Marked for Mattia Macchi
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match9 Sep 2028
Still nobody has beaten Cavese
The unbeaten run reaches 9. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Market11 Sep 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cavese can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout11 Sep 2028
“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.
Match9 Sep 2028
4 matches without a win for Cavese
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Cavese are no longer polite ones.
Squad11 Sep 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cavese this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Carlo Faedo 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 dugout11 Sep 2028
Carlo Faedo gets it from the manager
“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 dugout11 Sep 2028
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
The dugout11 Sep 2028
Gabriele Platto has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Cavese 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market4 Sep 2028
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Gabriele Platto will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Cavese the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The dugout4 Sep 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Cavese may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Boardroom4 Sep 2028
Window shuts: 16 in, 8 out at Cavese
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 16 arrived, 8 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Match2 Sep 2028
8 unbeaten for Cavese
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 8 matches without defeat is a foundation Cavese did not have in the autumn.
Squad4 Sep 2028
A falling-out at Cavese
Thomas Alberti and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets4 Sep 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Anderlecht have kept their man, and Cavese go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad4 Sep 2028
Words at Cavese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Manuel Peretti 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.
Player ratings4 Sep 2028
Successful dribbles: 17. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match2 Sep 2028
Cavese caught on 87 minutes
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Catania scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Apr 2028
A fracture rules Giuseppe Fella out for 135 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Cavese will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Words exchanged at Cavese
Francesco Orlando 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 Apr 2028
Carlo Faedo 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 dugout10 Apr 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ettore Contarato, and the manager let it.
Squad10 Apr 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Mattia Macchi commits to Cavese for another 3 years.
The dugout10 Apr 2028
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Boardroom10 Apr 2028
Cavese counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Cavese now.
The dugout10 Apr 2028
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Player ratings10 Apr 2028
Successful dribbles: 13. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad27 Sep 2027
A fracture rules Nicola Bellomo out for 86 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Cavese will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match22 Sep 2027
Cavese march on in the cup
Vicenza are out and Cavese go through, 2‑1 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Match22 Sep 2027
Cavese win it in stoppage time
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 106th minute. Vicenza will replay every second of the added time for a week.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Cavese may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings27 Sep 2027
Marked 8.04 at 19, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Squad27 Sep 2027
A falling-out at Cavese
Thomas Alberti and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad27 Sep 2027
A row about effort at Cavese
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Carlo Faedo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The terraces27 Sep 2027
At 23 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.
Match25 Sep 2027
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Thomas Alberti had Cavese level again within 2 minutes, and Cosenza never got to play with a lead at all.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market19 Jul 2027
Sorrento come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Cavese did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Tempers go at Cavese
Thomas Alberti 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.
Market19 Jul 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Cavese have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
Cavese asked and Colegiales said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Words at Cavese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Theophilus Awua 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.
Squad19 Jul 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Carlo Faedo and Cavese agree another 4 years.
The dugout19 Jul 2027
“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.
Market19 Jul 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Cavese know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout19 Jul 2027
Elia Visconti has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Cavese 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market21 Jun 2027
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Cavese have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 25 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2027
Everything agreed with Hellas Verona, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2027
The offer went to Mantova this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Market21 Jun 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Cavese is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2027
$120.0K on the table at AlbinoLeffe. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Tempers go at Cavese
Thomas Alberti 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.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Mattia Macchi is a better footballer than he was
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.
Squad21 Jun 2027
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.