Marked for Philippe Bertrand
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Pontedera
Bautista Carrera 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Pontedera training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Umberto Saracco 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Pontedera know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match7 Nov 2026
No end in sight to Pontedera's wait for a win
8 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Pontedera has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Philippe Bertrand arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Philippe Bertrand has, at Pontedera, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Match7 Nov 2026
4 matches without a goal for Pontedera
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Pontedera
Sergio Kalaj 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.
Match7 Nov 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Umberto Saracco 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Philippe Bertrand commits to Pontedera for another 1 years.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“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.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.