It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Virtus Entella this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Marked 8.01 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
6 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.
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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.90 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Virtus Entella, and it is not being withdrawn.
Daniil Paroutis 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Virtus Entella they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 8 goals between Virtus Entella and Spezia, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad13 Sep 2038
Words at Virtus Entella training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Niccolò Squizzato 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.
Two goals and a mark of 10.00 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Virtus Entella will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
14 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Daniil Paroutis and Virtus Entella agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Virtus Entella they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Virtus Entella and Udinese in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Virtus Entella will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
At 37 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.78 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Daniil Paroutis was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Virtus Entella is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Oliver Jensen 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.
Hellas Verona left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad30 Aug 2038
Words at Virtus Entella training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alessio Sanna 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 Virtus Entella will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
13 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 16 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Virtus Entella this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The offer from Reggiana for Angelo Marchetti 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.
Boardroom23 Aug 2038
13 academy players handed senior numbers at Virtus Entella
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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Ruggero Longo has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Virtus Entella will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Virtus Entella will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Virtus Entella they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Virtus Entella will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
311 appearances across 11 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
Daniil Paroutis 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Virtus Entella they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Virtus Entella 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 Virtus Entella this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Virtus Entella 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 Virtus Entella this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Yoann Becker and Virtus Entella agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Virtus Entella is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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 is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
408 appearances across 11 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Virtus Entella this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Antonin Holes will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Virtus Entella the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad5 Jul 2038
Alessio Sanna falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
8 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.
Position 1, 96 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Angelo Marchetti will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Virtus Entella the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Antonin Holes has agreed terms with Casertana 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 Virtus Entella this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad28 Jun 2038
Mattia Puzone falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The 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.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Virtus Entella this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Jun 2038
7 new faces, and Virtus Entella 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.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Virtus Entella will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Daniil Paroutis 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Davide Rosin will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Virtus Entella the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad14 Jun 2038
Words at Virtus Entella training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Niccolò Squizzato 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 Virtus Entella can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom7 Jun 2038
An order from above at Virtus Entella: somebody has to go
Balance sheets do not care about form or about who the manager was planning to build around. The board have decided a sale is required, and the only question left is which name ends up carrying 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 Virtus Entella this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Jun 2038
Words at Virtus Entella training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mattia Puzone is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Alessandro Rovetini is living that version at Virtus Entella, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad31 May 2038
Words at Virtus Entella training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Niccolò Squizzato 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.
Nikita Morozov 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.
100 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Virtus Entella lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Virtus Entella 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.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Squad24 May 2038
5 new faces, and Virtus Entella 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.
107 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Virtus Entella lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
7 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Virtus Entella will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
13 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
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.
At 37 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.34 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Virtus Entella is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Marked 9.29 — 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.
114 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Virtus Entella lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Daniele Tombesi provided it, and the 9.35 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Virtus Entella will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
6 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Leonardo Benedetti 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.
8.68. 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.
121 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Virtus Entella lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Virtus Entella will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
5 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.81 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
12 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Squad3 May 2038
Words at Virtus Entella training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Niccolò Squizzato 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.
21 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Virtus Entella will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Marked 8.76. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Virtus Entella.
Squad26 Apr 2038
Words at Virtus Entella training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sean Longstaff 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 Virtus Entella will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.21 at 37, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Daniil Paroutis 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.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Virtus Entella they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Daniele Tombesi provided it, and the 9.54 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Virtus Entella will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Virtus Entella and Pescara in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Flavio Tarantino has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Virtus Entella will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
At 37 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.96 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
27 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Daniil Paroutis 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Virtus Entella will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
26 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take 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 Virtus Entella 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Virtus Entella 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 Virtus Entella this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Davide Rosin will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Virtus Entella the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad22 Mar 2038
Words at Virtus Entella training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Niccolò Squizzato is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
9 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Daniele Tombesi. 1‑0 against Südtirol, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Virtus Entella will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Daniele Tombesi provided it, and the 9.11 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Marked 9.00 — 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.
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.
Squad15 Mar 2038
Words at Virtus Entella training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sean Longstaff 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 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
3 goals inside twenty minutes with Daniele Tombesi in the middle of it, and Bari unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Virtus Entella 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.” Virtus Entella have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The instruction has come from upstairs rather than from the dugout, which is the version of this conversation no manager enjoys. Somebody in that squad is now available whether the man who picks the team thinks so or not.
“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 Virtus Entella, and it is not being withdrawn.
Marked 8.98 — 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Virtus Entella will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
431 appearances across 12 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.81 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Marked 9.71 — 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Virtus Entella will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.04 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Virtus Entella they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Marked 9.01 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Marked 8.92 — 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Virtus Entella 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 Virtus Entella 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Virtus Entella will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.98 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Daniil Paroutis and Virtus Entella agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Daniil Paroutis was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Two goals and a mark of 8.84 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Virtus Entella have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Virtus Entella this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Bernat Guiu wins it after the whistle should have gone
90 minutes played. Bernat Guiu found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Venezia went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
At 37 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.44 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad25 Jan 2038
Words at Virtus Entella training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Niccolò Squizzato is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 10.00 at 37, and nobody on the pitch was better.
10 goals in one match, Daniele Tombesi on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Virtus Entella and Mantova.
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.
In brief
Player ratingsYoann Becker was on a different afternoon to everybody else
Daniil Paroutis 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.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Virtus Entella and Avellino in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Virtus Entella have had the benefit of it.
The bid was some way short and Virtus Entella did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Player ratings4 Jan 2038
Daniele Tombesi was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.29. 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.15 at 37, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“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 Virtus Entella, and it is not being withdrawn.
Daniil Paroutis 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.
Squad28 Dec 2037
Words at Virtus Entella training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Niccolò Squizzato is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
19 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
The words a physio says slowly. 20 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Virtus Entella this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mario Pirovano will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Virtus Entella the goodbyes have quietly begun.
10 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
The words a physio says slowly. 27 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. Valentin Costache will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Virtus Entella 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 Virtus Entella this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
9 goals and a season average of 7.48. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad14 Dec 2037
Words at Virtus Entella training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Niccolò Squizzato 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 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
The words a physio says slowly. 34 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.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
A season average of 7.56 with 13 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Boardroom7 Dec 2037
An order from above at Virtus Entella: somebody has to go
Balance sheets do not care about form or about who the manager was planning to build around. The board have decided a sale is required, and the only question left is which name ends up carrying it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Virtus Entella they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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. 41 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 Virtus Entella can pretend not to have heard.
Daniele Tombesi scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑3 to Pescara, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Player ratings30 Nov 2037
Daniele Tombesi was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.63. 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.
Pescara held the lead for 4 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Virtus Entella answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Virtus Entella are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
In brief
SquadMattia Puzone falls out with a teammate over standards
The words a physio says slowly. 48 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Francesco Ferrara provided it, and the 9.14 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings23 Nov 2037
Up for the corner, and Mattia Puzone delivers — 7.47
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Mattia Puzone scored, was marked 7.47, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Virtus Entella this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Virtus Entella is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
8 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Virtus Entella and Spezia in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
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. 55 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.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.80 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Virtus Entella they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Defensive actions: 24, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Squad16 Nov 2037
Words at Virtus Entella training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Niccolò Squizzato 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.
21 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Nikita Morozov. 1‑0 against Pisa, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The words a physio says slowly. 62 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Catania ended it 2‑3. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Player ratings9 Nov 2037
A brace, and Maxim Axyutin takes the afternoon — 9.90
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Maxim Axyutin provided it, and the 9.90 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Catania the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Virtus Entella will enjoy reviewing.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.12 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The words a physio says slowly. 69 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 Virtus Entella can pretend not to have heard.
Daniil Paroutis 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 season average of 7.45 with 11 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad2 Nov 2037
Words at Virtus Entella training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Niccolò Squizzato 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 9.07 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
In brief
Player ratingsNikita Morozov was on a different afternoon to everybody else
Player ratingsGiuseppe Battimelli was on a different afternoon to everybody else
Boardroom103% of the income goes out in wages at Virtus Entella
76 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Virtus Entella lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Two goals and a mark of 9.77 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.10 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Virtus Entella 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 Virtus Entella this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mario Pirovano will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Virtus Entella the goodbyes have quietly begun.
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
In brief
SquadWords at Virtus Entella training over how hard people work
83 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Virtus Entella lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Virtus Entella they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Virtus Entella and Cesena, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
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.
90 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Virtus Entella lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Virtus Entella will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Virtus Entella they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad12 Oct 2037
Words at Virtus Entella training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Niccolò Squizzato is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
9 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
97 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Virtus Entella lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Virtus Entella will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Two goals and a mark of 8.79 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
540 appearances across 13 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Virtus Entella heard it as anything else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Virtus Entella this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Virtus Entella and Modena in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
104 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Virtus Entella lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Virtus Entella will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
5 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.18 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Virtus Entella they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
8 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
111 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Virtus Entella lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Virtus Entella will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.43 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Valentin Costache will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Virtus Entella 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 Virtus Entella 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Virtus Entella will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings14 Sep 2037
A brace, and Yoann Becker takes the afternoon — 9.47
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Yoann Becker provided it, and the 9.47 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.54 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Daniil Paroutis 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Davide Rosin will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Virtus Entella the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad14 Sep 2037
Words at Virtus Entella training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Niccolò Squizzato 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 Virtus Entella will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Virtus Entella, and it is not being withdrawn.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Tommaso Del Lungo and Virtus Entella agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Leonardo Benedetti 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.
Three points for Virtus Entella, 3‑2 the final word against Mantova in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad7 Sep 2037
Words at Virtus Entella training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luke Rawlings 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 8.88. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Virtus Entella.
Match5 Sep 2037
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for Virtus Entella. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Virtus Entella will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Player ratings31 Aug 2037
Yoann Becker was on a different afternoon to everybody else
10.00. 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.
Squad31 Aug 2037
Words at Virtus Entella training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Niccolò Squizzato 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: Yoann Becker. 3‑2 against Avellino, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Juve Stabia will make the call about Leart Bekolli this week. Virtus Entella have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
The phone has started ringing about Mario Pirovano again, and this time the name on the line is Pro Patria. Virtus Entella are listening politely and promising nothing.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Virtus Entella will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Virtus Entella is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Leart Bekolli 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.
10 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Silvio Ferrari has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Virtus Entella will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Virtus Entella is running low.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Virtus Entella can pretend not to have heard.
Daniil Paroutis was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad17 Aug 2037
Leart Bekolli 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Virtus Entella will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Virtus Entella can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Virtus Entella is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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 Virtus Entella this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
BoardroomWages eat 87% of everything Virtus Entella earn
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Virtus Entella will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Daniil Paroutis 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 rules permit it and it stings anyway. Valentin Costache has agreed terms with Lecce for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mario Pirovano will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Virtus Entella the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad3 Aug 2037
Words at Virtus Entella training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Niccolò Squizzato 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 Virtus Entella will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Virtus Entella, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Virtus Entella 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 Virtus Entella this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Jul 2037
Words at Virtus Entella training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mattia Puzone 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Bernat Guiu trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Virtus Entella will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Virtus Entella, 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 Virtus Entella this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Jul 2037
Words at Virtus Entella training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Niccolò Squizzato 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 Virtus Entella will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Leart Bekolli will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Virtus Entella the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Leart Bekolli 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.
In brief
BoardroomWages eat 89% of everything Virtus Entella earn
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Virtus Entella will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Virtus Entella, and it is not being withdrawn.
286 appearances across 10 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Virtus Entella heard it as anything else.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Daniil Paroutis and Virtus Entella agree another 2 years.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Virtus Entella will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Virtus Entella will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The offer from Juve Stabia for Leart Bekolli was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
“I 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.
Squad22 Jun 2037
Words at Virtus Entella training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Niccolò Squizzato 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 given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Virtus Entella know 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 Virtus Entella, 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 Virtus Entella this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Virtus Entella is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad15 Jun 2037
Words at Virtus Entella training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luigi Palomba is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Virtus Entella can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Daniil Paroutis 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Virtus Entella they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
In brief
SquadWords at Virtus Entella training over how hard people work
“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 Virtus Entella, 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 Virtus Entella this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Jun 2037
Words at Virtus Entella training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marin Laušić is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Daniil Paroutis is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Virtus Entella has been clear about where Nikita Morozov stands, which is more than many ever get.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Virtus Entella is running low.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Virtus Entella this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 May 2037
Marin Laušić 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Virtus Entella, and both men came out saying it was fine.
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Virtus Entella, another week without a signature from Mattia Puzone.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.12 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Virtus Entella, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mario Pirovano will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Virtus Entella the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad18 May 2037
Words at Virtus Entella training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marin Laušić is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Daniil Paroutis 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Davide Rosin will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Virtus Entella the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad11 May 2037
Marin Laušić 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 ratings11 May 2037
Saïm Balmain was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.05. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Every 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.
14 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Virtus Entella lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.17 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Virtus Entella and Empoli in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad4 May 2037
Words at Virtus Entella training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marin Laušić 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 Virtus Entella, another week without a signature from Francesco Ferrara.
Shots: 8. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
21 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Virtus Entella lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 16 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Virtus Entella is running low.
16 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
28 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Virtus Entella lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 23 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.49 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“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 Virtus Entella, 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 Virtus Entella this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mario Pirovano will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Virtus Entella the goodbyes have quietly begun.
35 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Virtus Entella lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 30 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Virtus Entella they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
8.40. 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Virtus Entella know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
42 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Virtus Entella lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 37 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
414 appearances across 11 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.22 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Virtus Entella heard it as anything else.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Virtus Entella and Spezia, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Marked 8.82 — 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.
Marked 8.62 — 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.
49 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Virtus Entella lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 44 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings30 Mar 2037
A brace, and Yoann Becker takes the afternoon — 8.85
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Yoann Becker provided it, and the 8.85 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.69 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
56 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Virtus Entella lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 51 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.50 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Virtus Entella 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 Virtus Entella this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Virtus Entella they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
63 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Virtus Entella lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 58 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.21 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Daniil Paroutis was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Virtus Entella is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad16 Mar 2037
Marin Laušić 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.
70 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Virtus Entella lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
13 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 65 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Virtus Entella can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Virtus Entella 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 Virtus Entella this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
77 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Virtus Entella lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 12 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 72 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ilari Kangasniemi provided it, and the 8.10 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.14 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The instruction has come from upstairs rather than from the dugout, which is the version of this conversation no manager enjoys. Somebody in that squad is now available whether the man who picks the team thinks so or not.
Daniil Paroutis 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.
84 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Virtus Entella lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
11 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 79 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings23 Feb 2037
A brace, and Yoann Becker takes the afternoon — 8.88
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Yoann Becker provided it, and the 8.88 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mario Pirovano will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Virtus Entella the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
91 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Virtus Entella lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
10 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 86 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings16 Feb 2037
A brace, and Marin Laušić takes the afternoon — 9.32
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Marin Laušić provided it, and the 9.32 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Virtus Entella, 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.” Virtus Entella have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Davide Rosin will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Virtus Entella the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The words a physio says slowly. 98 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Virtus Entella will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Virtus Entella scored in the 90th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Giuseppe Battimelli provided it, and the 9.64 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Raffaele Maria Di Costanzo provided it, and the 9.21 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.93 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Virtus Entella can pretend not to have heard.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Virtus Entella will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Virtus Entella, and it is not being withdrawn.
Two goals and a mark of 9.55 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.71 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The deal that would have taken Leart Bekolli to Monza has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Virtus Entella with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Francesco Ferrara commits to Virtus Entella for another 4 years.
Squad2 Feb 2037
Words at Virtus Entella training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marin Laušić 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. 56 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Daniil Paroutis 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.
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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Virtus Entella they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad26 Jan 2037
Words at Virtus Entella training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Niccolò Squizzato 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.
8.66. 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. 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 63 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
3 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Mantova the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Virtus Entella will enjoy reviewing.
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.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.08 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Virtus Entella, and it is not being withdrawn.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 6 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
The words a physio says slowly. 24 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 70 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.94 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Virtus Entella can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Virtus Entella they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Daniil Paroutis was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
5 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Squad12 Jan 2037
Marin Laušić falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The words a physio says slowly. 31 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 77 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 Virtus Entella, and it is not being withdrawn.
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. 9.05 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Virtus Entella heard it as anything else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Virtus Entella this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
8 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Virtus Entella and Cagliari in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
The words a physio says slowly. 38 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 84 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Two goals and a mark of 9.14 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The 85th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Raffaele Maria Di Costanzo decided nobody was going anywhere. Catanzaro had no time left to answer.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.99 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Daniil Paroutis 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.
Marin Laušić falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
8.32. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
The words a physio says slowly. 45 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 91 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.02 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad22 Dec 2036
Words at Virtus Entella training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marin Laušić 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. 52 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 98 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.13 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Virtus Entella they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 105 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.05 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Virtus Entella, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom8 Dec 2036
An order from above at Virtus Entella: somebody has to go
Balance sheets do not care about form or about who the manager was planning to build around. The board have decided a sale is required, and the only question left is which name ends up carrying it.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Daniil Paroutis and Virtus Entella agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Virtus Entella this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mario Pirovano will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Virtus Entella the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 112 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 Virtus Entella, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.07 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Daniil Paroutis was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
5 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Squad1 Dec 2036
Marin Laušić 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 119 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Two goals and a mark of 9.28 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.06 at 35, 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 Virtus Entella this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Virtus Entella and Spezia, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
In brief
Player ratingsIlari Kangasniemi was on a different afternoon to everybody else
Player ratingsLeart Bekolli was on a different afternoon to everybody else
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 126 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Two goals and a mark of 8.56 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Two goals and a mark of 8.57 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.36 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Virtus Entella can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Virtus Entella 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 Virtus Entella this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
8 goals in one match, Leart Bekolli on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Virtus Entella and Pisa.
Squad17 Nov 2036
Marin Laušić 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.
In brief
Player ratingsFrancesco Ferrara was on a different afternoon to everybody else
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 133 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
“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 Virtus Entella, 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 Virtus Entella this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Virtus Entella is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad10 Nov 2036
Words at Virtus Entella training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marin Laušić 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. 140 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.46 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
7 goals in one match, Francesco Ferrara on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Virtus Entella and Bari.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 91th minute. Carrarese will replay every second of the added time for a week.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.23 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad27 Oct 2036
Words at Virtus Entella training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marin Laušić 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: Ilari Kangasniemi. 2‑1 against Carrarese, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Virtus Entella this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.