Marked for Luigi Mormile
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad2 Aug 2027
Luigi Mormile damages knee ligaments — 15 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 15 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.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Matías Ledesma gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Matías Ledesma has just signed for Foggia, and for once the answer mattered.
Transfer targets2 Aug 2027
Everything agreed with Hellas Verona, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Transfer targets2 Aug 2027
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.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Tempers go at Foggia
Lautaro Llarín 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.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Maxime Giron is no longer first choice
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Maxime Giron has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
The dugout2 Aug 2027
“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.
The dugout2 Aug 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.
Market2 Aug 2027
The name of Federico Zuccon keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Foggia say nothing, which says plenty.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Jul 2027
Luigi Mormile damages knee ligaments — 22 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 22 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.
Squad26 Jul 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Freddie Ladapo commits to Foggia for another 1 years.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Christian Tommasini 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.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
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.
Market26 Jul 2027
Trento paid $7.0K and Foggia took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Foggia are still strangers to each other
7 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout26 Jul 2027
“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.
The dugout26 Jul 2027
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 Gianmarco Todisco is on it.
Market26 Jul 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Giuseppe Panico signs something — a contract at Foggia or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Jul 2027
Luigi Mormile damages knee ligaments — 29 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 29 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.
Market19 Jul 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 Foggia can pretend not to have heard.
Market19 Jul 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Trento waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Foggia is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Squad19 Jul 2027
A row about effort at Foggia
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Christian Tommasini was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Udinese have kept their man, and Foggia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout19 Jul 2027
The manager makes an example of Felice D'Amico
“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.
Market19 Jul 2027
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Foggia, another week without a signature from Christian Tommasini.
Squad19 Jul 2027
No place for Freddie Ladapo in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Foggia are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Jul 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Luigi Mormile
36 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Foggia lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market12 Jul 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Foggia people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market12 Jul 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 Foggia can pretend not to have heard.
Market12 Jul 2027
Mantova come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Foggia did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market12 Jul 2027
Padova pay $930.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Marco Oliva and Foggia agree another 4 years.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
A loan enquiry to Utrecht: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout12 Jul 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Felice D'Amico's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Jul 2027
Luigi Mormile 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.
Market5 Jul 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 Foggia can pretend not to have heard.
Squad5 Jul 2027
David Vicari arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. David Vicari has, at Foggia, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Market5 Jul 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Foggia is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Foggia have done the hard part with Parma, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Market5 Jul 2027
The name of Marco Bevilacqua has come up in conversations Foggia were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Words at Foggia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Christian Tommasini 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.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
Foggia asked and Levski said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad5 Jul 2027
A falling-out at Foggia
David Vicari and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.