Marked for Leonards Čevers
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market26 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.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Filippo Berra: 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.” Salernitana have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market26 Jun 2028
Pianese come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Salernitana did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Matteo Lovato 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.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Paolo Ghiglione 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.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Too much change too quickly at Salernitana
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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Jun 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Salernitana may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad19 Jun 2028
A move Federico Colombo would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Federico Colombo is living that version at Salernitana, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad19 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 Salernitana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Words at Salernitana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Paolo Ghiglione 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.
Market19 Jun 2028
The phone has started ringing about Leonards Čevers again, and this time the name on the line is Pianese. Salernitana are listening politely and promising nothing.
Market19 Jun 2028
Monopoli are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Salernitana will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market28 Feb 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 Salernitana, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad28 Feb 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 Salernitana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Feb 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Facundo Lescano, and the manager let it.
Match26 Feb 2028
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Roberto Inglese 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.
Squad28 Feb 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Giuseppe Carriero's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Market28 Feb 2028
The name of Galo Capomaggio keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Salernitana say nothing, which says plenty.
Player ratings28 Feb 2028
A mark of 5.80 tells the story without any need for embellishment. He will want the tape of this one quietly lost.
Player ratings28 Feb 2028
Successful dribbles: 10. 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
Crisis
Squad13 Sep 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Armando Anastasio
23 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Salernitana lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Salernitana will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Rocco Di Vico is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad13 Sep 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 Salernitana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match11 Sep 2027
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
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 ratings13 Sep 2027
Marked 5.67, and generously at that. Nothing came off, and by the end the crowd had stopped expecting it to.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
An afternoon Luca Villa will want back
Marked 5.72. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Jul 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 93 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad19 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 Salernitana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Facundo Lescano 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Jun 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 28 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Loan watch14 Jun 2027
35 appearances away from home and 18 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Mirko Antonucci 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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Leonards Čevers is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Words at Salernitana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Facundo Lescano 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad15 Feb 2027
Luca Villa breaks a bone — 58 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 58 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market15 Feb 2027
The bid was some way short and Salernitana did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Match13 Feb 2027
Whatever happens, Salernitana do not lose
9 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Mirko Antonucci 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.
Squad15 Feb 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
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.
Match13 Feb 2027
A 1‑1 draw with Casertana leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
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.
Loan watch15 Feb 2027
22 appearances away from home and 4 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad11 Jan 2027
Luca Villa breaks a bone — 93 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 93 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Up for the corner, and Galo Capomaggio delivers — 7.70
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Galo Capomaggio scored, was marked 7.70, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Squad11 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 Salernitana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Leonards Čevers is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Facundo Lescano 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.
Market11 Jan 2027
Triestina paid $84.0K and Salernitana took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.