Marked for Edoardo Lancini
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad13 Mar 2028
Nino Di Biase damages knee ligaments — 29 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 29 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.
Market13 Mar 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.
Market13 Mar 2028
Only the photograph left for Fotis Chavos
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Fotis Chavos will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Campobasso the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Lorenzo Di Livio 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 terraces13 Mar 2028
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Matteo Rizzo 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.
Squad13 Mar 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alfredo Bifulco, and the manager let it.
Player ratings13 Mar 2028
Marked 8.57 — 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.
Match11 Mar 2028
It finished 1‑0, and it was Lorenzo Di Livio’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Campobasso.
Player ratings13 Mar 2028
A defender's afternoon for Davide Agazzi
Defensive actions: 19. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market21 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.
Squad21 Feb 2028
“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.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Alfredo Bifulco 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 Feb 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Simone Magnaghi, and the manager let it.
Match19 Feb 2028
Perugia left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Davide Agazzi 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.
Player ratings21 Feb 2028
Marked 4.48. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
Player ratings21 Feb 2028
Successful dribbles: 13. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings21 Feb 2028
An afternoon Yad Lochereau will want back
Marked 5.28. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Feb 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market14 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.
Squad14 Feb 2028
“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.
Market14 Feb 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Campobasso is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad14 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 Campobasso this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match12 Feb 2028
It finished 2‑1, and it was Lorenzo Di Livio’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Campobasso.
Squad14 Feb 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alfredo Bifulco, and the manager let it.
Player ratings14 Feb 2028
Ninety minutes of Lorenzo Di Livio at his very best
Marked 8.55. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Campobasso.
Player ratings14 Feb 2028
The cruellest goal, and it is Andrija Vukoje's
A touch he did not want, a bounce he could not have read, and his name in the wrong column. There is no consoling a man after one of these, and Campobasso will not try tonight.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Campobasso can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
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
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.23, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
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 Campobasso this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Wages eat 126% of everything Campobasso 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.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Words at Campobasso training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mattia Macchi 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.
Squad7 Feb 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Matteo Merzi and Campobasso agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad7 Feb 2028
The manager makes an example of Edoardo Lancini
“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.
Match5 Feb 2028
It needed Simone Magnaghi to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against Livorno, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom31 Jan 2028
Pressure builds in the Campobasso boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Lorenzo Di Livio 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 terraces31 Jan 2028
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Matteo Rizzo 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.
Squad31 Jan 2028
“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.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Sebastião Leandro 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.
Market31 Jan 2028
He is 19, and nobody at Campobasso signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Match29 Jan 2028
A 1‑1 draw with Torres leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Player ratings31 Jan 2028
Marked 4.42. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
Squad31 Jan 2028
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Campobasso told Davide Agazzi something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market17 Jan 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.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Antonello Serra: 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.” Campobasso have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings17 Jan 2028
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.04 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market17 Jan 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Campobasso is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Lorenzo Di Livio 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.
Match15 Jan 2028
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Simone Magnaghi. 1‑0 against Sambenedettese, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Mattia Macchi 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 Jan 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Emmanuele Salines, and the manager let it.
Player ratings17 Jan 2028
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 17 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad27 Dec 2027
Roberto Pierno damages knee ligaments — 107 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 107 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.
Market27 Dec 2027
Mattia Macchi hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Campobasso can pretend not to have heard.
Squad27 Dec 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 ratings27 Dec 2027
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.84 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Matteo Rizzo is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.
Squad27 Dec 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 Campobasso this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match25 Dec 2027
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Market27 Dec 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Mario Gargiulo’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Player ratings27 Dec 2027
Marked 5.50, and generously at that. Nothing came off, and by the end the crowd had stopped expecting it to.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market20 Dec 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Campobasso can pretend not to have heard.
Squad20 Dec 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Campobasso may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market20 Dec 2027
Fotis Chavos has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Campobasso they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Boardroom20 Dec 2027
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Fotis Chavos has agreed terms with Trento for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad20 Dec 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 Campobasso this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Matteo Rizzo 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.
Match18 Dec 2027
0‑1 to Ravenna, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings20 Dec 2027
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Words at Campobasso training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sebastião Leandro 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
Market22 Nov 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.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Vincenzo Cammarota is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Alfredo Bifulco 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.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Matteo Rizzo 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.
Player ratings22 Nov 2027
Lorenzo Di Livio was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.56. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Words at Campobasso training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mattia Macchi 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.
Match20 Nov 2027
It needed Lorenzo Di Livio to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against Gubbio, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Player ratings22 Nov 2027
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market22 Nov 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Campobasso know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom2 Aug 2027
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Campobasso can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Market2 Aug 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Campobasso can pretend not to have heard.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Alfredo Bifulco 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.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Simone Magnaghi loses the manager who believed in him
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Simone Magnaghi's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
Market2 Aug 2027
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Campobasso, another week without a signature from Mattia Macchi.
Boardroom2 Aug 2027
Campobasso pull $41.8K back off the table
The money that was there in the summer is not there now. Nobody upstairs calls this a change of ambition, and everybody downstairs reads it as one.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Edoardo Lancini 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.
Market2 Aug 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Campobasso know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Simone Magnaghi has been around long enough to know what the spring feels like when it goes wrong, and he can feel it. A dressing room that is frightened plays like one.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom26 Jul 2027
Pressure builds in the Campobasso boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market26 Jul 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 Campobasso, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad26 Jul 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 Campobasso this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market14 Jun 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Campobasso can pretend not to have heard.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Edoardo Lancini: 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.” Campobasso have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market14 Jun 2027
The offer from Südtirol for Christian Celesia 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.
Squad14 Jun 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 Campobasso this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Matteo Rizzo 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
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Campobasso told Davide Agazzi something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces26 Apr 2027
Anger at Campobasso spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Market26 Apr 2027
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Campobasso they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Alfredo Bifulco 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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at Campobasso training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matteo Rizzo 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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Edoardo Lancini, and the manager let it.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Antonio Gala 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market19 Apr 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 Campobasso, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings19 Apr 2027
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.98 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad19 Apr 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Campobasso may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Alfredo Bifulco 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.
Match17 Apr 2027
Three points for Campobasso, 2‑1 the final word against Ravenna in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings19 Apr 2027
A performance of 8.47 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Match17 Apr 2027
Campobasso hit back inside 2 minutes
Ravenna held the lead for 2 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Campobasso answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
Squad19 Apr 2027
“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.
Squad19 Apr 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Edoardo Lancini trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match13 Feb 2027
No end in sight to Campobasso's wait for a win
12 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Campobasso has to find a result from somewhere.
Market15 Feb 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Campobasso can pretend not to have heard.
Squad15 Feb 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Campobasso may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad15 Feb 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 Campobasso this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Feb 2027
The manager makes an example of Alfredo Bifulco
“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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
The team sheet said everything about Edoardo Lancini
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Edoardo Lancini.
Match13 Feb 2027
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Marked 5.52. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
Market15 Feb 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Emmanuele Salines signs something — a contract at Campobasso or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market21 Dec 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.
Match19 Dec 2026
The wait goes on for Campobasso
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.
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 Campobasso this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Matteo Rizzo 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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Matteo Rizzo 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.
Match19 Dec 2026
Ravenna left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
4.53. Every footballer has these and most of them happen away from a full ground; his did not, and he will be aware of that all week.
Squad21 Dec 2026
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad7 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 Campobasso this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Matteo Rizzo 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.
Match5 Dec 2026
0‑2 to Pontedera, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad7 Dec 2026
No hiding place for Wellerson
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Wellerson, and the manager let it.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Nobody's fault and entirely his: a goal that goes into the book with his name against it and nothing about it intended. Campobasso deserved better, and so did he.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Simone Magnaghi, 33, rolls back the years — 7.90
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.90 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
24 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Squad23 Nov 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 Campobasso this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad23 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.
Match21 Nov 2026
Three points for Campobasso, 1‑0 the final word against Gubbio in a contest settled by the finer margins.