Marked for Harry Evans
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Jun 2028
Umberto Galletta: 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.” Casertana have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market12 Jun 2028
The chase for Frank Tsadjout ended with $2.5M changing hands and Cremonese out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Market12 Jun 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.
Market12 Jun 2028
Casertana say no — this time
The offer from Pergolettese for Mikey Allen 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.
Squad12 Jun 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 Casertana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Jun 2028
The manager makes an example of Lucas Lingman
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market24 Jan 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 Casertana can pretend not to have heard.
Squad24 Jan 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 Casertana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings24 Jan 2028
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market24 Jan 2028
Carrarese paid $35.0K and Casertana took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Match22 Jan 2028
It finished 2‑1, and it was Alessio Raballo’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Casertana.
Player ratings24 Jan 2028
A performance of 8.65 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad24 Jan 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mattia Compagnon and Casertana agree another 4 years.
Squad24 Jan 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jacopo La Barba, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad20 Sep 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Casertana may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Karlo Butić 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.
Match18 Sep 2027
A 2‑1 win over Catania, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
Marked 8.88 — 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.
Squad20 Sep 2027
66 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
Marked 8.23 — 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.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Harry Evans 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.
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 14. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market20 Sep 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Casertana know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Aug 2027
Karlo Butić 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 Casertana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Aug 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.
Market16 Aug 2027
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Daniele Liotti has his answer from Casertana; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad2 Aug 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 Casertana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Harry Evans 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.
Boardroom2 Aug 2027
Casertana release $56.5K for the manager
The board have put money on the table rather than an encouraging word. What happens to it now is somebody else's problem, and somebody else's job.
Market2 Aug 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Victor De Lucia’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Umberto Galletta has seen what the next man earns
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 Casertana that is a harder question to answer.
Market2 Aug 2027
12 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Jul 2027
Karlo Butić 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 Casertana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Jul 2027
The manager makes an example of Karlo Butić
“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.
Squad19 Jul 2027
“I want to play”: Harry Evans 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
Steady
Market5 Jul 2027
Doğan Gölpek 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 Casertana can pretend not to have heard.
Squad5 Jul 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 Casertana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Jul 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 Casertana know it.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Harry Evans 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.
Boardroom5 Jul 2027
Casertana release $56.5K for the manager
The board have put money on the table rather than an encouraging word. What happens to it now is somebody else's problem, and somebody else's job.
Market5 Jul 2027
Alessio Raballo is 20, and Casertana have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market7 Jun 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 Casertana, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad7 Jun 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 Casertana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Harry Evans 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings19 Apr 2027
Successful dribbles: 37. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match17 Apr 2027
Still nobody has beaten Casertana
The unbeaten run reaches 15. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Market19 Apr 2027
Only the photograph left for Ivan Kontek
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ivan Kontek will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Casertana the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad19 Apr 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 Casertana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings19 Apr 2027
Defensive actions: 22, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Squad19 Apr 2027
The manager makes an example of Karlo Butić
“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 ratings19 Apr 2027
Defensive actions: 17. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Player ratings19 Apr 2027
Defensive actions: 16, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Boardroom19 Apr 2027
85% of the income goes out in wages at Casertana
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market22 Feb 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 Casertana, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match20 Feb 2027
The wait goes on for Casertana
6 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.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 27. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad22 Feb 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.
Market22 Feb 2027
Ivan Kontek has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Casertana they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Match20 Feb 2027
Still nobody has beaten Casertana
The unbeaten run reaches 7. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad22 Feb 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 Casertana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Feb 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 Casertana know it.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
A performance of 8.32 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match7 Dec 2026
Casertana refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 26 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Match5 Dec 2026
Casertana make it 4 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Casertana have 4 straight wins of it.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
A defender's afternoon for Marco Toscano
Defensive actions: 25. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 23 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Shady Oukhadda 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.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 21 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Loan watch7 Dec 2026
“I did not go to Giana Erminio to sit and watch. I want to come back to Casertana and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 17 matches say the rest.
Match5 Dec 2026
Trapani made Casertana work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market30 Nov 2026
“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.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 29. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Jonas Heinz: 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.” Casertana have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match28 Nov 2026
Casertana cannot stop winning
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.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
A defender's afternoon for Marco Toscano
Defensive actions: 23. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Squad30 Nov 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 Casertana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Defensive actions: 22. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
284% of the income goes out in wages at Casertana
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.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
A performance of 8.89 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 28. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match7 Nov 2026
4 matches without a win for Casertana
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Casertana are no longer polite ones.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Karlo Butić 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.
Match7 Nov 2026
Sorrento left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Karlo Butić 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.
Loan watch9 Nov 2026
“I did not go to Giana Erminio to sit and watch. I want to come back to Casertana and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 13 matches say the rest.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
The one thing Karlo Butić could not do
Shots: 11, enough of them from close enough that a striker in form scores two. He is not a striker in form.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
5.65 on the card. Some afternoons a footballer looks like a man who has only just been introduced to the game, and this was one of them.
Squad9 Nov 2026
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Casertana would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad12 Oct 2026
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.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Curro runs at them all day
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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Tempers go at Burgos
David Simón 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.
Match10 Oct 2026
1‑2 to Real Sociedad B, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Fer Niño is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.24 with 10 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
A performance of 8.17 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match3 Oct 2026
Whatever happens, Burgos do not lose
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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Tempers go at Burgos
Oier Luengo 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.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
A performance of 9.15 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Match3 Oct 2026
A 2‑1 win over Valladolid, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Wages eat 357% of everything Burgos 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.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
A masterclass from Fer Niño
Marked 8.63 — 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Arnau Rafús
“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 ratings5 Oct 2026
Nobody could get near Curro
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Fer Niño named player of the month
The award goes to Fer Niño, and nobody around here is inclined to argue with the choice.
In brief
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Squad
Curro wants a proper job in this side
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Market
Harry Evans leaves for nothing
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The terraces
The press have found their man in Fer Niño
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match12 Sep 2026
4 matches without a win for Sint-Truiden
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Sint-Truiden are no longer polite ones.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Shogo Taniguchi 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.
Match12 Sep 2026
Anderlecht left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad14 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Taiga Hata
“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 ratings14 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.22, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market14 Sep 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Squad14 Sep 2026
At 18 years old, Lazaros Tsioliaridis became the latest name off the academy production line to be handed a senior shirt.
Squad14 Sep 2026
The first one is the one every signing is asked about until it arrives. It has arrived, and he can stop being asked.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market7 Sep 2026
Loïc Mbe Soh 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 Sint-Truiden can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 30. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad7 Sep 2026
121 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Market7 Sep 2026
Standard Liege paid $1.6M and Sint-Truiden took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad7 Sep 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 Sint-Truiden this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Wages eat 170% of everything Sint-Truiden 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Shogo Taniguchi, and the manager let it.
Match5 Sep 2026
0‑1 to Charleroi, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Leo Kokubo lets one through his hands
A defender's mistake gets tidied up by somebody else; a goalkeeper's ends up in the net. He knew before the ball crossed the line, and so did everybody in the ground.