Leonardo Di Cosmo 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Simone Ianesi 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.
Three points for Pianese, 1‑0 the final word against Livorno in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Luca Fabrizi was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.04. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
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.
Something was said to Francesco Chesti and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The medical room confirms 62 days on the sidelines for Easton Ongaro, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Simone Ianesi 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Pianese, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Successful dribbles: 27. 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.
5 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Vis Pesaro were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Something was said to Luca Fabrizi and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Michele Medici kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Lorenzo Masetti trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Claudio Martey is 20, and for one weekend he was the best of everybody his age in the division. Nobody should build a career on it and everybody quietly does.
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.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Claudio Martey has come out of that comparison in the side, and Pianese have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Michele Medici could afford to be generous.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Francesco Chesti has his answer from Pianese; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Successful dribbles: 14. 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.
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
In brief
The dugoutMarco Bertini knocks on the manager's door
Claudio Martey, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.68
A mark of 7.68 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Simone Ianesi 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.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
5 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Pontedera were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Marked 7.97. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Squad26 Oct 2026
7 new faces, and Pianese are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Michele Medici, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.