Marked for Simone Paolini
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad15 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 Sambenedettese this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets15 Jan 2029
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 dugout15 Jan 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Pasquale Marranzino, and the manager let it.
Match13 Jan 2029
Ravenna left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Words at Sambenedettese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leonardo Pezzola 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.
The dugout15 Jan 2029
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Transfer targets15 Jan 2029
Sambenedettese have made the call to Cosenza. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout15 Jan 2029
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.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Sambenedettese will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match25 Nov 2028
21 matches without a win, and then this, against Guidonia Montecelio. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Squad27 Nov 2028
Francesco Verde 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 terraces27 Nov 2028
The crowd has taken to Cristo
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.
Squad27 Nov 2028
Leonardo Pezzola 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.
Squad27 Nov 2028
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Sambenedettese know it.
Boardroom27 Nov 2028
Wages swallow 100% of the Sambenedettese 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.
Player ratings27 Nov 2028
The afternoon belonged to Cristo
A mark of 7.99, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout27 Nov 2028
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑0, Jacopo Giuliani could afford to be generous.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces22 May 2028
The mood at Sambenedettese has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Squad22 May 2028
120 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Sambenedettese lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match22 May 2028
Every point is an argument now for Sambenedettese
Position 16 and 22 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Market22 May 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.
The dugout22 May 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.
Squad22 May 2028
Joan Traverso and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad22 May 2028
Francesco Scafetta 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 dugout22 May 2028
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Sambenedettese, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market22 May 2028
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Tommaso Orsini’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.