Marked for Andrea Giunchi
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match1 Sep 2035
A hiding for Cesena
Beaten 2‑5 by Juventus, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Market3 Sep 2035
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Cesena is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Player ratings3 Sep 2035
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.86 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Market3 Sep 2035
“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 The request is on a desk at Cesena, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings3 Sep 2035
A defender's goal wins it for Cesena — 7.49
1 for Niccolò Fortini, marked 7.49, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Squad3 Sep 2035
Tempers go at Cesena
Jonathan Klinsmann 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.
Squad3 Sep 2035
Words at Cesena training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tommaso Berti is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Match1 Sep 2035
Niccolò Fortini among the goals in a wild afternoon
7 goals in one match, Niccolò Fortini on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Cesena and Juventus.
Squad3 Sep 2035
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Gianluca Frabotta commits to Cesena for another 2 years.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Jul 2035
43 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Cesena lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market16 Jul 2035
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Gianmarco Castorri will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Cesena the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market16 Jul 2035
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cesena can pretend not to have heard.
Squad16 Jul 2035
Tempers go at Cesena
Cristian Shpendi 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.
Squad16 Jul 2035
Tommaso Berti 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.
Squad16 Jul 2035
Thiago Dowd has improved at 28, 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad2 Jul 2035
57 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Cesena lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom2 Jul 2035
The scrutiny sharpens at Cesena
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Cesena is running low.
Boardroom2 Jul 2035
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Market2 Jul 2035
“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.
Market2 Jul 2035
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Cesena is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad2 Jul 2035
Tempers go at Cesena
Cristian Shpendi 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.
Boardroom2 Jul 2035
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Andrea Giunchi has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Squad2 Jul 2035
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Paco Esteban and Cesena agree another 4 years.
Squad2 Jul 2035
Tommaso Berti 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad14 May 2035
Cristian Shpendi damages knee ligaments — 50 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 50 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.
Market14 May 2035
“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.
Squad14 May 2035
Defences have started doubling up on Tommaso Berti
23 goals and a season average of 7.22 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad14 May 2035
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cesena this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 May 2035
Words at Cesena training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tommaso Berti is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Match12 May 2035
Three points for Cesena, 2‑1 the final word against Frosinone in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings14 May 2035
Tommaso Berti was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.42. 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.
Market14 May 2035
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Matteo Francesconi signs something — a contract at Cesena or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The terraces14 May 2035
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad30 Apr 2035
Cristian Shpendi damages knee ligaments — 64 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 64 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 Apr 2035
“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 Cesena, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad30 Apr 2035
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cesena this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Apr 2035
Words at Cesena training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tommaso Berti is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad30 Apr 2035
“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.
Match28 Apr 2035
A bad afternoon for Cesena against Atalanta
0‑1 to Atalanta, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Market30 Apr 2035
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Tommaso Berti signs something — a contract at Cesena or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Player ratings30 Apr 2035
The chances came and went for Paco Esteban
12 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
Player ratings30 Apr 2035
Successful dribbles: 12. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad16 Apr 2035
Cristian Shpendi damages knee ligaments — 78 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 78 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.
Match14 Apr 2035
5‑1, and Niccolò Fortini took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Cesena tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings16 Apr 2035
Two goals and a mark of 10.00 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market16 Apr 2035
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cesena can pretend not to have heard.
Squad16 Apr 2035
21 goals and a season average of 7.20. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad16 Apr 2035
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cesena this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match14 Apr 2035
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Cesena and Fiorentina in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Player ratings16 Apr 2035
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.51, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad16 Apr 2035
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jonathan Klinsmann, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad26 Mar 2035
Cristian Shpendi damages knee ligaments — 99 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 99 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.
Squad26 Mar 2035
There were 10 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.
The terraces26 Mar 2035
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 8 of the 38 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Market26 Mar 2035
“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 Cesena, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad26 Mar 2035
Tempers go at Cesena
Cristian Shpendi 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.
Market26 Mar 2035
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Cesena is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Match24 Mar 2035
No clean sheets in sight for Cesena
5 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Squad26 Mar 2035
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Tommaso Berti, and the manager let it.
Match24 Mar 2035
Napoli left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad26 Feb 2035
Cristian Shpendi damages knee ligaments — 127 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 127 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.
The terraces26 Feb 2035
Anger at Cesena spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Match24 Feb 2035
0‑3 to AS Roma, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Market26 Feb 2035
“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.
Squad26 Feb 2035
Tempers go at Cesena
Cristian Shpendi 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.
Market26 Feb 2035
Only the photograph left for Gerardo Grasso
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Gerardo Grasso will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Cesena the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad26 Feb 2035
Tommaso Berti 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.
Squad26 Feb 2035
“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.
Boardroom26 Feb 2035
Doors closed at Cesena
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom29 Jan 2035
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Cesena
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
The terraces29 Jan 2035
Anger at Cesena spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Match27 Jan 2035
Cesena throw away a 2-goal lead
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Juventus the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Cesena will enjoy reviewing.
Market29 Jan 2035
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cesena can pretend not to have heard.
Market29 Jan 2035
Only the photograph left for Gerardo Grasso
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Gerardo Grasso will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Cesena the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad29 Jan 2035
Tempers go at Cesena
Cristian Shpendi 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.
Squad29 Jan 2035
Tommaso Berti 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.
Match27 Jan 2035
Still nobody has beaten Cesena
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Market29 Jan 2035
The name of Antonio Costa has come up in conversations Cesena were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad18 Dec 2034
44 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Cesena lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad18 Dec 2034
There were 9 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.
Match13 Dec 2034
Cesena bow out of the cup
Udinese go through and Cesena go home, 2‑3 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Match13 Dec 2034
A 2-goal lead gone for Cesena
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Udinese kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Cesena will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Match16 Dec 2034
The wait goes on for Cesena
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.
Market18 Dec 2034
“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 Cesena, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings18 Dec 2034
A defender's goal wins it for Cesena — 7.96
1 for Gerardo Grasso, marked 7.96, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Squad18 Dec 2034
Tempers go at Cesena
Jonathan Klinsmann 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.
Squad18 Dec 2034
Words at Cesena training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tommaso Berti is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad4 Dec 2034
58 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Cesena lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom4 Dec 2034
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Boardroom4 Dec 2034
Pressure builds in the Cesena boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market4 Dec 2034
“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.
Match2 Dec 2034
The wait goes on for Cesena
5 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.
Market4 Dec 2034
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Cesena is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad4 Dec 2034
Tempers go at Cesena
Jonathan Klinsmann 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 Dec 2034
Cristian Shpendi 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.
Squad4 Dec 2034
“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
Crisis
Squad2 Oct 2034
121 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Cesena lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The terraces2 Oct 2034
Anger at Cesena spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Squad2 Oct 2034
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Cesena may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market2 Oct 2034
“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.
Squad2 Oct 2034
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cesena this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match30 Sep 2034
Paco Esteban among the goals in a wild afternoon
6 goals in one match, Paco Esteban on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Cesena and Como.
Squad2 Oct 2034
Words at Cesena training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cristian Shpendi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Match30 Sep 2034
A bad afternoon for Cesena against Como
2‑4 to Como, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Market2 Oct 2034
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Matteo Francesconi’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.