Marked for Flavio Citrano
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market30 Jul 2029
“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.
Transfer targets30 Jul 2029
$38.0K settles it between the clubs for Francesco Forte
Campobasso have accepted the money. What Pontedera do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Market30 Jul 2029
Only the photograph left for Matteo Carlesi
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Matteo Carlesi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Pontedera the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Transfer targets30 Jul 2029
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Pontedera have done the hard part with Palermo, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad30 Jul 2029
At 22 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.
Squad30 Jul 2029
Words exchanged at Pontedera
Umberto Saracco 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.
Squad30 Jul 2029
Words at Pontedera training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Riccardo Ladinetti 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.
Transfer targets30 Jul 2029
Pontedera asked and Ravenna said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Boardroom30 Jul 2029
Wages swallow 87% of the Pontedera income
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom4 Jun 2029
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Pontedera can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Market4 Jun 2029
“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 The request is on a desk at Pontedera, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom4 Jun 2029
Emergency meeting at Pontedera
The whole football department in one room on a weekday morning. Nothing was announced afterwards, which is what a board announces when it has run out of patience.
Squad4 Jun 2029
Words exchanged at Pontedera
Riccardo Ladinetti 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.
Transfer targets4 Jun 2029
Pontedera asked and Napoli said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad4 Jun 2029
A muscle injury sidelines Kouakou Kouadio for 14 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Pontedera will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad4 Jun 2029
Words at Pontedera training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alessandro Cardinali 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.
Transfer targets4 Jun 2029
Pontedera have made the call to Renate. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Squad4 Jun 2029
Pontedera will explain it as a decision about the team, and it may well be one. A dressing room has never once read it that way.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings4 Sep 2028
Successful dribbles: 40. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match2 Sep 2028
Chastening afternoon for Pontedera
A 0‑4 beating by Torres was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Market4 Sep 2028
Stephen Nenè 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 Pontedera can pretend not to have heard.
Match2 Sep 2028
No end in sight to Pontedera's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Pontedera has to find a result from somewhere.
Boardroom4 Sep 2028
Pontedera close the window on a squad of their own making
12 in and 18 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Transfer targets4 Sep 2028
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Frosinone is saying, and nobody at Pontedera is enjoying the guessing.
Transfer targets4 Sep 2028
Everything agreed with AS Roma, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad4 Sep 2028
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Flavio Citrano is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad4 Sep 2028
Umberto Saracco 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
Boardroom29 May 2028
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Pontedera
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
The terraces29 May 2028
Anger at Pontedera spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Squad29 May 2028
Umberto Saracco and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout29 May 2028
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Squad29 May 2028
Riccardo Ladinetti 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 dugout29 May 2028
Brando Dolfi 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.
The dugout29 May 2028
Diego Tampieri asks for a word with the manager
“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 May 2028
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and Pontedera will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
Market29 May 2028
Pontedera have let the market know Flavio Citrano can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom8 May 2028
Giovanni Messina has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Pontedera can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
The dugout8 May 2028
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Squad8 May 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Fabio Tito and Pontedera agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad8 May 2028
Words at Pontedera training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Riccardo Ladinetti 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.
Squad8 May 2028
Luciano Ballan 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.
Market8 May 2028
“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.
The dugout8 May 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Alessandro Cardinali's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The dugout8 May 2028
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Pontedera, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout8 May 2028
The manager's exit leaves Flavio Citrano exposed
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Flavio Citrano is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom1 May 2028
Pressure builds in the Pontedera boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
The terraces1 May 2028
Supporters organise against the Pontedera board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Squad1 May 2028
Umberto Saracco and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout1 May 2028
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
The dugout1 May 2028
The manager makes an example of Yassin Banna
“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.
Market1 May 2028
Andrea Fancelli is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Pontedera has been clear about where Andrea Fancelli stands, which is more than many ever get.
Squad1 May 2028
Alessandro Cardinali 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 dugout1 May 2028
Stephen Nenè knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Stephen Nenè trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout1 May 2028
Flavio Citrano loses the manager who believed in him
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Flavio Citrano's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.