The Pineto Courier
Market27 Aug 2029
Pineto say no — this time
The offer from Spezia for Luca Lombardi 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.
Squad27 Aug 2029
Words exchanged at Pineto
Tommaso D'Orazio 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.
Boardroom27 Aug 2029
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Pineto
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Squad27 Aug 2029
Luca Lombardi 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 targets27 Aug 2029
Pineto rebuffed over Manuel De Marco
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Salernitana have kept their man, and Pineto go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market27 Aug 2029
One of our own: Danilo Basile joins the Pineto first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Danilo Basile is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market27 Aug 2029
One of our own: Edoardo Ferrigno joins the Pineto first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Edoardo Ferrigno is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market27 Aug 2029
Riccardo Morelli steps up from the Pineto academy
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Riccardo Morelli 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.
Squad27 Aug 2029
5 new faces, and Pineto 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.
In brief
- Boardroom No investment in the facilities at Pineto
- Squad Evgeny Gusakov is a square peg at Pineto
- The dugout Adriano Verna gets it from the manager