(The tape recorder clicks on. I’ve got the staff overview pulled up, three bar charts all maxed out against the rest of Serie A. It’s a genuinely strange feeling, being the club everyone else is being measured against for once.)
Act I: The Best Staff in Serie A
Small moment of pride to start: recruitment, medical and coaching are all now maxed out relative to the rest of the division. Every bar on every chart tops out where the highest in Serie A sits. Given where the treatment room was this time last year, having the best medical department in the league feels like a genuinely earned upgrade rather than just money thrown at a problem — though admittedly it was also money thrown at a problem.
Act II: Clearing the Decks
Mosquera’s move to Leeds is done and confirmed, a tidy fee with the board topping up the budget as promised. That’s essentially the outgoing business wrapped up for the summer. The one bit of tidying still to come is squad congestion at the younger end: both Faty and Fonseca are heading out on loan to get regular football rather than rot on the bench behind established players, and Ramírez may well follow them out the door before the window shuts. Every one of those loans is going out with a recall clause attached, because I’ve learned my lesson about sending promising kids out into the world without an escape hatch.
Act III: Two More In, and One I’m Still Not Sure About
Silvijo Pivarić has agreed to join from Dinamo Zagreb — an 18-year-old Croatian forward with genuine wonderkid billing, already capped at senior level, and the very pleasing detail that he turned down Lazio to sign with us instead. That’s twice this window someone’s picked Florence over Iain’s offer, and I’m not going to pretend that doesn’t feel good every single time. We’ve asked to delay the deal by a week, most likely so we can turn straight around and loan him back to Zagreb for a season of proper development before he’s actually needed here.
There’s also a deal in for Vítor Roque from Atalanta, though I’m genuinely on the fence about pushing it through — we’re already fairly stacked with players of exactly his profile, and adding another mouth to feed in that part of the pitch might just be greed rather than need. Watch this space.
Act IV: The Search for a Defender Continues
The one gap I still haven’t filled is centre-back or left-back cover, and it’s not for lack of trying. We had a deal lined up for Gianluca Mancini at Roma, only for the board to step in and block it — they didn’t fancy the value at the agreed fee and capped what they’d sanction well below it. Fair enough, given how carefully we’ve managed the finances this summer, but it means the search continues. I want the right one, not just any one.
Act V: A Couple of Loose Ends
Rolando Mandragora needs a decision — he’s into the final year of his deal, and my sturdy, reliable vice-captain deserves better than being left to run down his contract in limbo. I think he stays on as a squad player rather than moves on; he’s earned that much loyalty. Guðmundsson’s in exactly the same boat, and I’ve landed in exactly the same place with him.
And on a lighter note: the head physio’s opening update for the new season reports precisely zero current injuries and zero recurring problems, against a league-average expectation of around 127 injuries across a squad this size over a full campaign. A completely clean bill of health to start the year. I’m not saying anything else out loud in case I jinx it.
Next time: whatever’s left when the window actually, finally, closes.