Marked for Matteo Gilli
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad1 Mar 2027
There were 10 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market1 Mar 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 Arezzo can pretend not to have heard.
Match27 Feb 2027
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Arezzo scored in the 93th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Squad1 Mar 2027
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Arezzo will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match1 Mar 2027
Arezzo up to position 3
57 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Market1 Mar 2027
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Arezzo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Player ratings1 Mar 2027
Matteo Gilli goes up and wins it — 7.85
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.85 for the rest of it.
Match27 Feb 2027
7 unbeaten for Arezzo
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 7 matches without defeat is a foundation Arezzo did not have in the autumn.
Squad1 Mar 2027
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Arezzo can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
A brace, and Camillo Tavernelli takes the afternoon — 9.09
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Camillo Tavernelli provided it, and the 9.09 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Match26 Dec 2026
Arezzo strike at the death to beat Bra
There were 87 minutes on the clock and Bra had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Arezzo did not stop to explain themselves.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
17 goals and a season average of 7.39. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Match26 Dec 2026
Nobody wants to play Arezzo right now
3 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words exchanged at Arezzo
Leonardo Mancuso 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
A row about effort at Arezzo
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gianluca Di Chiara was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match26 Dec 2026
Arezzo get the job done against Bra
A 2‑1 win over Bra, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Loan watch28 Dec 2026
The goals keep arriving from Mario Ravasio’s exile
11 goals in 18 games at Foggia — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Arezzo updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match7 Dec 2026
Arezzo are in among the leaders
Position 2 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Defences have started doubling up on Camillo Tavernelli
14 goals and a season average of 7.32 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Match5 Dec 2026
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Arezzo and Perugia in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Match5 Dec 2026
Perugia left with the points after a 2‑4 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad7 Dec 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Matteo Gilli and Arezzo agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Gianluca Di Chiara 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
A falling-out at Arezzo
Camillo Tavernelli and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout7 Dec 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.
Boardroom7 Dec 2026
$1.3M on the table at Arezzo
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.
In brief
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Boardroom
Wages eat 95% of everything Arezzo earn
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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Loan watch
The goals keep arriving from Mario Ravasio’s exile
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad23 Nov 2026
A falling-out at Arezzo
Leonardo Mancuso and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Jonathan Rodríguez 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 dugout23 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Francisco Rosa Zacarías, and the manager let it.
Looking ahead23 Nov 2026
Top-of-the-table clash for Arezzo
Ascoli next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
A promise honoured at Arezzo
Something was said to Shaka Mawuli Eklu and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
Half-satisfied: Renato Armani on the draw
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Loan watch23 Nov 2026
13 appearances away from home and 7 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
Nobody at Arezzo 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad5 Oct 2026
29 days out for Giorgio Caruso after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Arezzo will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match3 Oct 2026
Arezzo make it 3 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Arezzo have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at Arezzo
Leonardo Mancuso 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 ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Arezzo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gianluca Di Chiara 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.
Match3 Oct 2026
A 1‑0 win over Ravenna, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Camillo Tavernelli was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.08. 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.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Shaka Mawuli Eklu, and the manager let it.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Wages swallow 98% of the Arezzo income
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Arezzo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gianluca Di Chiara 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 targets14 Sep 2026
The clock did what Lecce would not, and ended it. Supporters who watched the countdown will spend the next window doing it again.
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.
The dugout14 Sep 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Arezzo are still strangers to each other
7 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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Nobody on the pitch touched Matteo Gilli
7.22, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Arezzo had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout14 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.” Renato Armani chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Squad14 Sep 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
Steady
Market10 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad10 Aug 2026
A move Francesco Sartori would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Francesco Sartori is living that version at Arezzo, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Pietro Cianci commits to Arezzo for another 3 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Arezzo
Leonardo Mancuso and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets10 Aug 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Giovanni Greco has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Dario Giuliani is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Pietro Vignali is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Matteo Gilli
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Leonardo Mancuso commits to Arezzo for another 2 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Arezzo
Leonardo Mancuso 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Gianluca Di Chiara 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
“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.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
Pietro Cianci 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 Arezzo, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market3 Aug 2026
Filippo De Col is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Arezzo has been clear about where Filippo De Col stands, which is more than many ever get.