Marked for Dejan Aćimović
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market11 Jun 2035
“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.
Squad11 Jun 2035
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Livorno this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Jun 2035
Words at Livorno training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrea Sodero 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.
Squad11 Jun 2035
Pietro Passador has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Livorno will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Squad11 Jun 2035
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Lukas Klimavicius, and the manager let it.
Market11 Jun 2035
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Stefano Cella signs something — a contract at Livorno or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom30 Apr 2035
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Livorno
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Squad30 Apr 2035
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Livorno will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Squad30 Apr 2035
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Livorno may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Boardroom30 Apr 2035
No signings allowed at Livorno
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
Squad30 Apr 2035
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Livorno this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Apr 2035
Words at Livorno training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lukas Klimavicius 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market19 Mar 2035
“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 Livorno, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad19 Mar 2035
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Livorno this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Mar 2035
Words at Livorno training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tomás Gallay 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.
Squad19 Mar 2035
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ianis Avrămescu, and the manager let it.
Player ratings19 Mar 2035
Federico Arena was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.47. 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.
Squad19 Mar 2035
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.
Match17 Mar 2035
A 1‑1 draw with Arezzo leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Market19 Mar 2035
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Stefano Cella signs something — a contract at Livorno or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Player ratings19 Mar 2035
Shots: 8, enough of them from close enough that a striker in form scores two. He is not a striker in form.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market26 Feb 2035
“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.
Market26 Feb 2035
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Francesco Rodio will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Livorno the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad26 Feb 2035
Kevin Biondi 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.
Match24 Feb 2035
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad26 Feb 2035
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Livorno this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Feb 2035
Matteo Zazza 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.
Squad26 Feb 2035
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.
Player ratings26 Feb 2035
Marked 4.66. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
Player ratings26 Feb 2035
Successful dribbles: 12. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad25 Dec 2034
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Livorno may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market25 Dec 2034
“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 Livorno, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings25 Dec 2034
Stefano Cella, 33, rolls back the years — 8.30
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.30 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Market25 Dec 2034
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Livorno heard it as anything else.
Squad25 Dec 2034
Pietro Passador 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.
Squad25 Dec 2034
Kevin Biondi 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.
Match23 Dec 2034
Three points for Livorno, 2‑1 the final word against Gubbio in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad25 Dec 2034
“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; Livorno are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Match23 Dec 2034
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Nolhan Assafoua had Livorno level again within 1 minutes, and Gubbio never got to play with a lead at all.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market18 Dec 2034
Serhat Akçay hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Livorno can pretend not to have heard.
Squad18 Dec 2034
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Livorno may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad18 Dec 2034
“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; Livorno are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Player ratings18 Dec 2034
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad18 Dec 2034
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Livorno this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Dec 2034
Words at Livorno training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stefano Cella 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.
Match16 Dec 2034
A bad afternoon for Livorno against Bra
0‑1 to Bra, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Boardroom18 Dec 2034
The Livorno debt reaches $34.6M
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
Player ratings18 Dec 2034
Shots: 10, enough of them from close enough that a striker in form scores two. He is not a striker in form.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market27 Nov 2034
“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 Livorno, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad27 Nov 2034
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match25 Nov 2034
The wait goes on for Livorno
5 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.
Squad27 Nov 2034
Pietro Passador 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.
Squad27 Nov 2034
Stefano Cella 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.
Match25 Nov 2034
Livorno are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Squad27 Nov 2034
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Pietro Passador, and the manager let it.
Player ratings27 Nov 2034
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.41, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings27 Nov 2034
Lorenzo Malagrida was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.08. 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match28 Oct 2034
Livorno make it 9 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Livorno have 9 straight wins of it.
Player ratings30 Oct 2034
A brace, and Nolhan Assafoua takes the afternoon — 8.76
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Nolhan Assafoua provided it, and the 8.76 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad30 Oct 2034
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 15 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market30 Oct 2034
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Livorno can pretend not to have heard.
Squad30 Oct 2034
“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 Livorno know it.
Squad30 Oct 2034
A last season at home is what Patricio Pernicone is after
It is sentimental, it is completely genuine, and it is the beginning of a departure nobody has announced. The club can be gracious about it or it can pretend not to have heard.
Squad30 Oct 2034
Pietro Passador 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 Oct 2034
It finished 3‑2, and it was Nolhan Assafoua’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Livorno.
Match28 Oct 2034
The run at home goes on for Livorno
8 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match20 Sep 2034
Livorno through in the cup
A 1‑0 win over Sorrento, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Squad25 Sep 2034
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 50 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings25 Sep 2034
Stefano Cella, 33, rolls back the years — 8.89
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.89 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Match23 Sep 2034
Livorno make it 4 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Livorno have 4 straight wins of it.
Player ratings25 Sep 2034
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad25 Sep 2034
Words at Livorno training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stefano Cella 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.
Squad25 Sep 2034
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Livorno this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces25 Sep 2034
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Dragos Keseru 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.
Squad25 Sep 2034
Kevin Biondi 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
Upbeat
Market11 Sep 2034
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Livorno they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad11 Sep 2034
Matteo Zazza: 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.” Livorno have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market11 Sep 2034
“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.
Boardroom11 Sep 2034
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Squad11 Sep 2034
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Livorno this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Sep 2034
Patricio Pernicone 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.
Match9 Sep 2034
A 2‑1 win over Pontedera, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings11 Sep 2034
Marked 8.34 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad11 Sep 2034
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Livorno will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market4 Sep 2034
Tomás Gallay hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Livorno can pretend not to have heard.
The terraces4 Sep 2034
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 7 of the 29 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Market4 Sep 2034
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Livorno they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Boardroom4 Sep 2034
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Squad4 Sep 2034
Pietro Passador 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.
Match2 Sep 2034
A bad afternoon for Livorno against Ternana
2‑3 to Ternana, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad4 Sep 2034
Stefano Cella 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.
Boardroom4 Sep 2034
The owner puts $549.7K into Livorno
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Squad4 Sep 2034
“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
Uneasy
Squad26 Jun 2034
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 59 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market26 Jun 2034
“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 Livorno, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad26 Jun 2034
Tomás Gallay 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.
Squad26 Jun 2034
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Livorno this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Jun 2034
“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.
Boardroom26 Jun 2034
Livorno cannot sign anybody
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Jun 2034
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 80 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Boardroom5 Jun 2034
Interim Coach has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Livorno can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Boardroom5 Jun 2034
Crisis meeting at Livorno
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Squad5 Jun 2034
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Stefano Cella and Livorno agree another 2 years.
Squad5 Jun 2034
Words at Livorno training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tomás Gallay 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.
Boardroom5 Jun 2034
$354.0K of the owner's money at Livorno
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
Squad5 Jun 2034
Luciano Strey 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.
Boardroom5 Jun 2034
The Livorno debt reaches $33.9M
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
Market5 Jun 2034
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad29 May 2034
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 87 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market29 May 2034
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Livorno can pretend not to have heard.
Squad29 May 2034
Pietro Passador 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad20 Mar 2034
“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.
The terraces20 Mar 2034
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 7 of the 30 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Squad20 Mar 2034
Words at Livorno training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stefano Cella 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.
Squad20 Mar 2034
Luciano Strey 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.
Squad20 Mar 2034
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Stefano Cella, and the manager let it.
Match18 Mar 2034
A bad afternoon for Livorno against Arezzo
0‑1 to Arezzo, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Boardroom20 Mar 2034
Wages eat 121% of everything Livorno 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.
Market20 Mar 2034
1 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Livorno could get for him.
Market20 Mar 2034
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Livorno know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom27 Feb 2034
The scrutiny sharpens at Livorno
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Livorno is running low.
Squad27 Feb 2034
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market27 Feb 2034
“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.
Squad27 Feb 2034
A muscle injury sidelines Stefano Cella for 15 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Livorno will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Match25 Feb 2034
No end in sight to Livorno's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Livorno has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad27 Feb 2034
Pietro Passador 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.
Squad27 Feb 2034
Words at Livorno training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Diego Peralta 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.
Match25 Feb 2034
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings27 Feb 2034
Successful dribbles: 13. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.