Marked for Francesco Grasso
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad19 Jul 2032
Natan Girma 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.
Squad19 Jul 2032
A row about effort at Reggiana
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Francesco Vallarelli was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2032
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sassuolo have kept their man, and Reggiana go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad19 Jul 2032
Emanuel Bassi has improved at 25, 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. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Squad19 Jul 2032
The medical room confirms 61 days on the sidelines for Luciano Verdi, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Boardroom19 Jul 2032
Wages swallow 109% of the Reggiana 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.
The dugout19 Jul 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 dugout19 Jul 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.
Market19 Jul 2032
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Martín Suárez’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Apr 2032
Natan Girma 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.
Squad26 Apr 2032
The medical room confirms 26 days on the sidelines for Francesco Grasso, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Boardroom26 Apr 2032
140% of the income goes out in wages at Reggiana
Every club in football 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 somebody has tried it.
Player ratings26 Apr 2032
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings26 Apr 2032
A performance of 8.36 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad26 Apr 2032
A row about effort at Reggiana
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Simone Bonetti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout26 Apr 2032
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mario Sampirisi, and the manager let it.
Match24 Apr 2032
It needed Leon Šipoš to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Südtirol, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout26 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom7 Jul 2031
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.
Boardroom7 Jul 2031
Emergency meeting at Reggiana
The whole football department in one room on a weekday morning. Nothing was announced afterwards, which is what a board announces when it has run out of patience.
Transfer targets7 Jul 2031
The offer went to Spezia this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Transfer targets7 Jul 2031
Reggiana had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Fiorentina, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad7 Jul 2031
At 23 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.
Squad7 Jul 2031
Leo Begolli 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 Reggiana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Jul 2031
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Alessandro Tripaldelli and Reggiana agree another 2 years.
Squad7 Jul 2031
Andrea Bozzolan 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.
Market7 Jul 2031
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Francesco Grasso is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.