Marked for Samy Merzouk
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market2 Jul 2029
“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 The request is on a desk at Pianese, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad2 Jul 2029
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.
Transfer targets2 Jul 2029
No thanks: Matteo Italia rejects the move
Pianese had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Bari, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Transfer targets2 Jul 2029
$890.0K on the table at Como. 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 targets2 Jul 2029
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Pianese have done the hard part with Cremonese, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Transfer targets2 Jul 2029
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. AC Milan have kept their man, and Pianese go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad2 Jul 2029
A row about effort at Pianese
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ukko Happonen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad2 Jul 2029
Words exchanged at Pianese
Lorenzo Vigiani 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 dugout2 Jul 2029
“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
Upbeat
Squad4 Jun 2029
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 87 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad4 Jun 2029
14 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad4 Jun 2029
Samy Merzouk 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 Pianese this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets4 Jun 2029
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Renate have kept their man, and Pianese go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout4 Jun 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Samy Merzouk, and the manager let it.
Squad4 Jun 2029
Luca Ercolani 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.
Transfer targets4 Jun 2029
Sorrento 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 targets4 Jun 2029
A loan enquiry to Potenza: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout4 Jun 2029
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 Thiago Sánchez is on it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market28 May 2029
Only the photograph left for Lorenzo Peli
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Lorenzo Peli will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Pianese the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad28 May 2029
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Pianese are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad28 May 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pianese this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 May 2029
A row about effort at Pianese
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Francesco Proietto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom28 May 2029
Wages eat 96% of everything Pianese 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.
Market28 May 2029
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Lorenzo Masetti has his answer from Pianese; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout28 May 2029
Claudio Martey has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Pianese 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.
Market28 May 2029
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Francesco Proietto signs something — a contract at Pianese or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout28 May 2029
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Pianese, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match16 Apr 2029
Full time on the season at Pianese
Position 7 on 44 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
The dugout16 Apr 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Pianese may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad16 Apr 2029
Samy Merzouk 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 Pianese this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Apr 2029
Words at Pianese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Francesco Proietto 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.
Squad16 Apr 2029
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Pianese can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout16 Apr 2029
The manager makes an example of Claudio Martey
“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 dugout16 Apr 2029
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Simone Sala was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Pianese dressing room was either.
The dugout16 Apr 2029
The manager has not finished forgetting Lorenzo Peli'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.
Match14 Apr 2029
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Cittadella defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market9 Apr 2029
Mamadou Baldé has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Pianese they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad9 Apr 2029
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Leonardo Bellini and Pianese agree another 4 years.
Squad9 Apr 2029
Samy Merzouk 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.
Squad9 Apr 2029
Francesco Proietto 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.
Match7 Apr 2029
Luca Fabrizi scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Livorno, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
The dugout9 Apr 2029
“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.
Match7 Apr 2029
After 5 games, Pianese finally taste it again
The first defeat in 5 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Livorno; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Squad9 Apr 2029
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 37 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Pianese is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
The dugout9 Apr 2029
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Simone Sala to a room that had heard them before.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market2 Apr 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Pianese is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad2 Apr 2029
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Leonardo Bellini commits to Pianese for another 4 years.
Squad2 Apr 2029
Words exchanged at Pianese
Samy Merzouk 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 Apr 2029
A row about effort at Pianese
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luca Ercolani was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout2 Apr 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Luca Fabrizi, and the manager let it.
Squad2 Apr 2029
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Pianese can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Boardroom2 Apr 2029
88% of the income goes out in wages at Pianese
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.
The dugout2 Apr 2029
A promise honoured at Pianese
Something was said to Lorenzo Vigiani and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout2 Apr 2029
Claudio Martey has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Pianese 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market12 Feb 2029
Mamadou Baldé has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Pianese they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Transfer targets12 Feb 2029
$860.0K was the most the club would pay and Como 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.
Squad12 Feb 2029
Words at Pianese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Francesco Proietto 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.
Squad12 Feb 2029
Leonardo Di Cosmo 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 targets12 Feb 2029
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Pianese will try again when the window opens; Sassuolo may not be selling by then.
Squad12 Feb 2029
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Pianese can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Player ratings12 Feb 2029
A mark of 7.60, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Squad12 Feb 2029
“The easiest signature of my career.” Samy Merzouk and Pianese agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout12 Feb 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Lorenzo Masetti, and the manager let it.
In brief
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Match
Pianese share the spoils with Forli
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
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Looking ahead
A test against the best for Pianese