Marked for Daniel Oyarzún
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 May 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lumezzane this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 May 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Michele Rocca, and the manager let it.
Squad14 May 2029
Tornike Qazaishvili 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.
Player ratings14 May 2029
Defensive actions: 18, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Boardroom14 May 2029
Wages eat 105% of everything Lumezzane 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.
Squad14 May 2029
Sasha Mancini has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Lumezzane 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.
Player ratings14 May 2029
Successful dribbles: 12. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match12 May 2029
Point won or two lost for Lumezzane?
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against AlbinoLeffe? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Market14 May 2029
The Kevin Varas talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Lumezzane know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad4 Sep 2028
There were 11 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.
Market4 Sep 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lumezzane can pretend not to have heard.
Squad4 Sep 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Lumezzane may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad4 Sep 2028
Stefano Filigheddu 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.
Squad4 Sep 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Alberto Palladino and Lumezzane agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Match2 Sep 2028
0‑1 to Arzignano, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market17 Jul 2028
“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.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Alberto Palladino is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad17 Jul 2028
The medical room confirms 63 days on the sidelines for Antonino De Marco, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad3 Jul 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Kevin Varas and Lumezzane agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Jul 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 Lumezzane this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Jul 2028
Davide Guglielmotti 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.
Squad3 Jul 2028
“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.
Boardroom3 Jul 2028
$31.5K on the table at Lumezzane
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
Market3 Jul 2028
He is 20, and nobody at Lumezzane signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad29 Nov 2027
Kevin Varas breaks a bone — 21 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 21 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings29 Nov 2027
Anas Alaoui, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.12
A mark of 8.12 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Market29 Nov 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 Lumezzane can pretend not to have heard.
Match27 Nov 2027
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Squad29 Nov 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lumezzane this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces29 Nov 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Anas Alaoui 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.
Squad29 Nov 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.
Squad29 Nov 2027
“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; Lumezzane are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Match27 Nov 2027
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.