Marked for Jonathan Reyes
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad4 Oct 2027
A fracture rules Richard Marcone out for 20 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Picerno will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The dugout4 Oct 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Picerno may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad4 Oct 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Emmanuele Esposito commits to Picerno for another 1 years.
Match2 Oct 2027
Crotone made Picerno work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad4 Oct 2027
100 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
The dugout4 Oct 2027
The manager makes an example of Andrea Marino
“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.
Boardroom4 Oct 2027
Wages eat 106% of everything Picerno 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.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Angelo Veltri slips down the pecking order
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Angelo Veltri is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Player ratings4 Oct 2027
A mark of 7.71, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match22 Sep 2027
The small margins put Picerno out
Out, 0‑1 to Renate, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Squad27 Sep 2027
27 days out for Richard Marcone after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Picerno will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Picerno may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match25 Sep 2027
Monopoli left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad27 Sep 2027
A row about effort at Picerno
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emmanuele Esposito was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Gabriele Bellodi, and the manager let it.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Words exchanged at Picerno
Jonathan Reyes 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.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Picerno are still strangers to each other
8 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.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑3, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
In brief
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The dugout
The manager has not finished forgetting Elia Summa's mistake
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Market
No place for Robson Luiz in the plan
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Player ratings
Nobody could get near Robson Luiz
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market12 Jul 2027
Terms done: Léo Abreu is going
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Virtus Entella waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Picerno is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 106 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market12 Jul 2027
“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 Picerno, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Torino is saying, and nobody at Picerno is enjoying the guessing.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Angelo Veltri 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 targets12 Jul 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Guidonia Montecelio have kept their man, and Picerno go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market12 Jul 2027
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Andrea Gemignani has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Picerno.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
Cittadella 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.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
A loan enquiry to Frosinone: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad19 Apr 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 89 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match19 Apr 2027
Full time on the season at Picerno
Position 14 on 30 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
Match17 Apr 2027
The wait goes on for Picerno
8 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.
Squad19 Apr 2027
A one-man rearguard from Elia Summa
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match17 Apr 2027
Picerno cannot find the net
4 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.
Squad19 Apr 2027
A falling-out at Picerno
Andrea Gemignani and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market19 Apr 2027
Léo Abreu told to find a new club
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Léo Abreu has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Picerno.
Match17 Apr 2027
0‑1 to Salernitana, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout19 Apr 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad29 Mar 2027
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Picerno will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market29 Mar 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 Picerno can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alessandro Bassoli, and the manager let it.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
Samuel Pugliese 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.
Looking ahead29 Mar 2027
Cavese next, and one man in the Picerno dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Picerno. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Squad29 Mar 2027
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Picerno would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Looking ahead29 Mar 2027
Next up at home: Cavese, who go into it in position 14. The kind of fixture a season is quietly built on or quietly loses its shape in.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
The message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Francesco Rillo plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad22 Feb 2027
A move Jonathan Reyes 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. Jonathan Reyes is living that version at Picerno, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad22 Feb 2027
A falling-out at Picerno
Andrea Gemignani and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alessandro Bassoli, and the manager let it.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Squad22 Feb 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Jonathan Reyes commits to Picerno for another 3 years.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Manuel Ravelli chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
Léo Abreu 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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Match20 Feb 2027
Point won or two lost for Picerno?
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Foggia? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.