Marked for Thomas Jaimes
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad24 Nov 2031
29 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Latina lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad24 Nov 2031
11 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Match22 Nov 2031
No end in sight to Latina's wait for a win
9 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Latina has to find a result from somewhere.
Match24 Nov 2031
Latina are in real trouble now
Position 18, 6 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Market24 Nov 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 The request is on a desk at Latina, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout24 Nov 2031
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad24 Nov 2031
Tempers go at Latina
Vincenzo Plescia 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 Nov 2031
Alessio Riccardi 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.
Match22 Nov 2031
Benevento left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad29 Sep 2031
85 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Latina lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match24 Sep 2031
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Thomas Jaimes obliged against Pergolettese. 2‑1 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Latina.
Squad29 Sep 2031
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.
Match24 Sep 2031
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Latina scored in the 106th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Player ratings29 Sep 2031
A brace, and Thomas Jaimes takes the afternoon — 8.62
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Thomas Jaimes provided it, and the 8.62 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market29 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 dugout29 Sep 2031
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad29 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 Latina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad29 Sep 2031
Words at Latina training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alessio Riccardi 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
Boardroom11 Aug 2031
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Latina
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market11 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 Latina, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market11 Aug 2031
Filip Frei has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Latina they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad11 Aug 2031
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Thomas Jaimes is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
The dugout11 Aug 2031
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad11 Aug 2031
Words at Latina training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alessio Riccardi 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.
Squad11 Aug 2031
A falling-out at Latina
Christian Sussi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad11 Aug 2031
Vicente Prado has improved at 32, 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. 4 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Market11 Aug 2031
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Latina will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom16 Jun 2031
Pressure builds in the Latina boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
The dugout16 Jun 2031
Antonio Cioffi: 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.” Latina have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad16 Jun 2031
Tempers go at Latina
Vincenzo Plescia 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.
Squad16 Jun 2031
Thomas Jaimes 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. Thomas Jaimes has, at Latina, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Boardroom16 Jun 2031
The numbers do not look good at Latina
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Squad16 Jun 2031
Alessio Riccardi 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 targets16 Jun 2031
A loan move for Jason Kodor is in the works
Latina have made the call to Altamura. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout16 Jun 2031
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Rodrigo De Ciancio trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad16 Jun 2031
The formation has left Thomas Jaimes behind
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Latina will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad20 May 2030
33 days out for Damián Ramírez after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Aldosivi will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad20 May 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 Aldosivi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 May 2030
A row about effort at Aldosivi
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Elías López was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout20 May 2030
Lucas Acosta 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 May 2030
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.
Market20 May 2030
The name of Lucas Acosta keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Aldosivi say nothing, which says plenty.