Marked for Marco Castellacci
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad24 Sep 2029
Federico Giraudo damages knee ligaments — 43 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 43 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.
Boardroom24 Sep 2029
“I have supported clubs like this one. I know what a bad Saturday feels like here.” The new man starts with nothing behind him and everything in front of him.
Match22 Sep 2029
11 matches without a win for Casarano
The run now stands at 11, and the questions being asked around Casarano are no longer polite ones.
Match19 Sep 2029
Perugia ended it 1‑2. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Squad24 Sep 2029
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad24 Sep 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 Casarano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings24 Sep 2029
Successful dribbles: 21. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad24 Sep 2029
Words at Casarano training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raffaele Maiello 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 dugout24 Sep 2029
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad23 Jul 2029
Michele Conti damages knee ligaments — 30 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 30 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.
Squad23 Jul 2029
At 20 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.
Squad23 Jul 2029
At 30 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Squad23 Jul 2029
A row about effort at Casarano
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Raffaele Maiello was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets23 Jul 2029
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.
The dugout23 Jul 2029
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.
The dugout23 Jul 2029
“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.
Market23 Jul 2029
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Flavio Di Dio’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Market23 Jul 2029
1 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Casarano could ask drops and the wages Andrea Santarcangelo can ask rise.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Aug 2028
57 days out for Vito Leonetti after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Casarano will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Boardroom21 Aug 2028
The scrutiny sharpens at Casarano
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Casarano is running low.
Market21 Aug 2028
“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 Casarano, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout21 Aug 2028
“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.
The dugout21 Aug 2028
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad21 Aug 2028
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Marco Castellacci is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Cosimo Patierno has improved at 37, 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.
Boardroom21 Aug 2028
5 academy graduates step up at Casarano
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Cosimo Chiricò 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
Uneasy
Squad24 Jul 2028
Vito Leonetti breaks a bone — 87 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 87 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Boardroom24 Jul 2028
The scrutiny sharpens at Casarano
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Casarano is running low.
The dugout24 Jul 2028
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Transfer targets24 Jul 2028
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at AS Roma is saying, and nobody at Casarano is enjoying the guessing.
Squad24 Jul 2028
At 20 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.
Squad24 Jul 2028
A row about effort at Casarano
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Borna Knezović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Words exchanged at Casarano
Andrea Santarcangelo 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.
The dugout24 Jul 2028
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 Federico Giraudo is on it.
The dugout24 Jul 2028
Borna Knezović knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Borna Knezović trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad22 May 2028
26 days out for Federico Giraudo after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Casarano will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market22 May 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.
Squad22 May 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 Casarano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 May 2028
A row about effort at Casarano
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Cosimo Chiricò was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout22 May 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Cosimo Chiricò, and the manager let it.
The dugout22 May 2028
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.