Marked for Hugo Cuenca
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad6 Aug 2029
The knee: Elvin Valiev out for 145 days
145 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Arzignano lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Boardroom6 Aug 2029
Interim Coach has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Arzignano can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Squad6 Aug 2029
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Arzignano will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market6 Aug 2029
“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 The request is on a desk at Arzignano, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets6 Aug 2029
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Arzignano have done the hard part with Bologna, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad6 Aug 2029
Words exchanged at Arzignano
Leonel Müller 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.
Transfer targets6 Aug 2029
Arzignano asked and Genoa said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market6 Aug 2029
The name of Eros De Santis has come up in conversations Arzignano were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad6 Aug 2029
Erald Lakti 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom23 Jul 2029
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Arzignano
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
The terraces23 Jul 2029
Arzignano sell a favourite for $470.0K
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Salvatore Boccia was one of the reasons people came, and $470.0K does not replace that by itself.
Transfer targets23 Jul 2029
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Venezia is saying, and nobody at Arzignano is enjoying the guessing.
Transfer targets23 Jul 2029
Everything agreed with Juventus, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Transfer targets23 Jul 2029
The offer went to Ospitaletto 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.
Transfer targets23 Jul 2029
No deal for Hugo Cuenca at that price
Arzignano offered $400.0K; Genoa said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Squad23 Jul 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Arzignano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market23 Jul 2029
Salvatore Boccia has left for Lecce in a $470.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Squad23 Jul 2029
A row about effort at Arzignano
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Erald Lakti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces16 Jul 2029
The mood at Arzignano has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Match16 Jul 2029
Arzignano are in real trouble now
Position 15, 23 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Market16 Jul 2029
“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 Arzignano, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market16 Jul 2029
Arzignano say no — this time
The offer from Spezia for Francesco Toniolo was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Transfer targets16 Jul 2029
$400.0K on the table at Genoa. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Leonel Müller 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.
Transfer targets16 Jul 2029
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Boardroom16 Jul 2029
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Luca Maffioletti has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Arzignano have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Squad16 Jul 2029
A row about effort at Arzignano
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Erald Lakti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Transfer targets16 Jul 2029
Genoa asked and Atalanta said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Transfer targets16 Jul 2029
The offer went to Giana Erminio 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.
Market16 Jul 2029
The shirt still fits. Andrea Favilli is back at Genoa, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Market16 Jul 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Genoa can pretend not to have heard.
Market16 Jul 2029
Arzignano come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Genoa did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market16 Jul 2029
The fee is $690.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Novara drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Tempers go at Genoa
Leo Østigård 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.
Squad16 Jul 2029
A row about effort at Genoa
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sebastian Otoa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout16 Jul 2029
Gabriele Calvani has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Genoa 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
Crisis
Boardroom25 Jun 2029
Pressure builds in the Arzignano boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market25 Jun 2029
“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 Jun 2029
$400.0K was the most the club would pay and Genoa 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.
Squad25 Jun 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Arzignano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 Jun 2029
A row about effort at Arzignano
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Erald Lakti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets25 Jun 2029
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Atalanta have kept their man, and Arzignano go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Transfer targets25 Jun 2029
A loan move for Flavio Paoletti is in the works
Arzignano have made the call to Atalanta. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets25 Jun 2029
Arzignano have made the call to Spezia. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout25 Jun 2029
Salvatore Boccia asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces18 Jun 2029
Supporters organise against the Arzignano board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Match18 Jun 2029
Arzignano are in real trouble now
Position 15, 23 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Market18 Jun 2029
“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 targets18 Jun 2029
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Atalanta keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Transfer targets18 Jun 2029
An offer of $400.0K for Hugo Cuenca
Arzignano have gone to Genoa with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Squad18 Jun 2029
Leonel Müller 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.
Transfer targets18 Jun 2029
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ospitaletto have kept their man, and Arzignano go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad18 Jun 2029
A row about effort at Arzignano
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mirco Moretti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad18 Jun 2029
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jack Wright and Arzignano agree another 3 years.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market11 Jun 2029
“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 Arzignano, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets11 Jun 2029
Everything agreed with Atalanta, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad11 Jun 2029
Words exchanged at Arzignano
Leonel Müller 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.
Transfer targets11 Jun 2029
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad11 Jun 2029
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Francesco Luis Andrealli has, at Arzignano, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Market11 Jun 2029
Christian Gatti has left for Como in a $200.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Squad11 Jun 2029
Words at Arzignano training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Erald Lakti 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.
The dugout11 Jun 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Eddy Lanzi, and the manager let it.
Squad11 Jun 2029
8 new faces, and Arzignano are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match11 Jun 2029
Genoa finish in position 1
89 points, and the season has a number on it. Whatever it felt like from the inside, this is what it will look like in a book.
The dugout11 Jun 2029
This is not rotation. Johan Felipe Vásquez has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Genoa is pretending otherwise.
Market11 Jun 2029
Genoa say no — this time
The offer from Arzignano for Hugo Cuenca was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Market11 Jun 2029
“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 Genoa, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad11 Jun 2029
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Emanuel Ercolano has just signed for Genoa, and for once the answer mattered.
Market11 Jun 2029
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Genoa heard it as anything else.
Market11 Jun 2029
Genoa get their man
The chase for Emanuel Ercolano ended with $520.0K changing hands and Latina out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Player ratings11 Jun 2029
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad11 Jun 2029
Tempers go at Genoa
Odilon Kossounou 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market25 Dec 2028
“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 dugout25 Dec 2028
This is not rotation. Johan Felipe Vásquez has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Genoa is pretending otherwise.
Squad25 Dec 2028
Tempers go at Genoa
Justin Bijlow 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.
Match23 Dec 2028
A bad afternoon for Genoa against Bari
0‑1 to Bari, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout25 Dec 2028
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 Mario Bianco to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout25 Dec 2028
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 Nicolò Zaniolo is on it.
The dugout25 Dec 2028
Hugo Cuenca 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.
Squad25 Dec 2028
Somebody watched every match in the division at the weekend and decided he was the best thing in any of them. A small honour, and most careers end without one.
Market25 Dec 2028
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Genoa know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad11 Sep 2028
17 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Genoa lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market11 Sep 2028
“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.
Market11 Sep 2028
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Genoa can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Tempers go at Genoa
Justin Bijlow 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 dugout11 Sep 2028
Hugo Cuenca 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
Marco Romano has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Genoa 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.
Market11 Sep 2028
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Genoa know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout11 Sep 2028
Juan Manuel Solari 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.
The dugout11 Sep 2028
Seydou Fini knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Seydou Fini trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad10 Jul 2028
A final lost, and Justin Bijlow comes home
8 caps, a month of football, and a medal that will never leave a drawer. He is due back at Genoa in a fortnight and nobody will mention it, which is its own way of mentioning it.
Transfer targets10 Jul 2028
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Bologna is saying, and nobody at Genoa is enjoying the guessing.
Market10 Jul 2028
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and WSG Tirol waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Genoa is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market10 Jul 2028
“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 Genoa, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market10 Jul 2028
Torino pay $5.6M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Market10 Jul 2028
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Words exchanged at Genoa
Justin Bijlow 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.
Transfer targets10 Jul 2028
Genoa have gone to Udinese with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Transfer targets10 Jul 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. AC Milan have kept their man, and Genoa go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Boardroom8 May 2028
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Dominik Mayer has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Squad8 May 2028
Leonel Müller 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.
Squad8 May 2028
Erald Lakti 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.
Squad8 May 2028
Hugo Cuenca makes the team of the month
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout8 May 2028
The manager's exit leaves Sadik Fofana exposed
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Sadik Fofana is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
Squad8 May 2028
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Arzignano would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout1 May 2028
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Arzignano have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad1 May 2028
Words exchanged at Arzignano
Leonel Müller 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.
Squad1 May 2028
Words at Arzignano training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Erald Lakti 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.
The dugout1 May 2028
A promise honoured for Hugo Cuenca
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Arzignano told Hugo Cuenca something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Boardroom1 May 2028
Wages eat 91% of everything Arzignano 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.
Squad1 May 2028
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
The dugout1 May 2028
Sadik Fofana loses the manager who believed in him
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Sadik Fofana's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
Boardroom1 May 2028
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
Squad1 May 2028
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Christian Gatti has moved up it.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match17 Apr 2028
Full time on the season at Arzignano
Position 8 on 43 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
Match15 Apr 2028
Whatever happens, Arzignano do not lose
10 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.
Match15 Apr 2028
Arzignano make home a hard place to visit
13 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.
Squad17 Apr 2028
A row about effort at Arzignano
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Erald Lakti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The terraces17 Apr 2028
He is 23 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.
Match15 Apr 2028
It finished 2‑0, and it was Francesco Castaldo’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Arzignano.
Player ratings17 Apr 2028
Ninety minutes of Hugo Cuenca at his very best
Marked 8.06. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Arzignano.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Dominik Mayer could afford to be generous.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
Bernabé Guzmán 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Boardroom3 Apr 2028
Dominik Mayer has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Arzignano can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Market3 Apr 2028
“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 Arzignano, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match1 Apr 2028
The run at home goes on for Arzignano
12 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Match1 Apr 2028
Whatever happens, Arzignano do not lose
8 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.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Words exchanged at Arzignano
Leonel Müller 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.
Squad3 Apr 2028
A row about effort at Arzignano
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mirco Moretti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout3 Apr 2028
The manager makes an example of Bernabé Guzmán
“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 ratings3 Apr 2028
Hugo Cuenca beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 16. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Loan watch3 Apr 2028
“I did not go to Reggiana to sit and watch. I want to come back to Arzignano and fight for my place.” 5 appearances in 10 matches say the rest.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The terraces27 Mar 2028
Supporters organise against the Arzignano board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Boardroom27 Mar 2028
Pressure builds in the Arzignano boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market27 Mar 2028
“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.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Leonel Müller and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad27 Mar 2028
A row about effort at Arzignano
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Erald Lakti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad27 Mar 2028
“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; Arzignano are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
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.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
“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 dugout27 Mar 2028
Mirco Moretti asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom6 Mar 2028
Dominik Mayer has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Arzignano can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
The dugout6 Mar 2028
Alan Mereles: 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.” Arzignano have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Francesco Castaldo is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad6 Mar 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Erald Lakti and Arzignano agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Match4 Mar 2028
Arzignano make home a hard place to visit
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.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Words exchanged at Arzignano
Leonel Müller 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.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Words at Arzignano training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Erald Lakti 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.
Match4 Mar 2028
A 2‑1 win over Dolomiti Bellunesi, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The terraces6 Mar 2028
He is 23 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match12 Feb 2028
8 matches without a win for Arzignano
The run now stands at 8, and the questions being asked around Arzignano are no longer polite ones.
Market14 Feb 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 Arzignano can pretend not to have heard.
Market14 Feb 2028
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Gubbio moved on, Andrea Mattioli reports back to Arzignano, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Leonel Müller 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.
Transfer targets14 Feb 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Livorno have kept their man, and Arzignano go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match12 Feb 2028
The goals have deserted Arzignano
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Arzignano can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Erald Lakti 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.
Squad14 Feb 2028
200 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
Squad14 Feb 2028
“I want to play”: Hugo Cuenca speaks
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market7 Feb 2028
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Arzignano people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Dominik Mayer has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Market7 Feb 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 Arzignano can pretend not to have heard.
Match5 Feb 2028
7 matches without a win for Arzignano
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Arzignano are no longer polite ones.
The dugout7 Feb 2028
Iker Banda: 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.” Arzignano have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Arzignano close the window on a squad of their own making
2 in and 2 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Words exchanged at Arzignano
Leonel Müller 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.
Transfer targets7 Feb 2028
Arzignano asked and Cittadella said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad7 Feb 2028
A row about effort at Arzignano
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Erald Lakti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market24 Jan 2028
“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 Arzignano, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match22 Jan 2028
No end in sight to Arzignano's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Arzignano has to find a result from somewhere.
Transfer targets24 Jan 2028
The deal with Genoa 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.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Filippo Manfrin 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.
Squad24 Jan 2028
A row about effort at Arzignano
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Erald Lakti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets24 Jan 2028
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Match22 Jan 2028
A goal on 87 minutes turned three points into one and a good afternoon into an argument about game management that will run until Saturday.
Transfer targets24 Jan 2028
Südtirol 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.
Match22 Jan 2028
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match19 Jan 2028
The small margins put Genoa out
Out, 0‑1 to Fiorentina, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Market24 Jan 2028
“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 Genoa, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match24 Jan 2028
Genoa sink to position 19
15 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 49 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Transfer targets24 Jan 2028
The deal with Sassuolo 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.
Market24 Jan 2028
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Market24 Jan 2028
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Arzignano waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Genoa is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Match22 Jan 2028
No end in sight to Genoa's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Genoa has to find a result from somewhere.
Transfer targets24 Jan 2028
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: River Plate keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Jan 2028
Stefano Sabelli damages knee ligaments — 28 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 28 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.
Squad10 Jan 2028
A fracture rules Filippo Barbieri out for 63 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Genoa will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market10 Jan 2028
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Avellino had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Market10 Jan 2028
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Dolomiti Bellunesi waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Genoa is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market10 Jan 2028
Lazio pay $9.5M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Market10 Jan 2028
Napoli paid $4.0M and Genoa took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Words exchanged at Genoa
Leo Østigård 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.
Transfer targets10 Jan 2028
Genoa asked and Udinese said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match8 Jan 2028
Genoa caught on 91 minutes
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Napoli scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad22 Nov 2027
Stefano Sabelli damages knee ligaments — 83 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 83 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.
Squad22 Nov 2027
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.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
Alin Kumer Čelik: 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.” Genoa have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Words exchanged at Genoa
Justin Bijlow 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 dugout22 Nov 2027
No hiding place for Vitinha
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Vitinha, and the manager let it.
Match20 Nov 2027
Juventus left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Market22 Nov 2027
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Genoa can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad22 Nov 2027
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Genoa know it.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
A promise honoured at Genoa
Something was said to Vitinha and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
In brief
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Loan watch
Sebastian Otoa wants to come home
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
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Loan watch
The goals keep arriving from Seydou Fini’s exile
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad8 Nov 2027
Stefano Sabelli damages knee ligaments — 99 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 99 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.
Match3 Nov 2027
Cup progress for Genoa
A 3‑0 win over Crotone, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Player ratings8 Nov 2027
No sign of nerves from Lorenzo Venturino at 21 — 7.86
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Lorenzo Venturino did not need any: 7.86, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Market8 Nov 2027
“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 Genoa, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market8 Nov 2027
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Genoa can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad8 Nov 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 Genoa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings8 Nov 2027
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 13 actions, 6.80, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
The dugout8 Nov 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Gianluca Gaetano, and the manager let it.
The terraces8 Nov 2027
The crowd has taken to Hugo Cuenca
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market20 Sep 2027
“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 Genoa, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match18 Sep 2027
No end in sight to Genoa's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Genoa has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Tempers go at Genoa
Justin Bijlow 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.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Salem Albè is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Transfer targets20 Sep 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Lazio have kept their man, and Genoa go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match18 Sep 2027
Como take the points off Genoa
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Market20 Sep 2027
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Genoa can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
Djibril Sow is still paying for one afternoon at Genoa
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
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 Mario Bianco to a room that had heard them before.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces13 Sep 2027
Supporters organise against the Arzignano board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Market13 Sep 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Arzignano can pretend not to have heard.
Match11 Sep 2027
7 matches without a win for Arzignano
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Arzignano are no longer polite ones.
The dugout13 Sep 2027
“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.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Sadik Fofana in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Arzignano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Erald Lakti 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 targets13 Sep 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Match11 Sep 2027
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad13 Sep 2027
“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; Arzignano are dealing with a man who wants a different country.