Marked for Matteo Bellucci
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad15 Nov 2032
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 103 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market15 Nov 2032
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Crotone can pretend not to have heard.
Squad15 Nov 2032
The medical room confirms 15 days on the sidelines for Jacopo Di Giosia, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad15 Nov 2032
A row about effort at Crotone
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vinícius was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad15 Nov 2032
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Crotone can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Market15 Nov 2032
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Matteo Bellucci has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Crotone.
The dugout15 Nov 2032
“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 Nov 2032
Juan Feliú knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Juan Feliú trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout15 Nov 2032
Gift Isioma has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Crotone 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad25 Oct 2032
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 12 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad25 Oct 2032
125 days out for James Kinyanjui after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Crotone will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match23 Oct 2032
After 12 games, Crotone finally taste it again
The first defeat in 12 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Audace Cerignola; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Squad25 Oct 2032
Words exchanged at Crotone
Jacopo Di Giosia 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.
Squad25 Oct 2032
A row about effort at Crotone
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vinícius was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match23 Oct 2032
1‑2 to Audace Cerignola, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout25 Oct 2032
The manager makes an example of Niccolò Bagatti
“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.
Loan watch25 Oct 2032
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Crotone, and 3 appearances in 18 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout25 Oct 2032
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Pierpaolo Salvatore after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match25 Sep 2032
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Foggia, and it could have been more.
Match22 Sep 2032
Matteo Bellucci wins it after the whistle should have gone
113 minutes played. Matteo Bellucci found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Campobasso went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Player ratings27 Sep 2032
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.17, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Match25 Sep 2032
Nobody wants to play Crotone right now
6 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.
Player ratings27 Sep 2032
At 33 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 7.99, and nobody on the pitch better.
Squad27 Sep 2032
“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 Crotone know it.
Squad27 Sep 2032
Juan Feliú in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Crotone this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces27 Sep 2032
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Matteo Bellucci 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match11 Sep 2032
Casertana will want this one forgotten quickly: 6‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Crotone were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings13 Sep 2032
Two goals and a mark of 9.59 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The dugout13 Sep 2032
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
The dugout13 Sep 2032
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Match11 Sep 2032
Nobody wants to play Crotone 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.
Match11 Sep 2032
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Crotone and Casertana, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad13 Sep 2032
Vinícius 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.
Transfer targets13 Sep 2032
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.
Player ratings13 Sep 2032
A performance of 9.09 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market6 Sep 2032
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Crotone can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom6 Sep 2032
Deadline passes with 21 signed and 17 gone
That is the business done at Crotone until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Squad6 Sep 2032
Words exchanged at Crotone
Vinícius 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.
Transfer targets6 Sep 2032
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Lecce have kept their man, and Crotone go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad6 Sep 2032
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Gianmarco Gastaldello commits to Crotone for another 3 years.
The dugout6 Sep 2032
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 Filippo Groppelli is on it.
Squad6 Sep 2032
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
Squad6 Sep 2032
Words at Crotone training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. James Kinyanjui 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.
Market6 Sep 2032
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market14 Jun 2032
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Crotone have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Squad14 Jun 2032
Words exchanged at Crotone
Vinícius 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.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2032
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.
Squad14 Jun 2032
A row about effort at Crotone
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abdul Karim was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2032
AC Milan have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
The dugout14 Jun 2032
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Market14 Jun 2032
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Crotone, another week without a signature from Lautaro Toledo Pacheco.
Market14 Jun 2032
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Crotone know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Squad14 Jun 2032
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market7 Jun 2032
Abdul Karim hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Crotone can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets7 Jun 2032
Everything agreed with Benevento, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad7 Jun 2032
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Niccolò Bagatti and Crotone agree another 2 years.
Squad7 Jun 2032
Vinícius 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.
Squad7 Jun 2032
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Crotone this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Jun 2032
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Ņikita Solomonovs has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Transfer targets7 Jun 2032
A loan enquiry to Carpi: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout7 Jun 2032
“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.
Market7 Jun 2032
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Carlos Gutiérrez may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Apr 2032
A falling-out at Crotone
Santiago González and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Apr 2032
Defences have started doubling up on Marco Zunno
12 goals and a season average of 7.24 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Player ratings19 Apr 2032
Successful dribbles: 19. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Player ratings19 Apr 2032
Vinícius was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.02. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Match17 Apr 2032
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout19 Apr 2032
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout19 Apr 2032
Abdul Karim gets it from the manager
“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 dugout19 Apr 2032
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
The dugout19 Apr 2032
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.