Marked for Stephen Clark
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Transfer targets18 Aug 2036
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sassuolo have kept their man, and Giana Erminio go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad18 Aug 2036
Gerard 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.
Squad18 Aug 2036
Wout Dumfries 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 targets18 Aug 2036
A loan move for Marcos Cruz is in the works
Giana Erminio have made the call to Torino. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout18 Aug 2036
Gerard has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Giana Erminio 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.
The dugout18 Aug 2036
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Cristiano Zorzella trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market18 Aug 2036
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Santiago Arce signs something — a contract at Giana Erminio or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout18 Aug 2036
The manager makes Mads Andersen a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Giana Erminio. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Match18 Aug 2036
Giana Erminio have something to play for
Position 6 on 46 points, and the places that carry a European ticket are close enough to count. Seasons like this are decided by two results in April, and the club knows which two.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom11 Aug 2036
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Giana Erminio
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Squad11 Aug 2036
16 days out for Orazio Piras after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Giana Erminio will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Transfer targets11 Aug 2036
Everything agreed with Sassuolo, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad11 Aug 2036
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nicolas Previtali was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets11 Aug 2036
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Cagliari have kept their man, and Giana Erminio go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Transfer targets11 Aug 2036
A loan move for Ítalo Sulbarán is in the works
Giana Erminio have made the call to Cagliari. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout11 Aug 2036
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 Nicolas Previtali is on it.
Boardroom11 Aug 2036
Giana Erminio can only buy what they sell
Nobody has barred the club from spending; it simply has nothing to spend that it has not first raised. Every incoming name comes with an outgoing one attached.
The dugout11 Aug 2036
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Filippo Visentin trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom16 Jun 2036
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Giana Erminio
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Squad16 Jun 2036
Everybody at Giana Erminio saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 37 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
Transfer targets16 Jun 2036
Giana Erminio asked and Cesena said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad16 Jun 2036
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gerard was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad16 Jun 2036
Wout Dumfries 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.
Transfer targets16 Jun 2036
A loan enquiry to Bari: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets16 Jun 2036
A loan move for Antonis Merkis is in the works
Giana Erminio have made the call to Avellino. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout16 Jun 2036
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.
Market16 Jun 2036
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Nicolas Previtali’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market9 Jun 2036
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Cesena waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Giana Erminio is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market9 Jun 2036
Adam Richter 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 Giana Erminio can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets9 Jun 2036
Everything agreed with Sassuolo, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad9 Jun 2036
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nicolas Previtali was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets9 Jun 2036
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sassuolo have kept their man, and Giana Erminio go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad9 Jun 2036
Israel Joseph 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.
Transfer targets9 Jun 2036
A loan move for Pontus Eriksson is in the works
Giana Erminio have made the call to Torino. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout9 Jun 2036
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 Nicolas Previtali is on it.
Market9 Jun 2036
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Giana Erminio, another week without a signature from Cristiano Zorzella.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad18 Feb 2036
Tiziano Ditanto and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad18 Feb 2036
Words at Giana Erminio training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicolas Previtali 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.
The terraces18 Feb 2036
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
The dugout18 Feb 2036
The manager makes an example of Filippo Lancia
“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.
Player ratings18 Feb 2036
Nobody on the pitch touched Toby Mignolet
7.60, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Giana Erminio had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
Market18 Feb 2036
Stephen Clark is 19, and Giana Erminio have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
The dugout18 Feb 2036
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Interim Coach could afford to be generous.
The dugout18 Feb 2036
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.