Successful dribbles: 24. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Livorno this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Squad27 Oct 2031
Kevin Biondi 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Livorno, another week without a signature from Benjamin Mazzeo.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
1 error, one goal, and a night in front of the same three seconds. He will see it tonight, tomorrow and probably in February, and everybody who has played knows exactly which frame he keeps stopping on.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 17 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
Hernâni 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.
Squad13 Oct 2031
Kevin Biondi 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 goal that put Campobasso ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Livorno equalised, 1 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 24 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 Livorno they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kevin Biondi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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; Livorno are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Ivan Potskhveriia 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 dugout6 Oct 2031
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Interim Coach chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 31 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Pro Vercelli go through and Livorno go home, 1‑3 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Livorno this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Livorno will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Hernâni was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Successful dribbles: 22. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad22 Sep 2031
Kevin Biondi 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.
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Interim Coach on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Livorno will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
6 goals in one match, Mohamed Malang Touré on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Livorno and Pontedera.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kevin Biondi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Livorno asked and Fiorentina said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Marked 8.05 — 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.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Livorno will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Mohamed Malang Touré had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Ternana were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
Two goals and a mark of 8.76 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Giorgio Lionetti will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Livorno the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Al Ain is saying, and nobody at Livorno is enjoying the guessing.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 59 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Two goals and a mark of 9.06 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
At 34 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 7.83, and nobody on the pitch better.
Boardroom1 Sep 2031
Deadline passes with 22 signed and 18 gone
That is the business done at Livorno until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Everything agreed with Kauno Zalgiris, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Livorno 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 Livorno this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 66 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Livorno have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Livorno have done the hard part with Lazio, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Hernâni 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.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Squad25 Aug 2031
Words at Livorno training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kevin Biondi 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.
Livorno asked and Audace Cerignola said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Leandro Ceccarelli has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Umberto Neri has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Livorno will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
At 23 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad18 Aug 2031
Román Saravia has improved at 25, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 4 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Livorno asked and Pontedera said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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; Livorno are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Livorno have made the call to Real Sociedad. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Mohamed Malang Touré signs something — a contract at Livorno or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 80 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 Livorno, and it is not being withdrawn.
Everything agreed with Benevento, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Paul Smith has agreed terms with Ternana for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad11 Aug 2031
Words at Livorno training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kevin Biondi 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. 87 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
27 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Livorno lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Livorno can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
The whole football department in one room on a weekday morning. Nothing was announced afterwards, which is what a board announces when it has run out of patience.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Livorno can pretend not to have heard.
9 seasons and 87 appearances, all of them here. Careers like this are not designed; they happen to a certain kind of man at a certain kind of club, and this town has one.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Torino is saying, and nobody at Livorno is enjoying the guessing.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 94 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 Livorno can pretend not to have heard.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Livorno this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 101 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
At 25 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Livorno asked and Pontedera said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Diego Martinelli has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Alfonso Agostini is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Livorno 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.” Livorno have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Andrea Sala 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.
Squad14 Jul 2031
Words at Livorno training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kevin Biondi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Salernitana have kept their man, and Livorno go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Nobody at Livorno will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Livorno will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
The whole football department in one room on a weekday morning. Nothing was announced afterwards, which is what a board announces when it has run out of patience.
At 18 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Livorno asked and Torres said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Livorno will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kevin Biondi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Livorno asked and Dolomiti Bellunesi said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Livorno this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Kevin Biondi is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Samuele Regazzetti signs something — a contract at Livorno or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The best deals are the ones the accountants never notice. Benjamin Mazzeo arrives at Livorno with his wages the only cost and something to prove the only clause.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 129 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Ravenna had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Hernâni was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad23 Jun 2031
Diego Peralta 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.
Livorno asked and Audace Cerignola said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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 Livorno, and it is not being withdrawn.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Livorno have done the hard part with Renate, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Livorno this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kevin Biondi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Livorno asked and Ternana said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Román Saravia trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
The name of Alessandro Torri has come up in conversations Livorno were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad2 Jun 2031
Diego Peralta 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.
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Hernâni's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
Hernâni was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad26 May 2031
Kevin Biondi 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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Manuele Malotti signs something — a contract at Livorno or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nobody at Livorno will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Livorno, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Livorno 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 Livorno this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 May 2031
Words at Livorno training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kevin Biondi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Hernâni 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.
Squad5 May 2031
Words at Livorno training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kevin Biondi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Samuele Regazzetti signs something — a contract at Livorno or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
The dugoutMiroslav Tonev loses the manager who believed in him
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Livorno can pretend not to have heard.
Hernâni 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 Apr 2031
Kevin Biondi 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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Manuele Malotti signs something — a contract at Livorno or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Fiorello Allushi is on it.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.97 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Hernâni and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad14 Apr 2031
Kevin Biondi 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.
A 2‑1 win over Pianese, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The dugout14 Apr 2031
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Interim Coach, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Chances created: 10. Nothing on the scoresheet and everything in the match: the pass before the pass, over and over, until the defence stopped guessing right.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Livorno has been clear about where Ramiz Ndoj stands, which is more than many ever get.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Frédéric Veseli commits to Livorno for another 2 years.
Squad7 Apr 2031
Kevin Biondi 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.
“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.
The dugout7 Apr 2031
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Interim Coach, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Hernâni 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.
Squad31 Mar 2031
Diego Peralta 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 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.
The dugout31 Mar 2031
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑3 Interim Coach left the room before anybody could ask which.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Livorno is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad24 Mar 2031
Words at Livorno training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kevin Biondi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Livorno this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
The dugout24 Mar 2031
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑3 Interim Coach left the room before anybody could ask which.
1 for Hernâni, marked 7.42, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Hernâni and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad17 Mar 2031
Kevin Biondi 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.
Successful dribbles: 12. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
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.
Hernâni 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.
Squad10 Mar 2031
Diego Peralta 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.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings10 Mar 2031
Kevin Biondi was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.11. 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.
“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; Livorno are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.94 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alessandro Torri will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Livorno 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 Livorno this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Feb 2031
Kevin Biondi 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.
A 2‑1 win over Sambenedettese, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
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.
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.98 on the card, and the Livorno support went home talking about one name.
The dugout24 Feb 2031
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Interim Coach, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Hernâni and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad17 Feb 2031
Words at Livorno training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Diego Peralta 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.
Livorno asked and PSV said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Livorno can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Interim Coach after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Hernâni will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Livorno escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Livorno have lost him in all but the paperwork.
7.77, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Successful dribbles: 21. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad10 Feb 2031
Kevin Biondi 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.
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Ravenna the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Livorno will enjoy reviewing.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Livorno 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 Livorno this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Jan 2031
Words at Livorno training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Diego Peralta 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 8.06 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Benevento keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kevin Biondi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Livorno asked and Salernitana said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Sergio Buttà is in the works
Transfer targetsA loan move for Mattias Larsson is in the works
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Livorno can pretend not to have heard.
Add another name to the list: Lecce have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Tadeo Calgaro. The answer from Livorno has not changed — yet.
Hernâni 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.
Squad6 Jan 2031
Words at Livorno training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Diego Peralta is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Livorno, and it is not being withdrawn.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.83 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Successful dribbles: 23. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Livorno this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Dec 2030
Kevin Biondi 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.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
The dugout30 Dec 2030
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Interim Coach kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
8 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.
“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 Livorno, and it is not being withdrawn.
Two goals and a mark of 8.81 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. 9.18 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Livorno is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kevin Biondi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 22 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.
9 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Diego Peralta was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Livorno can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Interim Coach after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Successful dribbles: 15. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
In brief
MarketThe clock does Tadeo Calgaro’s negotiating for him
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Livorno they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Livorno can pretend not to have heard.
Hernâni was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kevin Biondi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 7 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Livorno this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kevin Biondi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A point taken on 90 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
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.
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.
6 goals in one match, Mohamed Malang Touré on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Livorno and Ascoli.
Beaten 2‑4, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad18 Nov 2030
Kevin Biondi 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 12 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Livorno is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Hernâni 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.
Torres left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad11 Nov 2030
Words at Livorno training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kevin Biondi 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 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.
The dugout11 Nov 2030
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑3 Interim Coach left the room before anybody could ask which.
Hellas Verona go through and Livorno go home, 0‑5 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
It finished 0-5. A cup exit is a disappointment; this was a public dismantling, and the difference between the two is the number of people who will still be talking about it in August.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Livorno can pretend not to have heard.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.53 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Livorno this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad4 Nov 2030
Words at Livorno training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Diego Peralta is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
2‑5 to Sambenedettese, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Two goals and a mark of 9.03 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Livorno they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Livorno and Sambenedettese, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kevin Biondi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Hernâni scored, was marked 7.57, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Livorno have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Hernâni and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad21 Oct 2030
Words at Livorno training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kevin Biondi 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 22 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.
Three points for Livorno, 2‑0 the final word against Pineto in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings21 Oct 2030
Tadeo Calgaro was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.12. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Interim Coach on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Frédéric Veseli
17 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Livorno lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Livorno 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 Livorno this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Diego Peralta was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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; Livorno are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Interim Coach after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
31 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Livorno lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
2 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
Successful dribbles: 31. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
He is 18, he is averaging 6.54, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.99 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Livorno is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
38 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Livorno lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The club looked outside for a month, found nothing it preferred, and handed the job to the man who had been doing it anyway. He knows the building; now he has to prove he knows the rest.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Manuele Malotti provided it, and the 9.11 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Hernâni and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad23 Sep 2030
Words at Livorno training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Diego Peralta 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.
Three points for Livorno, 2‑0 the final word against Forli in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad23 Sep 2030
Román Saravia has improved at 24, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
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.
2‑5 to Pontedera, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Livorno 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 Livorno this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Livorno and Pontedera in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad16 Sep 2030
Words at Livorno training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kevin Biondi 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.
52 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Livorno lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.49 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Hernâni was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout9 Sep 2030
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 2‑3 Interim Coach left the room before anybody could ask which.
A brace, and Tadeo Calgaro takes the afternoon — 9.03
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Tadeo Calgaro provided it, and the 9.03 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 Livorno, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 12 arrived, 11 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Michele Camporese will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Livorno the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The deal with Ternana is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Livorno had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Benevento, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
There is nobody left to promote and nobody left to run a session. The board have brought in a name the supporters do not know, and the question of how a club gets here will outlast whoever answers it.
“Somebody picks the team on Saturday. This week it is me, and that is as far as I have thought.” No promises were made in either direction, which is how these usually begin.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at AS Roma is saying, and nobody at Livorno is enjoying the guessing.
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.
Boardroom26 Aug 2030
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Livorno
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.
Squad26 Aug 2030
Kevin Biondi 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. 16 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“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 Livorno, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Salernitana is saying, and nobody at Livorno is enjoying the guessing.
Hernâni was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Diego Peralta was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Livorno asked and Altamura said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
At 28 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Livorno have made the call to Pergolettese. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
23 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Livorno lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Livorno, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Michele Camporese will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Livorno the goodbyes have quietly begun.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Hernâni 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.
Squad5 Aug 2030
Kevin Biondi 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Altamura have kept their man, and Livorno go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
30 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Livorno lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Livorno had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Benevento, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Hernâni and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad29 Jul 2030
Words at Livorno training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kevin Biondi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Crotone have kept their man, and Livorno go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Livorno people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The words a physio says slowly. 37 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Livorno have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Triestina keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Livorno this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Jul 2030
Words at Livorno training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Diego Peralta 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.
44 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Livorno lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Livorno, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deal with Benevento is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Hernâni was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Daley De Vrij is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kevin Biondi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Manuele Malotti signs something — a contract at Livorno or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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 Diego Peralta has written the date down.
51 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Livorno lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Jeremy Valenzuela is living that version at Livorno, and it tends to show in the first month.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ternana have kept their man, and Livorno go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The name of Alessandro Torri has come up in conversations Livorno were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
4 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Tadeo Calgaro had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Livorno, and it is not being withdrawn.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Ivan Potskhveriia has just signed for Livorno, and for once the answer mattered.
Hernâni and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad1 Jul 2030
Words at Livorno training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Manuele Malotti 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.
17 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Livorno 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 Livorno this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Vilmer Johansson is living that version at Livorno, and it tends to show in the first month.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kevin Biondi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Livorno asked and Pergolettese said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Livorno. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Leon Baldi signs something — a contract at Livorno or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
The dugoutNana Welbeck knocks on the manager’s door
24 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Livorno lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Livorno, and it is not being withdrawn.
Hernâni was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Manuele Malotti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
31 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Livorno lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Manuele Malotti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Standard Liege have kept their man, and Livorno go back to a list with one name crossed off 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; Livorno are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Davide Gentile signs something — a contract at Livorno or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
38 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Livorno lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 Livorno, and it is not being withdrawn.
Hernâni and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 Jun 2030
Kevin Biondi 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.
Standard Liege have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
45 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Livorno lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Livorno have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Livorno this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 May 2030
Words at Livorno training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Manuele Malotti is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Tadeo Calgaro signs something — a contract at Livorno or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Livorno, and both men came out saying it was fine.
52 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Livorno lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Hernâni was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Manuele Malotti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Manuele Malotti signs something — a contract at Livorno or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.89 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Hernâni 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.
Squad15 Apr 2030
Words at Livorno training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Manuele Malotti is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Livorno can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Ruggero Barbieri after the 2‑2 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
12 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 decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Christ Jesus Mawete and Livorno agree another 4 years.
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.
Successful dribbles: 18. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Ruggero Barbieri after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Stefano Riva is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Livorno has been clear about where Nana Welbeck stands, which is more than many ever get.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Livorno this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Perugia made Livorno work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad1 Apr 2030
Words at Livorno training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kevin Biondi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Successful dribbles: 19. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Livorno has been clear about where Leon Baldi stands, which is more than many ever get.
The dugout1 Apr 2030
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Ruggero Barbieri kept it short after the 3‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
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.
0‑2 to Ascoli, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout18 Mar 2030
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Ruggero Barbieri left the room before anybody could ask which.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Andrea Sala’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Livorno needing him to play as if none of it matters.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Tadeo Calgaro did not need any: 8.19, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Andrea Sala was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad4 Mar 2030
Words at Livorno training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Manuele Malotti is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Tadeo Calgaro. 1‑0 against Vis Pesaro, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Successful dribbles: 17. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Ruggero Barbieri on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Livorno are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
In brief
Looking aheadLivorno take on the side everybody is chasing
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Andrea Rota
The dugoutHernâni is not enjoying his job description
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Livorno can pretend not to have heard.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.89 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Hernâni was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Tadeo Calgaro did not need any: 7.66, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Hernâni 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.
Squad18 Feb 2030
Words at Livorno training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kevin Biondi 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 needed Tadeo Calgaro to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Pineto, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout18 Feb 2030
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Ruggero Barbieri was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Livorno dressing room was either.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Livorno will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Livorno 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.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout11 Feb 2030
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Ruggero Barbieri to a room that had heard them before.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Livorno know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Livorno that is a harder question to answer.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
The terraces11 Feb 2030
Supporters make their feelings known about Tadeo Calgaro
The speculation has reached the stands, and the stands have answered. Livorno would like this settled before it becomes the only thing anybody asks about.
10 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kevin Biondi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A point taken on 92 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
In brief
Boardroom92% of the income goes out in wages at Livorno
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Livorno have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Livorno, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Squad7 Jan 2030
Kevin Biondi 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.
Hernâni 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.
Squad31 Dec 2029
Words at Livorno training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bryan Urueña is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Hernâni 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.
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad24 Dec 2029
Words at Livorno training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bryan Urueña 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.
Position 6, 29 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Livorno will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bryan Urueña was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It needed Lorenzo Malagrida to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Guidonia Montecelio, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Ruggero Barbieri after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
In brief
MarketThe clock does Bryan Urueña’s negotiating for him