Marked for Giuseppe Scarano
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 Apr 2028
Words at Vaduz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Adrian Gantenbein 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.
Squad24 Apr 2028
A falling-out at Vaduz
Leon Schaffran and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout24 Apr 2028
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mischa Eberhard trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market24 Apr 2028
The Ayo Akinola talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Vaduz know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Market24 Apr 2028
Vaduz have made Chinedu Ekene available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
The dugout24 Apr 2028
The manager makes Fabian Heck a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Vaduz. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 Apr 2028
Adrian Gantenbein 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.
Squad17 Apr 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vaduz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Leon Schaffran, and the manager let it.
Boardroom17 Apr 2028
Wages eat 92% of everything Vaduz 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 dugout17 Apr 2028
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.
Market17 Apr 2028
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Stephan Seiler may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad6 Mar 2028
A move Giuseppe Scarano would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Giuseppe Scarano is living that version at Vaduz, and it tends to show in the first month.
The dugout6 Mar 2028
This is not rotation. Ayo Akinola has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Vaduz is pretending otherwise.
Squad6 Mar 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ayo Akinola and Vaduz agree another 4 years.
Squad6 Mar 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vaduz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad6 Mar 2028
A row about effort at Vaduz
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Adrian Gantenbein was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market6 Mar 2028
He is 20, and nobody at Vaduz signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Market6 Mar 2028
He is 20, and nobody at Vaduz signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Market6 Mar 2028
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Vaduz, another week without a signature from Mischa Eberhard.
The dugout6 Mar 2028
The manager makes an example of Breston Malula
“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
Uneasy
Squad10 Jan 2028
Luca Sassarini damages knee ligaments — 20 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 20 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.
Transfer targets10 Jan 2028
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Juventus keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Market10 Jan 2028
“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.
Match8 Jan 2028
The wait goes on for Bari
4 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.
Match8 Jan 2028
The goals have deserted Bari
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Bari can tell you which week it ends in.
Transfer targets10 Jan 2028
Bari asked and Fiorentina said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad10 Jan 2028
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Bari know it.
Loan watch10 Jan 2028
The goals keep arriving from Gabriele Moncini’s exile
11 goals in 21 games at OH Leuven — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Bari updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Squad10 Jan 2028
A row about effort at Bari
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Iván Azón was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
Two goals and a mark of 8.64 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market20 Sep 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.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
Jay Enem: 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.” Bari have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Andy Irving in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bari this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Sep 2027
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Match18 Sep 2027
Bari get the job done against Palermo
A 2‑1 win over Palermo, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Iván Azón 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 dugout20 Sep 2027
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 2‑1, already talking about the next one.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
Bari pick somebody else ahead of Iván Azón
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Boardroom31 May 2027
Silverware for Bari
They will talk about this season in this town for a long time. The trophy comes home with the squad, and the route is already agreed.
Market31 May 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.
Loan watch31 May 2027
30 appearances away from home and 18 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
Market31 May 2027
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Marco Lombardi has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market31 May 2027
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Gerardo Paganelli has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market31 May 2027
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Claudio Agostini has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Squad31 May 2027
A falling-out at Bari
Giuseppe Scarano and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout31 May 2027
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Riccardo Burgio is on it.
The dugout31 May 2027
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.