Marked for Elijah Scott
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad15 Nov 2027
20 days out for Gianmarco Melis after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Pescara will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The dugout15 Nov 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.
Market15 Nov 2027
Lorenzo Meazzi has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Pescara they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Boardroom15 Nov 2027
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.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Nuno Tavares 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 Pescara this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Elijah Scott, and the manager let it.
Squad15 Nov 2027
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Pescara can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Loan watch15 Nov 2027
“I did not go to AlbinoLeffe to sit and watch. I want to come back to Pescara and fight for my place.” 5 appearances in 16 matches say the rest.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Pescara told Andrea Favilli something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match3 Nov 2027
Pescara bow out of the cup
Campobasso go through and Pescara go home, 1‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Squad8 Nov 2027
A fracture rules Gianmarco Melis out for 31 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Pescara will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match6 Nov 2027
The wait goes on for Pescara
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.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Nuno Tavares 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.
Squad8 Nov 2027
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Pescara can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The terraces8 Nov 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Borna Knezović has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
The dugout8 Nov 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.
Match6 Nov 2027
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings8 Nov 2027
Marked 6.52 on 10 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market4 Oct 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 Pescara heard it as anything else.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Words exchanged at Pescara
Nuno Tavares 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.
Squad4 Oct 2027
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Loan watch4 Oct 2027
“I did not go to AlbinoLeffe to sit and watch. I want to come back to Pescara and fight for my place.” 3 appearances in 10 matches say the rest.
Player ratings4 Oct 2027
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.73 on the card, and the Pescara support went home talking about one name.
Boardroom4 Oct 2027
Wages eat 86% of everything Pescara 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
A place in the month's best eleven for Giacomo Olzer
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Giacomo Olzer has come out of that comparison in the side, and Pescara have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The dugout4 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.
The dugout4 Oct 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Nicola Villa was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Pescara dressing room was either.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market13 Sep 2027
Giacomo Olzer 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 Pescara can pretend not to have heard.
Match11 Sep 2027
Nobody wins at Pescara
16 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 26. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Market13 Sep 2027
Pescara say no — this time
The offer from Frosinone for Vincenzo Fiorillo was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Transfer targets13 Sep 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.
Squad13 Sep 2027
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Pescara can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout13 Sep 2027
The manager makes an example of Andrea Cistana
“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 ratings13 Sep 2027
Nobody on the pitch touched Giacomo Olzer
7.91, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Pescara had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Erdis Kraja 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Envigado is saying, and nobody at Pescara is enjoying the guessing.
Market12 Jul 2027
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Pescara they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market12 Jul 2027
The paperwork is done: Elijah Scott joins from Lecce in a deal worth $520.0K. Now comes the harder part.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Words exchanged at Pescara
Nuno Tavares 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.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Genoa have kept their man, and Pescara go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad12 Jul 2027
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Pescara know it.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Pescara know which stage they are at.
The dugout12 Jul 2027
“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
Steady
Squad29 Mar 2027
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad29 Mar 2027
A row about effort at Gubbio
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rodrigo Díaz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Rodrigo Díaz, and the manager let it.
Loan watch29 Mar 2027
“I watch every Gubbio game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Al-Ahli runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad29 Mar 2027
A falling-out at Gubbio
Louis Bonnieu and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
Camillo Ciano 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 dugout29 Mar 2027
A promise honoured at Gubbio
Something was said to Nicolò Fazzi and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout29 Mar 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.
Looking ahead29 Mar 2027
Next up on the road: Pineto, position 14. The supporters who go will talk about it all week and the ones who do not will check their phones at ten to five.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market29 Mar 2027
Olaf Gorter has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Lecce they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Francesco Camarda is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Lecce told Lameck Banda something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Lassana Coulibaly trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
Corrie Ndaba gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Corrie Ndaba is on it.
Market29 Mar 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Lecce know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Looking ahead29 Mar 2027
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Wladimiro Falcone’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Lecce needing him to play as if none of it matters.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Omri Gandelman has written the date down.
Loan watch29 Mar 2027
The goals keep arriving from Rareş Burnete’s exile
4 goals in 25 games at Südtirol — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Lecce updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad15 Mar 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
Manuel Ferrini: 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.” Gubbio have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match13 Mar 2027
Beaten 2‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad15 Mar 2027
50 goals for this club, and somewhere in the stand there is a person who can still tell you where they were for most of them.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Rodrigo Díaz 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 dugout15 Mar 2027
Elijah Scott 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.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 2‑3 Ignazio Bianchi left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Measured against every other kid in the division and first among them. The senior award is where Gubbio would like this to lead.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market1 Feb 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 Gubbio, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Juve Stabia keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
At 36 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.03, and nobody on the pitch better.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 1 signed and 1 gone
That is the business done at Gubbio 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.
Match30 Jan 2027
Gubbio make home a hard place to visit
10 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Squad1 Feb 2027
A falling-out at Gubbio
Nicola Murru and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Home is on Amarildo's mind
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Gubbio are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad1 Feb 2027
A row about effort at Gubbio
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nahuel Arias was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The terraces1 Feb 2027
He is 21 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Francisco Souza Silva, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 7.89
A mark of 7.89 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Age has not caught Nahuel Arias yet — 7.80
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.80 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Elijah Scott is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
“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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
A row about effort at Gubbio
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rodrigo Díaz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match19 Dec 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.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
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.” Ignazio Bianchi chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
Squad21 Dec 2026
At 19 he is being measured against the rest of the division's kids and coming out in front. The senior version of this award is where the club would like this to lead.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Gubbio may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Andrea La Mantia, 35, rolls back the years — 7.83
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.83 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Elijah Scott is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
Match17 Oct 2026
7 unbeaten for Gubbio
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 7 matches without defeat is a foundation Gubbio did not have in the autumn.
Squad19 Oct 2026
At 36, 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Francesco Zallu and Gubbio agree another 4 years.
Squad19 Oct 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gubbio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match17 Oct 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Andrea La Mantia’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Gubbio.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Gabriele Costa, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Tommaso Ghirardello is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Tempers go at Gubbio
Andrea La Mantia 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Nahuel Arias 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 dugout12 Oct 2026
“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.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
A promise honoured at Gubbio
Something was said to Elijah Scott and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market14 Sep 2026
“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 Gubbio, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad14 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Gubbio
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nahuel Arias was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
Gubbio asked and Lanús said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
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.” Ignazio Bianchi chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Looking ahead14 Sep 2026
The leaders are next for Gubbio
Ravenna top the table and they are coming into view. Nothing to lose, which is what every manager says before losing.
Match12 Sep 2026
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Spezia defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
Lorenzo Podda 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
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 Gubbio would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
No place in the plan for Amarildo
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.