Marked for Leandro Bartoli
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match22 Jan 2028
No end in sight to Altamura's wait for a win
12 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Altamura has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad24 Jan 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Leandro Bartoli
18 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Altamura lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Transfer targets24 Jan 2028
Altamura had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Padova, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Transfer targets24 Jan 2028
The offer went to Venezia this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Fabrizio Alastra 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 targets24 Jan 2028
Cremonese wanted more than $20.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Player ratings24 Jan 2028
Ninety minutes of Mattia Florio at his very best
Marked 8.25. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Altamura.
Match22 Jan 2028
A point taken on 88 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
Squad24 Jan 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Marco Carta and Altamura agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match15 Jan 2028
The wait goes on for Altamura
11 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad17 Jan 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Leandro Bartoli
25 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Altamura lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market17 Jan 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Altamura can pretend not to have heard.
Market17 Jan 2028
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Carpi waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Altamura is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The dugout17 Jan 2028
This is not rotation. Marco Rosafio has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Altamura is pretending otherwise.
The dugout17 Jan 2028
Alberto Spina: 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.” Altamura have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Transfer targets17 Jan 2028
Altamura offered $1.5M; Venezia said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Market17 Jan 2028
Alberto Spina has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Altamura they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad17 Jan 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Altamura this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad10 Jan 2028
32 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Altamura lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match8 Jan 2028
10 matches without a win for Altamura
The run now stands at 10, and the questions being asked around Altamura are no longer polite ones.
Squad10 Jan 2028
18 days out for Marco Crimi after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Altamura will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Match8 Jan 2028
Chastening afternoon for Altamura
A 0‑3 beating by Picerno was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Match10 Jan 2028
Altamura sink to position 15
11 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market10 Jan 2028
“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.
Squad10 Jan 2028
A move Agustín Córdoba would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Agustín Córdoba is living that version at Altamura, and it tends to show in the first month.
Transfer targets10 Jan 2028
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Altamura have done the hard part with Padova, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.