Marked for Raúl Cabrera
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom27 Jul 2043
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Pianese
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market27 Jul 2043
“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.
Squad27 Jul 2043
Dmitry Zheltukhin 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.
Squad27 Jul 2043
Edoardo Cimatti 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.
Squad27 Jul 2043
5 new faces, and Pianese are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Squad27 Jul 2043
Tom Norcott asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings13 Apr 2043
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.43, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad13 Apr 2043
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad13 Apr 2043
Raúl Cabrera: 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.” Pianese have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad13 Apr 2043
Danil Anosov 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.
Match11 Apr 2043
Livorno left with the points after a 2‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad13 Apr 2043
Edoardo Cimatti 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.
Match11 Apr 2043
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Giuseppe Scarano had Pianese level again within 1 minutes, and Livorno never got to play with a lead at all.
Market13 Apr 2043
Mauro Mariani is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Pianese has been clear about where Mauro Mariani stands, which is more than many ever get.
Market13 Apr 2043
The clock does Dmitry Zheltukhin’s negotiating for him
3 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Pianese could ask drops and the wages Dmitry Zheltukhin can ask rise.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market14 Jul 2042
“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 Pianese, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad14 Jul 2042
Danil Anosov 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.
Squad14 Jul 2042
Raúl Cabrera 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.
Squad14 Jul 2042
At 24 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Boardroom14 Jul 2042
The Pianese debt reaches $15.2M
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
Squad14 Jul 2042
7 new faces, and Pianese are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Loan watch14 Jul 2042
“I watch every Pianese game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Triestina runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Market14 Jul 2042
Pianese bring in an old head
Mousslim Youssouf is 36 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
Market14 Jul 2042
Pianese have made Nikolas Perdios available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match12 Oct 2041
20 matches without a win for Pianese
The run now stands at 20, and the questions being asked around Pianese are no longer polite ones.
The terraces14 Oct 2041
The mood at Pianese has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Market14 Oct 2041
“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 Pianese, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match12 Oct 2041
Pianese are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 5 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Squad14 Oct 2041
Danil Anosov 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.
Match12 Oct 2041
1‑3 to Pontedera, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad14 Oct 2041
Words at Pianese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sandro Milani 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.
Boardroom14 Oct 2041
136% of the income goes out in wages at Pianese
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Boardroom14 Oct 2041
No signings allowed at Pianese
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.