Marked for Leandro Versienti
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad25 Oct 2027
22 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Casarano lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match23 Oct 2027
5 matches without a win for Casarano
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Casarano are no longer polite ones.
Match23 Oct 2027
After 9 games, Casarano finally taste it again
The first defeat in 9 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Crotone; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Match23 Oct 2027
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad25 Oct 2027
200 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad25 Oct 2027
“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 Casarano know it.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Words at Casarano training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oleksii Plichko 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings11 Oct 2027
Successful dribbles: 37. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad11 Oct 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Marcel Juszczak
37 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Casarano lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The dugout11 Oct 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.
Match9 Oct 2027
Whatever happens, Casarano do not lose
8 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
The dugout11 Oct 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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
A falling-out at Casarano
Alessio Barone and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings11 Oct 2027
Marked 7.19. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Market11 Oct 2027
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Leonardo Pérez has his answer from Casarano; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad2 Aug 2027
112 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Casarano lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market2 Aug 2027
The name of Francesco Grandolfo has come up in conversations Casarano were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Words exchanged at Casarano
Karlo Lulić 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.
Squad2 Aug 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Francesco Grandolfo commits to Casarano for another 2 years.
Transfer targets2 Aug 2027
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.
Squad2 Aug 2027
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Francesco Grandolfo is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Transfer targets2 Aug 2027
A loan enquiry to Red Bull Salzburg: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Market2 Aug 2027
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Leandro Versienti has his answer from Casarano; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout2 Aug 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Leandro Versienti, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market31 Aug 2026
“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 Casarano, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets31 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Too much change too quickly at Casarano
7 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Looking ahead31 Aug 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Altamura in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Borna Knezović wants to know why he earns less
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Casarano have no good answer.
Looking ahead31 Aug 2026
Looking ahead: the trip to Altamura
Position 16 for the hosts, a long journey for the away end, and a fixture that will look ordinary on paper right up until it is not.