Marked for Simone Perucchini
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces8 Oct 2029
Anger at Carpi 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.
Match6 Oct 2029
10 matches without a win for Carpi
The run now stands at 10, and the questions being asked around Carpi are no longer polite ones.
Match6 Oct 2029
A hiding for Carpi
Beaten 0‑3 by Livorno, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Squad8 Oct 2029
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Squad8 Oct 2029
A row about effort at Carpi
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mario Sampirisi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad8 Oct 2029
Words exchanged at Carpi
Giacomo Sandrolini 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.
Boardroom8 Oct 2029
Inquest at Carpi
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
The dugout8 Oct 2029
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Eduardo Braga after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout8 Oct 2029
Mario Sampirisi dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 Sep 2029
36 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Carpi lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Boardroom3 Sep 2029
Carpi close the window on a squad of their own making
16 in and 10 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Match1 Sep 2029
4 matches without a win for Carpi
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Carpi are no longer polite ones.
Squad3 Sep 2029
Tempers go at Carpi
Matteo Sorzi 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.
Squad3 Sep 2029
Words at Carpi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mario Sampirisi 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.
Transfer targets3 Sep 2029
Carpi asked and Ternana said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Boardroom3 Sep 2029
Wages eat 103% of everything Carpi 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.
The dugout3 Sep 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Simone Perucchini, and the manager let it.
The dugout3 Sep 2029
Half-satisfied: Eduardo Braga on the draw
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad20 Aug 2029
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Dario Bertoni is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Market20 Aug 2029
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Squad20 Aug 2029
A falling-out at Carpi
Rodrick Tcheuna and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets20 Aug 2029
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Perugia have kept their man, and Carpi go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Transfer targets20 Aug 2029
A loan enquiry to Fiorentina: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Squad20 Aug 2029
No place for Rui Costa in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Carpi are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Market20 Aug 2029
The Erik Gerbi talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Carpi know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Squad20 Aug 2029
The competition arrived without a word said to him about it. Mario Sampirisi keeps the shirt for now, at Carpi's convenience rather than his own.
The dugout20 Aug 2029
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The dugout30 Jul 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Carpi may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market30 Jul 2029
“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.
Squad30 Jul 2029
Simone Perucchini is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.
Squad30 Jul 2029
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Niccolò Pietra commits to Carpi for another 3 years.
Squad30 Jul 2029
Matteo Sorzi 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 Carpi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Jul 2029
A season average of 7.00 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Carpi know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Transfer targets30 Jul 2029
A loan enquiry to Lazio: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Boardroom30 Jul 2029
The numbers do not look good at Carpi
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
The dugout30 Jul 2029
Mattia Esposito 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Transfer targets11 Jun 2029
The deal with Juventus is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Boardroom11 Jun 2029
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Squad11 Jun 2029
Tempers go at Carpi
Matteo Sorzi 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.
Squad11 Jun 2029
Words at Carpi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mario Sampirisi 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.
Transfer targets11 Jun 2029
Carpi asked and Novara said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Boardroom11 Jun 2029
94% of the income goes out in wages at Carpi
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.
Squad11 Jun 2029
No place for Dario Bertoni in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Carpi are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Market11 Jun 2029
The Erik Gerbi story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Erik Gerbi signs something — a contract at Carpi or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout11 Jun 2029
The manager makes Rodrigo Gallo a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Carpi. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom4 Jun 2029
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Eduardo Braga has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Boardroom4 Jun 2029
Emergency meeting at Carpi
The whole football department in one room on a weekday morning. Nothing was announced afterwards, which is what a board announces when it has run out of patience.
The dugout4 Jun 2029
“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.
Market4 Jun 2029
“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.
Squad4 Jun 2029
At 20, Mattia Esposito is already the best thing here
An average of 7.00 in a first team he is several years too young for. Carpi have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
Squad4 Jun 2029
Matteo Sorzi 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 Carpi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad4 Jun 2029
Mario Sampirisi 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
AC Milan 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.
The dugout4 Jun 2029
The manager's exit leaves Mario Sampirisi exposed
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Mario Sampirisi is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces23 Apr 2029
Anger at Carpi 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.
Boardroom23 Apr 2029
The scrutiny sharpens at Carpi
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Carpi is running low.
Squad23 Apr 2029
A falling-out at Carpi
Matteo Sorzi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad23 Apr 2029
Mario Sampirisi 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.
The dugout23 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.
Market23 Apr 2029
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Tommaso Cecotti’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout23 Apr 2029
Niccolò Giva 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.
The dugout23 Apr 2029
The manager plants his flag on Niccolò Pietra
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Niccolò Pietra’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
Squad23 Apr 2029
The training reports on Niccolò Guidotti are not good
A bad Saturday is forgiven; a bad Tuesday is chosen. Standards have slipped and in a building where everybody watches everybody, it has been noticed.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Mar 2029
Mario Sampirisi 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.
Squad12 Mar 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 Carpi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom12 Mar 2029
Belts tighten at Carpi
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
The dugout12 Mar 2029
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Eduardo Braga was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Carpi dressing room was either.
The dugout12 Mar 2029
Niccolò Giva gets it from the manager
“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.
Match10 Mar 2029
Point won or two lost for Carpi?
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Gubbio? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Market12 Mar 2029
The Matteo Sorzi talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Carpi know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Player ratings12 Mar 2029
Successful dribbles: 11. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad12 Mar 2029
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Carpi will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces6 Nov 2028
Anger at Carpi 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.
Match6 Nov 2028
Carpi sink to position 16
9 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Boardroom6 Nov 2028
The scrutiny sharpens at Carpi
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Carpi is running low.
Squad6 Nov 2028
A falling-out at Carpi
Matteo Sorzi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Mario Sampirisi 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.
Match4 Nov 2028
Three points for Carpi, 2‑0 the final word against Bra in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings6 Nov 2028
Erik Gerbi was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.22. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Market6 Nov 2028
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Squad6 Nov 2028
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Rodrigo Gallo has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market18 Sep 2028
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Simone Romagnoli will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Carpi the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match16 Sep 2028
No end in sight to Carpi's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Carpi has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings18 Sep 2028
Successful dribbles: 23. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Words exchanged at Carpi
Matteo Sorzi 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.
Match16 Sep 2028
Vis Pesaro left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad18 Sep 2028
A row about effort at Carpi
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rodrick Tcheuna was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout18 Sep 2028
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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout18 Sep 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Simone Perucchini, and the manager let it.
The terraces18 Sep 2028
Everybody has an opinion about Matteo Sorzi
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad10 Jul 2028
39 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Carpi lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The dugout10 Jul 2028
Edoardo Zaia: 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.” Carpi have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Transfer targets10 Jul 2028
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Pisa keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad10 Jul 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Niccolò Pietra and Carpi agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad10 Jul 2028
At 24 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 3 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Words at Carpi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Erik Gerbi 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.
Transfer targets10 Jul 2028
Carpi asked and Arezzo said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Transfer targets10 Jul 2028
A loan enquiry to Napoli: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout10 Jul 2028
Nicolò Verza gets it from the manager
“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
Uneasy
Squad10 Apr 2028
9 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Match8 Apr 2028
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Simone Perucchini scored in the 86th minute, Ravenna had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Carpi took the lot.
Player ratings10 Apr 2028
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.73, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Words exchanged at Carpi
Matteo Sorzi 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.
Squad10 Apr 2028
23 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad10 Apr 2028
A row about effort at Carpi
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mario Sampirisi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match8 Apr 2028
Three points for Carpi, 2‑1 the final word against Ravenna in a contest settled by the finer margins.
The terraces10 Apr 2028
He is 20 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
The dugout10 Apr 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
Crisis
Match15 Jan 2028
No end in sight to Carpi's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Carpi has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings17 Jan 2028
Marked 7.61 at 19, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Market17 Jan 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 Carpi, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets17 Jan 2028
$860.0K was the most the club would pay and Palermo 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.
Player ratings17 Jan 2028
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Words exchanged at Carpi
Leonardo Morosini 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 terraces17 Jan 2028
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Simone Perucchini from Atalanta for $800.0K, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
Squad17 Jan 2028
A row about effort at Carpi
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mario Sampirisi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match8 Jan 2028
Nowhere to hide for Carpi
0‑3 against Sambenedettese, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Market10 Jan 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 Carpi, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Alessandro Sugamele has, at Carpi, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Transfer targets10 Jan 2028
The clubs have shaken hands with Palermo; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Match8 Jan 2028
6 matches without a win for Carpi
The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around Carpi are no longer polite ones.
Transfer targets10 Jan 2028
Everything agreed with Atalanta, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad10 Jan 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Simone Romagnoli and Carpi agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Tempers go at Carpi
Leonardo Morosini 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 Jan 2028
Mario Sampirisi 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.