Marked for Albert Ates
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match9 Nov 2030
11 matches without a win for Pro Patria
The run now stands at 11, and the questions being asked around Pro Patria are no longer polite ones.
Squad11 Nov 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pro Patria this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Nov 2030
A row about effort at Pro Patria
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tommy Maistrello was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match9 Nov 2030
1‑3 to Renate, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad11 Nov 2030
200 times in these colours, in all weathers and under four or five different managers. That kind of service is quietly disappearing from the game.
Player ratings11 Nov 2030
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.20, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout11 Nov 2030
The manager makes an example of Leutrim Callaku
“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.
The dugout11 Nov 2030
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 1‑3 defeat, delivered by Mattia Lombardo to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout11 Nov 2030
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Pro Patria, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match26 Oct 2030
No end in sight to Pro Patria's wait for a win
9 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Pro Patria has to find a result from somewhere.
The dugout28 Oct 2030
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad28 Oct 2030
Tommy Maistrello 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.
Squad28 Oct 2030
Words at Pro Patria training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Christian Dimarco 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.
Player ratings28 Oct 2030
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match26 Oct 2030
Pergolettese left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout28 Oct 2030
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 0‑2 Mattia Lombardo left the room before anybody could ask which.
Market28 Oct 2030
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Pro Patria know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout28 Oct 2030
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Oct 2030
Gian Filippo Felicioli 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.
Squad14 Oct 2030
Tommy Maistrello 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.
Squad14 Oct 2030
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Pro Patria can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Market14 Oct 2030
“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.
The dugout14 Oct 2030
“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.
Market14 Oct 2030
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Christian Dimarco signs something — a contract at Pro Patria or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout14 Oct 2030
Robert Łukowiak has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Pro Patria 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.
Squad14 Oct 2030
Fouad Halil: “I am not a substitute”
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Pro Patria will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
Market14 Oct 2030
7 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Pro Patria money.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Sep 2030
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Squad16 Sep 2030
The step up is real for Fouad Halil
At 23 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.
Squad16 Sep 2030
Tommy Maistrello 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.
Squad16 Sep 2030
At 25 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 3 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.
Match14 Sep 2030
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.
The dugout16 Sep 2030
The manager makes an example of Albert Ates
“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.
The dugout16 Sep 2030
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Market16 Sep 2030
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Tommaso Ricordi may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Market16 Sep 2030
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Pro Patria, another week without a signature from Nouroudine Faye.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market26 Aug 2030
“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 Pro Patria, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad26 Aug 2030
Albert Ates is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad26 Aug 2030
Tommy Maistrello 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.
Boardroom26 Aug 2030
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Pro Patria
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Squad26 Aug 2030
A row about effort at Pro Patria
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pietro Reggiori was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market26 Aug 2030
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Enrico Calabrese has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market26 Aug 2030
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Umberto Alberti is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market26 Aug 2030
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Nicolò Rizzi has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Squad26 Aug 2030
45 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout5 Aug 2030
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Market5 Aug 2030
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Pro Patria can pretend not to have heard.
Squad5 Aug 2030
Tommy Maistrello and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad5 Aug 2030
Pietro Reggiori 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.
Market5 Aug 2030
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Gian Filippo Felicioli has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Pro Patria.
Market5 Aug 2030
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Pro Patria, another week without a signature from Tommaso Ricordi.
Boardroom5 Aug 2030
Pro Patria can only buy what they sell
Nobody has barred the club from spending; it simply has nothing to spend that it has not first raised. Every incoming name comes with an outgoing one attached.
Squad5 Aug 2030
António Indami slips down the pecking order
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. António Indami is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
The dugout5 Aug 2030
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Tommaso Ricordi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad22 Jul 2030
At 23 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.
Squad22 Jul 2030
Pietro Reggiori 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.
Squad22 Jul 2030
Tommy Maistrello 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.
The dugout22 Jul 2030
Pietro Reggiori 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.
The dugout22 Jul 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mirko Coppola, and the manager let it.
Market22 Jul 2030
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Pietro Reggiori’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 Jun 2030
Pietro Reggiori 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.
Squad24 Jun 2030
Gian Filippo Felicioli 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 dugout24 Jun 2030
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Pro Patria, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad24 Jun 2030
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Pro Patria are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Market24 Jun 2030
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Pietro Reggiori’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout24 Jun 2030
“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
Uneasy
Boardroom17 Jun 2030
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Pro Patria now.
Squad17 Jun 2030
A row about effort at Pro Patria
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tommy Maistrello was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad17 Jun 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pro Patria this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom17 Jun 2030
Wages swallow 119% of the Pro Patria income
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
The dugout17 Jun 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nouroudine Faye, and the manager let it.
Market17 Jun 2030
He is 18, and nobody at Pro Patria signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Squad17 Jun 2030
Pro Patria are still strangers to each other
5 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 dugout17 Jun 2030
Tommaso Ricordi 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.
The dugout17 Jun 2030
Nobody at Pro Patria 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
Crisis
Squad11 Jun 2029
32 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Montana lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Transfer targets11 Jun 2029
Montana asked and Dobrudzha said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad11 Jun 2029
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Chidera Micheal commits to Montana for another 4 years.
Squad11 Jun 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Montana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Jun 2029
Jota Silva 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 targets11 Jun 2029
Levski 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 dugout11 Jun 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ibrahim Muhammad, and the manager let it.
The dugout11 Jun 2029
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Market11 Jun 2029
The name of Chidera Micheal keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Montana say nothing, which says plenty.