Gabriele Gori

Left Back - Catanzaro
7 Nov 2029
Wednesday
Process

Marked for Gabriele Gori

168 Edition

The Catanzaro Courier

15 Oct 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Julián Méndez 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 Catanzaro can pretend not to have heard.

Squad

Tempers go at Catanzaro

Pietro Iemmello 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.

Match

Catanzaro come up short against Cesena

Cesena left with the points after a 3‑4 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.

Player ratings

A masterclass from Mattia Liberali

Marked 9.88 — 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 ratings

Nicola Valente in the eights

A performance of 8.72 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.

Squad

Gabriele Gori 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 ratings

A masterclass from Thomas Kristensen

Marked 8.40 — 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.

Squad

Home is on Julián Méndez's mind

“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; Catanzaro are dealing with a man who wants a different country.

Squad

Mattia Liberali is in the form of his life

A season average of 7.25 with 4 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.

In brief

Back issues
166 Edition

The Catanzaro Courier

1 Oct 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Gabriele Gori says Catanzaro went back on their word

“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.

Squad

A one-man rearguard from Joaquin Dalmasso

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.

Market

Umberto Germano puts it in writing

“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 Catanzaro, and it is not being withdrawn.

Squad

Mirko Pigliacelli out for 32 days

The medical room confirms 32 days on the sidelines for Mirko Pigliacelli, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.

Squad

Tempers go at Catanzaro

Thomas Kristensen 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.

Match

Thomas Kristensen sends Catanzaro past Monza

It finished 2‑1, and it was Thomas Kristensen’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Catanzaro.

Player ratings

A masterclass from Thomas Kristensen

Marked 8.78 — 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 ratings

A masterclass from Nicolò Buso

Marked 8.49 — 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.

Boardroom

85% of the income goes out in wages at Catanzaro

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.

In brief

163 Edition

The Catanzaro Courier

10 Sep 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Joaquin Dalmasso keeps Catanzaro in it on his own

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.

Player ratings

Mattia Liberali runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 25. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Squad

Thomas Kristensen 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 Catanzaro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Player ratings

Nicolò Buso in the eights

A performance of 9.04 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.

Squad

Home is on Arturo McConnochie's mind

“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; Catanzaro are dealing with a man who wants a different country.

Match

Catanzaro and Frosinone take a point apiece

It finished 2‑2, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.

Squad

“I want to play”: Gabriele Gori speaks

“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.

Player ratings

Frank Tsadjout leaves them behind him

Shots: 9. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.

Market

The Marco Pompetti story refuses to die

It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Marco Pompetti signs something — a contract at Catanzaro or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.

In brief

161 Edition

The Catanzaro Courier

27 Aug 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Gabriele Alesi: 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.” Catanzaro have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Market

Catanzaro say no — this time

The offer from Guidonia Montecelio for Cristian Samaritani was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.

Squad

Thomas Kristensen 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 Catanzaro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Market

Claudio Piras comes home

The shirt still fits. Claudio Piras is back at Catanzaro, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.

Market

Manuel Bonetti comes home

The shirt still fits. Manuel Bonetti is back at Catanzaro, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.

Market

As if he never left: Michele Negri returns

Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Michele Negri is a Catanzaro player again, and the town has its story of the summer.

In brief

157 Edition

The Catanzaro Courier

30 Jul 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

King Udoh 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 Catanzaro can pretend not to have heard.

Squad

Tempers go at Catanzaro

Simone Pontisso 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.

Squad

Gabriele Gori 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.

Squad

Catanzaro lose Arturo McConnochie

51 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.

Squad

Frank Tsadjout 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 Frank Tsadjout trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.

Market

The Mattia Liberali talk will not go away

Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Catanzaro know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.

In brief

155 Edition

The Catanzaro Courier

16 Jul 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Gabriele Gori: 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.” Catanzaro have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Market

Julián Méndez 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 Catanzaro can pretend not to have heard.

Squad

Tempers go at Catanzaro

Simone Pontisso was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

In brief

148 Edition

The Catanzaro Courier

28 May 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Tempers go at Catanzaro

Simone Pontisso 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.

Squad

Gabriele Gori 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.

Squad

Raul Tassoni out for 28 days

The medical room confirms 28 days on the sidelines for Raul Tassoni, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.

In brief

141 Edition

The Catanzaro Courier

9 Apr 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Gabriele Gori says Catanzaro went back on their word

“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.

Market

Julián Méndez asks to leave Catanzaro

“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.

Market

Only the photograph left for Ignacio Soria

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ignacio Soria will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Catanzaro the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

Mattia Liberali stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Mattia Liberali and Catanzaro agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Squad

Simone Pontisso 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 Catanzaro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Mattia Liberali

Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Player ratings

Simone Pontisso in the eights

A performance of 9.21 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.

Player ratings

One of those days for Nicolò Buso

There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.15, and no argument anywhere in the ground.

Match

Catanzaro find a way past Padova

Padova made Catanzaro work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.

In brief

135 Edition

The Catanzaro Courier

26 Feb 2029
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

Francesco Di Bartolo: 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.” Catanzaro have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Squad

Mattia Liberali is the real thing at 21

A season average of 7.34 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Catanzaro know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.

Market

BATE come back empty-handed

The bid was some way short and Catanzaro did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.

Match

4 matches without a win for Catanzaro

The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Catanzaro are no longer polite ones.

Squad

Mirko Pigliacelli 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 Catanzaro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Player ratings

Simone Pontisso runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Match

Carrarese take the points off Catanzaro

Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.

Squad

No hiding place for Frank Tsadjout

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Frank Tsadjout, and the manager let it.

Player ratings

Frank Tsadjout keeps on missing

Shots: 10, not one of them in. A centre forward is paid for one thing, and on this evidence he has forgotten which thing it is.

In brief

134 Edition

The Catanzaro Courier

19 Feb 2029
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

Mirko Pigliacelli keeps Catanzaro in it on his own

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.

Squad

Tempers go at Catanzaro

Mirko Pigliacelli 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.

Match

Cesena take the points off Catanzaro

Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.

Squad

No hiding place for Gabriele Gori

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Gabriele Gori, and the manager let it.

Player ratings

Mattia Liberali runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Market

Dinamo Moscow are about to pick up the phone

A conversation is coming this week. Catanzaro will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.

Market

The Simone Pontisso story refuses to die

It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Simone Pontisso signs something — a contract at Catanzaro or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.

Player ratings

Off the pace: King Udoh

A mark of 5.75 tells the story without any need for embellishment. He will want the tape of this one quietly lost.

Player ratings

Gabriele Gori never got going

5.73 on the card. Some afternoons a footballer looks like a man who has only just been introduced to the game, and this was one of them.

In brief

133 Edition

The Catanzaro Courier

12 Feb 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Haakon Norda keeps Catanzaro in it on his own

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.

Market

Ignacio Soria has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Catanzaro they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

Mirko Pigliacelli 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 Catanzaro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Match

Still nobody has beaten Catanzaro

The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.

Player ratings

Frank Tsadjout in the eights

A performance of 8.32 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Mattia Liberali

Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Squad

The manager makes an example of Matias Antonini

“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.

Match

Catanzaro share the spoils with Empoli

A 2‑2 draw with Empoli leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.

Market

Catanzaro buy the years ahead of Gianmarco Marchetti

He is 18, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.

In brief

132 Edition

The Catanzaro Courier

5 Feb 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Julián Méndez 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 Catanzaro can pretend not to have heard.

Squad

Mirko Pigliacelli keeps Catanzaro in it on his own

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.

Squad

Catanzaro count the cost of losing Nicolò Buso

32 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.

Squad

Tempers go at Catanzaro

Mirko Pigliacelli 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 ratings

Mattia Liberali in the eights

A performance of 9.34 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.

Squad

The manager makes an example of Costantino Favasuli

“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.

Match

Catanzaro and Modena take a point apiece

It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.

Market

The Jacopo Petriccione story refuses to die

It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Jacopo Petriccione signs something — a contract at Catanzaro or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.

Player ratings

Frank Tsadjout keeps on missing

Shots: 7, not one of them in. A centre forward is paid for one thing, and on this evidence he has forgotten which thing it is.

In brief

128 Edition

The Catanzaro Courier

8 Jan 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Catanzaro turn down Atalanta for Mattia Liberali

The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.

Market

Julián Méndez 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 Catanzaro can pretend not to have heard.

Squad

Mirko Pigliacelli keeps Catanzaro in it on his own

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.

Match

5 matches without a win for Catanzaro

The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Catanzaro are no longer polite ones.

Squad

Tempers go at Catanzaro

Mirko Pigliacelli 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.

Market

Virtus Entella join the queue for Francesco Karol Maiolo

Add another name to the list: Virtus Entella have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Francesco Karol Maiolo. The answer from Catanzaro has not changed — yet.

Squad

Umberto Germano signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Umberto Germano and Catanzaro agree another 2 years.

Player ratings

Mattia Liberali in the eights

A performance of 8.38 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.

Squad

Umberto Germano 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.

In brief