Marked for Alfredo Bifulco
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad10 Jun 2030
Ridgeciano Haps damages knee ligaments — 103 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 103 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.
Market10 Jun 2030
“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 The request is on a desk at Modena, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad10 Jun 2030
Nicolas Kühn pulls a muscle — 17 days out
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 17 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Squad10 Jun 2030
Tempers go at Modena
Andy Diouf 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 Jun 2030
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Flavio Catalano and Modena agree another 5 years.
Boardroom10 Jun 2030
A clause somebody insisted on years ago, in a negotiation nobody remembers, has just paid Modena $2.7M. Benjamín Domínguez left a long time ago; the paperwork stayed.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match29 Apr 2030
Campobasso are in real trouble now
Position 16, 27 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Squad29 Apr 2030
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.
Squad29 Apr 2030
Words at Campobasso training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maxim Shvetsov 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.
Squad29 Apr 2030
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Squad29 Apr 2030
“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.
Boardroom29 Apr 2030
The numbers do not look good at Campobasso
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Market29 Apr 2030
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Simone Magnaghi’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Market29 Apr 2030
Campobasso have let the market know Vincenzo Cammarota can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
Market29 Apr 2030
The clock does Vincenzo Cammarota’s negotiating for him
3 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Campobasso could ask drops and the wages Vincenzo Cammarota can ask rise.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom22 Apr 2030
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.
Market22 Apr 2030
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alfredo Bifulco will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Campobasso the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match20 Apr 2030
The wait goes on for Campobasso
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.
Squad22 Apr 2030
Alessandro Pellitteri 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 Apr 2030
Lorenzo Di Livio 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.
Match20 Apr 2030
1‑2 to Ravenna, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings22 Apr 2030
12 combined actions and 6.70. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
Squad22 Apr 2030
“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.
Squad22 Apr 2030
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ibrahim Bakayoko and Campobasso agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad25 Mar 2030
Vincenzo Cammarota damages knee ligaments — 41 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 41 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.
Boardroom25 Mar 2030
The scrutiny sharpens at Campobasso
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Campobasso is running low.
Market25 Mar 2030
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.
Squad25 Mar 2030
Alessandro Pellitteri 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.
Squad25 Mar 2030
Lorenzo Di Livio 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.
Match23 Mar 2030
0‑2 to Gubbio, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad25 Mar 2030
“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 ratings25 Mar 2030
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market25 Mar 2030
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
Crisis
Squad18 Mar 2030
Vincenzo Cammarota damages knee ligaments — 48 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 48 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 Mar 2030
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 14 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market18 Mar 2030
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.
Player ratings18 Mar 2030
Lorenzo Di Livio, 33, rolls back the years — 8.47
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.47 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad18 Mar 2030
Nicolás Varela: 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.
Squad18 Mar 2030
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.
Match16 Mar 2030
Bra made Campobasso work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings18 Mar 2030
Ninety minutes of Riccardo Forte at his very best
Marked 8.10. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Campobasso.
Player ratings18 Mar 2030
A performance of 8.11 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom4 Mar 2030
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.
Squad4 Mar 2030
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 28 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match4 Mar 2030
Campobasso are in real trouble now
Position 16, 23 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Boardroom4 Mar 2030
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Match2 Mar 2030
No end in sight to Campobasso's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Campobasso has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad4 Mar 2030
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.
Match2 Mar 2030
No clean sheets in sight for Campobasso
5 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Squad4 Mar 2030
Words at Campobasso training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lorenzo Di Livio 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.
Match2 Mar 2030
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom25 Feb 2030
The scrutiny sharpens at Campobasso
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Campobasso is running low.
Squad25 Feb 2030
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 35 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market25 Feb 2030
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.
Match23 Feb 2030
4 matches without a win for Campobasso
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Campobasso are no longer polite ones.
Boardroom25 Feb 2030
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Emmanuele Salines has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Squad25 Feb 2030
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.
Squad25 Feb 2030
Maxim Shvetsov 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 ratings25 Feb 2030
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match23 Feb 2030
Campobasso are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad18 Feb 2030
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 42 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market18 Feb 2030
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Emmanuele Salines will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Campobasso the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad18 Feb 2030
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 ratings18 Feb 2030
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad18 Feb 2030
“The easiest signature of my career.” Davide Mancini and Campobasso agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad18 Feb 2030
Words at Campobasso training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lorenzo Di Livio 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.
Match16 Feb 2030
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Market18 Feb 2030
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Lorenzo Di Livio signs something — a contract at Campobasso or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Player ratings18 Feb 2030
5.48 on the card. Some afternoons a footballer looks like a man who has only just been introduced to the game, and this was one of them.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Jan 2030
A fracture rules Antonello Serra out for 63 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Campobasso will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad28 Jan 2030
There were 8 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.
Boardroom28 Jan 2030
The scrutiny sharpens at Campobasso
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Campobasso is running low.
Market28 Jan 2030
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.
Squad28 Jan 2030
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Campobasso may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad28 Jan 2030
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.
Match26 Jan 2030
It finished 2‑1, and it was Riccardo Forte’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Campobasso.
The terraces28 Jan 2030
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Vincenzo Cammarota 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 Jan 2030
Ninety minutes of Riccardo Forte at his very best
Marked 8.46. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Campobasso.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Jan 2030
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 78 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match12 Jan 2030
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Lorenzo Di Livio will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Campobasso escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Squad14 Jan 2030
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings14 Jan 2030
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.44 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Player ratings14 Jan 2030
Two of the goals had his name somewhere on them, which is the afternoon a manager wants from anybody asked to both create and finish. 7.96, and 2 involvements.
Squad14 Jan 2030
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 Jan 2030
Words at Campobasso training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maxim Shvetsov 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.
Match12 Jan 2030
It needed Lorenzo Di Livio to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against Pineto, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Player ratings14 Jan 2030
Successful dribbles: 12. 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
Uneasy
Squad31 Dec 2029
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 92 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market31 Dec 2029
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alfredo Bifulco will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Campobasso the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom31 Dec 2029
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 Dec 2029
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.
Squad31 Dec 2029
Words at Campobasso training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lorenzo Di Livio 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.
Player ratings31 Dec 2029
A performance of 8.57 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings31 Dec 2029
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 18 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Player ratings31 Dec 2029
17 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom3 Dec 2029
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Boardroom3 Dec 2029
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Player ratings3 Dec 2029
Two goals and a mark of 7.94 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market3 Dec 2029
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.
Boardroom3 Dec 2029
The scrutiny sharpens at Campobasso
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Campobasso is running low.
Squad3 Dec 2029
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.
Player ratings3 Dec 2029
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad3 Dec 2029
“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.
Match1 Dec 2029
It finished 2‑2, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings26 Nov 2029
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market26 Nov 2029
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kevin Lo Monaco will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Campobasso the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad26 Nov 2029
Alessandro Pellitteri 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 Nov 2029
Lorenzo Di Livio 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.
Squad26 Nov 2029
“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.
Match24 Nov 2029
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad26 Nov 2029
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Campobasso told Simone Magnaghi something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Market26 Nov 2029
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Simone Magnaghi signs something — a contract at Campobasso or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Player ratings26 Nov 2029
Marked 5.50. 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
Boardroom5 Nov 2029
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.
Match3 Nov 2029
There were 89 minutes on the clock and Guidonia Montecelio had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Campobasso did not stop to explain themselves.
Boardroom5 Nov 2029
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Player ratings5 Nov 2029
A brace, and Samuele Spalluto takes the afternoon — 8.06
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Samuele Spalluto provided it, and the 8.06 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market5 Nov 2029
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.
Player ratings5 Nov 2029
A defender's goal wins it for Campobasso — 7.81
1 for Davide Mancini, marked 7.81, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Boardroom5 Nov 2029
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Squad5 Nov 2029
Emmanuele Salines 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
Crisis
Squad29 Oct 2029
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market29 Oct 2029
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.
Player ratings29 Oct 2029
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad29 Oct 2029
Alessandro Pellitteri 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.
Match27 Oct 2029
1‑3 to Perugia, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad29 Oct 2029
Lorenzo Di Livio 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.
Squad29 Oct 2029
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.
Player ratings29 Oct 2029
A mark of 5.30 tells the story without any need for embellishment. He will want the tape of this one quietly lost.
Market29 Oct 2029
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
Crisis
Player ratings1 Oct 2029
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.24, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market1 Oct 2029
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kevin Lo Monaco will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Campobasso the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad1 Oct 2029
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.
Match29 Sep 2029
2‑3 to Vis Pesaro, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad1 Oct 2029
Maxim Shvetsov 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.
Squad1 Oct 2029
“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.
Squad1 Oct 2029
A defender's mistake gets tidied up by somebody else; a goalkeeper's ends up in the net. He knew before the ball crossed the line, and so did everybody in the ground.
Player ratings1 Oct 2029
Shots: 11, not one of them in. A centre forward is paid for one thing, and on this evidence he has forgotten which thing it is.
Market1 Oct 2029
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
Upbeat
Squad17 Sep 2029
“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.
Squad17 Sep 2029
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.
Squad17 Sep 2029
Lorenzo Di Livio 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 ratings17 Sep 2029
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match15 Sep 2029
Pineto made Campobasso work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings17 Sep 2029
A performance of 8.17 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad17 Sep 2029
“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 ratings17 Sep 2029
16 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Player ratings17 Sep 2029
15 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad10 Sep 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Campobasso may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad10 Sep 2029
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.
Squad10 Sep 2029
Words at Campobasso training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maxim Shvetsov 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 Sep 2029
Ascoli left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad10 Sep 2029
“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.
Market10 Sep 2029
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Nicolás Varela has his answer from Campobasso; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Market10 Sep 2029
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 ratings10 Sep 2029
5.59 on the card. Some afternoons a footballer looks like a man who has only just been introduced to the game, and this was one of them.
Player ratings10 Sep 2029
5.74 on the card. Some afternoons a footballer looks like a man who has only just been introduced to the game, and this was one of them.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market25 Jun 2029
“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.
Squad25 Jun 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Campobasso may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market25 Jun 2029
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.
Squad25 Jun 2029
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.
Squad25 Jun 2029
Lorenzo Di Livio 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.
Squad25 Jun 2029
The manager makes an example of Mamadou Gaye
“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
Uneasy
Squad18 Jun 2029
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.
Squad18 Jun 2029
Words at Campobasso training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maxim Shvetsov 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.
Boardroom18 Jun 2029
96% of the income goes out in wages at Campobasso
Every club in football 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 somebody has tried it.
Squad18 Jun 2029
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Squad18 Jun 2029
“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.
Market18 Jun 2029
Campobasso have let the market know Alfredo Bifulco can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad4 Jun 2029
“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.
Market4 Jun 2029
“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.
Market4 Jun 2029
Only the photograph left for Daniele Pesce
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Daniele Pesce will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Campobasso the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market4 Jun 2029
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Boardroom4 Jun 2029
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Daniele Pesce has agreed terms with Guidonia Montecelio for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad4 Jun 2029
Words at Campobasso training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lorenzo Di Livio 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
Upbeat
Match14 Apr 2029
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 9 matches without defeat is a foundation Campobasso did not have in the autumn.
Boardroom16 Apr 2029
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Squad16 Apr 2029
Words at Campobasso training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maxim Shvetsov 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.
Squad16 Apr 2029
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.
Match14 Apr 2029
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Samuele Spalluto. 2‑1 against Ravenna, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The terraces16 Apr 2029
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Player ratings16 Apr 2029
Marked 8.76 — 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.
Squad16 Apr 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Samuele Spalluto, and the manager let it.
Player ratings16 Apr 2029
Marked 8.00 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad15 Jan 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Campobasso may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market15 Jan 2029
The name of Alfredo Bifulco has come up in conversations Campobasso were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad15 Jan 2029
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.
Squad15 Jan 2029
A move Kevin Lo Monaco 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. Kevin Lo Monaco is living that version at Campobasso, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Lorenzo Di Livio 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 Jan 2029
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings15 Jan 2029
1 error, one goal, and a night in front of the same three seconds. He will see it tonight, tomorrow and probably in February, and everybody who has played knows exactly which frame he keeps stopping on.
Market15 Jan 2029
The name of Lorenzo Di Livio keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Campobasso say nothing, which says plenty.
Player ratings15 Jan 2029
A mark of 5.43 tells the story without any need for embellishment. He will want the tape of this one quietly lost.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Boardroom8 Jan 2029
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Boardroom8 Jan 2029
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
The terraces8 Jan 2029
Supporters turn on the $390.0K sale of Andrea Lombari
He is going to Salernitana, the club has $390.0K it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Squad8 Jan 2029
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Maxim Shvetsov and Campobasso agree another 3 years.
Squad8 Jan 2029
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.
Market8 Jan 2029
Salernitana paid $390.0K and Campobasso took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad8 Jan 2029
Words at Campobasso training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lorenzo Di Livio 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.
Player ratings8 Jan 2029
A performance of 8.39 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Market8 Jan 2029
He is 20, 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad25 Dec 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 59 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad25 Dec 2028
Aleksi Wahlman: 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.
Squad25 Dec 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.
Squad25 Dec 2028
Words at Campobasso training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lorenzo Di Livio 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.
Match23 Dec 2028
Carpi left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings25 Dec 2028
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Boardroom25 Dec 2028
The numbers do not look good at Campobasso
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
The terraces25 Dec 2028
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
Market25 Dec 2028
The name of Mario Gargiulo keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Campobasso say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad18 Dec 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 66 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad18 Dec 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.
Squad18 Dec 2028
Lorenzo Di Livio 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 Dec 2028
Three points for Campobasso, 1‑0 the final word against Ravenna in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings18 Dec 2028
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.54, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings18 Dec 2028
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 19 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Squad18 Dec 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.
Market18 Dec 2028
The name of Lorenzo Di Livio keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Campobasso say nothing, which says plenty.
Player ratings18 Dec 2028
Defensive actions: 11, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad11 Dec 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 73 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad11 Dec 2028
Francesco Parisi: 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.
Squad11 Dec 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.
Squad11 Dec 2028
Words at Campobasso training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maxim Shvetsov 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.
Player ratings11 Dec 2028
Marked 8.73 — 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.
Match9 Dec 2028
A 1‑0 win over Forli, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings11 Dec 2028
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings11 Dec 2028
Defensive actions: 14. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Market11 Dec 2028
The name of Alfredo Bifulco keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Campobasso say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad4 Dec 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 80 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match2 Dec 2028
The wait goes on for Campobasso
10 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.
Boardroom4 Dec 2028
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Boardroom4 Dec 2028
The Campobasso board call everybody in
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Market4 Dec 2028
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad4 Dec 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Simone Magnaghi commits to Campobasso for another 2 years.
Squad4 Dec 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.
Squad4 Dec 2028
Lorenzo Di Livio 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 ratings4 Dec 2028
Successful dribbles: 17. 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
Crisis
Squad27 Nov 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 87 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match25 Nov 2028
No end in sight to Campobasso's wait for a win
9 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Campobasso has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad27 Nov 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.
Squad27 Nov 2028
Words at Campobasso training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lorenzo Di Livio 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.
Squad27 Nov 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alessandro Pellitteri, and the manager let it.
Match25 Nov 2028
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Boardroom27 Nov 2028
The numbers do not look good at Campobasso
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Player ratings27 Nov 2028
Successful dribbles: 13. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market27 Nov 2028
The name of Mario Gargiulo keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Campobasso say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad13 Nov 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 101 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match11 Nov 2028
7 matches without a win for Campobasso
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Campobasso are no longer polite ones.
Squad13 Nov 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.
Player ratings13 Nov 2028
21 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.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Words at Campobasso training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lorenzo Di Livio 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.
Squad13 Nov 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alessandro Martina, and the manager let it.
Player ratings13 Nov 2028
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.
The terraces13 Nov 2028
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
Match11 Nov 2028
Point won or two lost for Campobasso?
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Bra? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad6 Nov 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 108 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Boardroom6 Nov 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.
Match1 Nov 2028
Inter ended it 0‑2. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
The terraces6 Nov 2028
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 12 of the 30 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Boardroom6 Nov 2028
The Campobasso board call everybody in
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Squad6 Nov 2028
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.
Match4 Nov 2028
No end in sight to Campobasso's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Campobasso has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad6 Nov 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.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Lorenzo Di Livio 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad30 Oct 2028
A fracture rules Edoardo Lancini out for 116 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Campobasso will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match28 Oct 2028
No end in sight to Campobasso's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Campobasso has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad30 Oct 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.
Squad30 Oct 2028
Words at Campobasso training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maxim Shvetsov 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.
Squad30 Oct 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Maxim Shvetsov, and the manager let it.
Player ratings30 Oct 2028
7.37, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Campobasso had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
Boardroom30 Oct 2028
The numbers do not look good at Campobasso
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Player ratings30 Oct 2028
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.
Match28 Oct 2028
Point won or two lost for Campobasso?
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Guidonia Montecelio? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad23 Oct 2028
A fracture rules Edoardo Lancini out for 123 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Campobasso will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad23 Oct 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.
Squad23 Oct 2028
Lorenzo Di Livio 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.
Squad23 Oct 2028
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.
Player ratings23 Oct 2028
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 Campobasso.
Player ratings23 Oct 2028
Ten men and a goalkeeper behind him, and it still finished in the net. He knew before anybody told him, and nobody at Campobasso needed to.
Match21 Oct 2028
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Market23 Oct 2028
The name of Lorenzo Di Livio keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Campobasso say nothing, which says plenty.
Player ratings23 Oct 2028
5.60. 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Oct 2028
A fracture rules Edoardo Lancini out for 130 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Campobasso will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad16 Oct 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.
Match14 Oct 2028
Arezzo left with the points after a 2‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad16 Oct 2028
Words at Campobasso training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lorenzo Di Livio 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.
Player ratings16 Oct 2028
Lorenzo Di Livio was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.35. 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.
Player ratings16 Oct 2028
Alessandro Pellitteri was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.23. 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.
Squad16 Oct 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Antonio Gala, and the manager let it.
Player ratings16 Oct 2028
Marked 4.29, and generously at that. Nothing came off, and by the end the crowd had stopped expecting it to.
The terraces16 Oct 2028
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad9 Oct 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.
Squad9 Oct 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.
Squad9 Oct 2028
Maxim Shvetsov 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.
Squad9 Oct 2028
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Match7 Oct 2028
Livorno left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings9 Oct 2028
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Boardroom9 Oct 2028
85% of the income goes out in wages at Campobasso
Every club in football 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 somebody has tried it.
Player ratings9 Oct 2028
Marked 5.26, and generously at that. Nothing came off, and by the end the crowd had stopped expecting it to.
Player ratings9 Oct 2028
Shots: 12. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Boardroom2 Oct 2028
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Leonardo Paganelli has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Boardroom2 Oct 2028
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Player ratings2 Oct 2028
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.
Match30 Sep 2028
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Campobasso have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad2 Oct 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.
Squad2 Oct 2028
Words at Campobasso training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lorenzo Di Livio 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.
Match30 Sep 2028
A 2‑1 win over Torres, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad2 Oct 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Maxim Shvetsov, and the manager let it.
Player ratings2 Oct 2028
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.57, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match20 Sep 2028
A 3‑2 win over Trapani, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Squad25 Sep 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.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Lorenzo Di Livio 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 ratings25 Sep 2028
Ninety minutes of Riccardo Forte at his very best
Marked 8.80. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Campobasso.
Squad25 Sep 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alessandro Pellitteri, and the manager let it.
Match23 Sep 2028
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Simone Magnaghi. 1‑0 against Vis Pesaro, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings25 Sep 2028
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.35, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings25 Sep 2028
A performance of 8.07 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad25 Sep 2028
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Campobasso have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match9 Sep 2028
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Campobasso scored in the 91th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Squad11 Sep 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.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Daniele Pesce gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Daniele Pesce has just signed for Campobasso, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Words at Campobasso training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lorenzo Di Livio 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.
Player ratings11 Sep 2028
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match9 Sep 2028
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Riccardo Forte. 2‑1 against Pineto, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The terraces11 Sep 2028
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Player ratings11 Sep 2028
Riccardo Forte was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.32. 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.
Squad11 Sep 2028
7 new faces, and Campobasso are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces4 Sep 2028
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 7 of the 29 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Market4 Sep 2028
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Reggiana moved on, Andrea Lombari reports back to Campobasso, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Squad4 Sep 2028
17 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad4 Sep 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.
Squad4 Sep 2028
At 24 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 4 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Squad4 Sep 2028
Lorenzo Di Livio 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.
Match2 Sep 2028
Ascoli left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings4 Sep 2028
Marked 4.46. 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.
Market4 Sep 2028
At 35, he has seen every situation this season can produce, twice. The legs will be managed; the head is the purchase.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Aug 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.
Player ratings28 Aug 2028
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.94, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 19 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market28 Aug 2028
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ezekiel Antony is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad28 Aug 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.
Match26 Aug 2028
Carpi made Campobasso work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑2 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Boardroom28 Aug 2028
Ravenna will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Michele Conti has pre-agreed a move to Campobasso, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Player ratings28 Aug 2028
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Aug 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 26 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
Market21 Aug 2028
The shirt still fits. Andrey Trofimov is back at Campobasso, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Squad21 Aug 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 Aug 2028
Alessandro Martina has improved at 27, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 4 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Boardroom21 Aug 2028
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Market21 Aug 2028
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Gabriele Villa has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market21 Aug 2028
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Mauro Rizzo 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.
Market21 Aug 2028
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Diego Grassi has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
In brief
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Boardroom
Campobasso board go back on their word
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Boardroom
No investment in the facilities at Campobasso