Marked for Raffaele Spanò
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad9 Oct 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Jacopo Manconi commits to Benevento for another 3 years.
Market9 Oct 2028
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Benevento they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad9 Oct 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 Benevento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings9 Oct 2028
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match7 Oct 2028
Foggia left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad9 Oct 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Delis Gjeci, and the manager let it.
Squad9 Oct 2028
This league is too small for Kevin Moressa
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Benevento will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Market9 Oct 2028
Kevin Moressa is 20, and Benevento 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.
Player ratings9 Oct 2028
Shots: 14, enough of them from close enough that a striker in form scores two. He is not a striker in form.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market19 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 The request is on a desk at Cittadella, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad19 Jun 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.
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 Cittadella this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market12 Jun 2028
$3.9M from Bari for Francesco Amatucci. Money is money, but the dressing room has lost the man it looked to.
Squad12 Jun 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.
Market12 Jun 2028
The chase for Nacim El Hassani ended with $390.0K changing hands and Trento out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Francesco D'Alessio 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.
Market12 Jun 2028
The paperwork is done: Raffaele Spanò joins from Monopoli in a deal worth $200.0K. Now comes the harder part.
Market12 Jun 2028
Audace Cerignola pay $530.0K, 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
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
The fee is $1.6M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Venezia drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Aurélio Buta 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 Monopoli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market12 Jun 2028
Raffaele Spanò has left for Cittadella in a $200.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Market12 Jun 2028
Potenza paid $170.0K and Monopoli took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad12 Jun 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings17 May 2027
Successful dribbles: 31. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad17 May 2027
18 clean sheets and counting. Strikers leave this ground muttering his name, which is exactly how a goalkeeper measures a good season.
Squad17 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 Monopoli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings17 May 2027
Defensive actions: 17, 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 ratings17 May 2027
Marked 7.66 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Monopoli had the best player on the pitch.
Squad17 May 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.