 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.
28 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ternana 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 Ternana, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Maicol Giudice 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 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Maicol Giudice 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.
35 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Ternana lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Jonathan Silva provided it, and the 8.25 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
7 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
The terraces17 Dec 2029
A cup hiding at AS Roma leaves Ternana explaining themselves
2-6, and long before the end the away end had switched from encouragement to something considerably more pointed. Nobody rings a phone-in about losing narrowly.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.03 at 37, and nobody on the pitch was better.
César Falletti 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 8 goals between Ternana and AS Roma, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Luigi Delibra will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ternana the goodbyes have quietly begun.
César Falletti 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.
5 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Pineto were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
8.32. 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.
Player ratings10 Dec 2029
Federico Romeo was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.21. 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Jacopo Vignali on a 3‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Kevin Bonifazi is on it.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Alex Mancini
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Ternana 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 Ternana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Dec 2029
Words at Ternana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maicol Giudice 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 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.
Nobody at Ternana will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The dugout3 Dec 2029
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Jacopo Vignali chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Maicol Giudice 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.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Jonathan Silva will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Ternana escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Ternana, and it is not being withdrawn.
César Falletti 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.
Player ratings19 Nov 2029
Jonathan Silva was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.88. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Luigi Delibra will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ternana the goodbyes have quietly begun.
César Falletti 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.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Forli scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Ternana can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Ternana scored in the 104th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alessandro Torri will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ternana 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 Ternana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Nov 2029
Words at Ternana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maicol Giudice 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 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.
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.89, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings29 Oct 2029
Maicol Giudice, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.65
A mark of 7.65 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.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Jonathan Silva. 2‑0 against Ascoli, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Jacopo Vignali on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Jonathan Silva is on it.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Ternana will quote 16 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
César Falletti 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.
Squad22 Oct 2029
Words at Ternana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maicol Giudice 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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Ternana is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
César Falletti 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 Maicol Giudice was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Bra made Ternana work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings15 Oct 2029
Jonathan Silva was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.02. 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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Jacopo Vignali could afford to be generous.
Nobody at Ternana 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 13 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
3 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Marco Garetto will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Ternana escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Player ratings8 Oct 2029
A brace, and Marco Garetto takes the afternoon — 8.09
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Marco Garetto provided it, and the 8.09 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Maicol Giudice did not need any: 8.26, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Ternana is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Successful dribbles: 23. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ternana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 20 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
The 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Jacopo Vignali after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Ternana will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
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 Jonathan Silva is on it.
A 3‑1 win over Giana Erminio, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Player ratings24 Sep 2029
A brace, and Marco Garetto takes the afternoon — 7.91
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Marco Garetto provided it, and the 7.91 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Alex Mancini did not need any: 7.94, 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.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.96 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“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 Ternana, and it is not being withdrawn.
César Falletti and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Marked 7.99. There is a kind of forward whose value only shows up when you count what he was involved in rather than what he finished, and this is the day that argument makes itself.
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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Ternana is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
César Falletti 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.
Ternana 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Ternana 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 Ternana 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 Maicol Giudice was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Andrew Graham is 17, and Ternana have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 17 arrived, 14 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
César Falletti and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings3 Sep 2029
Federico Romeo was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.59. 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.
Padova wanted more than $42.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Squad3 Sep 2029
Words at Ternana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maicol Giudice 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Dolomiti Bellunesi waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Ternana is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Reggiana keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ternana can pretend not to have heard.
César Falletti 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 Ternana
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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Flavio Ferraro is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Valerio Lucchesi 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.
“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 Ternana, and it is not being withdrawn.
César Falletti 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.
Ternana offered $310.0K; Juve Stabia said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Squad20 Aug 2029
Words at Ternana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maicol Giudice 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.
Add another name to the list: Dolomiti Bellunesi have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Alessandro Torri. The answer from Ternana has not changed — yet.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Carlo Evangelista, and the manager let it.
Squad20 Aug 2029
5 new faces, and Ternana are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Nobody at Ternana will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ternana can pretend not to have heard.
AlbinoLeffe have accepted the money. What Ternana do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Ternana is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Giulio Rivelli has agreed terms with Monza for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
$310.0K on the table at Juve Stabia. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Ternana can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending 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 Ternana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadWords at Ternana training over how hard people work
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.
Trapani will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Benedetto Scalavino has pre-agreed a move to Ternana, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Fiorentina have kept their man, and Ternana go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Ternana know which stage they are at.
The clubs have shaken hands with Catanzaro; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Ternana have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ternana can pretend not to have heard.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Ternana heard it as anything else.
César Falletti and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
At 20 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
The 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 system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
The offer from Ospitaletto for Carlo Evangelista 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.
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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Ternana is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ternana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 4 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ternana can pretend not to have heard.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Ternana have done the hard part with AlbinoLeffe, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Ternana is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Filippo Galvagno is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ternana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Federico Romeo has improved at 27, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
$27.0K was the most the club would pay and Padova 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.
Ternana asked and Siracusa said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Denis Franchi
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
At 22 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.
$27.0K on the table at Padova. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad9 Jul 2029
Denis Franchi has improved at 26, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Reggiana have kept their man, and Ternana go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The name of Alessandro Torri has come up in conversations Ternana were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Ternana they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The clubs have shaken hands with Reggiana; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Leonardo Stîngaciu has, at Ternana, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Ternana hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
César Falletti and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
At 20 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, wages agreed, and Mantova waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Ternana is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ternana can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Tommaso Vitali will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ternana the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The offer went to Cremonese 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.
$390.0K on the table at Sampdoria. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
César Falletti 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.
Ternana 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ternana can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Ternana have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Ternana they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Lazio keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ternana 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 Maicol Giudice was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Edgaras Dubickas will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ternana the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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 Ternana, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Cristiano La Sorsa is living that version at Ternana, and it tends to show in the first month.
The offer went to Reggiana 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.
“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; Ternana are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Cristiano La Sorsa is a Ternana player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
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.