Marked for Samuele Binoshaj
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market10 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.
Market10 Jul 2028
Vizela come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Chaves did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market10 Jul 2028
Only the photograph left for Nuninho
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nuninho will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Chaves the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Transfer targets10 Jul 2028
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Chaves have done the hard part with Leixões, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Market10 Jul 2028
João Celeri has left for Leiria in a $870.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Words exchanged at Chaves
João Valido 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.
Squad10 Jul 2028
A row about effort at Chaves
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Richard was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout10 Jul 2028
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
The dugout10 Jul 2028
Jhon Velásquez asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market19 Jun 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 The request is on a desk at Frosinone, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market19 Jun 2028
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Sambenedettese waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Frosinone is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market19 Jun 2028
Frosinone say no — this time
The offer from Ascoli for Kevin Barcella was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Words exchanged at Frosinone
Lorenzo Palmisani 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.
Transfer targets19 Jun 2028
Frosinone asked and Napoli said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market19 Jun 2028
“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.
Transfer targets19 Jun 2028
A loan enquiry to AC Milan: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets19 Jun 2028
San Martín SJ have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
The dugout19 Jun 2028
Alessio Zerbin has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Frosinone 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match12 Feb 2028
The wait goes on for Frosinone
6 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.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The dugout14 Feb 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.
Transfer targets14 Feb 2028
Frosinone asked and Karlovac 1919 said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Player ratings14 Feb 2028
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad14 Feb 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Kane Smith commits to Frosinone for another 2 years.
The dugout14 Feb 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 Lorenzo Palmisani is on it.
Match12 Feb 2028
It needed Roberto Piccoli to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Monza, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout14 Feb 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Tiziano Caprioli was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Frosinone dressing room was either.