Marked for Simone Serafini
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match19 Jan 2033
The small margins put Frosinone out
Out, 0‑4 to AS Roma, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Transfer targets24 Jan 2033
$20.3M on the table at AS Roma. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Market24 Jan 2033
Only the photograph left for Martin Palumbo
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Martin Palumbo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Frosinone the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The terraces24 Jan 2033
A cup embarrassment at AS Roma follows Frosinone home
0-4. Going out of a cup is one afternoon; going out like that is a week of phone-ins, and the manager will hear every one of them.
Market24 Jan 2033
“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.
Squad24 Jan 2033
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
The dugout24 Jan 2033
Simone Serafini: 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.” Frosinone have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match22 Jan 2033
4 matches without a win for Frosinone
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Frosinone are no longer polite ones.
Match22 Jan 2033
4 matches without a goal for Frosinone
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad6 Dec 2032
Philippe Sandler damages knee ligaments — 19 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 19 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.
Market6 Dec 2032
“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.
Market6 Dec 2032
Only the photograph left for Djiby Diouf
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Djiby Diouf will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Frosinone the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad6 Dec 2032
Words exchanged at Frosinone
Antonio David 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.
Squad6 Dec 2032
Words at Frosinone training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Agustín Módica 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.
Match4 Dec 2032
A 1‑0 win over Torino, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings6 Dec 2032
Ninety minutes of Agustín Módica at his very best
Marked 8.04. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Frosinone.
Player ratings6 Dec 2032
The game went through Felice D'Amico — 7.11
Marked 7.11 on 9 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Market6 Dec 2032
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Frosinone, another week without a signature from Tommaso Gabellini.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad8 Nov 2032
47 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Frosinone lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match3 Nov 2032
Frosinone through in the cup
A 4‑0 win over Südtirol, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Squad8 Nov 2032
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Player ratings8 Nov 2032
No sign of nerves from Simone Serafini at 19 — 8.03
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Simone Serafini did not need any: 8.03, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad8 Nov 2032
Matteo Falasca arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Matteo Falasca has, at Frosinone, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Player ratings8 Nov 2032
Ryan Beacroft pops up at the right end — 7.96
7.96, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Market8 Nov 2032
Only the photograph left for Djiby Diouf
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Djiby Diouf will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Frosinone the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom8 Nov 2032
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Ryan Beacroft has agreed terms with Reggiana for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad8 Nov 2032
Antonio David 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
Triumph
Match10 May 2032
74 points and nobody above them. The word is not being said around the ground yet, and it is being thought in every seat.
Match8 May 2032
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 86th, and Lecco spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
Market10 May 2032
Only the photograph left for Djiby Diouf
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Djiby Diouf will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Frosinone the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The dugout10 May 2032
This is not rotation. Kaká has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Frosinone is pretending otherwise.
Squad10 May 2032
Words exchanged at Frosinone
Rocco Žiković 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 terraces10 May 2032
He is 19 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Match8 May 2032
It finished 1‑0, and it was Farès Ghedjemis’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Frosinone.
Looking ahead10 May 2032
Top-of-the-table clash for Frosinone
Palermo next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
Player ratings10 May 2032
A performance of 8.19 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match7 Feb 2032
3‑0, and Gianluca Gaetano took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Frosinone tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Match7 Feb 2032
The run at home goes on for Frosinone
16 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Market9 Feb 2032
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Frosinone is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad9 Feb 2032
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Market9 Feb 2032
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Carrarese waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Frosinone is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Transfer targets9 Feb 2032
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Juventus have kept their man, and Frosinone go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Transfer targets9 Feb 2032
AC Milan wanted more than $2.5M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Market9 Feb 2032
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Miguel João da Silva reports back to Frosinone with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
The dugout9 Feb 2032
“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.