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.
At 23 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad18 Aug 2031
Words at Arezzo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gianluca Di Chiara 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 unglamorous genius of a well-written contract. Mario Ravasio is somebody else's player now, and $433.3K has arrived because the people who sold him thought further ahead than the transfer window.
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 Matteo Cortesi is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Camillo Tavernelli signs something — a contract at Arezzo or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Arezzo people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The clubs have shaken hands with Napoli; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
“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 The request is on a desk at Arezzo, and it is not being withdrawn.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Arezzo have done the hard part with Benevento, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Edoardo Di Bello has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Gianluca Di Chiara 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 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.
Squad14 Jul 2031
Words at Arezzo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alessandro Renzi 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.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Arezzo know it.
Camillo Tavernelli 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alessandro Renzi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Arezzo can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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.
Two goals and a mark of 9.13 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Matteo Cortesi. 3‑2 against Vis Pesaro, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
9 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Squad10 Mar 2031
Words at Arezzo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alessandro Renzi 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.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Vis Pesaro tried to reorganise, Arezzo did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Alessandro Renzi at his very best
83 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Camillo Tavernelli 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.
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.
Squad19 Aug 2030
Words at Arezzo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gianluca Di Chiara 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.
At 30 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
The unglamorous genius of a well-written contract. Mario Ravasio is somebody else's player now, and $433.3K has arrived because the people who sold him thought further ahead than the transfer window.
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.
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.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Camillo Tavernelli 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.
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Milton Keynes Dons have kept their man, and Arezzo go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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 Matteo Cortesi is on it.
100 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.
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.
“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.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Matteo Cortesi had Arezzo level again within 3 minutes, and Campobasso never got to play with a lead at all.