Marked for Francesco Simoncelli
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market26 Jul 2027
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Market26 Jul 2027
Lumezzane say no — this time
The offer from Foggia for Matteo Ferro 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.
Market26 Jul 2027
The name of Luigi Caccavo has come up in conversations Lumezzane were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad26 Jul 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Enrico Alberti and Lumezzane agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Andrea Boffelli and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets26 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 dugout26 Jul 2027
The manager makes an example of Jacopo Deratti
“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.
Squad26 Jul 2027
15 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad26 Jul 2027
A row about effort at Lumezzane
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Maissa Ndiaye was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad26 Apr 2027
20 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Lumezzane lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The dugout26 Apr 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.
Match24 Apr 2027
Whatever happens, Lumezzane do not lose
8 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words exchanged at Lumezzane
Andrea Boffelli 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.
Match24 Apr 2027
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 7 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
The dugout26 Apr 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.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Gregorio Ceccarelli was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Lumezzane dressing room was either.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Somebody watched every match in the division at the weekend and decided he was the best thing in any of them. A small honour, and most careers end without one.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Lumezzane told Stefano Filigheddu something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad12 Apr 2027
34 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Lumezzane lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match12 Apr 2027
Lumezzane refuse to drop out of the race
Position 2, 70 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.
Player ratings12 Apr 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.32, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Match10 Apr 2027
Nobody wants to play Lumezzane right now
6 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
The dugout12 Apr 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.
Squad12 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 Lumezzane this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Apr 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Samuele Diodato commits to Lumezzane for another 4 years.
The terraces12 Apr 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Matteo Ferro has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Match10 Apr 2027
A 2‑0 win over Renate, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
In brief
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Match
Another one collected away from home
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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Squad
A row about effort at Lumezzane