Marked for David Thomas
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad11 Dec 2045
A knee injury of the worst kind for Stevy Brouwers
38 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Giana Erminio lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match11 Dec 2045
Position 3 and 31 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Squad11 Dec 2045
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.
Player ratings11 Dec 2045
At 37 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.16 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad11 Dec 2045
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Giana Erminio may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match9 Dec 2045
A 2‑1 win over Pergolettese, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad5 Jun 2045
David Thomas: 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.” Giana Erminio have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad5 Jun 2045
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Andreas Søndergaard and Giana Erminio agree another 2 years.
Squad5 Jun 2045
Jonathan Fugelsnes 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
Steady
Squad10 Apr 2045
Nicolas Previtali 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.
Squad10 Apr 2045
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Giana Erminio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Loan watch10 Apr 2045
26 appearances at Dolomiti Bellunesi and the goals keep coming. Giana Erminio are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad27 Feb 2045
There were 8 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.
Boardroom27 Feb 2045
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Giana Erminio now.
Match25 Feb 2045
Whatever happens, Giana Erminio do not lose
8 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad27 Feb 2045
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Giana Erminio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Feb 2045
Nicolas Previtali 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.
Player ratings27 Feb 2045
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match25 Feb 2045
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Squad27 Feb 2045
The manager makes an example of David Thomas
“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.
Loan watch27 Feb 2045
22 appearances away from home and 8 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad2 Jan 2045
Alfonso Sanna damages knee ligaments — 22 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 22 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.
Match31 Dec 2044
A 1‑4 beating by Triestina was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Boardroom2 Jan 2045
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Giana Erminio now.
Squad2 Jan 2045
“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 Jan 2045
Nicolas Previtali 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.
Squad2 Jan 2045
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Giana Erminio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom2 Jan 2045
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Player ratings2 Jan 2045
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Loan watch2 Jan 2045
18 appearances away from home and 8 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad15 Feb 2044
Henry Shaw breaks a bone — 57 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 57 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match13 Feb 2044
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Giana Erminio scored in the 90th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Match13 Feb 2044
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Giana Erminio did not have in the autumn.
Squad15 Feb 2044
Nicolas Previtali 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.
Player ratings15 Feb 2044
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad15 Feb 2044
Jonathan Fugelsnes 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.
Match13 Feb 2044
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Illia Dziubuk. 1‑0 against Arzignano, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad15 Feb 2044
10 clean sheets and counting. Strikers leave this ground muttering his name, which is exactly how a goalkeeper measures a good season.
Player ratings15 Feb 2044
7.64, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Giana Erminio had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad1 Feb 2044
Henry Shaw breaks a bone — 71 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 71 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad1 Feb 2044
390 appearances across 17 seasons in these colours. Careers like that are not built any more, and Giana Erminio know what they have.
Match1 Feb 2044
42 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Boardroom1 Feb 2044
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Giana Erminio now.
Market1 Feb 2044
Patrick Fabre hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Giana Erminio can pretend not to have heard.
Squad1 Feb 2044
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Giana Erminio may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad1 Feb 2044
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Giana Erminio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match30 Jan 2044
Lumezzane made Giana Erminio work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings1 Feb 2044
Defensive actions: 16. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.