Marked for Benoît Meunier
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match29 Apr 2030
Every point is an argument now for Siracusa
Position 18 and 26 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
The dugout29 Apr 2030
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Siracusa may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
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 The request is on a desk at Siracusa, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad29 Apr 2030
Words exchanged at Siracusa
Bryan Bonucci 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.
Squad29 Apr 2030
A row about effort at Siracusa
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Filippo Damian was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom29 Apr 2030
Wages swallow 141% of the Siracusa 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.
Match27 Apr 2030
Monopoli left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout29 Apr 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Thiago Gómez, and the manager let it.
The dugout29 Apr 2030
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom25 Mar 2030
The scrutiny sharpens at Siracusa
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Siracusa is running low.
Market25 Mar 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 The request is on a desk at Siracusa, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match23 Mar 2030
The wait goes on for Siracusa
4 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.
Squad25 Mar 2030
A falling-out at Siracusa
Nicola Valente and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad25 Mar 2030
“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; Siracusa are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Match23 Mar 2030
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout25 Mar 2030
The manager makes an example of Thiago Gómez
“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 dugout25 Mar 2030
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Interim Coach after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad25 Mar 2030
Thiago Gómez: “I am not a substitute”
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Siracusa will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom25 Feb 2030
Pressure builds in the Siracusa boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Player ratings25 Feb 2030
Successful dribbles: 32. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match23 Feb 2030
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Siracusa scored in the 93th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Match23 Feb 2030
The drought breaks for Siracusa
9 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Casarano were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Market25 Feb 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.
Squad25 Feb 2030
A falling-out at Siracusa
Federico Pacciardi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad25 Feb 2030
A row about effort at Siracusa
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Filippo Damian was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The terraces25 Feb 2030
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Match23 Feb 2030
It finished 1‑0, and it was Gianluca Contini’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Siracusa.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom28 Jan 2030
Pressure builds in the Siracusa boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Match26 Jan 2030
7 matches without a win for Siracusa
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Siracusa are no longer polite ones.
Market28 Jan 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.
Transfer targets28 Jan 2030
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Inter keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad28 Jan 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 Siracusa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Jan 2030
Filippo Damian 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.
Match26 Jan 2030
Gianluca Contini scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Foggia, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
The dugout28 Jan 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Bryan Bonucci, and the manager let it.
The dugout28 Jan 2030
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom31 Dec 2029
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Siracusa
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market31 Dec 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 Siracusa, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad31 Dec 2029
Gianluca Contini 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.
Match29 Dec 2029
3 matches without a goal for Siracusa
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Player ratings31 Dec 2029
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match29 Dec 2029
A bad afternoon for Siracusa against Cavese
0‑1 to Cavese, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout31 Dec 2029
A promise honoured at Siracusa
Something was said to Federico Pacciardi and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout31 Dec 2029
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Interim Coach after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout31 Dec 2029
“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
Crisis
Squad3 Dec 2029
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 27 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Boardroom3 Dec 2029
The scrutiny sharpens at Siracusa
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Siracusa is running low.
Squad3 Dec 2029
Antonio Tombesi damages knee ligaments — 22 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 22 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.
Match1 Dec 2029
The wait goes on for Siracusa
9 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.
Boardroom3 Dec 2029
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Market3 Dec 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 Siracusa, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad3 Dec 2029
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Federico Pacciardi and Siracusa agree another 2 years.
Squad3 Dec 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Siracusa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match1 Dec 2029
The goals have deserted Siracusa
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Siracusa can tell you which week it ends in.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad5 Nov 2029
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 15 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Squad5 Nov 2029
55 days out for Nicola Valente after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Siracusa will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad5 Nov 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Antonio Tombesi
50 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Siracusa lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom5 Nov 2029
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Match31 Oct 2029
The small margins put Siracusa out
Out, 0‑4 to Juventus, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Boardroom5 Nov 2029
The scrutiny sharpens at Siracusa
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Siracusa is running low.
The terraces5 Nov 2029
A cup embarrassment at Juventus follows Siracusa home
0-4. Going out of a cup is one afternoon; going out like that is a week of phone-ins, and the manager will hear every one of them.
Match3 Nov 2029
The wait goes on for Siracusa
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.
Market5 Nov 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 Siracusa, and it is not being withdrawn.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match28 May 2029
Siracusa are in real trouble now
Position 17, 31 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Market28 May 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.
Squad28 May 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Siracusa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout28 May 2029
“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.
Squad28 May 2029
Words at Siracusa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alessandro Farroni 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.
Market28 May 2029
The name of Bryan Bonucci keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Siracusa say nothing, which says plenty.