Marked for Jacopo De Cintio
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces1 Jan 2029
The mood at Ospitaletto 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.
Market1 Jan 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 The request is on a desk at Ospitaletto, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout1 Jan 2029
This is not rotation. Kévin Hoggas has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Ospitaletto is pretending otherwise.
Squad1 Jan 2029
Jørgen Skjølås 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.
Match30 Dec 2028
Pro Vercelli left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad1 Jan 2029
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Michel Panatti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout1 Jan 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Michele Casali, and the manager let it.
The dugout1 Jan 2029
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout1 Jan 2029
Marcello Possenti has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Ospitaletto 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad20 Nov 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Lorenzo Mazza
60 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ospitaletto lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad20 Nov 2028
At 37, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Squad20 Nov 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 Ospitaletto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Nov 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Michel Panatti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout20 Nov 2028
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Ospitaletto told Marco Bertoli something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout20 Nov 2028
Marcello Possenti is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Market20 Nov 2028
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
The dugout20 Nov 2028
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Matteo Gualandris trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market5 Jul 2027
Pau FC come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Cagliari did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market5 Jul 2027
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Cagliari heard it as anything else.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
Everything agreed with Napoli, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad5 Jul 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Zito Luvumbo commits to Cagliari for another 4 years.
Squad5 Jul 2027
A falling-out at Cagliari
Rafa Marín and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market5 Jul 2027
Gianluca Saddi has left for Vis Pesaro in a $700.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Market5 Jul 2027
Ospitaletto pay $620.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad5 Jul 2027
A row about effort at Cagliari
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Riyad Idrissi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market5 Jul 2027
$620.0K — a new record at Ospitaletto
No footballer has ever cost this club more, and the number will be read out every time he misplaces a pass for the next two years.
Market5 Jul 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ospitaletto can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Fiorentina keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Market5 Jul 2027
The paperwork is done: Dijanis Dudić joins from Monopoli in a deal worth $170.0K. Now comes the harder part.
Squad5 Jul 2027
A move Sam Lewis 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. Sam Lewis is living that version at Ospitaletto, and it tends to show in the first month.
The terraces5 Jul 2027
The town asked, and Ospitaletto paid $620.0K
Jacopo De Cintio was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $620.0K. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Mauro Semprini 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.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Ospitaletto are still strangers to each other
11 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
Market28 Jun 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.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
Ospitaletto and Cagliari have settled on $620.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Alessandro Torri is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
The dugout28 Jun 2027
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Words at Ospitaletto training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Simone Cortese 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 dugout28 Jun 2027
Riccardo Nessi 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.