Marked for Marcelo Pappano
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Lovre Rogić, and the manager let it.
Match17 Oct 2026
Benevento left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Pol Lirola reaches 200 appearances
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Squad19 Oct 2026
22 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Everybody at Hellas Verona saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 36 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
Boardroom19 Oct 2026
Nobody left the Hellas Verona dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Squad19 Oct 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Junior Ajayi and Hellas Verona agree another 3 years.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Suat Serdar's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Leandro Bosco after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad12 Oct 2026
Dailon Livramento and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Loan watch12 Oct 2026
5 appearances away from home and 3 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Pablo Rossi has been promised minutes
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Pablo Rossi has written the date down.
Squad12 Oct 2026
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Hellas Verona has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Simone Perilli knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Simone Perilli trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Edoardo Iannoni wants to know why he earns less
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Hellas Verona have no good answer.
Market12 Oct 2026
The Nunzio Lella talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Hellas Verona know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Squad12 Oct 2026
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad5 Oct 2026
“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 Hellas Verona know it.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Dimitris Sounas and Hellas Verona agree another 2 years.
The terraces5 Oct 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Lorenzo Bernasconi 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Pablo Rossi in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hellas Verona this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
The afternoon belonged to Pol Lirola
A mark of 7.90, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Leandro Bosco could afford to be generous.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Hellas Verona will explain it as a decision about the team, and it may well be one. A dressing room has never once read it that way.