Marked for Eduardo
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match4 Jan 2031
Emanuele Zuelli wins it after the whistle should have gone
93 minutes played. Emanuele Zuelli found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Lecce went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Market6 Jan 2031
Mirko Franchi has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Padova they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market6 Jan 2031
Eduardo hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Padova can pretend not to have heard.
Squad6 Jan 2031
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Padova this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad6 Jan 2031
Charlie Gray arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Charlie Gray has, at Padova, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Player ratings6 Jan 2031
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad6 Jan 2031
Gianluca Caprari 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.
Match4 Jan 2031
Three points for Padova, 2‑1 the final word against Lecce in a contest settled by the finer margins.
The terraces6 Jan 2031
He is 22 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad30 Sep 2030
3 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.
Squad30 Sep 2030
40 days out for Sebastiano Nava after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Padova will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad30 Sep 2030
Yuliy Kuznetsov damages knee ligaments — 17 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 17 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Match25 Sep 2030
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Enrico Ferrari obliged against Arzignano. 1‑1 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Padova.
The dugout30 Sep 2030
Eduardo says Padova went back on their word
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad30 Sep 2030
Words exchanged at Padova
Matteo Lovato 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.
Player ratings30 Sep 2030
Successful dribbles: 20. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match25 Sep 2030
Padova caught on 93 minutes
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Arzignano scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
The dugout30 Sep 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Kevin Fustini, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom5 Aug 2030
Padova spell it out for the manager
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. the manager has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
The dugout5 Aug 2030
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Padova may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad5 Aug 2030
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 17 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Squad5 Aug 2030
Words exchanged at Padova
Matteo Lovato 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
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.
Squad5 Aug 2030
A row about effort at Padova
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gianluca Caprari was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets5 Aug 2030
Genoa 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.
The dugout5 Aug 2030
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Gianluca Caprari was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
The dugout5 Aug 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Agustín Traina, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom8 Jul 2030
the manager has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Padova can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Market8 Jul 2030
“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 Padova, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout8 Jul 2030
Harry Moran: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Padova have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Boardroom8 Jul 2030
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.
Squad8 Jul 2030
A falling-out at Padova
Marco Pompetti and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad8 Jul 2030
Words at Padova training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gianluca Caprari 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.
Transfer targets8 Jul 2030
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ravenna have kept their man, and Padova go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad8 Jul 2030
25 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad8 Jul 2030
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Padova can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad10 Jun 2030
76 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Padova lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market10 Jun 2030
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Padova they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market10 Jun 2030
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
The dugout10 Jun 2030
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Padova may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad10 Jun 2030
Words exchanged at Padova
Tommaso Nobile 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 Jun 2030
Words at Padova training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gianluca Caprari 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.
Transfer targets10 Jun 2030
A loan enquiry to Moreirense: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Squad10 Jun 2030
Too much change too quickly at Padova
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Boardroom10 Jun 2030
Wages eat 87% of everything Padova earn
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.