Marked for Rogelio Esparza
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Transfer targets31 Jul 2028
The clubs have shaken hands with Bologna; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Market31 Jul 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.
Transfer targets31 Jul 2028
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Renate keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Transfer targets31 Jul 2028
$270.0K on the table at Lazio. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad31 Jul 2028
A muscle injury and 15 days out for Maxime Spano
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Pineto will quote 15 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Words at Pineto training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luca Belardinelli 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 dugout31 Jul 2028
“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.
The dugout31 Jul 2028
Federico Tonin has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Pineto 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.
Market31 Jul 2028
Pineto have made Federico Baggi available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad10 Jul 2028
A fracture rules Silvano Biggi out for 28 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Pineto will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market10 Jul 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.
Transfer targets10 Jul 2028
$120.0K settles it between the clubs for Ibrahima Papa Wade
Cesena have accepted the money. What Pineto do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The dugout10 Jul 2028
This is not rotation. Giovanni Di Renzo has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Pineto is pretending otherwise.
Transfer targets10 Jul 2028
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Atalanta keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Transfer targets10 Jul 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Catania have kept their man, and Pineto go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Words at Pineto training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luca Belardinelli 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.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Tempers go at Pineto
Ank Asmussen 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.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Pineto are still strangers to each other
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom1 May 2028
Pressure builds in the Pineto boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market1 May 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Pineto can pretend not to have heard.
Squad1 May 2028
A move Tommaso Gatto would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Tommaso Gatto is living that version at Pineto, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad1 May 2028
Words at Pineto training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gianluca Germinario 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.
Squad1 May 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Tommaso Gatto commits to Pineto for another 4 years.
Squad1 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 Pineto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout1 May 2028
The manager makes an example of Silvano Biggi
“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 dugout1 May 2028
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Tommaso D'Orazio was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
The dugout1 May 2028
Luca Schirone 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 Luca Schirone trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom6 Mar 2028
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Ruggero Castelli has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Market6 Mar 2028
Luca Schirone hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Pineto can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom6 Mar 2028
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Pineto
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 61 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match4 Mar 2028
The wait goes on for Pineto
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad6 Mar 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Domenico Frare commits to Pineto for another 3 years.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Rogelio Esparza 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.
The terraces6 Mar 2028
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Maksim Minkov 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.
The dugout6 Mar 2028
The manager makes an example of Luca Schirone
“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
Upbeat
Squad13 Dec 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Alessio Alberti
40 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Pineto lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match11 Dec 2027
Pineto make it 3 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Pineto have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad13 Dec 2027
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Fabio Desole 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 Pineto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces13 Dec 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Silvano Biggi 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.
The dugout13 Dec 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Luca Schirone, and the manager let it.
Match11 Dec 2027
Gubbio made Pineto work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings13 Dec 2027
Marked 7.38 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Pineto had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout13 Dec 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Ruggero Castelli kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The dugout30 Aug 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Pineto may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match28 Aug 2027
6 matches without a win for Pineto
The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around Pineto are no longer polite ones.
Market30 Aug 2027
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Pineto they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Tempers go at Pineto
Maxime Spano 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.
Squad30 Aug 2027
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Transfer targets30 Aug 2027
Pineto asked and Napoli said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match28 Aug 2027
A bad afternoon for Pineto against Spezia
0‑2 to Spezia, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout30 Aug 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.
The dugout30 Aug 2027
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.