Marked for Leonardo Zecchetto
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad12 Apr 2027
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Hellas Verona will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market12 Apr 2027
Paulo Moreira 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 Hellas Verona can pretend not to have heard.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Strahinja Pavlović 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.
Match10 Apr 2027
Lecce made Hellas Verona work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑2 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Words at Hellas Verona training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tomáš Suslov is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Player ratings12 Apr 2027
Yann Karamoh was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.36. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Player ratings12 Apr 2027
A masterclass from Amin Sarr
Marked 8.31 — 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 ratings12 Apr 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.19, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Suat Serdar left out for the big one
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Suat Serdar will call it something else in private.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match3 Apr 2027
No end in sight to Hellas Verona's wait for a win
14 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Hellas Verona has to find a result from somewhere.
Boardroom5 Apr 2027
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Hellas Verona
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Boardroom5 Apr 2027
Filippo Costa has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Hellas Verona can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Market5 Apr 2027
Sandi Lovrić 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 Hellas Verona can pretend not to have heard.
Squad5 Apr 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Hellas Verona may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Hellas Verona will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings5 Apr 2027
Nobody could get near Amin Sarr
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad5 Apr 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 Hellas Verona this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Words at Hellas Verona training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Suat Serdar 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match27 Mar 2027
13 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.
Match29 Mar 2027
Every point is an argument now for Hellas Verona
Position 20 and 20 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.
Market29 Mar 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 Hellas Verona can pretend not to have heard.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Hellas Verona will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad29 Mar 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.
Market29 Mar 2027
Only the photograph left for Junior Ajayi
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Junior Ajayi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Hellas Verona the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad29 Mar 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 Hellas Verona this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at Hellas Verona training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Strahinja Pavlović 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.
Match27 Mar 2027
Udinese left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces22 Mar 2027
Anger at Hellas Verona 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.
Match20 Mar 2027
No end in sight to Hellas Verona's wait for a win
12 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Hellas Verona has to find a result from somewhere.
Boardroom22 Mar 2027
The club looked outside for a month, found nothing it preferred, and handed the job to the man who had been doing it anyway. He knows the building; now he has to prove he knows the rest.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 42 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad22 Mar 2027
30 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad22 Mar 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 Hellas Verona this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Tomáš Suslov 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 Mar 2027
There was one mistake and it ended in the net. Defenders are judged on the worst thing they did rather than on the eighty-nine minutes either side of it, which is unfair and is also the job.
Match20 Mar 2027
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
Crisis
Match13 Mar 2027
No end in sight to Hellas Verona's wait for a win
11 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Hellas Verona has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 49 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market15 Mar 2027
“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 Hellas Verona, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom15 Mar 2027
Still nobody in the Hellas Verona dugout
42 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Strahinja Pavlović 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.
Squad15 Mar 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.
Match13 Mar 2027
AS Roma left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Suat Serdar 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 ratings15 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match6 Mar 2027
10 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.
Market8 Mar 2027
“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.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Hellas Verona will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad8 Mar 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Hellas Verona may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Domagoj Bradarić 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 Mar 2027
Strahinja Pavlović 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 ratings8 Mar 2027
16 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Player ratings8 Mar 2027
Amin Sarr runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match6 Mar 2027
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Bologna will be the happier side with the point.