Marked for Mark Jackson
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad13 Apr 2043
16 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Arezzo lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad13 Apr 2043
A fracture rules Daniele Triacca out for 44 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Arezzo will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match11 Apr 2043
4‑0, and Daris Čatak took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Arezzo tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Match13 Apr 2043
Arezzo refuse to drop out of the race
Position 2, 50 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Squad13 Apr 2043
Defences have started doubling up on Pedro Gomes
24 goals and a season average of 7.37 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Player ratings13 Apr 2043
Raffaele Sibilio, 37, rolls back the years — 8.01
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.01 at 37, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Market13 Apr 2043
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Arezzo, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad13 Apr 2043
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Arezzo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom13 Apr 2043
No signings allowed at Arezzo
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Jan 2043
93 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Arezzo lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad26 Jan 2043
A fracture rules Daniele Triacca out for 121 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Arezzo will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market26 Jan 2043
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Arezzo is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market26 Jan 2043
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Arezzo, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market26 Jan 2043
The phone has started ringing about Pedro Gomes again, and this time the name on the line is Dynamo Kyiv. Arezzo are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad26 Jan 2043
Defences have started doubling up on Pedro Gomes
17 goals and a season average of 7.26 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Match24 Jan 2043
Whatever happens, Arezzo do not lose
7 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad26 Jan 2043
Tempers go at Arezzo
Alessandro Renzi 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.
Player ratings26 Jan 2043
Marked 8.45 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad12 Jan 2043
107 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Arezzo lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market12 Jan 2043
Dean Vranici 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 Arezzo can pretend not to have heard.
Squad12 Jan 2043
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Arezzo will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings12 Jan 2043
Briajan Gjyla, 35, rolls back the years — 8.72
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.72 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Market12 Jan 2043
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad12 Jan 2043
Tempers go at Arezzo
Alessandro Renzi 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.
Market12 Jan 2043
The Damir Kasalo conversation is coming
Everyone has stopped pretending: Modena will make the call about Damir Kasalo this week. Arezzo have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Squad12 Jan 2043
Pedro Gomes 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.
Match10 Jan 2043
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Jean Gaillard. 2‑0 against Ternana, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad14 Oct 2041
Lamine Fofana breaks a bone — 55 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 55 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market14 Oct 2041
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Leonardo De Angelis will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Arezzo the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad14 Oct 2041
Mark Jackson gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Mark Jackson has just signed for Arezzo, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad14 Oct 2041
Luca Chierico 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.
Match12 Oct 2041
Arezzo come up short against Carpi
Carpi left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Boardroom14 Oct 2041
94% of the income goes out in wages at Arezzo
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.
Squad14 Oct 2041
Tempers go at Arezzo
Valerio Bellini 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.
Market14 Oct 2041
Robert Budimir is 20, and Arezzo 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.
Market14 Oct 2041
Arezzo bring in an old head
Sadio Dembélé is 38 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.