Marked for Korey Smith
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout28 May 2029
“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.
Squad28 May 2029
Time is catching up with Simen Rafn
Everybody at Casarano saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 37 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
The dugout28 May 2029
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Mario Mercadante is on it.
The dugout28 May 2029
The manager makes an example of Korey Smith
“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.
Market28 May 2029
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Niccolò Chiorra’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Squad28 May 2029
The standards have slipped, and in a building where everybody watches everybody it has not gone unremarked. This is how a player loses a place before he loses one.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match8 Jan 2029
Casarano up to position 2
31 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Market8 Jan 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Casarano can pretend not to have heard.
Match6 Jan 2029
Casarano make home a hard place to visit
14 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Squad8 Jan 2029
400 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Squad8 Jan 2029
A row about effort at Casarano
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ciro Florentín was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout8 Jan 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ciro Florentín, and the manager let it.
Squad8 Jan 2029
“The easiest signature of my career.” Korey Smith and Casarano agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad8 Jan 2029
A falling-out at Casarano
Simen Rafn and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings8 Jan 2029
A mark of 7.34, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match1 Jan 2029
First, on 30 points. The table is a fact and a fact is allowed to be enjoyed, which is as far as anybody at the club is prepared to go in public.
Market1 Jan 2029
“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.
Squad1 Jan 2029
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Casarano will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
The dugout1 Jan 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Casarano may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match30 Dec 2028
Vanja Vlahović scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Potenza, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad1 Jan 2029
“The easiest signature of my career.” Korey Smith and Casarano agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad1 Jan 2029
Words exchanged at Casarano
Simen Rafn 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 dugout1 Jan 2029
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Arturo Milani to a room that had heard them before.
Squad1 Jan 2029
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Casarano can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match18 Sep 2027
0‑4 against Gillingham, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Squad20 Sep 2027
9 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Match15 Sep 2027
Lincoln City ended it 0‑1. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
“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.
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
Ben Knight beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 21. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Words at Cambridge United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alex Castro 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.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Liam Bennett and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The terraces20 Sep 2027
At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
The manager makes an example of Kelland Watts
“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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match11 Sep 2027
4‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
Two goals and a mark of 8.29 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
Two goals and a mark of 8.02 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market13 Sep 2027
The offer from Peterborough United for George Lloyd was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Market13 Sep 2027
“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 Cambridge United, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets13 Sep 2027
No deal for Pedro Cauã at that price
Cambridge United offered $650.0K; Tranmere Rovers 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.
Squad13 Sep 2027
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Cambridge United know it.
Match11 Sep 2027
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Words at Cambridge United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Manuel Pagano 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.