“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Catania have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Lapo Siviero will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Catania the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Fabrizio Caligara 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.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 35 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Catania is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Squad23 Apr 2029
Thomas Leggio, 20, is the weekend’s best young player
Measured against every other kid in the division and first among them. The senior award is where Catania would like this to lead.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Catania know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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 Jordan Turnbull is on it.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Andrea Dini has written the date down.
33 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Catania lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Catania is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Lapo Siviero 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 dugout2 Apr 2029
The manager has not finished forgetting Andrea Dini'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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Edoardo Masciangelo is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Andrea Dini has written the date down.
In brief
The dugoutDenis Iguma asks for a word with the manager
48 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Catania lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Two goals and a mark of 9.02 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Catania is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Filippo D'Andrea. 2‑0 against Foggia, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Catania this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout19 Mar 2029
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Domenico Russo kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Edoardo Mannino will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Catania the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad5 Mar 2029
Words at Catania training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Roberto Insigne 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.
Four weeks in which nobody in the division did his job better. The award goes on a shelf and the player goes back into the side, which is the order Catania prefer.
The dugout5 Mar 2029
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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Domenico Russo to a room that had heard them before.
Brian Sobrero had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Casarano were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Catania have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Catania can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Edoardo Mannino will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Catania the goodbyes have quietly begun.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Catania have done the hard part with Palermo, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
“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 Catania, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Catania people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Thomas Clementi 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.
The name of Thomas Leggio has come up in conversations Catania were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Catania they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Campobasso waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Catania is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Trento keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.14 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Catania can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Catania have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Roberto Insigne was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The words a physio says slowly. 32 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Roberto Insigne was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 17. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The dugout11 Dec 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Andrea Dini'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.
Edoardo Mannino 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.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 51 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
8 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Sorrento were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Roberto Insigne was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Kaleb Jimenez. 2‑1 against Sorrento, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Sorrento spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
Diego Salvatore 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager’s verdict
The dugoutAndrea Dini asks for a word with the manager
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 58 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Catania they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Roberto Insigne was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A point taken on 88 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Catania has been clear about where Brian Sobrero stands, which is more than many ever get.
Edoardo Mannino 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.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
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.
Successful dribbles: 26. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“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 Catania, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Emanuele Cicerelli and Catania agree another 2 years.
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.
Denis Iguma 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.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
“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.
Boardroom4 Sep 2028
Catania close the window on a squad of their own making
14 in and 5 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Udinese have kept their man, and Catania go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Giugliano left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout4 Sep 2028
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 0‑1 Domenico Russo left the room before anybody could ask which.
There was no pressure on him and nowhere he had to be. Catania lost a goal to a decision that took half a second and will be discussed all week.
The dugout4 Sep 2028
Somebody else is better right now than Andrea Dini
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
The offer from Audace Cerignola for Klāvs Bethers 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.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Words at Catania training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Roberto Insigne 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Palermo have kept their man, and Catania go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Catania this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 terraces17 Jul 2028
Supporters make their feelings known about Klāvs Bethers
The speculation has reached the stands, and the stands have answered. Catania would like this settled before it becomes the only thing anybody asks about.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Filipe Quintas trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Fabio Ponsi 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.
Half the programme played, position 10, 19 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
Edoardo Mannino 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.
15 appearances at Latina and the goals have stopped going in. Catania lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
13 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Monopoli defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.