Marked for Davide Carraro
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad30 Dec 2030
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Padova will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match28 Dec 2030
No end in sight to Padova's wait for a win
9 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Padova has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad30 Dec 2030
Tempers go at Padova
Mattia Bortolussi 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.
Match28 Dec 2030
Padova cannot find the net
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad30 Dec 2030
Words at Padova training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emanuele Zuelli 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 dugout30 Dec 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Gabriele Artistico, and the manager let it.
Squad30 Dec 2030
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Davide Carraro and Padova agree another 3 years.
The dugout30 Dec 2030
Half-satisfied: Interim Coach on the draw
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The dugout30 Dec 2030
Francesco Forte dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad2 Dec 2030
20 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Padova lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad2 Dec 2030
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Padova will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market2 Dec 2030
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Padova heard it as anything else.
Match30 Nov 2030
4 matches without a win for Padova
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Padova are no longer polite ones.
Squad2 Dec 2030
Tempers go at Padova
Mattia Bortolussi 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.
Squad2 Dec 2030
A row about effort at Padova
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matteo Lovato was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout2 Dec 2030
Half-satisfied: Interim Coach on the draw
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The dugout2 Dec 2030
Francesco Forte dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Market2 Dec 2030
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Alexander Carabalí has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Padova.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad30 Sep 2030
83 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Padova lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match25 Sep 2030
Padova march on in the cup
Arzignano are out and Padova go through, 2‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
The dugout30 Sep 2030
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Padova may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad30 Sep 2030
A falling-out at Padova
Mattia Bortolussi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad30 Sep 2030
Matteo Lovato 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 terraces30 Sep 2030
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Player ratings30 Sep 2030
Alessandro Coltorti was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.24. 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.
Squad30 Sep 2030
6 new faces, and Padova are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout30 Sep 2030
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Interim Coach was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Padova dressing room was either.