Marked for Oleksandr Dragan
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings18 Oct 2027
Defensive actions: 26. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Player ratings18 Oct 2027
Defensive actions: 24, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Squad18 Oct 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 Giana Erminio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings18 Oct 2027
A defender's afternoon for Andrea Piazza
Defensive actions: 20. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Squad18 Oct 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.
Player ratings18 Oct 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.62, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match16 Oct 2027
It finished 1‑0, and it was Adama Diakité’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Giana Erminio.
Squad18 Oct 2027
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Giana Erminio will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Matteo Colombara has seen what the next man earns
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Giana Erminio that is a harder question to answer.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 25. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad20 Sep 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Marco Ballabio and Giana Erminio agree another 3 years.
Squad20 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 Giana Erminio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match18 Sep 2027
Lumezzane left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad20 Sep 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.
Squad20 Sep 2027
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Giana Erminio will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces6 Sep 2027
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 6 of the 27 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Player ratings6 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 25. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad6 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 Giana Erminio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad6 Sep 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Tim Stegerer, and the manager let it.
Match4 Sep 2027
0‑1 to Lecco, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Loan watch6 Sep 2027
“I did not go to Bra to sit and watch. I want to come back to Giana Erminio and fight for my place.” 2 appearances in 9 matches say the rest.
Market6 Sep 2027
The Luigi Samele conversation is coming
Everyone has stopped pretending: Pisa will make the call about Luigi Samele this week. Giana Erminio have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Player ratings6 Sep 2027
Shots: 7, not one of them in. A centre forward is paid for one thing, and on this evidence he has forgotten which thing it is.
Player ratings6 Sep 2027
Marked 5.79, and generously at that. Nothing came off, and by the end the crowd had stopped expecting it to.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom5 Jul 2027
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Adama Diakité 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.
Market5 Jul 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Giana Erminio have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Market5 Jul 2027
He is 20, and nobody at Giana Erminio signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Squad5 Jul 2027
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Giana Erminio will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Squad5 Jul 2027
The manager makes an example of Luigi Samele
“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
Player ratings3 May 2027
Nobody could get near Kike Pérez
Successful dribbles: 30. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings3 May 2027
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 27 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Match1 May 2027
8 unbeaten for Venezia
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 8 matches without defeat is a foundation Venezia did not have in the autumn.
Squad3 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 Venezia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings3 May 2027
Defensive actions: 20. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Player ratings3 May 2027
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 19 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Squad3 May 2027
The award is a small thing with a heavy meaning: for four weeks nobody in this division did his job better. Venezia have the trophy on a shelf and the player in the side.
Boardroom3 May 2027
$376.2K on the table at Venezia
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
Squad3 May 2027
Defences have started doubling up on Kike Pérez
4 goals and a season average of 7.27 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.