Marked for Gabriele Lucca
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad29 May 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 Vis Pesaro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad29 May 2028
Too much change too quickly at Vis Pesaro
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.
Squad29 May 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nicolas Accoroni, and the manager let it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad22 May 2028
Jan Faberski 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 Vis Pesaro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 May 2028
Franco Vezzoni 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.
Squad22 May 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Gabriele Lucca and Vis Pesaro agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The terraces13 Sep 2027
Anger at Vis Pesaro spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 52 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match11 Sep 2027
4‑1, and Marcelo Orellana took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Vis Pesaro tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
A brace, and Marcelo Orellana takes the afternoon — 7.90
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Marcelo Orellana provided it, and the 7.90 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad13 Sep 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.
Match11 Sep 2027
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Gabriele Lucca 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.
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 Vis Pesaro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces13 Sep 2027
At 22 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad9 Aug 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 89 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Gabriele Lucca 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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Luca Paganini 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.
Boardroom9 Aug 2027
Still nobody in the Vis Pesaro dugout
8 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Christian Nina 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.
Market9 Aug 2027
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Vis Pesaro, another week without a signature from Francesco Nicastro.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Boardroom8 Feb 2027
The statement thanked him for his efforts and wished him well, in that order and in about that many words. The search begins immediately.
Boardroom8 Feb 2027
“Somebody has to pick the team on Saturday, and this week that is me.” An interim appointment with no promises attached, which is how most of them start.
Market8 Feb 2027
The Perugia deal is off
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Nicolò Lari reports back to Vis Pesaro with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.19 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market8 Feb 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 Vis Pesaro, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad8 Feb 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Luca Paganini, and the manager let it.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Alessandro Longoni is the division's best young player this month
At 19 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Vis Pesaro will try very hard not to make too much of it.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Nuno Correia 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The terraces1 Feb 2027
The mood at Vis Pesaro has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Match1 Feb 2027
Every point is an argument now for Vis Pesaro
Position 18 and 16 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
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.
Squad1 Feb 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 ratings1 Feb 2027
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.94 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Gabriele Lucca gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Gabriele Lucca has just signed for Vis Pesaro, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Luca Paganini 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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Pepín Machín, and the manager let it.
Market1 Feb 2027
The Nicolò Lari conversation is coming
Everyone has stopped pretending: Perugia will make the call about Nicolò Lari this week. Vis Pesaro have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.