The Lecce Sentinel
Squad18 Aug 2031
The step up is real for Jonas Dahlberg Strand
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.
Transfer targets18 Aug 2031
Door shut on Franco Pastrana
Lecce asked and Mantova said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad18 Aug 2031
A row about effort at Lecce
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alex Mancini was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad18 Aug 2031
Davide Atzeni has improved at 24, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 4 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Market18 Aug 2031
Jacopo Ventura steps up from the Lecce academy
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Jacopo Ventura has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market18 Aug 2031
Lecce promote Lorenzo Locatelli from within
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Lorenzo Locatelli has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market18 Aug 2031
One of our own: Marcello Greco joins the Lecce first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Marcello Greco is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market18 Aug 2031
One of our own: Leandro Ricci joins the Lecce first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Leandro Ricci is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Squad18 Aug 2031
Tempers go at Lecce
Filippo Fattori 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.
In brief
- The dugout Alex Mancini knocks on the manager’s door
- The dugout The manager makes an example of Clarence Corallo
- The dugout Cristian Pehlivanov has been promised minutes