Marked for Loris Bacchetti
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Jul 2027
21 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Casertana lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market26 Jul 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.
Market26 Jul 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Casertana people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
The offer went to Ospitaletto this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Words at Casertana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Shady Oukhadda 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.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
Casertana asked and Parma said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
A loan enquiry to Foggia: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Squad26 Jul 2027
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Casertana would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
The dugout26 Jul 2027
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 Accursio Bentivegna has written the date down.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets21 Jun 2027
The clubs have shaken hands with Lazio; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2027
The deal with Padova is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2027
Casertana offered $53.0K; Cittadella 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.
Squad21 Jun 2027
A row about effort at Casertana
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Shady Oukhadda was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2027
Casertana asked and Atalanta said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The dugout21 Jun 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mattia Sandri, and the manager let it.
The dugout21 Jun 2027
“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.
Market21 Jun 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Shady Oukhadda’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout21 Jun 2027
Marco Toscano has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Casertana will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market14 Jun 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 Casertana, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2027
$53.0K on the table at Cittadella. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad14 Jun 2027
A row about effort at Casertana
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Shady Oukhadda was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Market14 Jun 2027
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Loris Bacchetti has his answer from Casertana; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Squad14 Jun 2027
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
The dugout14 Jun 2027
Diego Ojeda 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.
The dugout14 Jun 2027
“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.
The dugout14 Jun 2027
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 Accursio Bentivegna has written the date down.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market7 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.
Transfer targets7 Jun 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Pisa have kept their man, and Casertana go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Transfer targets7 Jun 2027
A loan enquiry to Sassuolo: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets7 Jun 2027
A loan move for Paco Esteban is in the works
Casertana have made the call to Lecce. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Antonino Arzillo 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 dugout7 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.
Boardroom7 Jun 2027
Open for business: Casertana enter the window
The registration window is open and the phone has started. Between now and the deadline this club will be linked with forty players and sign three, which is the usual ratio.
Squad7 Jun 2027
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
Match7 Jun 2027
Casertana have something to play for
Position 5 on 46 points, and the places that carry a European ticket are close enough to count. Seasons like this are decided by two results in April, and the club knows which two.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 May 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 Casertana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout10 May 2027
Daniele Liotti knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Casertana, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Match10 May 2027
Casertana have something to play for
Position 5 on 46 points, and the places that carry a European ticket are close enough to count. Seasons like this are decided by two results in April, and the club knows which two.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad29 Mar 2027
Accursio Bentivegna and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad29 Mar 2027
A row about effort at Casertana
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Shady Oukhadda was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout29 Mar 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.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
Daniele Liotti knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Casertana, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market29 Mar 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Casertana know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad22 Feb 2027
30 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Casertana lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match20 Feb 2027
It had gone 5 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.
Match20 Feb 2027
It finished 1‑0, and it was Stefano Girelli’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Casertana.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words exchanged at Casertana
Loris Bacchetti 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.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
Marked 7.61. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Salvatore Pezzella will call it something else in private.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
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.” Riccardo Iannuzzi, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 14. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Marco Decherf, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad15 Feb 2027
Gabriele Rocchi damages knee ligaments — 38 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 38 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.
Match13 Feb 2027
The wait goes on for Casertana
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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Accursio Bentivegna 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at Casertana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Shady Oukhadda 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.
Match13 Feb 2027
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout15 Feb 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.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
“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.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 13. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad4 Jan 2027
82 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Casertana lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market4 Jan 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Casertana had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Udinese have kept their man, and Casertana go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match2 Jan 2027
Sorrento made Casertana work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
The dugout4 Jan 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.
Boardroom4 Jan 2027
$1.3M on the table at Casertana
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
The afternoon belonged to Michele Vano
A mark of 7.53, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
A loan enquiry to Pescara: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match21 Nov 2026
5‑1, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.91 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.89 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Match21 Nov 2026
Nobody wants to play Casertana right now
4 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Shady Oukhadda and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match21 Nov 2026
Michele Vano among the goals in a wild afternoon
6 goals in one match, Michele Vano on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Casertana and Giugliano.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“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.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Riccardo Iannuzzi kept it short after the 5‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Market23 Nov 2026
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Loris Bacchetti has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Casertana.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
A brace, and Jacopo Manconi takes the afternoon — 8.44
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Jacopo Manconi provided it, and the 8.44 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Shady Oukhadda and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match24 Oct 2026
A 2‑1 win over Picerno, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Match24 Oct 2026
The drought breaks for Casertana
5 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Picerno were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Casertana are still strangers to each other
11 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 2‑1, already talking about the next one.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Player of the week, judged against every other man in the division. A small award, and one most careers never collect.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at Casertana
Alessandro Caporale 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.
Transfer targets21 Sep 2026
Casertana asked and Spezia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Salvatore Pezzella, and the manager let it.
Match19 Sep 2026
It needed Michele Vano to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Catania, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Riccardo Iannuzzi chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
Looking ahead21 Sep 2026
Salernitana next, and one man in the Casertana dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The plan did not have a place for Federico Proia
Nobody at Casertana is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Casertana. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 8. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market14 Sep 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Casertana can pretend not to have heard.
Match12 Sep 2026
It finished 3‑1, and it was Giulio Favale’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Casertana.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Ninety minutes of Giulio Favale at his very best
Marked 8.19. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Casertana.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Marked 8.02. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Casertana.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Riccardo Iannuzzi on a 3‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Loris Bacchetti, and the manager let it.
Squad14 Sep 2026
The one goal every signing is asked about until it comes. It has come, and a press-conference question has been retired.
Looking ahead14 Sep 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Francesco Di Tacchio’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Casertana needing him to play as if none of it matters.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market7 Sep 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Casertana can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 13 in, 0 out at Casertana
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 13 arrived, 0 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Gimnasia La Plata is saying, and nobody at Casertana is enjoying the guessing.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at Casertana
Shady Oukhadda 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.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Marco Toscano slips down the pecking order
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Marco Toscano is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Squad7 Sep 2026
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
Squad7 Sep 2026
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
Looking ahead7 Sep 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Salvatore Pezzella’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Casertana needing him to play as if none of it matters.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market31 Aug 2026
“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.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
No thanks: Idrissa Guèye rejects the move
Casertana had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Udinese, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Shady Oukhadda and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Casertana asked and KV Kortrijk said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Match29 Aug 2026
Three points for Casertana, 1‑0 the final word against Sorrento in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Too much change too quickly at Casertana
12 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.62 on the card, and the Casertana support went home talking about one name.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
All Boys have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Casertana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Udinese have kept their man, and Casertana go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
A loan move for Idrissa Guèye is in the works
Casertana have made the call to Udinese. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Gimnasia La Plata have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
Casertana say no to the training-ground money
The plan went upstairs and came back down. Nothing about that will make a headline anywhere else, and everybody who works at the training ground will remember it for years.
Looking ahead24 Aug 2026
Looking ahead: Sorrento at home
A side in position 11 visits next. The result will not make anybody’s season and it could quietly break the shape of one, which is why the manager has been watching the video since Sunday.