Marked for Andrea Seculin
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market22 May 2028
“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 The request is on a desk at Reggiana, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout22 May 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Reggiana may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad22 May 2028
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Reggiana can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad22 May 2028
A falling-out at Reggiana
Alex Campani and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad22 May 2028
Words at Reggiana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Manga Foé Ondoa 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.
Market22 May 2028
The name of Cedric Gondo keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Reggiana say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout22 May 2028
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Andrea Seculin has written the date down.
Market22 May 2028
The shop window has Natan Girma in it
Reggiana have let the market know Natan Girma can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
The dugout22 May 2028
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Danilo Quaranta trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad1 May 2028
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Reggiana had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
The dugout1 May 2028
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Market1 May 2028
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Squad1 May 2028
A falling-out at Reggiana
Matteo Maggio and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad1 May 2028
A row about effort at Reggiana
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Manga Foé Ondoa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout1 May 2028
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 Andrija Novaković is on it.
The dugout1 May 2028
A promise honoured for Tomas Lepri
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Reggiana told Tomas Lepri something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Squad1 May 2028
“Ask me in the summer. I will know before anybody else does.” He is 37 with 165 appearances behind him, and Reggiana have to plan for both answers.
Market1 May 2028
Reggiana have let the market know Andrija Novaković can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
In brief
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Market
The Matteo Rover story refuses to die
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The dugout
Leon Šipoš asks for a word with the manager
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Boardroom
The Reggiana board put their names to it
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout24 Apr 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Reggiana may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Martín Suárez 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.
Squad24 Apr 2028
A row about effort at Reggiana
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Manolo Portanova was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout24 Apr 2028
Paolo Rozzio 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.
Market24 Apr 2028
The name of Cedric Gondo keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Reggiana say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout24 Apr 2028
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Reggiana. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Market24 Apr 2028
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Natan Girma may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Squad24 Apr 2028
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Natan Girma named in the team of the week
A rating of 6.92 was enough for the selectors, and nobody who watched the match is going to argue with them.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match3 Apr 2028
The view from the top for Reggiana
52 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Match1 Apr 2028
Reggiana win it in stoppage time
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 91th minute. Arezzo will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Squad3 Apr 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Reggiana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match1 Apr 2028
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Martín Suárez. 3‑2 against Arezzo, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Manolo Portanova 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.
The terraces3 Apr 2028
He is 22 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.
The dugout3 Apr 2028
Nick Homan gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad3 Apr 2028
He will be fined, he will apologise, and he will play on Saturday. The order of those three tells you everything about what a football club actually values.
Player ratings3 Apr 2028
Marked 8.13 — 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
Steady
Squad6 Mar 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Reggiana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Everybody at Reggiana saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 38 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.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Words at Reggiana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Manolo Portanova 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.
The dugout6 Mar 2028
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Michele Castagnetti will call it something else in private.
Market6 Mar 2028
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Reggiana, another week without a signature from Andrea Seculin.
Boardroom6 Mar 2028
Reggiana release $1.3M for the manager
The board have put money on the table rather than an encouraging word. What happens to it now is somebody else's problem, and somebody else's job.
Squad6 Mar 2028
A place in the month's best eleven for Lorenzo Libutti
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Lorenzo Libutti has come out of that comparison in the side, and Reggiana have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The dugout6 Mar 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Lucas Delgado, and the manager let it.
The dugout6 Mar 2028
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Nicolò Brambilla after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad14 Feb 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Samuele Schiavone
20 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Reggiana lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match14 Feb 2028
First, on 41 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.
Transfer targets14 Feb 2028
AS Roma wanted more than $6.3M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Manolo Portanova 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.
The dugout14 Feb 2028
The manager makes an example of Andrea Seculin
“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.
Match12 Feb 2028
It finished 1‑0, and it was Matteo Rover’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Reggiana.
Player ratings14 Feb 2028
Marked 7.83. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Squad14 Feb 2028
A falling-out at Reggiana
Nicolò Turchi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout14 Feb 2028
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Nicolò Brambilla, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market7 Feb 2028
Reggiana say no — this time
The offer from Torres for Natan Girma 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.
The dugout7 Feb 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Reggiana may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Transfer targets7 Feb 2028
Reggiana have gone to AS Roma with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Market7 Feb 2028
“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 ratings7 Feb 2028
A defender's goal wins it for Reggiana — 7.55
1 for Massimo Bertagnoli, marked 7.55, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Deadline passes with 2 signed and 4 gone
That is the business done at Reggiana until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Transfer targets7 Feb 2028
Reggiana had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Padova, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad7 Feb 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Reggiana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match5 Feb 2028
Level with 91 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Reggiana had all but put away. Spezia will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings6 Dec 2027
Two goals and a mark of 8.40 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Match6 Dec 2027
Reggiana up to position 3
21 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
The dugout6 Dec 2027
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Reggiana have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match4 Dec 2027
Reggiana make it 4 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Reggiana have 4 straight wins of it.
The dugout6 Dec 2027
This is not rotation. Alessandro Tripaldelli has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Reggiana is pretending otherwise.
Match4 Dec 2027
A 3‑1 win over Livorno, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Loan watch6 Dec 2027
“I watch every Reggiana game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at ESTAC Troyes runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The terraces6 Dec 2027
He is 23 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.
The dugout6 Dec 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout29 Nov 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 ratings29 Nov 2027
A defender's goal wins it for Reggiana — 7.54
1 for Martín Suárez, marked 7.54, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Match27 Nov 2027
Reggiana make it 3 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Reggiana have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Manolo Portanova 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.
Match27 Nov 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Matteo Rover. 3‑1 against Vis Pesaro, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad29 Nov 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Reggiana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
The manager makes an example of Lorenzo Libutti
“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.
Squad29 Nov 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mehdi Bourabia and Reggiana agree another 2 years.
Player ratings29 Nov 2027
Nobody on the pitch touched Matteo Rover
7.95, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Reggiana had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match2 Oct 2027
The wait goes on for Reggiana
8 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.
The dugout4 Oct 2027
Damiano Basili: 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.” Reggiana have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market4 Oct 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 Reggiana, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad4 Oct 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Michele Castagnetti and Reggiana agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad4 Oct 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Reggiana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout4 Oct 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Andrea Seculin, and the manager let it.
Player ratings4 Oct 2027
Natan Girma ran the middle of the pitch — 7.16
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 10 combined actions and a mark of 7.16, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Market4 Oct 2027
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Reggiana, another week without a signature from Andrea Seculin.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Words at Reggiana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Manga Foé Ondoa 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market21 Jun 2027
“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.
Market21 Jun 2027
The bid was some way short and Reggiana did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2027
Reggiana asked and Pineto said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Emanuel Pentimalli 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.
The dugout21 Jun 2027
Cedric Gondo 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.
Loan watch21 Jun 2027
29 appearances away from home and 8 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
The dugout21 Jun 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Market21 Jun 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Reggiana know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Nick Homan still has not settled
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Reggiana would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.