Marked for Eimi Fernández
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market31 Jan 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 Crotone can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout31 Jan 2028
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Crotone have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market31 Jan 2028
Michele Vrenna has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Crotone they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Match29 Jan 2028
At last: Crotone win one
7 matches without a win, and then this, against Potenza. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Vinícius 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 Crotone this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets31 Jan 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Atalanta have kept their man, and Crotone go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match29 Jan 2028
It finished 1‑0, and it was Antonio Energe’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Crotone.
Player ratings31 Jan 2028
Michele Cavion ran the middle of the pitch — 7.68
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 10 combined actions and a mark of 7.68, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Player ratings31 Jan 2028
Marked 7.84 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Crotone had the best player on the pitch.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market8 Nov 2027
“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.
Player ratings8 Nov 2027
Vinícius runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Vinícius 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.
Match6 Nov 2027
0‑1 to Giugliano, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad8 Nov 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Eimi Fernández and Crotone agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout8 Nov 2027
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Salvatore Ruggiero after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout8 Nov 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Matías Moya Godoy, and the manager let it.
Squad8 Nov 2027
A row about effort at Crotone
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Salvatore Valenza was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad11 Oct 2027
A falling-out at Crotone
Andrea Gallo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Words at Crotone training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tiago Barrionuevo 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.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Eimi Fernández, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
$3.0M on the table at Pisa. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
The deal with Atalanta is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
Crotone asked and Catanzaro said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad9 Aug 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Joaquín Santos and Crotone agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Crotone are still strangers to each other
10 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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Words at Crotone training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tiago Barrionuevo 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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Eimi Fernández 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.
The dugout9 Aug 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 dugout9 Aug 2027
The manager makes Zak Ruggiero a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Crotone. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.