Marked for Marcel Meyer
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad18 Nov 2030
Tempers go at Cavese
Ciro Gargiulo 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.
Boardroom18 Nov 2030
Cavese counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Cavese now.
The dugout18 Nov 2030
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad18 Nov 2030
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Renato Marchetti commits to Cavese for another 3 years.
The dugout18 Nov 2030
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 Domenico Lamberti is on it.
Market18 Nov 2030
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Dzmitry Klimovich has his answer from Cavese; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Market18 Nov 2030
The name of Leonardo Graziani keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Cavese say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout18 Nov 2030
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.
Market18 Nov 2030
5 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Cavese could get for him.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad15 Jul 2030
A falling-out at Cavese
Leonardo Graziani and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets15 Jul 2030
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Pescara have kept their man, and Cavese go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Transfer targets15 Jul 2030
A loan move for Pietro Baccelli is in the works
Cavese have made the call to Audace Cerignola. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Squad15 Jul 2030
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Fabrizio Serra commits to Cavese for another 3 years.
Squad15 Jul 2030
Dzmitry Klimovich 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.
Market15 Jul 2030
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Leonardo Ubaldi’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout15 Jul 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.
The dugout15 Jul 2030
Gianluca Zangari has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Cavese 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.
Squad15 Jul 2030
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Cavese would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 Jun 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.
Squad17 Jun 2030
A falling-out at Cavese
Leonardo Graziani and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets17 Jun 2030
Cavese asked and Benevento said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad17 Jun 2030
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 Jun 2030
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Marcel Meyer and Cavese agree another 3 years.
Transfer targets17 Jun 2030
A loan move for Santino Gianoli is in the works
Cavese have made the call to Lecce. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets17 Jun 2030
Cavese have made the call to Monza. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Market17 Jun 2030
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Leonardo Ubaldi’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout17 Jun 2030
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 Gianluca Zangari is on it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market20 Aug 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 Cavese, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets20 Aug 2029
Cavese asked and AS Roma said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad20 Aug 2029
A falling-out at Cavese
Rufus Barnes and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad20 Aug 2029
The medical room confirms 23 days on the sidelines for Renato Marchetti, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Transfer targets20 Aug 2029
A loan move for Fabio Rispoli is in the works
Cavese have made the call to Como. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout20 Aug 2029
Elia Visconti knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Cavese, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market20 Aug 2029
The name of Leonardo Ubaldi keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Cavese say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout20 Aug 2029
Taha Zidouh has been promised minutes
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 Taha Zidouh has written the date down.
Squad20 Aug 2029
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Cavese would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad29 Jan 2029
Renato Marchetti damages knee ligaments — 105 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 105 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.
Market29 Jan 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cavese can pretend not to have heard.
Market29 Jan 2029
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Sampdoria waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Cavese is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Squad29 Jan 2029
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
The dugout29 Jan 2029
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Match27 Jan 2029
5 matches without a win for Cavese
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Cavese are no longer polite ones.
Transfer targets29 Jan 2029
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Cavese have done the hard part with Hellas Verona, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Transfer targets29 Jan 2029
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Frosinone is saying, and nobody at Cavese is enjoying the guessing.
Squad29 Jan 2029
A move Marcel Meyer 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. Marcel Meyer is living that version at Cavese, and it tends to show in the first month.