Marked for Davide Andreoli
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces6 Dec 2027
Supporters organise against the Audace Cerignola board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Squad6 Dec 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Davide Andreoli
17 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Audace Cerignola lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 97 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match6 Dec 2027
Every point is an argument now for Audace Cerignola
Position 15 and 9 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Market6 Dec 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Audace Cerignola can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom6 Dec 2027
Pressure builds in the Audace Cerignola boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
The dugout6 Dec 2027
“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.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Stefano Greco 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.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Words at Audace Cerignola training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alessandro Silvestro 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad29 Nov 2027
Davide Andreoli damages knee ligaments — 24 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 24 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.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 104 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Stefano Greco 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.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Words at Audace Cerignola training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alessandro Silvestro 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 dugout29 Nov 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ludovico D'Orazio, and the manager let it.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Alessandro Ligi's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Player ratings29 Nov 2027
Marco Meli runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 14. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Luciano Alessi was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Audace Cerignola dressing room was either.
Match27 Nov 2027
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Picerno came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad22 Nov 2027
31 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Audace Cerignola lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad22 Nov 2027
A fracture rules Amit Mamut out for 16 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Audace Cerignola will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match20 Nov 2027
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Luciano Alessi after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad22 Nov 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Audace Cerignola this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings22 Nov 2027
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings22 Nov 2027
Marco Meli leaves them behind him
Shots: 6. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
“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 dugout22 Nov 2027
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad15 Nov 2027
38 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Audace Cerignola lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Amit Mamut breaks a bone — 24 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 24 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Alessandro Silvestro 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 dugout15 Nov 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.
Looking ahead15 Nov 2027
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Altamura in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Market15 Nov 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Diego Gambale signs something — a contract at Audace Cerignola or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Market15 Nov 2027
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
Amin Peyman has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Audace Cerignola 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.