Marked for Marko Radojević
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match20 Sep 2031
The wait goes on for Pianese
12 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.
Match20 Sep 2031
Nowhere to hide for Pianese
1‑4 against Bra, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Squad22 Sep 2031
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 86 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The dugout22 Sep 2031
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Pianese have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings22 Sep 2031
Successful dribbles: 31. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Market22 Sep 2031
“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 dugout22 Sep 2031
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad22 Sep 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 Pianese this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Sep 2031
Leonardo Di Cosmo 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market25 Aug 2031
Rafał Boczoń hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Pianese can pretend not to have heard.
Squad25 Aug 2031
The step up is real for Vid Novak
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.
Transfer targets25 Aug 2031
The deal with Vicenza 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.
The dugout25 Aug 2031
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Boardroom25 Aug 2031
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Pianese
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.
Transfer targets25 Aug 2031
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. AS Roma have kept their man, and Pianese go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad25 Aug 2031
Words exchanged at Pianese
Kai Martin 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.
Market25 Aug 2031
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Alfonso Dalla Costa 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.
Market25 Aug 2031
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Gennaro Tombesi 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom4 Aug 2031
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.
Boardroom4 Aug 2031
Emergency meeting at Pianese
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.
Market4 Aug 2031
“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 Pianese, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad4 Aug 2031
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.
Squad4 Aug 2031
Francesco Proietto 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.
Boardroom4 Aug 2031
$914.3K from the owner keeps Pianese afloat
The gap in the accounts was filled from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be grateful and to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings arrive together.
Squad4 Aug 2031
A row about effort at Pianese
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lorenzo Vigiani was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad4 Aug 2031
Nuğay Rəşidov has improved at 27, 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.
Market4 Aug 2031
He signed expecting a bigger stage than the one he found. It has not taken long, and it has not taken the dressing room long to notice either.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom7 Jul 2031
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.
Boardroom7 Jul 2031
Emergency meeting at Pianese
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.
Market7 Jul 2031
“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 targets7 Jul 2031
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Lazio keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad7 Jul 2031
“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 Pianese know it.
Squad7 Jul 2031
Words at Pianese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leonardo Di Cosmo 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.
Boardroom7 Jul 2031
$931.8K from the owner keeps Pianese afloat
The gap in the accounts was filled from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be grateful and to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings arrive together.
Transfer targets7 Jul 2031
Pianese asked and Lecco said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad7 Jul 2031
Kai Martin 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 Pianese this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market9 Jun 2031
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Pianese have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market9 Jun 2031
“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 Pianese, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market9 Jun 2031
Pisa come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Pianese did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets9 Jun 2031
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Pianese have done the hard part with Vis Pesaro, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad9 Jun 2031
Vid Novak 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. Vid Novak has, at Pianese, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad9 Jun 2031
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Marko Radojević commits to Pianese for another 4 years.
Squad9 Jun 2031
A row about effort at Pianese
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Leonardo Di Cosmo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets9 Jun 2031
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Lecco have kept their man, and Pianese go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Boardroom9 Jun 2031
No signings allowed at Pianese
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom2 Jun 2031
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Market2 Jun 2031
“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.
Boardroom2 Jun 2031
Emergency meeting at Pianese
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 Jun 2031
Add another name to the list: Pisa have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Marko Radojević. The answer from Pianese has not changed — yet.
The dugout2 Jun 2031
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad2 Jun 2031
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Marko Radojević and Pianese agree another 4 years.
Boardroom2 Jun 2031
$894.3K from the owner keeps Pianese afloat
The gap in the accounts was filled from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be grateful and to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings arrive together.
Squad2 Jun 2031
Words at Pianese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Guðmundur Tyrfingsson 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.
Squad2 Jun 2031
Kai Martin 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market12 May 2031
“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 Pianese, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market12 May 2031
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Pianese is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad12 May 2031
Words exchanged at Pianese
Francesco Proietto 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.
Squad12 May 2031
Words at Pianese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Guðmundur Tyrfingsson 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.
Boardroom12 May 2031
Pianese cannot sign anybody
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
The dugout12 May 2031
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 dugout12 May 2031
Kai Martin knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Kai Martin trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market12 May 2031
The clock does Marko Radojević’s negotiating for him
1 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Pianese could ask drops and the wages Marko Radojević can ask rise.
Market12 May 2031
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market14 Apr 2031
“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 Pianese, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match12 Apr 2031
No end in sight to Pianese's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Pianese has to find a result from somewhere.
Market14 Apr 2031
Andrea Riva has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Pianese they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Player ratings14 Apr 2031
Successful dribbles: 25. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad14 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 Pianese this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Apr 2031
Leonardo Di Cosmo 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.
Match12 Apr 2031
Livorno left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Boardroom14 Apr 2031
No fees may be paid for anybody, whatever the squad needs. Every rumour about this club until it lifts is a rumour about a deal that cannot be done.
The dugout14 Apr 2031
The manager makes an example of Mattia Damioli
“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
Crisis
Match29 Mar 2031
Beaten 2‑5 by Vis Pesaro, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Match31 Mar 2031
Every point is an argument now for Pianese
Position 17 and 14 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Player ratings31 Mar 2031
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.52, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market31 Mar 2031
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Pianese can pretend not to have heard.
Match29 Mar 2031
No end in sight to Pianese's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Pianese has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad31 Mar 2031
Leonardo Di Cosmo 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.
Match29 Mar 2031
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Pianese and Vis Pesaro, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad31 Mar 2031
Words at Pianese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Guðmundur Tyrfingsson 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 dugout31 Mar 2031
“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
Market10 Feb 2031
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Pianese can pretend not to have heard.
Squad10 Feb 2031
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Market10 Feb 2031
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Pianese have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Squad10 Feb 2031
A falling-out at Pianese
Francesco Proietto and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad10 Feb 2031
A row about effort at Pianese
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Leonardo Di Cosmo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings10 Feb 2031
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match8 Feb 2031
Late, late show earns Pianese a point
Minute 94, against Pontedera, 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.
Boardroom10 Feb 2031
The borrowing at Pianese reaches $18.9M
Past the limit the bank set, which is the line between a club being financed and a club being in trouble. $18.9M is now the number every conversation about this club will start with.
Match8 Feb 2031
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces4 Nov 2030
The mood at Pianese 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.
Boardroom4 Nov 2030
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Pianese
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market4 Nov 2030
“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.
Match2 Nov 2030
No end in sight to Pianese's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Pianese has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad4 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 Pianese this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match2 Nov 2030
A bad afternoon for Pianese against Carpi
1‑3 to Carpi, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Boardroom4 Nov 2030
The owner puts $582.8K into Pianese
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Squad4 Nov 2030
A row about effort at Pianese
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lorenzo Vigiani was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom4 Nov 2030
165% of the income goes out in wages at Pianese
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match26 Oct 2030
Chastening afternoon for Pianese
A 0‑5 beating by Ravenna was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Market28 Oct 2030
Andrea Riva has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Pianese they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad28 Oct 2030
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad28 Oct 2030
Words exchanged at Pianese
Francesco Proietto 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
Leonardo Di Cosmo 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.
Squad28 Oct 2030
47 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Boardroom28 Oct 2030
No fees may be paid for anybody, whatever the squad needs. Every rumour about this club until it lifts is a rumour about a deal that cannot be done.
Player ratings28 Oct 2030
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout28 Oct 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Edoardo Riccardi, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom5 Aug 2030
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.
Market5 Aug 2030
“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.
Boardroom5 Aug 2030
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Nicolò Guaglianone has agreed terms with Mantova for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad5 Aug 2030
A falling-out at Pianese
Francesco Proietto 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
Leonardo Di Cosmo 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.
Squad5 Aug 2030
“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 Pianese know it.
Boardroom5 Aug 2030
$268.1K from the owner keeps Pianese afloat
The gap in the accounts was filled from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be grateful and to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings arrive together.
Transfer targets5 Aug 2030
Pianese asked and Gubbio said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Transfer targets5 Aug 2030
AC Milan 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
The terraces15 Jul 2030
Supporters organise against the Pianese 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.
Market15 Jul 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 Pianese, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom15 Jul 2030
Still no name above the door at Pianese
Day 14 of the vacancy. Candidates have been priced, sounded out and quietly ruled out — and the caretaker’s win ratio is becoming an argument all by itself.
Squad15 Jul 2030
Leonardo Di Cosmo 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 targets15 Jul 2030
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.
Boardroom15 Jul 2030
121% of the income goes out in wages at Pianese
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.
Boardroom15 Jul 2030
The Pianese debt reaches $16.2M
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
Squad15 Jul 2030
Words exchanged at Pianese
Gianmarco Emiliano 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 dugout15 Jul 2030
Andrea Riva 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom8 Jul 2030
Four paragraphs on the club website, none of them about football. The board thanked him, wished him well, and had the search under way before the page went up.
Squad8 Jul 2030
A fracture rules Massimo Greco out for 17 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Pianese will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Boardroom8 Jul 2030
A stranger takes charge at Pianese
The coaching staff has emptied out entirely and there was nobody internal to promote, so the club has appointed a name almost none of its supporters will recognise. Clubs recover from this; none of them enjoy explaining it.
Market8 Jul 2030
“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.
Boardroom8 Jul 2030
“Somebody picks the team on Saturday. This week it is me, and that is as far as I have thought.” No promises were made in either direction, which is how these usually begin.
Squad8 Jul 2030
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Filippo Perucchini and Pianese agree another 2 years.
Squad8 Jul 2030
A row about effort at Pianese
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Leonardo Di Cosmo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom8 Jul 2030
$167.1K of the owner's money at Pianese
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
Transfer targets8 Jul 2030
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Cavese have kept their man, and Pianese go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces17 Jun 2030
Supporters organise against the Pianese 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.
Squad17 Jun 2030
A fracture rules Massimo Greco out for 38 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Pianese will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market17 Jun 2030
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Pianese people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The dugout17 Jun 2030
“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.
Squad17 Jun 2030
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Pianese can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad17 Jun 2030
Leonardo Di Cosmo 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.
Squad17 Jun 2030
A row about effort at Pianese
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lorenzo Vigiani was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets17 Jun 2030
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.
Market17 Jun 2030
Experience through the door at Pianese
Alex Gilliead arrives at 34 with nothing left to prove and plenty left to pass on. Legs are a young man's currency; knowing where to stand never ages.