Marked for Jonathan Pitou
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market25 Jan 2027
“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.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
Alcione Milano asked and Sturm Graz said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match23 Jan 2027
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luca Zamparo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
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 Davide Esposito left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad25 Jan 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Alcione Milano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
Bodo/Glimt 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.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
There was one mistake and it ended in the net. Defenders are judged on the worst thing they did rather than on the eighty-nine minutes either side of it, which is unfair and is also the job.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
Luca Zamparo is still being punished for one mistake
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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match26 Dec 2026
No end in sight to Alcione Milano's wait for a win
10 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Alcione Milano has to find a result from somewhere.
Match26 Dec 2026
Beaten 0‑3 by Triestina, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Market28 Dec 2026
“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 The request is on a desk at Alcione Milano, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match26 Dec 2026
4 matches without a goal for Alcione Milano
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Alcione Milano training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kevin Bright 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Simone Giorgeschi and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
“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.
Boardroom28 Dec 2026
110% of the income goes out in wages at Alcione Milano
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.
Boardroom28 Dec 2026
Nobody left the Alcione Milano dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
$1.0M was the most the club would pay and Lazio were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Alcione Milano had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Inter, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Kevin Bright 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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Alcione Milano asked and Legia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad17 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Alcione Milano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Napoli 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
The competition arrived without a word said to him about it. Federico Agazzi keeps the shirt for now, at Alcione Milano's convenience rather than his own.
Squad17 Aug 2026
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Alcione Milano has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.