Marked for Lautaro López
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Oct 2028
Luca Pallassini and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad16 Oct 2028
Words at Lumezzane training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maissa Ndiaye 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 dugout16 Oct 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mohamed Malang Touré, and the manager let it.
The dugout16 Oct 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 Lorenzo Andrenacci is on it.
The dugout16 Oct 2028
Matteo Scanzi 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.
Market16 Oct 2028
The Mattia Iori talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Lumezzane know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Squad16 Oct 2028
Mattia Iori wants to know why he earns less
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Lumezzane have no good answer.
Market16 Oct 2028
Lumezzane have made Jacopo Deratti available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
Looking ahead16 Oct 2028
Looking ahead: the trip to AlbinoLeffe
Position 10 for the hosts, a long journey for the away end, and a fixture that will look ordinary on paper right up until it is not.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Jun 2028
A fracture rules Fabrizio Paghera out for 33 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Lumezzane will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Transfer targets26 Jun 2028
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Cittadella is saying, and nobody at Lumezzane is enjoying the guessing.
Transfer targets26 Jun 2028
$1.9M on the table at Sassuolo. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Market26 Jun 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 Lumezzane, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets26 Jun 2028
$13.0K was the most the club would pay and Udinese 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.
Transfer targets26 Jun 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.
Squad26 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 Lumezzane this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Maissa Ndiaye 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
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Lautaro López and Lumezzane agree another 4 years.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Jun 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 40 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Transfer targets19 Jun 2028
Lumezzane had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Cittadella, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Transfer targets19 Jun 2028
Sassuolo wanted more than $1.8M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
The dugout19 Jun 2028
This is not rotation. Jacopo Deratti has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Lumezzane is pretending otherwise.
Transfer targets19 Jun 2028
$13.0K on the table at Udinese. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Transfer targets19 Jun 2028
Lumezzane asked and Modena said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad19 Jun 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Lautaro López commits to Lumezzane for another 4 years.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Words exchanged at Lumezzane
Lorenzo Carvalho 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 dugout19 Jun 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad15 May 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 75 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The dugout15 May 2028
“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 May 2028
Words exchanged at Lumezzane
Mohamed Malang Touré 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.
Squad15 May 2028
A row about effort at Lumezzane
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Maissa Ndiaye was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout15 May 2028
“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 dugout15 May 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad27 Mar 2028
A fracture rules Fabrizio Paghera out for 128 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Lumezzane will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
Fabrizio Paghera: 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.” Lumezzane have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
This is not rotation. Jacopo Deratti has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Lumezzane is pretending otherwise.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Words exchanged at Lumezzane
Lorenzo Carvalho 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 dugout27 Mar 2028
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
The manager makes an example of Lautaro López
“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.
Looking ahead27 Mar 2028
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Maissa Ndiaye’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Lumezzane needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Market27 Mar 2028
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Alessandro Ghillani may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Squad27 Mar 2028
“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
Uneasy
Transfer targets16 Aug 2027
Everything agreed with Como, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Transfer targets16 Aug 2027
Lumezzane asked and Vicenza said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad16 Aug 2027
A row about effort at Lumezzane
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fabrizio Paghera was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout16 Aug 2027
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Market16 Aug 2027
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.
Market16 Aug 2027
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Jacopo Deratti may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Squad16 Aug 2027
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Lumezzane would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
The dugout16 Aug 2027
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 dugout16 Aug 2027
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Lumezzane, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market28 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 Lumezzane, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Marco Moscati 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 targets28 Jun 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Stade Lavallois have kept their man, and Lumezzane go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
A loan move for Wessel Kuhn is in the works
Lumezzane have made the call to ADO Den Haag. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
A loan enquiry to Inter: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout28 Jun 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Lorenzo Menegazzo, and the manager let it.
The dugout28 Jun 2027
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout28 Jun 2027
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.
Squad28 Jun 2027
A season on the outside for Lautaro López
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Lumezzane has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market21 Jun 2027
$4.4M is a serious amount of money and it does not play centre-forward. Everybody in the dressing room knows who used to be looked at when it went wrong.
The terraces21 Jun 2027
Supporters turn on the $4.4M sale of Gaetano Monachello
He is going to Juve Stabia, the club has $4.4M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Market21 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.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Lautaro López arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Lautaro López has, at Lumezzane, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2027
ADO Den Haag 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.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2027
Stade Lavallois 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.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Words at Lumezzane training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matteo Ferro 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.
Squad21 Jun 2027
The formation has left Lautaro López behind
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Lumezzane will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Market21 Jun 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Samuele Diodato signs something — a contract at Lumezzane or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.