Marked for Simone Calvano
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad14 Jun 2027
Alessandro Vinciguerra 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 Jun 2027
Davide Bove 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.
Squad14 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad31 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 Crotone this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 May 2027
Guido Gomez 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.
Squad31 May 2027
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
In brief
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Squad
Vinícius knocks on the manager’s door
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings17 May 2027
Successful dribbles: 31. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match15 May 2027
Whatever happens, Monopoli 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.
Squad17 May 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.
Squad17 May 2027
Davide Bove 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.
Squad17 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 Monopoli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings17 May 2027
7.05, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Monopoli had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings10 May 2027
Two goals and a mark of 8.85 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings10 May 2027
Successful dribbles: 29. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings10 May 2027
Simone Calvano, 33, rolls back the years — 7.81
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.81 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad10 May 2027
Matteo Maggio 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.
Squad10 May 2027
Words at Crotone training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Guido Gomez 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.
Match8 May 2027
A 3‑1 win over Sorrento, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad10 May 2027
No hiding place for Leon Ćuk
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Leon Ćuk, and the manager let it.
Squad10 May 2027
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Market10 May 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Davide Merelli signs something — a contract at Crotone or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings19 Apr 2027
Successful dribbles: 46. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings19 Apr 2027
Age has not caught Simone Calvano yet — 7.88
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.88 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Match17 Apr 2027
Still nobody has beaten Crotone
The unbeaten run reaches 9. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Matteo Maggio 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.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Words at Crotone training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Guido Gomez 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.
Match17 Apr 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Simone Calvano. 1‑0 against Altamura, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 40. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad15 Mar 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 Crotone this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Cristian Andreoni 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.
Match13 Mar 2027
Crotone make home a hard place to visit
8 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.
Match13 Mar 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Matteo Maggio. 1‑0 against Latina, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.17, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad15 Mar 2027
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Simone Calvano will call it something else in private.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Simone Calvano dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Market15 Mar 2027
The name of Davide Merelli keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Crotone say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad18 Jan 2027
Simone Calvano damages knee ligaments — 14 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 14 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Angelo Veltri breaks a bone — 37 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 37 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market18 Jan 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 Crotone, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Guido Gomez in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Crotone this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Cristian Andreoni 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.
Match16 Jan 2027
Casertana left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Marco Zunno turns it into his own net
Nobody's fault and entirely his: a goal that goes into the book with his name against it and nothing about it intended. Crotone deserved better, and so did he.
Market18 Jan 2027
The name of Davide Merelli keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Crotone say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad11 Jan 2027
Simone Calvano damages knee ligaments — 21 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 21 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.
Match11 Jan 2027
Crotone are in among the leaders
Position 1 and 33 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Angelo Veltri breaks a bone — 44 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 44 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Matteo Maggio 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Crotone training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cristian Andreoni 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
Crisis
Squad4 Jan 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Simone Calvano
29 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Crotone lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad4 Jan 2027
A fracture rules Angelo Veltri out for 52 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Crotone will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 27. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Dec 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Simone Calvano
36 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Crotone lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad28 Dec 2026
A fracture rules Angelo Veltri out for 59 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Crotone will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.00 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Dec 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Simone Calvano
43 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Crotone lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 37. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad21 Dec 2026
A fracture rules Angelo Veltri out for 66 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Crotone will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad21 Dec 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 Crotone this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Cristian Andreoni 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.
Match19 Dec 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Enrico Piovanello. 1‑0 against Monopoli, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Dec 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Simone Calvano
50 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Crotone lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad14 Dec 2026
A fracture rules Angelo Veltri out for 73 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Crotone will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match9 Dec 2026
Crotone bow out of the cup
Inter go through and Crotone go home, 2‑4 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Match14 Dec 2026
Crotone up to position 2
26 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.17, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Giuseppe Mungari: 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.” Crotone have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match12 Dec 2026
The wait goes on for Crotone
4 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.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. 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
Steady
Squad7 Dec 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Simone Calvano
57 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Crotone lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad7 Dec 2026
A fracture rules Angelo Veltri out for 80 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Crotone will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 29. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Guido Gomez in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Crotone this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Cristian Andreoni 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.
Loan watch7 Dec 2026
“I watch every Crotone game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Bologna runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad30 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Simone Calvano
64 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Crotone lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Angelo Veltri breaks a bone — 88 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 88 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Matteo Maggio 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
Squad23 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Simone Calvano
71 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Crotone lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 31. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
A brace, and Matteo Maggio takes the afternoon — 8.22
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Matteo Maggio provided it, and the 8.22 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Guido Gomez in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Crotone this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Nov 2026
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Crotone are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Match21 Nov 2026
Three points for Crotone, 2‑0 the final word against Salernitana in a contest settled by the finer margins.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Nov 2026
Simone Calvano damages knee ligaments — 79 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 79 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.
Match16 Nov 2026
Crotone refuse to drop out of the race
Position 2, 20 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Guido Gomez 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Crotone training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cristian Andreoni 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.
Match14 Nov 2026
Benevento made Crotone work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.86 on the card, and the Crotone support went home talking about one name.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad9 Nov 2026
Davide Merelli decides it from twelve yards
4 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Squad9 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Simone Calvano
87 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Crotone lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match4 Nov 2026
Crotone march on in the cup
Pescara are out and Crotone go through, 0‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 32. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match7 Nov 2026
4 matches without a win for Crotone
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Crotone are no longer polite ones.
Match7 Nov 2026
4 matches without a goal for Crotone
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Antonio Energe 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Cristian Andreoni 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.
Match7 Nov 2026
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad2 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Simone Calvano
94 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Crotone lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match31 Oct 2026
10 unbeaten for Crotone
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 10 matches without defeat is a foundation Crotone did not have in the autumn.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Matteo Maggio 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
Uneasy
Squad26 Oct 2026
Simone Calvano damages knee ligaments — 102 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 102 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.
Match24 Oct 2026
Whatever happens, Crotone do not lose
9 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.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. 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
Steady
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 47. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Simone Calvano damages knee ligaments — 109 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 109 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.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.00 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Leon Ćuk is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Match17 Oct 2026
Whatever happens, Crotone 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Matteo Maggio 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
Squad12 Oct 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Simone Calvano
117 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Crotone lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 31. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match10 Oct 2026
4 matches without a win for Crotone
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Crotone are no longer polite ones.
Match10 Oct 2026
Whatever happens, Crotone do not lose
7 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Guido Gomez in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Crotone this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match10 Oct 2026
The goals have deserted Crotone
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Crotone can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at Crotone training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Francisco Scarpeccio 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.
Squad12 Oct 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.
Loan watch12 Oct 2026
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Crotone, and 0 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Oct 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Simone Calvano
124 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Crotone lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Guido Gomez 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Giuseppe Mungari is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Match3 Oct 2026
Whatever happens, Crotone do not lose
6 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Crotone training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cristian Andreoni 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.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Wages eat 96% of everything Crotone earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad28 Sep 2026
Simone Calvano damages knee ligaments — 132 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 132 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Carey Bloedorn: 3 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Match23 Sep 2026
Cup progress for Crotone
A 0‑0 win over Casarano, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Squad28 Sep 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 Crotone this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Cristian Andreoni 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 terraces28 Sep 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Angelo Veltri has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
It was his to settle and he did not settle it. A long walk back to the halfway line, and a considerably longer week.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
A mark of 4.79 tells the story without any need for embellishment. He will want the tape of this one quietly lost.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad21 Sep 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Simone Calvano
140 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Crotone lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Guido Gomez 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Arthur Nasta gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Arthur Nasta has just signed for Crotone, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad21 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Davide Merelli, and the manager let it.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
A mark of 7.79, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Market21 Sep 2026
He is 20, and nobody at Crotone signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Match19 Sep 2026
A 1‑1 draw with Foggia leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Market21 Sep 2026
Nobody sells a season ticket on a signing like this. Every manager who has been through a bad October wants one anyway, and Crotone have gone and got theirs early.