Marked for Sergio Piazza
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market9 Apr 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.
The dugout9 Apr 2029
This is not rotation. Maxime Giron has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Foggia is pretending otherwise.
Squad9 Apr 2029
Words exchanged at Foggia
Marius Savidan 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 Apr 2029
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad9 Apr 2029
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Foggia can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout9 Apr 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Hamza Haoudi, and the manager let it.
Squad9 Apr 2029
35 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad9 Apr 2029
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Kyle Smith and Foggia agree another 1 years.
The dugout9 Apr 2029
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Simone Castelli to a room that had heard them before.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad26 Feb 2029
A fracture rules Sergio Piazza out for 16 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Foggia will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market26 Feb 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Foggia is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market26 Feb 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.
Match24 Feb 2029
Nobody wants to play Foggia right now
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Boardroom26 Feb 2029
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Felice D'Amico has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Match24 Feb 2029
It finished 2‑1, and it was Lautaro Vázquez’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Foggia.
Squad26 Feb 2029
Marius Savidan 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.
Player ratings26 Feb 2029
Marked 8.00 — 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.
Squad26 Feb 2029
A falling-out at Foggia
Lautaro Vázquez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market19 Feb 2029
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Foggia they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market19 Feb 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.
Squad19 Feb 2029
25 days out for Sergio Piazza after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Foggia will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The dugout19 Feb 2029
This is not rotation. Hamza Haoudi has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Foggia is pretending otherwise.
Boardroom19 Feb 2029
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.
Squad19 Feb 2029
A falling-out at Foggia
Marius Savidan and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The terraces19 Feb 2029
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Marius Savidan 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.
Match17 Feb 2029
Three points for Foggia, 2‑0 the final word against Potenza in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings19 Feb 2029
A performance of 8.13 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings12 Feb 2029
Two goals and a mark of 9.11 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Match10 Feb 2029
Foggia strike at the death to beat Casarano
There were 88 minutes on the clock and Casarano had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Foggia did not stop to explain themselves.
Squad12 Feb 2029
32 days out for Sergio Piazza after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Foggia will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The dugout12 Feb 2029
This is not rotation. Maxime Giron has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Foggia is pretending otherwise.
Match10 Feb 2029
It finished 2‑1, and it was Giuseppe Panico’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Foggia.
Squad12 Feb 2029
Words at Foggia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marius Savidan 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.
Squad12 Feb 2029
“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; Foggia are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad12 Feb 2029
6 new faces, and Foggia are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout12 Feb 2029
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Simone Castelli on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad5 Feb 2029
A fracture rules Sergio Piazza out for 39 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Foggia will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The dugout5 Feb 2029
This is not rotation. Mamadou Coulibaly has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Foggia is pretending otherwise.
Boardroom5 Feb 2029
Foggia close the window on a squad of their own making
3 in and 4 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.
Market5 Feb 2029
Foggia say no — this time
The offer from Hajer for Fausto Salicioni was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Match3 Feb 2029
No end in sight to Foggia's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Foggia has to find a result from somewhere.
Match3 Feb 2029
Foggia cannot find the net
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Match3 Feb 2029
Padova left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad5 Feb 2029
Words at Foggia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marius Savidan 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.
Squad5 Feb 2029
“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 Foggia know it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad29 Jan 2029
Sergio Piazza breaks a bone — 46 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 46 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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 Foggia can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout29 Jan 2029
This is not rotation. Marco Oliva has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Foggia is pretending otherwise.
Match27 Jan 2029
Foggia cannot find the net
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Transfer targets29 Jan 2029
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The dugout29 Jan 2029
The manager makes an example of Felice D'Amico
“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.
Player ratings29 Jan 2029
7.49, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Foggia had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout29 Jan 2029
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Simone Castelli after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The dugout29 Jan 2029
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Foggia, and both men came out saying it was fine.