Marked for Niccolò Cacciamani
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Jan 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 21 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market3 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 Cittadella can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings3 Jan 2028
Matteo Angeli goes up and wins it — 7.55
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.55 for the rest of it.
Squad3 Jan 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Carlo Crialese and Cittadella agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Player ratings3 Jan 2028
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad3 Jan 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Lorenzo Carissoni, and the manager let it.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Andrea Barberis 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.
Player ratings3 Jan 2028
Marked 7.80 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Cittadella had the best player on the pitch.
Match1 Jan 2028
It needed Matteo Angeli to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Dolomiti Bellunesi, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad6 Dec 2027
A fracture rules Diego Falcinelli out for 52 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Cittadella will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market6 Dec 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cittadella can pretend not to have heard.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Lorenzo Carissoni 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.
Match4 Dec 2027
Ospitaletto made Cittadella work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Match4 Dec 2027
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Ospitaletto tried to reorganise, Cittadella did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
Player ratings6 Dec 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.13, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad6 Dec 2027
“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 ratings6 Dec 2027
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 17 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Jacopo Desogus named in the team of the month
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Jacopo Desogus is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad8 Nov 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 83 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market8 Nov 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 Cittadella, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match6 Nov 2027
No end in sight to Cittadella's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Cittadella has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Lorenzo Carissoni 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
0‑2 to Alcione Milano, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad8 Nov 2027
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad11 Oct 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 115 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market11 Oct 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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Niccolò Cacciamani is living that version at Cittadella, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Lorenzo Carissoni 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.
Player ratings11 Oct 2027
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad11 Oct 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.
Player ratings11 Oct 2027
Ninety minutes of Simone Rabbi at his very best
Marked 8.10. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Cittadella.
Loan watch11 Oct 2027
“I did not go to Arzignano to sit and watch. I want to come back to Cittadella and fight for my place.” 3 appearances in 13 matches say the rest.
Market11 Oct 2027
He is 19, and nobody at Cittadella signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad9 Aug 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Alessio Raballo is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Natan Girma 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 Reggiana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Andrea Papetti has improved at 25, 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.
Boardroom9 Aug 2027
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Words at Reggiana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Damiano Basili 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.
Market9 Aug 2027
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.