Marked for Filippo Monguzzi
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad20 Sep 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Filippo Monguzzi
14 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Lecco lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match18 Sep 2027
The wait goes on for Lecco
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.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ignacio Juárez is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Match18 Sep 2027
The goals have deserted Lecco
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Lecco can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Abdou Harroui has improved at 29, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
The manager makes an example of Abdou Harroui
“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.
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 16. 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.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Too much change too quickly at Lecco
8 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.58 on the card, and the Lecco support went home talking about one name.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad13 Sep 2027
21 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Lecco lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The dugout13 Sep 2027
“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.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 31. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Gabriel Pellegrino is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Guillaume Furrer has improved at 26, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Match11 Sep 2027
Lecco cannot find the net
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Transfer targets13 Sep 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sassuolo have kept their man, and Lecco go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout13 Sep 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Oliver Urso, and the manager let it.
Squad13 Sep 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Nicolò Tondi and Lecco agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad6 Sep 2027
Filippo Monguzzi damages knee ligaments — 29 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 29 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Market6 Sep 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 Lecco can pretend not to have heard.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Luis Hasa is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Transfer targets6 Sep 2027
Everything was agreed with Salernitana and then the doctor spoke. Lecco have walked away from a signing on the advice of somebody who never saw him play, which is how it is supposed to work.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 14 signed and 8 gone
That is the business done at Lecco until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Squad6 Sep 2027
At 24 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Transfer targets6 Sep 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sassuolo have kept their man, and Lecco go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout6 Sep 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Davide Voltan, and the manager let it.
Squad6 Sep 2027
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Thomas Vettorel is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad30 Aug 2027
Filippo Monguzzi damages knee ligaments — 36 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 36 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Market30 Aug 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Lecco people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The dugout30 Aug 2027
“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.
Market30 Aug 2027
Matteo Arena 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 Lecco can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets30 Aug 2027
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Inter is saying, and nobody at Lecco is enjoying the guessing.
Transfer targets30 Aug 2027
The deal with Inter 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.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Jason Anastasini 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.
Squad30 Aug 2027
At 25 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Transfer targets30 Aug 2027
Lecco offered $16.0K; Casarano said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Oct 2026
Guillaume Furrer 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 dugout5 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Jacopo Furlan
“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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Wages swallow 117% of the Lecco income
Every club 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 it has been tried.
Match3 Oct 2026
Level with 94 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Lecco had all but put away. Cittadella will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at Lecco
Filippo Monguzzi 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.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.89 on the card, and the Lecco support went home talking about one name.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
Match3 Oct 2026
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
In brief
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
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Player ratings
Nobody could get near Davide Voltan
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The dugout
Damiano Basili has become a man the manager trusts