Marked for Sasha Mancini
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad29 Nov 2027
Luca Lezzerini and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings29 Nov 2027
Nobody could get near Stênio
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The terraces29 Nov 2027
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Squad29 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 Lumezzane know it.
Squad29 Nov 2027
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Player ratings29 Nov 2027
Defensive actions: 18. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
“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 Nov 2027
16 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 ratings29 Nov 2027
A mark of 7.61, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad25 Oct 2027
34 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Lumezzane lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Player ratings25 Oct 2027
Luigi Esposito, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 7.68
A mark of 7.68 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.
Squad25 Oct 2027
33 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Words exchanged at Lumezzane
Luca Lezzerini 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.
Match23 Oct 2027
A 2‑1 win over Novara, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The terraces25 Oct 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Sasha Mancini has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Match23 Oct 2027
5 matches without a win, and then this, against Novara. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
The manager makes an example of Isaac Prado
“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.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
A promise honoured at Lumezzane
Something was said to Abdou Harroui and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad11 Oct 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Andrea Boffelli
49 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Lumezzane lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The dugout11 Oct 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.
Player ratings11 Oct 2027
Successful dribbles: 28. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match9 Oct 2027
4 matches without a win for Lumezzane
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Lumezzane are no longer polite ones.
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 Lumezzane this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Abdou Harroui 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.
Match9 Oct 2027
Lumezzane cannot find the net
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Matteo Vescovi, and the manager let it.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Salvatore Borghi was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Lumezzane dressing room was either.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad23 Aug 2027
98 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Lumezzane lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market23 Aug 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Lumezzane people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Sasha Mancini is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Luca Lezzerini 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.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Mattia Iori has improved at 29, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Market23 Aug 2027
Torres pay $480.0K, 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.
Boardroom23 Aug 2027
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Market23 Aug 2027
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Salvatore Conti has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market23 Aug 2027
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Alessandro Ceccarelli has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
In brief
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Boardroom
A promise the Lumezzane board did not keep
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The dugout
Marco Moscati asks for a word with the manager
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Boardroom
No investment in the facilities at Lumezzane
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market2 Aug 2027
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Lumezzane have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Words exchanged at Lumezzane
Luca Lezzerini 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.
Squad2 Aug 2027
A row about effort at Lumezzane
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abdou Harroui was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout2 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.
Squad2 Aug 2027
9 new faces, and Lumezzane 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.
The dugout2 Aug 2027
Abdou Harroui 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 Abdou Harroui trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market2 Aug 2027
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Squad2 Aug 2027
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. Matteo Colombo has moved up it.
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
Uneasy
Market26 Jul 2027
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Lumezzane have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The dugout26 Jul 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.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Luca Lezzerini 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 targets26 Jul 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Renate have kept their man, and Lumezzane go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market26 Jul 2027
Add another name to the list: Crotone have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Matteo Scanzi. The answer from Lumezzane has not changed — yet.
Squad26 Jul 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Isaac Prado and Lumezzane agree another 1 years.
The dugout26 Jul 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Matteo Ferro 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 Jul 2027
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Lumezzane know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Jun 2027
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Lumezzane will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
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.
Transfer targets7 Jun 2027
Everything agreed with Catania, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Michele Rocca and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets7 Jun 2027
Lumezzane 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.
Market7 Jun 2027
The phone has started ringing about Stefano Filigheddu again, and this time the name on the line is Carpi. Lumezzane are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad7 Jun 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Sasha Mancini commits to Lumezzane for another 4 years.
The dugout7 Jun 2027
The manager makes an example of Samuele Diodato
“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.
Transfer targets7 Jun 2027
A loan move for Edoardo Iannoni is in the works
Lumezzane have made the call to Hellas Verona. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout15 Mar 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Lumezzane may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
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 Lumezzane this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Player of the week, judged against every other man in the division. A small award, and one most careers never collect.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
Nobody at Lumezzane 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.
Market15 Mar 2027
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Lumezzane has been clear about where Francesco Bonardi stands, which is more than many ever get.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Sasha Mancini has had enough of the bench
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Lumezzane will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
The manager makes Sasha Mancini a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Lumezzane. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
Luigi Caccavo 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 Luigi Caccavo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Looking ahead15 Mar 2027
Next up at home: Dolomiti Bellunesi, who go into it in position 16. The kind of fixture a season is quietly built on or quietly loses its shape in.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings8 Mar 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.76, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad8 Mar 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Mattia Rolando commits to Lumezzane for another 2 years.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Michele Rocca and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match6 Mar 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Gennaro Anatriello. 2‑1 against Novara, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The terraces8 Mar 2027
He is 21 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.
Player ratings8 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 16. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad8 Mar 2027
A place in the month's best eleven for Tommaso Ebone
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Tommaso Ebone has come out of that comparison in the side, and Lumezzane have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 2‑1, already talking about the next one.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Sasha Mancini, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words exchanged at Lumezzane
Michele Rocca 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.
Match5 Dec 2026
Triestina left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad7 Dec 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Luigi Caccavo and Lumezzane agree another 4 years.
Boardroom7 Dec 2026
$1.1M on the table at Lumezzane
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Salvatore Borghi after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Mattia Rolando named in the team of the month
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Mattia Rolando is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Sasha Mancini, and the manager let it.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Matteo Ferro 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
Steady
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Lumezzane
Andrea Boffelli 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.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
Wages swallow 102% of the Lumezzane income
Every club 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 it has been tried.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Matteo Ferro falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Matteo Ferro'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.
Market2 Nov 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Mattia Iori’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Lumezzane than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Squad2 Nov 2026
“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.