Marked for Giuseppe Basile
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad18 Oct 2027
Giuseppe Basile damages knee ligaments — 14 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 14 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.
Match16 Oct 2027
No end in sight to Catania's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Catania has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad18 Oct 2027
A falling-out at Catania
Massimo Coda and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad18 Oct 2027
A row about effort at Catania
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Roberto Insigne was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match16 Oct 2027
The goals have deserted Catania
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Catania can tell you which week it ends in.
Match16 Oct 2027
Mantova left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings18 Oct 2027
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 10 actions, 6.96, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Artemijus Tutyškinas, and the manager let it.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad11 Oct 2027
Giuseppe Basile damages knee ligaments — 21 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 21 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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Words exchanged at Catania
Massimo Coda 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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Roberto Insigne 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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Too much change too quickly at Catania
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
“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.
Looking ahead11 Oct 2027
Mantova next, and one man in the Catania dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
Fernando Corica asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Gregorio Luperini has written the date down.
Market11 Oct 2027
Catania have made Andrea Corbari available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad4 Oct 2027
28 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Catania lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad4 Oct 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Massimo Coda and Catania agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Nicolás Repetto arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Nicolás Repetto has, at Catania, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Player ratings4 Oct 2027
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 13 actions, 6.98, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Match2 Oct 2027
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Filippo D'Andrea 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.
The dugout4 Oct 2027
“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 dugout4 Oct 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Alfonso Colletti left the room before anybody could ask which.
Player ratings4 Oct 2027
Successful dribbles: 13. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Boardroom31 May 2027
Silverware for Catania
They will talk about this season in this town for a long time. The trophy comes home with the squad, and the route is already agreed.
Match31 May 2027
First, on 55 points. The table is a fact and a fact is allowed to be enjoyed, which is as far as anybody at the club is prepared to go in public.
Market31 May 2027
Mario Ierardi 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 Catania can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout31 May 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Catania may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad31 May 2027
Words exchanged at Catania
Fabrizio Caligara 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.
The dugout31 May 2027
“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 dugout31 May 2027
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Catania, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad31 May 2027
Word from the training ground: Marco Perrotta
The sharpest man in every session this week, by all accounts. Lines like this run the week before somebody’s run in the side begins.
The dugout31 May 2027
The message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Mario Ierardi plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Apr 2027
Fabrizio Caligara 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.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
“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.
Market26 Apr 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Fabrizio Caligara signs something — a contract at Catania or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
Eddy Cabianca gets picked when it counts
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 Eddy Cabianca is on it.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Emanuele Cicerelli has written the date down.
Loan watch26 Apr 2027
The goals keep arriving from Gregorio Luperini’s exile
4 goals in 29 games at Livorno — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Catania updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Loan watch26 Apr 2027
4 clean sheets on loan for Klāvs Bethers
6 appearances at Ventspils and the goals have stopped going in. Catania lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
Squad26 Apr 2027
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
Loan watch26 Apr 2027
10 starts and a season average of 6.80. The loan is doing exactly what it was arranged to do.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Catania
Massimo Coda and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Salvatore Caturano and Catania agree another 2 years.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Achille De Santis 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Romano Salvatore is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Jacopo Giuliani is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Giuseppe Basile is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.