Marked for Simone Suppa
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market4 Jan 2027
“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 The request is on a desk at Renate, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Marked 7.94 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words exchanged at Renate
Tommaso Nobile 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
A season average of 7.00 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Renate know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Match2 Jan 2027
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Lorenzo De Leo is the division's best young player this month
At 21 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Renate will try very hard not to make too much of it.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
A promise honoured at Renate
Something was said to Francesco Vassallo and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Tommaso Catalano left the room before anybody could ask which.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
A loan move for Ian Vera is in the works
Renate have made the call to Estudiantes. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market30 Nov 2026
“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.
Match30 Nov 2026
Every point is an argument now for Renate
Position 17 and 7 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 29. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match28 Nov 2026
No end in sight to Renate's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Renate has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Tempers go at Renate
Tommaso Nobile 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Francesco Vassallo 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.
Match28 Nov 2026
Renate cannot find the net
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Match28 Nov 2026
Lumezzane left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
Wages eat 126% of everything Renate 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
Uneasy
Match17 Oct 2026
The wait goes on for Renate
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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Andrea Bartoccioni is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Tempers go at Renate
Simone Suppa 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
A row about effort at Renate
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Francesco Vassallo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
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.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Marked 7.20 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Renate had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Tommaso Catalano after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Match17 Oct 2026
Point won or two lost for Renate?
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Virtus Verona? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Looking ahead19 Oct 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Michele Calì’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Renate needing him to play as if none of it matters.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match10 Oct 2026
The wait goes on for Renate
7 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at Renate
Tommaso Nobile 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 terraces12 Oct 2026
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Andrea Bonetti
“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 ratings12 Oct 2026
A mark of 7.39, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Tommaso Catalano chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Thomas Clementi 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Young player of the week: Simone Suppa
At 18 he was the best of everybody his age in the division for one weekend. Nobody should build a career on it and everybody quietly does.
Match10 Oct 2026
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Pergolettese defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match3 Oct 2026
The wait goes on for Renate
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.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
No sign of nerves from Lorenzo De Leo at 21 — 7.95
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Lorenzo De Leo did not need any: 7.95, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad5 Oct 2026
At 18 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Tempers go at Renate
Tommaso Nobile 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Francesco Vassallo 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.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Wages eat 162% of everything Renate 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.
Match3 Oct 2026
Renate caught on 87 minutes
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Dolomiti Bellunesi scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
Squad5 Oct 2026
22 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“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
Market7 Sep 2026
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Campobasso had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 11 signed and 4 gone
That is the business done at Renate until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Renate training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Francesco Vassallo 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at Renate
Filippo Vesentini 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.
Match5 Sep 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad7 Sep 2026
53 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Tommaso Catalano to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
Simone Suppa 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.