Marked for Timéo Velter
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad21 Feb 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Facundo Píriz
26 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Catanzaro lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market21 Feb 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Catanzaro is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Words exchanged at Catanzaro
Mehdi Dorval 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.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Timéo Velter is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Manuel Lazzari 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.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
“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.
Match19 Feb 2028
0‑1 to Reggiana, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Jacopo Gamberini left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
A promise honoured at Catanzaro
Something was said to Antonino La Gumina and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings20 Dec 2027
Up for the corner, and Costantino Favasuli delivers — 7.57
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Costantino Favasuli scored, was marked 7.57, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
The dugout20 Dec 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Catanzaro may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad20 Dec 2027
A row about effort at Catanzaro
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Manuel Lazzari was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings20 Dec 2027
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad20 Dec 2027
“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.
Match18 Dec 2027
It needed Costantino Favasuli to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Padova, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout20 Dec 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Jacopo Gamberini was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Catanzaro dressing room was either.
Looking ahead20 Dec 2027
The leaders are next for Catanzaro
Modena top the table and they are coming into view. Nothing to lose, which is what every manager says before losing.
The dugout20 Dec 2027
Christy Pym 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
Crisis
Match27 Nov 2027
Beaten 0‑4 by Hellas Verona, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Nikola Moro and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Timéo Velter is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad29 Nov 2027
A row about effort at Catanzaro
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Manuel Lazzari was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Eduard Ihnatov, and the manager let it.
Boardroom29 Nov 2027
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑4 defeat, delivered by Jacopo Gamberini to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Whether it was the goalkeeper or the ten in front of him is the argument that will fill every conversation in town this week. 5 saves does not settle it either way.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad6 Sep 2027
Lucio Garberi damages knee ligaments — 16 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 16 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Market6 Sep 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 Catanzaro, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market6 Sep 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Arezzo waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Catanzaro is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Transfer targets6 Sep 2027
The clubs have shaken hands with Atalanta; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 23 signed and 31 gone
That is the business done at Catanzaro until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Nikola Moro and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Timéo Velter is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Words at Catanzaro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Manuel Lazzari 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 dugout6 Sep 2027
“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
Squad3 May 2027
The words a physio says slowly. 78 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Boardroom3 May 2027
Jacopo Gamberini has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Catanzaro can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Player ratings3 May 2027
Successful dribbles: 27. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad3 May 2027
Mehdi Dorval 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.
Squad3 May 2027
André Cunha gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. André Cunha has just signed for Catanzaro, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad3 May 2027
Marco Ruggero 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.
Match1 May 2027
Padova left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Boardroom3 May 2027
Wages eat 96% of everything Catanzaro earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
The dugout3 May 2027
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.