Marked for Benoît Schneider
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom21 May 2035
Trento counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Trento now.
Squad21 May 2035
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Trento may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad21 May 2035
Tempers go at Trento
Christian Capone 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad30 Apr 2035
There were 9 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.
Market30 Apr 2035
“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 The request is on a desk at Trento, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market30 Apr 2035
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Joaquín Medina wants continental football; whether Trento can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad30 Apr 2035
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Trento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Apr 2035
Words at Trento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Samuel Wiafe 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.
Match28 Apr 2035
1‑2 to Pergolettese, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad30 Apr 2035
The medical room confirms 55 days on the sidelines for Sergio Dalla Valle, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Player ratings30 Apr 2035
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.11, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match28 Apr 2035
Trento hit back inside 3 minutes
Pergolettese held the lead for 3 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Trento answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad18 Dec 2034
Mattia Maffei breaks a bone — 25 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 25 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market18 Dec 2034
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Trento can pretend not to have heard.
Market18 Dec 2034
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Trento is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Match16 Dec 2034
5 matches without a win for Trento
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Trento are no longer polite ones.
Squad18 Dec 2034
Benoît Schneider: 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.” Trento have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad18 Dec 2034
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Trento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match16 Dec 2034
No clean sheets in sight for Trento
4 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Match16 Dec 2034
1‑2 to Pergolettese, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad18 Dec 2034
Vadim Solovjov 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
Squad11 Dec 2034
Mattia Maffei breaks a bone — 32 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 32 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match9 Dec 2034
No end in sight to Trento's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Trento has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad11 Dec 2034
Tempers go at Trento
Christian Capone 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 ratings11 Dec 2034
Leonardo Gómez was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.53. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Squad11 Dec 2034
Words at Trento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vadim Solovjov 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.
Squad11 Dec 2034
The manager makes an example of Filippo Dodde
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings11 Dec 2034
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match9 Dec 2034
2‑2, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Market11 Dec 2034
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Christian Capone signs something — a contract at Trento or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad25 Sep 2034
Mattia Maffei breaks a bone — 109 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 109 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match20 Sep 2034
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Valery Savitski obliged against Foggia. 1‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Trento.
Player ratings25 Sep 2034
Charles Hill could not have asked for more on his first appearance — 8.34
Debuts are survived rather than enjoyed. This one was enjoyed: 8.34, 0 goals, and a manager already being asked whether he starts again next week.
Squad25 Sep 2034
There were 7 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.
Player ratings25 Sep 2034
Valery Savitski, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.54
A mark of 8.54 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Match23 Sep 2034
Nobody wants to play Trento right now
5 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Player ratings25 Sep 2034
Christian Capone, 35, rolls back the years — 8.26
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.26 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad25 Sep 2034
“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.
Market25 Sep 2034
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Leonardo D'Errico will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Trento the goodbyes have quietly begun.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Boardroom8 May 2034
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Market8 May 2034
“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 Trento, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad8 May 2034
Gaetano Armenise: 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.” Trento have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad8 May 2034
19 goals and a season average of 7.23. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad8 May 2034
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Trento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad8 May 2034
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Leonardo Gómez commits to Trento for another 4 years.
Match6 May 2034
A 2‑1 win over Virtus Verona, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Match6 May 2034
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Virtus Verona tried to reorganise, Trento did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
Player ratings8 May 2034
Marked 8.14 — 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
Uneasy
Squad16 Jan 2034
A knee injury of the worst kind for Riccardo Pasquali
29 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Trento lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market16 Jan 2034
“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.
Player ratings16 Jan 2034
A brace, and Elios Minaj takes the afternoon — 8.18
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Elios Minaj provided it, and the 8.18 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad16 Jan 2034
Diogo Farinha: 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.” Trento have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match14 Jan 2034
The wait goes on for Trento
5 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.
Squad16 Jan 2034
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Trento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Jan 2034
Words at Trento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Christian Capone 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.
Match14 Jan 2034
It needed Elios Minaj to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against Pro Patria, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Player ratings16 Jan 2034
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.