Marked for William O'Sullivan
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad18 Oct 2027
Tempers go at Arezzo
Camillo Tavernelli 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 ratings18 Oct 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.
Player ratings18 Oct 2027
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 20 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Player ratings18 Oct 2027
20 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Player ratings18 Oct 2027
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad18 Oct 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad11 Oct 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 Arezzo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings11 Oct 2027
Marked 9.30 — 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.
Match9 Oct 2027
Arezzo get the job done against Carpi
A 2‑1 win over Carpi, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings11 Oct 2027
Luca Chierico was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.89. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Player ratings11 Oct 2027
Marked 8.20. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Arezzo.
Squad11 Oct 2027
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Luca Trombini knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
Squad11 Oct 2027
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.
Squad11 Oct 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.
The terraces11 Oct 2027
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match4 Sep 2027
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings6 Sep 2027
Two goals and a mark of 9.33 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad6 Sep 2027
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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Tempers go at Arezzo
Camillo Tavernelli 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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
At 27 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.
Player ratings6 Sep 2027
Ninety minutes of Luca Chierico at his very best
Marked 8.51. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Arezzo.
Player ratings6 Sep 2027
A performance of 8.39 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings6 Sep 2027
Defensive actions: 19, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Squad6 Sep 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad9 Aug 2027
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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
At 27 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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Words at Arezzo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gianluca Di Chiara 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
Steady
Market14 Jun 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market14 Jun 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 Arezzo can pretend not to have heard.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Tempers go at Arezzo
Camillo Tavernelli 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
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Giacomo Voglino is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Market14 Jun 2027
Casertana paid $110.0K and Arezzo took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Market14 Jun 2027
The phone has started ringing about Milo Da Rugna again, and this time the name on the line is Alcione Milano. Arezzo are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Artur Ioniţă pulls a muscle — 14 days out
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Squad14 Jun 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.
Boardroom14 Jun 2027
Wages eat 91% of everything Arezzo 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Jun 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Giacomo Venturi
28 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Arezzo lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market7 Jun 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Alessandro Renzi: 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.” Arezzo have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market7 Jun 2027
Arezzo say no — this time
The offer from Alcione Milano for Giacomo Venturi 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.
Market7 Jun 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Arezzo have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad7 Jun 2027
At 20, Mattia Liberali is already the best thing here
An average of 7.18 in a first team he is several years too young for. Arezzo have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 May 2027
Giacomo Venturi damages knee ligaments — 43 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 43 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.
Market24 May 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Arezzo is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad24 May 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 Arezzo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match27 Mar 2027
No end in sight to Arezzo's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Arezzo has to find a result from somewhere.
Market29 Mar 2027
Artur Ioniţă has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Arezzo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. William O'Sullivan is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at Arezzo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gianluca Di Chiara 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.
Match27 Mar 2027
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad29 Mar 2027
The manager makes an example of Mario Ravasio
“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 ratings29 Mar 2027
Marked 8.54. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Arezzo.
Squad29 Mar 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 Arezzo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings29 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad22 Mar 2027
He is 19, he is averaging 7.20, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Player ratings22 Mar 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.
Match20 Mar 2027
No end in sight to Arezzo's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Arezzo has to find a result from somewhere.
Match20 Mar 2027
Whatever happens, Arezzo do not lose
7 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.
Match20 Mar 2027
Arezzo 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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Gianluca Di Chiara 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.
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 20 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Squad22 Mar 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.
Boardroom22 Mar 2027
127% of the income goes out in wages at Arezzo
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
Steady
Squad15 Mar 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.
Squad15 Mar 2027
A season average of 7.04 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Arezzo know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Market15 Mar 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Arezzo is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Match13 Mar 2027
6 unbeaten for Arezzo
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Arezzo did not have in the autumn.
Squad15 Mar 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 Arezzo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
17 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words at Arezzo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Samuele Righetti 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 ratings15 Mar 2027
16 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad1 Mar 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market1 Mar 2027
Artur Ioniţă has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Arezzo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad1 Mar 2027
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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Tempers go at Arezzo
Camillo Tavernelli 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 ratings1 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The terraces1 Mar 2027
At 21 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.
Player ratings1 Mar 2027
A performance of 8.24 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Words at Arezzo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Samuele Righetti 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.
Match27 Feb 2027
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad8 Feb 2027
Fabio Tito breaks a bone — 22 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 22 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Mattia Liberali, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 7.63
A mark of 7.63 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Market8 Feb 2027
Milo Da Rugna 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 Arezzo can pretend not to have heard.
Market8 Feb 2027
Only the photograph left for Fabio Tito
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Fabio Tito will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Arezzo the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad8 Feb 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Alessandro Renzi and Arezzo agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
21 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
A performance of 9.13 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Match6 Feb 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Alessandro Arena. 1‑0 against Carpi, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad1 Feb 2027
Fabio Tito breaks a bone — 31 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 31 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market1 Feb 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market1 Feb 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market1 Feb 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Arezzo is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Artur Ioniţă has agreed terms with Frosinone for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Luigi Caccavo has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Arezzo have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Match30 Jan 2027
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad1 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.