Marked for Erick Ciobanu
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market27 Dec 2032
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Reggiana can pretend not to have heard.
Squad27 Dec 2032
A falling-out at Reggiana
Natan Girma and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom27 Dec 2032
Belts tighten at Reggiana
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
Squad27 Dec 2032
Words at Reggiana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Martín Suárez 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.
Squad27 Dec 2032
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Reggiana can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout27 Dec 2032
“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.
Squad27 Dec 2032
The division's best last weekend was a Reggiana man
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Leon Šipoš was the best thing in any of them.
Match25 Dec 2032
Point won or two lost for Reggiana?
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Frosinone? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
The dugout27 Dec 2032
Mateo Zárate has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Reggiana 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad20 Dec 2032
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Match18 Dec 2032
The drought breaks for Reggiana
13 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Mantova were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Player ratings20 Dec 2032
A brace, and Leon Šipoš takes the afternoon — 9.59
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Leon Šipoš provided it, and the 9.59 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market20 Dec 2032
“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.
Squad20 Dec 2032
18 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad20 Dec 2032
Andrea Bozzolan 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.
Squad20 Dec 2032
Words at Reggiana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Martín Suárez 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.
Match18 Dec 2032
Three points for Reggiana, 3‑1 the final word against Mantova in a contest settled by the finer margins.
The dugout20 Dec 2032
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Erick Ciobanu, and the manager let it.
In brief
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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The dugout
Matteo Enza gets picked when it counts
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Market
Natan Girma linked with a move away
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match20 Nov 2032
10 matches without a win for Reggiana
The run now stands at 10, and the questions being asked around Reggiana are no longer polite ones.
Squad22 Nov 2032
Words exchanged at Reggiana
Andrea Bozzolan 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 Nov 2032
Luca Vido 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.
Player ratings22 Nov 2032
Marked 8.12 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
The dugout22 Nov 2032
“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.
Match20 Nov 2032
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout22 Nov 2032
When it matters, Matteo Enza plays
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.
The dugout22 Nov 2032
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.” Interim Coach chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
The dugout22 Nov 2032
The plan did not have a place for Luca Vido
Nobody at Reggiana is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces18 Oct 2032
The mood at Reggiana has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Match16 Oct 2032
4 matches without a win for Reggiana
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Reggiana are no longer polite ones.
Squad18 Oct 2032
Luca Vido 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.
Squad18 Oct 2032
Martín Suárez 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.
Squad18 Oct 2032
A muscle injury sidelines Mateo Zárate for 14 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Reggiana will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Match16 Oct 2032
Reggiana rescue it on 93 minutes
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 93. Hellas Verona had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
The dugout18 Oct 2032
The manager makes an example of Erick Ciobanu
“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.
Squad18 Oct 2032
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Reggiana can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Match16 Oct 2032
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Boardroom20 Sep 2032
The caretaker keeps it: Interim Coach confirmed
A month of looking elsewhere ended where it started. He already knows every name in the building; the rest of it he now has to prove in public.
The terraces20 Sep 2032
Supporters organise against the Reggiana board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Squad20 Sep 2032
Words exchanged at Reggiana
Natan Girma 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.
Squad20 Sep 2032
Luca Vido 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.
Player ratings20 Sep 2032
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.01, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout20 Sep 2032
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Erick Ciobanu, and the manager let it.
Match18 Sep 2032
A 2‑2 draw with Cesena leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout20 Sep 2032
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.” Interim Coach chose the glass-half-full version of 2‑2; the supporters left with the other one.
Market20 Sep 2032
No place for Abdoul Bode in the plan
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Abdoul Bode has his answer from Reggiana; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market16 Aug 2032
“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.
The dugout16 Aug 2032
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Reggiana have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad16 Aug 2032
A falling-out at Reggiana
Luca Vido and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad16 Aug 2032
Words at Reggiana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Martín Suárez 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.
Squad16 Aug 2032
The medical room confirms 33 days on the sidelines for Luciano Verdi, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Boardroom16 Aug 2032
103% of the income goes out in wages at Reggiana
Every club in football 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 somebody has tried it.
Squad16 Aug 2032
Too much change too quickly at Reggiana
9 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The dugout16 Aug 2032
Erick Ciobanu gets picked when it counts
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 Erick Ciobanu is on it.
Market16 Aug 2032
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Martín Suárez’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Boardroom2 Aug 2032
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Boardroom2 Aug 2032
Emergency meeting at Reggiana
The whole football department in one room on a weekday morning. Nothing was announced afterwards, which is what a board announces when it has run out of patience.
Market2 Aug 2032
“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.
Squad2 Aug 2032
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Martín Suárez commits to Reggiana for another 4 years.
Squad2 Aug 2032
A falling-out at Reggiana
Natan Girma and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad2 Aug 2032
At 17 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.
Squad2 Aug 2032
Words at Reggiana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Martín Suárez 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.
Market2 Aug 2032
Erick Ciobanu is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Reggiana has been clear about where Erick Ciobanu stands, which is more than many ever get.
The dugout2 Aug 2032
Luca Vido without the man who signed him
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Luca Vido was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The terraces26 Jul 2032
The mood at Reggiana has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
The dugout26 Jul 2032
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad26 Jul 2032
A falling-out at Reggiana
Andrea Bozzolan and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Jul 2032
Joshua Ntumba 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. Joshua Ntumba has, at Reggiana, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad26 Jul 2032
Words at Reggiana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Martín Suárez 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.
Squad26 Jul 2032
50 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2032
AS Roma 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.
Market26 Jul 2032
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Natan Girma’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout26 Jul 2032
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad19 Jul 2032
Natan Girma 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 Jul 2032
A row about effort at Reggiana
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Francesco Vallarelli was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2032
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sassuolo have kept their man, and Reggiana go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad19 Jul 2032
Emanuel Bassi 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.
Squad19 Jul 2032
The medical room confirms 61 days on the sidelines for Luciano Verdi, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Boardroom19 Jul 2032
Wages swallow 109% of the Reggiana 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 dugout19 Jul 2032
“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.
The dugout19 Jul 2032
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.
Market19 Jul 2032
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Martín Suárez’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The terraces28 Jun 2032
The mood at Reggiana has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
The dugout28 Jun 2032
Pedro Ribeiro: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Reggiana have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2032
Reggiana and Union Brescia have settled on $150.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Squad28 Jun 2032
The medical room confirms 39 days on the sidelines for Natan Girma, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2032
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Sambenedettese is saying, and nobody at Reggiana is enjoying the guessing.
The dugout28 Jun 2032
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad28 Jun 2032
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.
Squad28 Jun 2032
Cédric Brunner 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 dugout28 Jun 2032
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Erick Ciobanu, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market21 Jun 2032
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Reggiana people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The dugout21 Jun 2032
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market21 Jun 2032
“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.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2032
Reggiana had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Union Brescia, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad21 Jun 2032
Natan Girma 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.
Squad21 Jun 2032
Matéo Prigent 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. Matéo Prigent has, at Reggiana, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad21 Jun 2032
Martín Suárez 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.
Boardroom21 Jun 2032
Wages eat 124% of everything Reggiana 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.
Squad21 Jun 2032
The formation has left Mateo Zárate behind
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Reggiana will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market24 May 2032
“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.
Squad24 May 2032
Natan Girma 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.
Squad24 May 2032
A row about effort at Reggiana
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Martín Suárez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom24 May 2032
Wages swallow 132% of the Reggiana 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.
Squad24 May 2032
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Reggiana know it.
The dugout24 May 2032
Lorenzo Crisetig 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.
Market24 May 2032
The Natan Girma talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Reggiana know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout24 May 2032
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.
Market24 May 2032
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Antonio Vaccà may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Apr 2032
Natan Girma 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.
Squad26 Apr 2032
The medical room confirms 26 days on the sidelines for Francesco Grasso, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Boardroom26 Apr 2032
140% of the income goes out in wages at Reggiana
Every club in football 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 somebody has tried it.
Player ratings26 Apr 2032
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings26 Apr 2032
A performance of 8.36 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad26 Apr 2032
A row about effort at Reggiana
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Simone Bonetti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout26 Apr 2032
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mario Sampirisi, and the manager let it.
Match24 Apr 2032
It needed Leon Šipoš to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Südtirol, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout26 Apr 2032
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom19 Apr 2032
Pressure builds in the Reggiana boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Match17 Apr 2032
Reggiana throw away a 2-goal lead
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Virtus Entella the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Reggiana will enjoy reviewing.
Player ratings19 Apr 2032
Two goals and a mark of 8.16 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings19 Apr 2032
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.84 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Market19 Apr 2032
“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.
Squad19 Apr 2032
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.
Squad19 Apr 2032
Martín Suárez 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.
Squad19 Apr 2032
A muscle injury and 15 days out for Erick Ciobanu
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Reggiana will quote 15 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
The dugout19 Apr 2032
The manager makes an example of Matteo Enza
“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
Uneasy
Market12 Apr 2032
“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 Reggiana, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad12 Apr 2032
A falling-out at Reggiana
Natan Girma and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Apr 2032
Words at Reggiana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Martín Suárez 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.
Match10 Apr 2032
Three points for Reggiana, 1‑0 the final word against Carrarese in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings12 Apr 2032
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings12 Apr 2032
Nobody on the pitch touched Leon Šipoš
7.92, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Reggiana had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout12 Apr 2032
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.
The dugout12 Apr 2032
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 1‑0, already talking about the next one.
The dugout12 Apr 2032
“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
Market1 Mar 2032
“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.
Match28 Feb 2032
8 matches without a win for Reggiana
The run now stands at 8, and the questions being asked around Reggiana are no longer polite ones.
Squad1 Mar 2032
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.
Match28 Feb 2032
0‑2 to Frosinone, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad1 Mar 2032
Words at Reggiana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mario Sampirisi 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.
Boardroom1 Mar 2032
126% of the income goes out in wages at Reggiana
Every club in football 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 somebody has tried it.
The dugout1 Mar 2032
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout1 Mar 2032
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Erick Ciobanu, and the manager let it.
The dugout1 Mar 2032
Leo Begolli 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom23 Feb 2032
Pressure builds in the Reggiana boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Match21 Feb 2032
7 matches without a win for Reggiana
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Reggiana are no longer polite ones.
Market23 Feb 2032
“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.
Squad23 Feb 2032
Natan Girma 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 ratings23 Feb 2032
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match21 Feb 2032
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout23 Feb 2032
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Leo Begolli, and the manager let it.
Squad23 Feb 2032
A row about effort at Reggiana
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Simone Bonetti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout23 Feb 2032
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 Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom26 Jan 2032
Pressure builds in the Reggiana boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad26 Jan 2032
Natan Girma 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.
Match24 Jan 2032
A point taken on 90 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.
Player ratings26 Jan 2032
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match24 Jan 2032
A 1‑1 draw with Cremonese leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout26 Jan 2032
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.” Interim Coach chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
The dugout26 Jan 2032
The plan did not have a place for Lorenzo Crisetig
Nobody at Reggiana is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
The dugout26 Jan 2032
“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.
Squad26 Jan 2032
One booking too many, and a game watched from the stand. Reggiana lose him for the most avoidable reason in the sport.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad19 Jan 2032
A one-man rearguard from Matteo Enza
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
The dugout19 Jan 2032
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad19 Jan 2032
Words exchanged at Reggiana
Natan Girma 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.
Match17 Jan 2032
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad19 Jan 2032
Mario Sampirisi 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.
Match17 Jan 2032
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Aarón Martínez had Reggiana level again within 2 minutes, and Juve Stabia never got to play with a lead at all.
Squad19 Jan 2032
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
The dugout19 Jan 2032
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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout19 Jan 2032
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ettore Broggian, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad1 Dec 2031
46 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Reggiana lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Boardroom1 Dec 2031
Pressure builds in the Reggiana boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad1 Dec 2031
A one-man rearguard from Matteo Enza
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market1 Dec 2031
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Reggiana is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad1 Dec 2031
Natan Girma 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.
Squad1 Dec 2031
A row about effort at Reggiana
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrea Bozzolan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings1 Dec 2031
A performance of 8.03 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings1 Dec 2031
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match29 Nov 2031
Level with 90 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Reggiana had all but put away. Carrarese will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 Nov 2031
A knee injury of the worst kind for Lorenzo Crisetig
53 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Reggiana lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match22 Nov 2031
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 5‑1 against Cesena, and it could have been more.
Player ratings24 Nov 2031
Both of them Leon Šipoš's — 9.24
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.24, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings24 Nov 2031
A brace, and Natan Girma takes the afternoon — 8.14
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Natan Girma provided it, and the 8.14 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad24 Nov 2031
Words exchanged at Reggiana
Lorenzo Crisetig 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.
Match22 Nov 2031
Natan Girma among the goals in a wild afternoon
6 goals in one match, Natan Girma on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Reggiana and Cesena.
The dugout24 Nov 2031
Leo Begolli gets it from the manager
“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 ratings24 Nov 2031
Marked 8.26 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
The dugout24 Nov 2031
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 5‑1, already talking about the next one.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces20 Oct 2031
Anger at Reggiana spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
The dugout20 Oct 2031
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Match18 Oct 2031
The wait goes on for Reggiana
4 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.
Squad20 Oct 2031
A falling-out at Reggiana
Natan Girma and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad20 Oct 2031
A row about effort at Reggiana
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lorenzo Crisetig was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match18 Oct 2031
Frosinone left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout20 Oct 2031
Matteo Enza gets it from the manager
“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.
The dugout20 Oct 2031
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 Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout20 Oct 2031
Erick Ciobanu gets picked when it counts
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 Erick Ciobanu is on it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces28 Jul 2031
Supporters organise against the Reggiana board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Transfer targets28 Jul 2031
Reggiana had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Cremonese, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad28 Jul 2031
At 22 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.
Squad28 Jul 2031
A falling-out at Reggiana
Natan Girma and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets28 Jul 2031
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Cesena have kept their man, and Reggiana go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout28 Jul 2031
The manager makes an example of Andrea Bozzolan
“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.
Squad28 Jul 2031
At 24 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.
Boardroom28 Jul 2031
Wages swallow 101% of the Reggiana 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.
Transfer targets28 Jul 2031
Juventus 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom16 Jun 2031
Pressure builds in the Reggiana boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market16 Jun 2031
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Carrarese had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Transfer targets16 Jun 2031
$1.3M settles it between the clubs for Tomás Attis
Empoli have accepted the money. What Reggiana do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Transfer targets16 Jun 2031
No thanks: Ryan Gnonto rejects the move
Reggiana had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Catania, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad16 Jun 2031
Words exchanged at Reggiana
Natan Girma 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.
Transfer targets16 Jun 2031
A loan enquiry to Bologna: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Boardroom16 Jun 2031
A clause somebody insisted on years ago, in a negotiation nobody remembers, has just paid Reggiana $1.2M. Matteo Rover left a long time ago; the paperwork stayed.
Market16 Jun 2031
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Reggiana know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout16 Jun 2031
Erick Ciobanu gets picked when it counts
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 Erick Ciobanu is on it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Apr 2031
Gianluca Sanna damages knee ligaments — 39 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 39 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.
Squad28 Apr 2031
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.
Squad28 Apr 2031
A row about effort at Reggiana
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lorenzo Crisetig was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings28 Apr 2031
Marked 8.20 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Player ratings28 Apr 2031
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.11, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match26 Apr 2031
Late, late show earns Reggiana a point
Minute 86, against Südtirol, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
Match26 Apr 2031
A 2‑2 draw with Südtirol leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout28 Apr 2031
“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 dugout28 Apr 2031
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Interim Coach was not hiding it after 2‑2, and nobody in the Reggiana dressing room was either.