Marked for Tiziano Bruni
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad27 Aug 2029
A fracture rules Tiziano Bruni out for 23 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Renate will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad27 Aug 2029
Giovanni Zappa: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Renate have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad27 Aug 2029
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Thiago Gigena is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad27 Aug 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Renate this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom27 Aug 2029
Graduation day at Renate
6 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Market27 Aug 2029
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Jacopo Verdi has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market27 Aug 2029
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Ruggero Giordano 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.
Market27 Aug 2029
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Valentino Bonetti 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.
Market27 Aug 2029
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Antonio Montanari is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
In brief
-
Boardroom
The numbers do not look good at Renate
-
Boardroom
Renate turn down the training-ground plan
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad20 Aug 2029
A fracture rules Tiziano Bruni out for 30 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Renate will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market20 Aug 2029
“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 Renate, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad20 Aug 2029
Tempers go at Renate
Tommaso Nobile 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom13 Aug 2029
The scrutiny sharpens at Renate
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Renate is running low.
Squad13 Aug 2029
A fracture rules Tiziano Bruni out for 37 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Renate will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market13 Aug 2029
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad13 Aug 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Renate may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad13 Aug 2029
69 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad13 Aug 2029
Lorenzo De Leo 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom6 Aug 2029
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Gennaro Piazza has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Squad6 Aug 2029
Tiziano Bruni breaks a bone — 45 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 45 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market6 Aug 2029
“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 Renate, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom6 Aug 2029
The Renate board call everybody in
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Squad6 Aug 2029
Tempers go at Renate
Tommaso Nobile 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 Aug 2029
Words at Renate training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lorenzo De Leo 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.
Squad6 Aug 2029
Francesco Vassallo has improved at 35, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Boardroom6 Aug 2029
Renate pull $5.1K back off the table
The money that was there in the summer is not there now. Nobody upstairs calls this a change of ambition, and everybody downstairs reads it as one.
Market6 Aug 2029
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Lorenzo De Leo signs something — a contract at Renate or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market30 Jul 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Renate can pretend not to have heard.
Squad30 Jul 2029
Tiziano Bruni breaks a bone — 52 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 52 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad30 Jul 2029
Thiago Gigena is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad23 Jul 2029
Tiziano Bruni breaks a bone — 59 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 59 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad23 Jul 2029
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Donato Ianzano is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad23 Jul 2029
Tempers go at Renate
Tommaso Nobile 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Jul 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Mario Vilardi
15 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Renate lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom16 Jul 2029
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Renate
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Tiziano Bruni breaks a bone — 66 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 66 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market16 Jul 2029
“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 Renate, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Riccardo Ori: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Renate have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad16 Jul 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Renate this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad9 Jul 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Mario Vilardi
22 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Renate lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad9 Jul 2029
Tiziano Bruni breaks a bone — 73 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 73 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market9 Jul 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Renate can pretend not to have heard.
Market9 Jul 2029
Renate say no — this time
The offer from Dinamo Brest for Lorenzo De Leo 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.
Squad9 Jul 2029
Danilo Busiello is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
Squad9 Jul 2029
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Andrea Delcarro commits to Renate for another 2 years.
In brief
-
Boardroom
89% of the income goes out in wages at Renate
-
Market
The Riccardo De Zen talk will not go away
-
Boardroom
The Renate production line keeps running
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad2 Jul 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Mario Vilardi
29 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Renate lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom2 Jul 2029
Gennaro Piazza has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Renate can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Squad2 Jul 2029
Tiziano Bruni breaks a bone — 80 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 80 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market2 Jul 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Renate can pretend not to have heard.
Market2 Jul 2029
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Boardroom2 Jul 2029
Crisis meeting at Renate
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Squad2 Jul 2029
“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.
Squad2 Jul 2029
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
Market2 Jul 2029
Everyone has stopped pretending: Al-Taawoun will make the call about Lorenzo De Leo this week. Renate have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad25 Jun 2029
Tiziano Bruni breaks a bone — 87 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 87 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market25 Jun 2029
Add another name to the list: Al-Taawoun have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Lorenzo De Leo. The answer from Renate has not changed — yet.
Squad25 Jun 2029
Tempers go at Renate
Lorenzo De Leo 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom18 Jun 2029
Pressure builds in the Renate boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad18 Jun 2029
Tiziano Bruni breaks a bone — 94 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 94 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market18 Jun 2029
“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 Renate, and it is not being withdrawn.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad11 Jun 2029
Tiziano Bruni breaks a bone — 101 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 101 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market11 Jun 2029
“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 Renate, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad11 Jun 2029
“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.
Squad11 Jun 2029
Tempers go at Renate
Lorenzo De Leo 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.
Squad11 Jun 2029
“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 Renate know it.
Boardroom11 Jun 2029
Wages eat 98% of everything Renate earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.