Marked for Cristian Bordoni
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad27 Oct 2036
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market27 Oct 2036
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Pro Vercelli they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad27 Oct 2036
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pro Vercelli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Oct 2036
Clemente Perotti 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.
Squad27 Oct 2036
The manager makes an example of Luca Coccolo
“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.
Player ratings27 Oct 2036
Successful dribbles: 13. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market27 Oct 2036
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Pro Vercelli know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Player ratings27 Oct 2036
5.58 on the card. Some afternoons a footballer looks like a man who has only just been introduced to the game, and this was one of them.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Apr 2036
The words a physio says slowly. 138 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.
Squad14 Apr 2036
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Pro Vercelli have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad14 Apr 2036
There were 7 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.
Market14 Apr 2036
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Pro Vercelli can pretend not to have heard.
Match12 Apr 2036
No clean sheets in sight for Pro Vercelli
7 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.
Match12 Apr 2036
No end in sight to Pro Vercelli's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Pro Vercelli has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad14 Apr 2036
Bálint Faragó 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.
Match12 Apr 2036
3‑4 to Cittadella, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Match12 Apr 2036
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Pro Vercelli and Cittadella, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad7 Apr 2036
The words a physio says slowly. 145 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.
Squad7 Apr 2036
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.
Player ratings7 Apr 2036
Two goals and a mark of 8.23 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad7 Apr 2036
Bálint Faragó is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.47 with 16 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad7 Apr 2036
258 appearances across 10 seasons in these colours. Careers like that are not built any more, and Pro Vercelli know what they have.
Match5 Apr 2036
Pro Vercelli are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 6 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Boardroom7 Apr 2036
$1.6M of the owner's money at Pro Vercelli
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
Boardroom7 Apr 2036
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
Player ratings7 Apr 2036
Successful dribbles: 16. 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
Crisis
Squad3 Sep 2035
A knee injury of the worst kind for Cristian Bordoni
16 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Pro Vercelli lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match1 Sep 2035
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.
Market3 Sep 2035
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nikita Volchenko will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Pro Vercelli the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom3 Sep 2035
An order from above at Pro Vercelli: somebody has to go
Balance sheets do not care about form or about who the manager was planning to build around. The board have decided a sale is required, and the only question left is which name ends up carrying it.
Squad3 Sep 2035
Mattia Del Favero 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
Clemente Perotti 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.
Match1 Sep 2035
Mario Pjetri scored, and precious little else went right: 2‑3 to Renate, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Boardroom3 Sep 2035
$1.1M of the owner's money at Pro Vercelli
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
Player ratings3 Sep 2035
Ninety minutes of Bálint Faragó at his very best
Marked 8.84. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Pro Vercelli.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad27 Aug 2035
A knee injury of the worst kind for Cristian Bordoni
23 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Pro Vercelli lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom27 Aug 2035
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Mathias Dovland 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.
Squad27 Aug 2035
Clemente Perotti 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.
Boardroom27 Aug 2035
9 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Squad27 Aug 2035
Words at Pro Vercelli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lorenzo Pio Marino 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.
Market27 Aug 2035
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Michele Castelli has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market27 Aug 2035
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Bruno Messina is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market27 Aug 2035
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Ciro Grassi is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market27 Aug 2035
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Giulio Rossi has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad20 Aug 2035
Cristian Bordoni damages knee ligaments — 33 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 33 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.
Market20 Aug 2035
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Pro Vercelli is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad20 Aug 2035
Mattia Del Favero 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad13 Aug 2035
Cristian Bordoni damages knee ligaments — 40 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 40 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.
Squad13 Aug 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 Pro Vercelli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 Aug 2035
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Andreas Ilsanker is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad13 Aug 2035
Words at Pro Vercelli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Clemente Perotti 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.
Market13 Aug 2035
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Pro Vercelli know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Market13 Aug 2035
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad6 Aug 2035
A knee injury of the worst kind for Cristian Bordoni
48 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Pro Vercelli lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market6 Aug 2035
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Pro Vercelli is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad6 Aug 2035
354 appearances across 9 seasons in these colours. Careers like that are not built any more, and Pro Vercelli know what they have.
Squad6 Aug 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 Pro Vercelli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad6 Aug 2035
“The easiest signature of my career.” Mattia Del Favero and Pro Vercelli agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Boardroom6 Aug 2035
$1.1M of the owner's money at Pro Vercelli
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
Boardroom6 Aug 2035
Wages eat 127% of everything Pro Vercelli 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.
Boardroom6 Aug 2035
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
Market6 Aug 2035
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match12 May 2035
No end in sight to Pro Vercelli's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Pro Vercelli has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad14 May 2035
Mattia Del Favero 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.
Squad14 May 2035
8 goals and a season average of 7.48. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad14 May 2035
Lorenzo Pio Marino 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.
Squad14 May 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.
Player ratings14 May 2035
A performance of 8.25 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings14 May 2035
Ninety minutes of Ruben Karagulyan at his very best
Marked 8.05. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Pro Vercelli.
Player ratings14 May 2035
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match12 May 2035
A 1‑1 draw with Virtus Verona leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match7 May 2035
29 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Squad7 May 2035
19 goals and a season average of 7.58. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad7 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 Pro Vercelli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 May 2035
Words at Pro Vercelli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Clemente Perotti 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.
Match5 May 2035
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Boardroom7 May 2035
The owner puts $1.1M into Pro Vercelli
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Player ratings7 May 2035
A performance of 8.76 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad7 May 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.
Boardroom7 May 2035
Wages eat 136% of everything Pro Vercelli 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match28 Apr 2035
Chastening afternoon for Pro Vercelli
A 1‑4 beating by Dolomiti Bellunesi was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Boardroom30 Apr 2035
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Pro Vercelli
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market30 Apr 2035
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
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 Pro Vercelli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Apr 2035
Clemente Perotti 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.
Squad30 Apr 2035
“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.
Squad30 Apr 2035
6 goals and a season average of 7.48. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Player ratings30 Apr 2035
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Boardroom30 Apr 2035
Nobody left the Pro Vercelli dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.