Marked for Marcelo Salinas
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market26 Jun 2028
“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 The request is on a desk at Trento, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market26 Jun 2028
Campobasso come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Trento did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Words exchanged at Trento
Oliver Provstgaard 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 targets26 Jun 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Tondela have kept their man, and Trento go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Transfer targets26 Jun 2028
A loan enquiry to Reggiana: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Words at Trento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marcelo Salinas 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.
The dugout26 Jun 2028
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 dugout26 Jun 2028
“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.
Market26 Jun 2028
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Oliver Provstgaard’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market19 Jun 2028
“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 The request is on a desk at Trento, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match19 Jun 2028
Trento refuse to drop out of the race
Position 2, 64 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Transfer targets19 Jun 2028
The deal with Virtus Entella is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Tempers go at Trento
Pasquale Giannotti 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.
Transfer targets19 Jun 2028
Trento asked and Juventus said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The dugout19 Jun 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Christian Aucelli'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.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Francesco Scapoli 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 targets19 Jun 2028
A loan move for Andre Barbosa is in the works
Trento have made the call to Tondela. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Market19 Jun 2028
Trento have made Christian Aucelli available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad8 May 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Riccardo Fiamozzi commits to Trento for another 2 years.
Squad8 May 2028
Tempers go at Trento
Oliver Provstgaard 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.
Squad8 May 2028
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Trento are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad8 May 2028
Too much change too quickly at Trento
8 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 dugout8 May 2028
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 dugout8 May 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Andrea D'Aniello, and the manager let it.
Market8 May 2028
The name of Nicola Dalmonte keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Trento say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout8 May 2028
Clarence Corallo has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Trento 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.
Market8 May 2028
“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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad6 Mar 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Cristian Varela
74 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Trento lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings6 Mar 2028
A brace, and Giacomo Parigi takes the afternoon — 8.79
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Giacomo Parigi provided it, and the 8.79 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Match4 Mar 2028
Trento make home a hard place to visit
14 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Words exchanged at Trento
Oliver Provstgaard 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.
Match4 Mar 2028
Three points for Trento, 2‑1 the final word against Ospitaletto in a contest settled by the finer margins.
The dugout6 Mar 2028
The team sheet said everything about Iván López
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Iván López.
Squad6 Mar 2028
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Trento can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad6 Mar 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Guillaume Renault and Trento agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout6 Mar 2028
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Marco Marques could afford to be generous.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings3 Jan 2028
Two goals and a mark of 8.62 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market3 Jan 2028
“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.
Squad3 Jan 2028
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Trento have had the benefit of it.
Market3 Jan 2028
The phone has started ringing about Luciano Pereyra again, and this time the name on the line is Ospitaletto. Trento are listening politely and promising nothing.
Match28 Dec 2027
It finished 2‑1, and it was Federico Caia’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Trento.
Squad3 Jan 2028
A falling-out at Trento
Sheriff Kassama and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match1 Jan 2028
The run at home goes on for Trento
8 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
The dugout3 Jan 2028
“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.
Boardroom3 Jan 2028
Wages swallow 107% of the Trento 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout15 Nov 2027
“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.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Words exchanged at Trento
Sheriff Kassama 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.
Squad15 Nov 2027
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Trento are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The dugout15 Nov 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.
Market15 Nov 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Oliver Provstgaard signs something — a contract at Trento or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Looking ahead15 Nov 2027
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Jacopo Antolini’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Trento needing him to play as if none of it matters.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Trento, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad15 Nov 2027
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Trento would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
Clarence Corallo has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Trento 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
Uneasy
Market6 Sep 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 Trento can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Trento close the window on a squad of their own making
13 in and 8 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.
Market6 Sep 2027
Andrea Sodero has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Trento they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Tempers go at Trento
Oliver Provstgaard 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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
A row about effort at Trento
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nicola Dalmonte was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad6 Sep 2027
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Trento are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Trento 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.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Belts tighten at Trento
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.
The dugout6 Sep 2027
The manager makes an example of Andrea Sodero
“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 Jul 2027
Terms done: Amer Mehić is going
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Bra waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Trento is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Squad12 Jul 2027
A falling-out at Trento
Pasquale Giannotti and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
Trento offered $86.0K; Monopoli said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
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.
The dugout12 Jul 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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Leonardo Santer and Trento agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Trento are still strangers to each other
6 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 dugout12 Jul 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Christian Aucelli trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Trento will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Jul 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Trento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market5 Jul 2027
Trento get their man
The chase for Andrea D'Aniello ended with $120.0K changing hands and Sorrento out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
Trento have gone to Monopoli with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Squad5 Jul 2027
At 20 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.
Squad5 Jul 2027
A row about effort at Trento
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nicola Dalmonte was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout5 Jul 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Christian Capone, and the manager let it.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Iván López has outgrown this division
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Trento know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
Inter 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.
Boardroom5 Jul 2027
Intake day at the Trento academy
4 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.