Marked for Mattia Bartolini
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The dugout2 Dec 2030
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Perugia may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market2 Dec 2030
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Perugia is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad2 Dec 2030
A falling-out at Perugia
Antonio Sabbatani and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad2 Dec 2030
A row about effort at Perugia
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luigi Canotto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout2 Dec 2030
“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.
Match30 Nov 2030
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad2 Dec 2030
A month that belonged to Kevin Comert
The young player of the month award goes to a 19-year-old at Perugia who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
Player ratings2 Dec 2030
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout2 Dec 2030
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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Aug 2030
96 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Perugia lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Transfer targets5 Aug 2030
$1.0M settles it between the clubs for Maxime Leverbe
Siracusa have accepted the money. What Perugia do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Market5 Aug 2030
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Bruno Bonetti had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Market5 Aug 2030
“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.
Squad5 Aug 2030
Antonio Sabbatani 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.
Squad5 Aug 2030
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Brando Fontana is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad5 Aug 2030
A row about effort at Perugia
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luigi Canotto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets5 Aug 2030
Perugia asked and Juventus said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Transfer targets5 Aug 2030
Fiorentina have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets24 Jun 2030
$1.4M settles it between the clubs for Ettore Quirini
Salernitana have accepted the money. What Perugia do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Transfer targets24 Jun 2030
No thanks: Raul Zinni rejects the move
Perugia had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at AS Roma, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad24 Jun 2030
Words exchanged at Perugia
Alessandro Scacchetti 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.
Squad24 Jun 2030
Luigi Canotto 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 targets24 Jun 2030
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.
Squad24 Jun 2030
Too much change too quickly at Perugia
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The dugout24 Jun 2030
The manager makes an example of Fabrizio Gai
“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.
Market24 Jun 2030
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Alessandro Cantalino signs something — a contract at Perugia or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout24 Jun 2030
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Vincenzo Pellegrino has written the date down.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 Jun 2030
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Perugia have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Squad17 Jun 2030
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Alessandro Scacchetti has just signed for Perugia, and for once the answer mattered.
Transfer targets17 Jun 2030
Perugia have gone to AS Roma with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
The dugout17 Jun 2030
Mattia Bartolini: 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.” Perugia have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad17 Jun 2030
Words exchanged at Perugia
Antonio Sabbatani 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.
Squad17 Jun 2030
A row about effort at Perugia
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luigi Canotto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad17 Jun 2030
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Andrea Occhione commits to Perugia for another 3 years.
Transfer targets17 Jun 2030
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Venezia have kept their man, and Perugia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout17 Jun 2030
“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
Steady
Squad29 Apr 2030
A knee injury of the worst kind for Nicola Costantini
21 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Perugia lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market29 Apr 2030
“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 Perugia, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad29 Apr 2030
A row about effort at Perugia
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luigi Canotto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad29 Apr 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 Perugia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad29 Apr 2030
Luca Gemello has had enough of the noise
The ambition story running backwards, and the one nobody tells: a footballer who wants a smaller ground, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is rarely reported as anything else.
The dugout29 Apr 2030
“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.
Market29 Apr 2030
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Perugia know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout29 Apr 2030
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Perugia. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Market29 Apr 2030
The clock does Mattia Almaviva’s negotiating for him
2 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Perugia could ask drops and the wages Mattia Almaviva can ask rise.