Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Trento can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Trento they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Trento, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Trento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad4 Mar 2030
Words at Trento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mattia Maffei 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Trento they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Trento, and it is not being withdrawn.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Giacomo Benedetti has agreed terms with Palermo for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Trento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 Feb 2030
Words at Trento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Christian Capone is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Trento can pretend not to have heard.
Alessandro Vilardi 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.
Match16 Feb 2030
Another one collected away from home
4 on the bounce on the road for Trento. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
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.
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.
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Player ratings11 Feb 2030
A brace, and Elios Minaj takes the afternoon — 8.28
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Elios Minaj provided it, and the 8.28 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Júnior Fariña will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Trento 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 Trento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Feb 2030
Words at Trento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mattia Maffei 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 board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Trento they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Trento, 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 Trento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad4 Feb 2030
Words at Trento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Christian Capone 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.
3 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Malcolm Ebiowei. 1‑0 against Vicenza, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“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 Trento, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Trento they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Zviad Sikharulia has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
The fee is $250.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Südtirol drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Alessandro Vilardi 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.
Südtirol will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Armando Mariani has pre-agreed a move to Trento, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Christian Capone 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.
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.
8.75. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Marked 8.24 — 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 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.
AS Roma arrived with $2.1M and left with the best player in the building. The board will call it business; the queue at the ticket office will use other words.
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Omari Forson was one of the reasons people came, and $2.1M does not replace that by itself.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Andrea Baldetti has just signed for Trento, and for once the answer mattered.
“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 Trento, and it is not being withdrawn.
Alessandro Vilardi 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 board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Michele Rigione will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Trento the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Trento can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Trento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Renate left with the points after a 2‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad7 Jan 2030
Words at Trento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Christian Capone 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 brace, and Elios Minaj takes the afternoon — 8.22
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Elios Minaj provided it, and the 8.22 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Trento can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Trento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Elios Minaj. 3‑2 against Virtus Verona, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
A performance of 8.37 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad31 Dec 2029
Words at Trento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giacomo Benedetti 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, terms agreed, medical booked. Giangiacomo Magnani will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Trento 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 Trento, 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 Trento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad24 Dec 2029
Words at Trento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Christian Capone 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.
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Trento can pretend not to have heard.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Trento 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Trento can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Michele Rigione will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Trento the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Christian Capone 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.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Giangiacomo Magnani trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Trento know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“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 Trento, and it is not being withdrawn.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Trento 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Trento is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Sheriff Kassama was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad26 Nov 2029
Words at Trento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Christian Capone 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.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 20 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Marked 8.43 — 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.
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Trento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A performance of 8.23 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad19 Nov 2029
Words at Trento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mattia Maffei 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.
Omari Forson had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Pro Vercelli were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
“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 Trento, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Michele Rigione will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Trento the goodbyes have quietly begun.
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Michele Rigione has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Sheriff Kassama was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad12 Nov 2029
Words at Trento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Christian Capone 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.
Alessandro Vilardi 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.
Marked 8.22 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Trento is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Trento can pretend not to have heard.
Christian Capone was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad29 Oct 2029
Mattia Maffei falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
“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 Trento, 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 Trento 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.
“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 Trento, and it is not being withdrawn.
Sheriff Kassama 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 Oct 2029
Words at Trento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Christian Capone is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Trento know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
In brief
Player ratingsAn afternoon Marco Fossati will want back
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Trento have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Trento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Giangiacomo Magnani may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Lumezzane the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Trento will enjoy reviewing.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Trento they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Christian Capone 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: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad1 Oct 2029
Marco Fossati falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Player ratings1 Oct 2029
Malcolm Ebiowei was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.19. 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.
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Magnus Brøndbo: 1 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Trento 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.
The goal that put Pro Patria ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Trento equalised, 3 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
Christian Capone 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 one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
7 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
4 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Trento could ask drops and the wages Giangiacomo Magnani can ask rise.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Roberto Bianchi is 18, 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 Trento 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.
Marked 8.15 — 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 club looked outside for a month, found nothing it preferred, and handed the job to the man who had been doing it anyway. He knows the building; now he has to prove he knows the rest.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Trento is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Sheriff Kassama 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.
Squad3 Sep 2029
Words at Trento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Christian Capone 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: Malcolm Ebiowei. 1‑0 against Triestina, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Trento can pretend not to have heard.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Alessandro Rizza is 21, 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 Trento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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. Alberto Rossetti is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Edoardo Scalise is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Samuele Pavone 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.
Squad27 Aug 2029
Words at Trento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giacomo Benedetti is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Trento, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Melbourne Victory for Omari Forson 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 that would have taken Giangiacomo Magnani to Monopoli has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Trento with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Sheriff Kassama 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.
Squad20 Aug 2029
Words at Trento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Christian Capone is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Trento, and it is not being withdrawn.
Add another name to the list: Monopoli have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Giangiacomo Magnani. The answer from Trento has not changed — yet.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Giangiacomo Magnani has agreed terms with AS Roma for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Trento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 30 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
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.
12 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.
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.
The end came on a Tuesday, as these things usually do: a short meeting, a shorter statement, and Umberto Martinelli clearing his office by noon. Football’s cruellest ritual, performed to schedule.
“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 Trento, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Somebody has to pick the team on Saturday, and this week that is me.” An interim appointment with no promises attached, which is how most of them start.
Christian Capone was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
At 33 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Squad6 Aug 2029
Mattia Maffei falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
“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 Trento, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Trento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Sheriff Kassama 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.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Trento know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Trento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 30 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Words at Trento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mattia Maffei is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Trento can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Trento they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Sheriff Kassama 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.
In brief
SquadWords at Trento training over how hard people work
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Trento can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Trento can pretend not to have heard.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Andrea Facchini 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 Trento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 27 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
None of them will be seen by anybody outside the training ground for three years, most of them will never play a senior match, and one of them might change the club. That is the whole proposition, and it is why academies exist.
Christian Capone 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 interest is real enough to have reached print. Trento have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad25 Jun 2029
Mattia Maffei falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“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 Trento, and it is not being withdrawn.
The fee is $460.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Pescara drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Trento 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Michele Rigione trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“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 Trento, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Caracas for Alessandro Vilardi was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Trento they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Sheriff Kassama 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.
In brief
SquadWords at Trento training over how hard people work
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Trento can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Trento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Add another name to the list: Cittadella have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Leonardo Santer. The answer from Trento has not changed — yet.
Squad4 Jun 2029
Words at Trento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mattia Maffei is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Trento 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Giangiacomo Magnani trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“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 Trento, and it is not being withdrawn.
Sheriff Kassama 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.
Squad21 May 2029
Words at Trento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Christian Capone 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 Trento 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 Trento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
0‑1 to Renate, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad14 May 2029
Words at Trento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mattia Maffei is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Trento can pretend not to have heard.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Trento they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Sheriff Kassama 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.
Squad7 May 2029
Words at Trento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Christian Capone 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 one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.20 at 33, 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 Trento 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.
“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 Trento, and it is not being withdrawn.
Christian Capone was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
A 2‑1 win over Dolomiti Bellunesi, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad23 Apr 2029
Mattia Maffei falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Marked 8.11 — 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.
Nobody at Trento is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Trento know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“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 Trento, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Trento they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Mattia Sangalli has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Trento 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.
1 for Giangiacomo Magnani, marked 7.56, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Trento is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Sheriff Kassama 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.
Squad9 Apr 2029
Words at Trento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Christian Capone 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.
8 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.
Four paragraphs on the club website, none of them about football. The board thanked him, wished him well, and had the search under way before the page went up.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
“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 Trento, and it is not being withdrawn.
28 points and a position everybody in the ground can do the arithmetic on. The songs have stopped being about the team and started being about surviving, which is a different noise entirely.
“I am not thinking past Saturday, and I would advise nobody else to.” The caretaker’s first rule is to pretend the job is small; Umberto Martinelli recited it perfectly.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Trento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Trento can pretend not to have heard.
6 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.
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad26 Mar 2029
Words at Trento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Christian Capone is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Trento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The words a physio says slowly. 16 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mattia Sangalli will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Trento the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Trento 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 23 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Trento can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings12 Mar 2029
A first appearance Gabriele Lelli will want to forget — 5.69
Everybody's debut is one of two stories and this was the other one. 5.69, and the only consolation available is that nobody's career has ever been decided by ninety minutes in a shirt he had just been given.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Leonardo Santer will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Trento the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Christian Capone 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 words a physio says slowly. 30 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Luigi Casadei has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
“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 Trento, and it is not being withdrawn.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Gabriele Lelli has just signed for Trento, 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 Trento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The words a physio says slowly. 39 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Trento have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Sheriff Kassama was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad26 Feb 2029
Words at Trento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Christian Capone 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Trento 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 Trento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Arzignano left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad19 Feb 2029
Words at Trento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mattia Maffei 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 defender's mistake gets tidied up by somebody else; a goalkeeper's ends up in the net. He knew before the ball crossed the line, and so did everybody in the ground.
Marked 5.53. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Trento can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Leonardo Santer will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Trento the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Sheriff Kassama was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad12 Feb 2029
Words at Trento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Christian Capone 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.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings12 Feb 2029
Omari Forson was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.39. 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.
8.04. 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Trento, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
Sofiane Achour 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 name of Leonardo Santer has come up in conversations Trento were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“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 Trento, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Trento have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Christian Capone 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: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad29 Jan 2029
Mattia Maffei falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Trento know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
At 2 goals adrift this was a formality, and the formality lasted right up until it did not. Trento found something the first half had given no notice of, and Lecco could not hold what they had.
Maxim Karpov 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Giacomo Benedetti. 3‑2 against Lecco, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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 8.77 — 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.
8.61. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Marked 8.18 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad22 Jan 2029
5 new faces, and Trento are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Trento, and it is not being withdrawn.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Trento will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The offer from Ospitaletto for Leonardo Santer 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 chase for Sofiane Achour ended with $190.0K changing hands and Cosenza out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Sheriff Kassama 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.
Cittadella pay $260.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Words at Trento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Christian Capone 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.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Trento can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
“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 Trento, and it is not being withdrawn.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Trento will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Trento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The name of Leonardo Santer has come up in conversations Trento were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“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 Trento, and it is not being withdrawn.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Trento will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The terraces1 Jan 2029
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 6 of the 30 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Christian Capone was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad1 Jan 2029
Words at Trento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicola Dalmonte is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Trento will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Trento have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Trento 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Trento know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 45 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Christian Capone 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.
Squad18 Dec 2028
Words at Trento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicola Dalmonte 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. 52 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.” Trento have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Trento they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Pasquale Giannotti 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.
“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 Trento, and it is not being withdrawn.
Nicola Dalmonte 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.
Squad4 Dec 2028
Words at Trento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Christian Capone 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 keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Trento, another week without a signature from Michele Rigione.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Trento know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Trento can pretend not to have heard.
The terraces27 Nov 2028
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 7 of the 30 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
A touch he did not want, a bounce he could not have read, and his name in the wrong column. There is no consoling a man after one of these, and Trento will not try tonight.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Trento 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 complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Trento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Nov 2028
Words at Trento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicola Dalmonte 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: Giacomo Benedetti. 2‑1 against Cittadella, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Trento know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“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 Trento, and it is not being withdrawn.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.29 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Leonardo Santer will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Trento 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 Trento 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.
Marked 9.02 — 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Trento have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Trento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Words at Trento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicola Dalmonte 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.
8.47. 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.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 85th, and AlbinoLeffe spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
Pasquale Giannotti 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.
Marked 8.64 — 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.
Nicola Dalmonte 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.
Squad23 Oct 2028
Words at Trento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Christian Capone is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Trento can pretend not to have heard.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Giangiacomo Magnani scored, was marked 7.40, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Trento they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Pasquale Giannotti 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Trento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad9 Oct 2028
Words at Trento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicola Dalmonte 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 is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by 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 Trento, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Trento have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Trento 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.
8.29. 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.
8.07. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Leonardo Santer: 1 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Trento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Omari Forson. 3‑1 against Lumezzane, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Words at Trento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicola Dalmonte 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.
Player ratings25 Sep 2028
Omari Forson was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.77. 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.
8.15. 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.
“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 Trento, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Trento is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Pasquale Giannotti 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 hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Pablo Ortiz did not need any: 7.93, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Trento have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Gianluca Vigliotti reports back to Trento with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Pasquale Giannotti was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
At 32 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
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.
“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 Trento, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Gianluca Vigliotti will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Trento 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 Trento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad4 Sep 2028
Words at Trento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicola Dalmonte is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 6 of the 30 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
Pasquale Giannotti 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.
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.
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.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Crotone will make the call about Gianluca Vigliotti this week. Trento have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Trento, and it is not being withdrawn.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Nicola Dalmonte was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
At 30 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 4 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Words at Trento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Christian Capone 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 words a physio says slowly. 17 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Trento can pretend not to have heard.
Pasquale Giannotti was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
At 32 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
25 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Trento lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Trento can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
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.
Nicola Dalmonte 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.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Trento know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The words a physio says slowly. 33 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Trento 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.” Trento have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Andrea Trainotti will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Trento the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
41 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Trento lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Trento have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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 Trento, and it is not being withdrawn.
In brief
SquadSamuel Wiafe is a better footballer than he was
48 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Trento 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 Trento, and it is not being withdrawn.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Nicola Dalmonte was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Words at Trento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Christian Capone 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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Giangiacomo Magnani has his answer from Trento; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Luigi Casadei has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Trento 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 Trento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Jul 2028
Words at Trento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mattia Maffei 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.
4 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
The chase for Matteo Saccani ended with $320.0K changing hands and Dolomiti Bellunesi out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Nicola Dalmonte was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Words at Trento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Christian Capone is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Trento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad19 Jun 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Nicola Dalmonte's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Sergio Barlocco was one of the reasons people came, and $6.6M does not replace that by itself.
The fee is $2.1M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Monza drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Gabriele Calzà has agreed terms with Pineto for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Nicola Dalmonte was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $2.1M for Omari Forson, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
The offer from Genoa for Ridgeciano Haps 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 official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Add another name to the list: Stade Rennais have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Sergio Barlocco. The answer from Trento has not changed — yet.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Trento they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Pasquale Giannotti 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.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Words at Trento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ridgeciano Haps 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.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Lorenzo Ressia has come out of that comparison in the side, and Trento have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Trento is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Christian Capone 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Trento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 May 2028
Words at Trento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pasquale Giannotti 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 pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jan Busuttil, and the manager let it.
Squad22 May 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Nicola Dalmonte's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Nicola Dalmonte 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.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 16 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Trento 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 Trento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad8 May 2028
Words at Trento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ridgeciano Haps 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 words a physio says slowly. 19 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.
Nicola Dalmonte 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.
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.
A 1‑0 win over Pergolettese, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings1 May 2028
Amer Mehić was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.31. 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 words a physio says slowly. 26 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.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Trento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
14 clean sheets and counting. Strikers leave this ground muttering his name, which is exactly how a goalkeeper measures a good season.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Words at Trento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ridgeciano Haps 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.
Marked 5.31. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
The words a physio says slowly. 33 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.
Christian Capone 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Trento know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
41 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Trento lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
12 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Trento 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 Trento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 4.05. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.