Marked for Simone Mazzocchi
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Aug 2030
64 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Cosenza lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad12 Aug 2030
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad12 Aug 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 Cosenza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Aug 2030
Baldovino Cimino 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.
Market12 Aug 2030
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Marco Morelli 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.
Market12 Aug 2030
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Gerardo Altieri 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.
Market12 Aug 2030
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Gerardo Donati 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.
Market12 Aug 2030
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Stefano Pasquali 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.
The dugout12 Aug 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad29 Jul 2030
A knee injury of the worst kind for Michele Emmausso
80 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Cosenza lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The dugout29 Jul 2030
“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.
Squad29 Jul 2030
Words exchanged at Cosenza
Sascha Britschgi 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.
Squad29 Jul 2030
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Bruno Gastaldello is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad29 Jul 2030
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Christopher Wright is living that version at Cosenza, and it tends to show in the first month.
Boardroom29 Jul 2030
Wages swallow 88% of the Cosenza 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.
Market29 Jul 2030
He is 20, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
The dugout29 Jul 2030
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Sascha Britschgi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout29 Jul 2030
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Federico Valietti is on it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad15 Jul 2030
A knee injury of the worst kind for Michele Emmausso
95 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Cosenza lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad15 Jul 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 Cosenza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Jul 2030
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Cosenza are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Transfer targets15 Jul 2030
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Juve Stabia have kept their man, and Cosenza go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad15 Jul 2030
“The easiest signature of my career.” Luciano Bosco and Cosenza agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout15 Jul 2030
Simone Mazzocchi has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Cosenza will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Market15 Jul 2030
The name of Lautaro Valenti keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Cosenza say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout15 Jul 2030
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Market15 Jul 2030
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad1 Jul 2030
Michele Emmausso damages knee ligaments — 110 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 110 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.
Squad1 Jul 2030
Words exchanged at Cosenza
Lautaro Valenti 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.
Boardroom1 Jul 2030
103% of the income goes out in wages at Cosenza
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.
Squad1 Jul 2030
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
The dugout1 Jul 2030
Federico Valietti has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Cosenza will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Market1 Jul 2030
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Simone Mazzocchi signs something — a contract at Cosenza or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout1 Jul 2030
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Cosenza, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad1 Jul 2030
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Cosenza would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
The dugout1 Jul 2030
Marco Vettor has been promised minutes
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Marco Vettor has written the date down.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 Jun 2030
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Cosenza will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The dugout17 Jun 2030
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Cosenza may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market17 Jun 2030
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Harrison Shillington will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Cosenza the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom17 Jun 2030
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Antonio Rocco has agreed terms with Renate for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad17 Jun 2030
Nicolò Contiliano 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.
Transfer targets17 Jun 2030
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 dugout17 Jun 2030
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.
Squad17 Jun 2030
A row about effort at Cosenza
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Harrison Shillington was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Jun 2030
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Cosenza will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market3 Jun 2030
Cosenza say no — this time
The offer from Rosario Central for Lautaro Valenti was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Squad3 Jun 2030
10 seasons and 271 appearances, all of them here. Careers like this are not designed; they happen to a certain kind of man at a certain kind of club, and this town has one.
The dugout3 Jun 2030
“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.
Squad3 Jun 2030
“The easiest signature of my career.” Enrique Blanco and Cosenza agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Jun 2030
Words exchanged at Cosenza
Lautaro Valenti 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.
Boardroom3 Jun 2030
Wages swallow 117% of the Cosenza 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.
The dugout3 Jun 2030
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Cosenza told Stefano Specker something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout3 Jun 2030
Federico Valietti has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Cosenza will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad20 May 2030
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Cosenza will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad20 May 2030
Defences have started doubling up on Marco Tumminello
19 goals and a season average of 7.67 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Market20 May 2030
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Cosenza is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad20 May 2030
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Cosenza are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad20 May 2030
Nicolò Contiliano 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 ratings20 May 2030
Successful dribbles: 19. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match18 May 2030
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Aldo Florenzi. 1‑0 against Casarano, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings20 May 2030
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.29, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings20 May 2030
Ninety minutes of Simone Mazzocchi at his very best
Marked 8.18. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Cosenza.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad13 May 2030
Defences have started doubling up on Simone Mazzocchi
42 goals and a season average of 7.89 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad13 May 2030
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 62 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match11 May 2030
4‑1, and Simone Mazzocchi took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Cosenza tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Market13 May 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 Cosenza, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad13 May 2030
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
The dugout13 May 2030
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Market13 May 2030
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mattia Angeloni will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Cosenza the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad13 May 2030
A falling-out at Cosenza
Lautaro Valenti and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings13 May 2030
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.97, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad6 May 2030
39 goals and a season average of 7.84. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad6 May 2030
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Cosenza will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad6 May 2030
A falling-out at Cosenza
Nicolò Contiliano and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match4 May 2030
Aldo Florenzi among the goals in a wild afternoon
6 goals in one match, Aldo Florenzi on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Cosenza and Benevento.
The dugout6 May 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Leonardo Consiglio, and the manager let it.
Player ratings6 May 2030
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.45, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings6 May 2030
A performance of 8.23 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Boardroom6 May 2030
Wages swallow 118% of the Cosenza 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.
Match4 May 2030
It finished 3‑3, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad29 Apr 2030
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Cosenza will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad29 Apr 2030
A season average of 7.66 with 18 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad29 Apr 2030
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Cosenza had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Market29 Apr 2030
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Cosenza they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad29 Apr 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 Cosenza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match27 Apr 2030
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings29 Apr 2030
Successful dribbles: 17. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout29 Apr 2030
“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.
The dugout29 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad22 Apr 2030
A season average of 7.87 with 38 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad22 Apr 2030
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Cosenza will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match22 Apr 2030
Cosenza up to position 3
68 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Market22 Apr 2030
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Cosenza they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad22 Apr 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 Cosenza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match20 Apr 2030
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Marco Tumminello. 2‑0 against Latina, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings22 Apr 2030
Ninety minutes of Marco Tumminello at his very best
Marked 8.79. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Cosenza.
Squad22 Apr 2030
A row about effort at Cosenza
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrea Cogoni was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings22 Apr 2030
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.10, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad1 Apr 2030
Defences have started doubling up on Simone Mazzocchi
37 goals and a season average of 7.90 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad1 Apr 2030
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
The dugout1 Apr 2030
Michele Emmausso: 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.” Cosenza have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings1 Apr 2030
At 33 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.00, and nobody on the pitch better.
Market1 Apr 2030
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Cosenza is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad1 Apr 2030
Lautaro Valenti 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.
Match30 Mar 2030
Audace Cerignola made Cosenza work for it, but the scoreboard read 5‑3 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings1 Apr 2030
Ninety minutes of Simone Mazzocchi at his very best
Marked 9.93. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Cosenza.
Match30 Mar 2030
8 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Cosenza and Audace Cerignola in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout18 Mar 2030
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Market18 Mar 2030
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Cosenza they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad18 Mar 2030
Words exchanged at Cosenza
Nicolò Contiliano 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.
Squad18 Mar 2030
Words at Cosenza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrea Cogoni 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 dugout18 Mar 2030
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.
The dugout18 Mar 2030
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Boardroom18 Mar 2030
Cosenza counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Cosenza now.
The dugout18 Mar 2030
“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 Mar 2030
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Marco Tumminello’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad11 Mar 2030
34 goals and a season average of 7.87. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Match9 Mar 2030
4‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings11 Mar 2030
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.43, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Match9 Mar 2030
Nobody wants to play Cosenza right now
6 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.
Squad11 Mar 2030
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Cosenza are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad11 Mar 2030
A falling-out at Cosenza
Nicolò Contiliano and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match9 Mar 2030
Cosenza are at home on the road
3 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
Squad11 Mar 2030
50 for the club now, each one filed in somebody’s memory with a date and a scoreline. Numbers like this are what supporters argue about in twenty years.
Player ratings11 Mar 2030
A performance of 8.28 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad4 Mar 2030
A season average of 7.86 with 33 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Match2 Mar 2030
4‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Market4 Mar 2030
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cosenza can pretend not to have heard.
Squad4 Mar 2030
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Match4 Mar 2030
Cosenza up to position 3
56 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Match2 Mar 2030
Cosenza cannot stop winning
5 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Match2 Mar 2030
Nobody wins at Cosenza
11 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Market4 Mar 2030
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Cosenza they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Boardroom4 Mar 2030
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Matheus Dos Santos 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad25 Feb 2030
32 goals and a season average of 7.82. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Match23 Feb 2030
4‑1, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings25 Feb 2030
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 10.00, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Match23 Feb 2030
Cosenza make it 4 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Cosenza have 4 straight wins of it.
Market25 Feb 2030
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Harrison Shillington will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Cosenza the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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 Cosenza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings25 Feb 2030
Ninety minutes of Simone Mazzocchi at his very best
Marked 8.67. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Cosenza.
Squad25 Feb 2030
Words at Cosenza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrea Cogoni 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 ratings25 Feb 2030
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.07, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad18 Feb 2030
31 goals and a season average of 7.80. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Match16 Feb 2030
5‑2, and Marco Tumminello took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Cosenza tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings18 Feb 2030
A brace, and Marco Tumminello takes the afternoon — 9.46
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Marco Tumminello provided it, and the 9.46 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The dugout18 Feb 2030
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Market18 Feb 2030
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Cosenza they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Match16 Feb 2030
Cosenza cannot stop winning
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Squad18 Feb 2030
A falling-out at Cosenza
Lautaro Valenti and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match16 Feb 2030
Cosenza make home a hard place to visit
10 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad11 Feb 2030
30 goals and a season average of 7.77. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Match9 Feb 2030
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 5‑1 against Cavese, and it could have been more.
Player ratings11 Feb 2030
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.27, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings11 Feb 2030
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.31, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad11 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 Cosenza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match9 Feb 2030
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Cosenza and Cavese, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad11 Feb 2030
Words at Cosenza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lautaro Valenti 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 Feb 2030
Ninety minutes of Marco Tumminello at his very best
Marked 9.06. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Cosenza.
The terraces11 Feb 2030
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad4 Feb 2030
28 goals and a season average of 7.72. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Market4 Feb 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 Cosenza, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom4 Feb 2030
Deadline passes with 0 signed and 3 gone
That is the business done at Cosenza until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Squad4 Feb 2030
“The easiest signature of my career.” Simone Mazzocchi and Cosenza agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Player ratings4 Feb 2030
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
Match2 Feb 2030
It finished 3‑2, and it was Marco Tumminello’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Cosenza.
Squad4 Feb 2030
A row about effort at Cosenza
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lautaro Valenti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match2 Feb 2030
The run at home goes on for Cosenza
9 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Player ratings4 Feb 2030
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.56, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
In brief
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Match
Cosenza settle it inside twenty minutes
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Player ratings
Lautaro Valenti was on a different afternoon to everybody else
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Player ratings
Marco Tumminello was on a different afternoon to everybody else
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Jan 2030
Defences have started doubling up on Simone Mazzocchi
27 goals and a season average of 7.70 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Market28 Jan 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 Cosenza, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market28 Jan 2030
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Harrison Shillington will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Cosenza the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad28 Jan 2030
Words exchanged at Cosenza
Nicolò Contiliano 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.
The dugout28 Jan 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 ratings28 Jan 2030
Christos Kourfalidis was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.30. 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.
Squad28 Jan 2030
Words at Cosenza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrea Cogoni 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 ratings28 Jan 2030
A performance of 8.02 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Match26 Jan 2030
Cosenza caught on 91 minutes
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Monopoli scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Jan 2030
Defences have started doubling up on Simone Mazzocchi
26 goals and a season average of 7.69 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
The dugout21 Jan 2030
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Market21 Jan 2030
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Cosenza they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Match19 Jan 2030
It had gone 8 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.
Boardroom21 Jan 2030
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.
Squad21 Jan 2030
Nicolò Contiliano 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 Jan 2030
A row about effort at Cosenza
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lautaro Valenti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The terraces21 Jan 2030
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.
Match19 Jan 2030
Picerno made Cosenza work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match12 Jan 2030
No end in sight to Cosenza's wait for a win
8 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Cosenza has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings14 Jan 2030
Successful dribbles: 23. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad14 Jan 2030
Sascha Britschgi 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.
Squad14 Jan 2030
A row about effort at Cosenza
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lautaro Valenti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match12 Jan 2030
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Match14 Jan 2030
The half-term report on Cosenza
Position 4, 37 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
The dugout14 Jan 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mattia Ievoli, and the manager let it.
The dugout14 Jan 2030
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Filippo Testa after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout14 Jan 2030
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match5 Jan 2030
7 matches without a win for Cosenza
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Cosenza are no longer polite ones.
Squad7 Jan 2030
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Cosenza had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Squad7 Jan 2030
Words exchanged at Cosenza
Lautaro Valenti 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.
Squad7 Jan 2030
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Cosenza are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Player ratings7 Jan 2030
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market7 Jan 2030
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Enrique Blanco has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Cosenza.
Player ratings7 Jan 2030
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.17, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad7 Jan 2030
Andrea Cogoni 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 ratings7 Jan 2030
Lautaro Valenti was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.03. 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match31 Dec 2029
Cosenza up to position 3
36 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Match29 Dec 2029
The wait goes on for Cosenza
6 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.
Squad31 Dec 2029
A falling-out at Cosenza
Lautaro Valenti and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings31 Dec 2029
Successful dribbles: 22. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Player ratings31 Dec 2029
Marked 8.16 — 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.
Squad31 Dec 2029
6 goals and a season average of 7.38. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad31 Dec 2029
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Alessandro Melis and Cosenza agree another 3 years.
Boardroom31 Dec 2029
Wages swallow 93% of the Cosenza 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.
Squad31 Dec 2029
A row about effort at Cosenza
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Harrison Shillington was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad24 Dec 2029
Defences have started doubling up on Simone Mazzocchi
25 goals and a season average of 7.77 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Market24 Dec 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cosenza can pretend not to have heard.
Match22 Dec 2029
After 12 games, Cosenza finally taste it again
The first defeat in 12 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Benevento; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
The dugout24 Dec 2029
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Match22 Dec 2029
5 matches without a win for Cosenza
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Cosenza are no longer polite ones.
Squad24 Dec 2029
Nicolò Contiliano 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.
Match22 Dec 2029
Benevento left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout24 Dec 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.
Squad24 Dec 2029
A row about effort at Cosenza
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrea Cogoni was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad17 Dec 2029
24 goals and a season average of 7.77. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Match15 Dec 2029
12 unbeaten for Cosenza
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 12 matches without defeat is a foundation Cosenza did not have in the autumn.
Player ratings17 Dec 2029
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.61, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Match15 Dec 2029
The wait goes on for Cosenza
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad17 Dec 2029
Lautaro Valenti 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.
Squad17 Dec 2029
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Looking ahead17 Dec 2029
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
Squad17 Dec 2029
Words at Cosenza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrea Cogoni 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 ratings17 Dec 2029
A performance of 8.15 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Dec 2029
22 goals and a season average of 7.73. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Match8 Dec 2029
11 unbeaten for Cosenza
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 11 matches without defeat is a foundation Cosenza did not have in the autumn.
Squad10 Dec 2029
A falling-out at Cosenza
Nicolò Contiliano and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings10 Dec 2029
Simone Mazzocchi was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.11. 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 ratings10 Dec 2029
Successful dribbles: 17. 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.
Squad10 Dec 2029
A row about effort at Cosenza
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Harrison Shillington was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match8 Dec 2029
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout10 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.
The dugout10 Dec 2029
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market26 Nov 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 Cosenza, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match26 Nov 2029
32 points and nobody above them. The word is not being said around the ground yet, and it is being thought in every seat.
Match24 Nov 2029
Still nobody has beaten Cosenza
The unbeaten run reaches 9. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad26 Nov 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 Cosenza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings26 Nov 2029
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
The terraces26 Nov 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.
Squad26 Nov 2029
A row about effort at Cosenza
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrea Cogoni was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad26 Nov 2029
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Cosenza can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout26 Nov 2029
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Simone Mazzocchi is on it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad12 Nov 2029
A season average of 7.81 with 21 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Player ratings12 Nov 2029
Successful dribbles: 33. 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.
Squad12 Nov 2029
Words exchanged at Cosenza
Lautaro Valenti 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.
Match10 Nov 2029
7 unbeaten for Cosenza
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 7 matches without defeat is a foundation Cosenza did not have in the autumn.
Match10 Nov 2029
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 6 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Player ratings12 Nov 2029
Simone Mazzocchi was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.20. 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.
Squad12 Nov 2029
Words at Cosenza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrea Cogoni 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.
Squad12 Nov 2029
“The easiest signature of my career.” Mattia Germinario and Cosenza agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Match10 Nov 2029
Late, late show earns Cosenza a point
Minute 86, against Potenza, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad5 Nov 2029
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Enrique Blanco commits to Cosenza for another 2 years.
Squad5 Nov 2029
“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 Cosenza know it.
Squad5 Nov 2029
Words exchanged at Cosenza
Nicolò Contiliano 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.
Squad5 Nov 2029
Andrea Cogoni 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.
Boardroom5 Nov 2029
Wages eat 97% of everything Cosenza earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Boardroom5 Nov 2029
Cosenza counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Cosenza now.
The dugout5 Nov 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.
Market5 Nov 2029
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Simone Mazzocchi’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Looking ahead5 Nov 2029
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Michele Emmausso’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Cosenza needing him to play as if none of it matters.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad29 Oct 2029
20 goals and a season average of 7.79. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Market29 Oct 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cosenza can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings29 Oct 2029
Two goals and a mark of 9.31 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad29 Oct 2029
A fracture rules Valentino Riva out for 18 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Cosenza will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match27 Oct 2029
Nobody wants to play Cosenza right now
6 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.
Squad29 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 Cosenza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match27 Oct 2029
A 3‑1 win over Foggia, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The terraces29 Oct 2029
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Sascha Britschgi 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 ratings29 Oct 2029
A performance of 8.33 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
In brief
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Squad
Words at Cosenza training over how hard people work
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
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The dugout
Simone Mazzocchi has become a man the manager trusts
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad22 Oct 2029
The match ball belongs to Simone Mazzocchi, whose 4 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Match20 Oct 2029
5‑1, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Squad22 Oct 2029
A season average of 7.71 with 18 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad22 Oct 2029
25 days out for Valentino Riva after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Cosenza will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match20 Oct 2029
Cosenza make it 5 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Cosenza have 5 straight wins of it.
Match20 Oct 2029
Cosenza keep winning on the road
5 away wins in a row. Travelling support is the truest kind, and this season it is being repaid in the only currency that counts.
Squad22 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 Cosenza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings22 Oct 2029
Marked 10.00 — 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.
Match20 Oct 2029
Simone Mazzocchi among the goals in a wild afternoon
6 goals in one match, Simone Mazzocchi on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Cosenza and Trapani.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings15 Oct 2029
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.46, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad15 Oct 2029
A fracture rules Valentino Riva out for 32 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Cosenza will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings15 Oct 2029
Two goals and a mark of 8.37 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Match13 Oct 2029
Cosenza cannot stop winning
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Squad15 Oct 2029
A falling-out at Cosenza
Nicolò Contiliano and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match13 Oct 2029
Aldo Florenzi among the goals in a wild afternoon
6 goals in one match, Aldo Florenzi on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Cosenza and Casertana.
Match13 Oct 2029
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Aldo Florenzi. 4‑2 against Casertana, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad15 Oct 2029
A row about effort at Cosenza
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrea Cogoni was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings15 Oct 2029
Marked 8.08 — 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
Triumph
Player ratings8 Oct 2029
A brace, and Marco Tumminello takes the afternoon — 10.00
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Marco Tumminello provided it, and the 10.00 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings8 Oct 2029
A brace, and Simone Mazzocchi takes the afternoon — 9.96
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Simone Mazzocchi provided it, and the 9.96 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad8 Oct 2029
39 days out for Valentino Riva after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Cosenza will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad8 Oct 2029
Defences have started doubling up on Simone Mazzocchi
14 goals and a season average of 7.57 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Match6 Oct 2029
Cosenza cannot stop winning
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Squad8 Oct 2029
A falling-out at Cosenza
Sascha Britschgi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match6 Oct 2029
It finished 4‑3, and it was Simone Mazzocchi’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Cosenza.
Match6 Oct 2029
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Cosenza and Giugliano, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Match6 Oct 2029
Cosenza keep winning on the road
4 away wins in a row. Travelling support is the truest kind, and this season it is being repaid in the only currency that counts.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad1 Oct 2029
4 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Match29 Sep 2029
4‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Squad1 Oct 2029
A fracture rules Valentino Riva out for 46 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Cosenza will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings1 Oct 2029
Successful dribbles: 24. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
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 Cosenza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings1 Oct 2029
A performance of 10.00 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings1 Oct 2029
Marco Tumminello was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.90. 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.
Squad1 Oct 2029
A row about effort at Cosenza
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrea Cogoni was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout1 Oct 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match19 Sep 2029
The cup run ends for Cosenza
3‑4 against Pergolettese, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Market24 Sep 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cosenza can pretend not to have heard.
Match22 Sep 2029
Cosenza win it in stoppage time
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 93th minute. Sorrento will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Player ratings24 Sep 2029
Two goals and a mark of 9.14 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad24 Sep 2029
A fracture rules Valentino Riva out for 53 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Cosenza will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings24 Sep 2029
0 on the scoresheet on his first appearance and a mark of 7.43 beside it. Most debuts are got through; this one was enjoyed, by him and by everybody watching it.
The dugout24 Sep 2029
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Cosenza have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad24 Sep 2029
Lautaro Valenti 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.
In brief
-
Match
Cosenza get the job done against Sorrento
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Player ratings
Simone Mazzocchi was on a different afternoon to everybody else
-
Match
Another one collected away from home
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match15 Sep 2029
3‑0, and Simone Mazzocchi took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Cosenza tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings17 Sep 2029
A brace, and Simone Mazzocchi takes the afternoon — 9.30
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Simone Mazzocchi provided it, and the 9.30 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Match15 Sep 2029
Nobody wants to play Cosenza right now
6 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.
Market17 Sep 2029
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Cosenza they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad17 Sep 2029
A falling-out at Cosenza
Nicolò Contiliano and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad17 Sep 2029
100 goals in these colours now, every one of them somebody’s memory. There is a supporter in the stand who can tell you where he was for most of them.
Transfer targets17 Sep 2029
Cosenza asked and Virtus Entella said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market17 Sep 2029
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Michele Cassano is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market17 Sep 2029
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Ignazio Bartoli 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad10 Sep 2029
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Match8 Sep 2029
Nobody wants to play Cosenza right now
5 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.
Squad10 Sep 2029
At 17 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad10 Sep 2029
A falling-out at Cosenza
Lautaro Valenti and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings10 Sep 2029
Marked 9.96 — 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.
Match8 Sep 2029
Simone Mazzocchi among the goals in a wild afternoon
6 goals in one match, Simone Mazzocchi on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Cosenza and Picerno.
Match8 Sep 2029
Three points for Cosenza, 4‑2 the final word against Picerno in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings10 Sep 2029
A performance of 9.54 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Transfer targets10 Sep 2029
Cosenza asked and Modena said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
In brief
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Squad
Words at Cosenza training over how hard people work
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Player ratings
Sascha Britschgi was unplayable
-
Boardroom
Wages eat 88% of everything Cosenza earn
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad3 Sep 2029
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Player ratings3 Sep 2029
Two goals and a mark of 9.10 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market3 Sep 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cosenza can pretend not to have heard.
Match1 Sep 2029
Cosenza make it 4 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Cosenza have 4 straight wins of it.
Boardroom3 Sep 2029
Deadline passes with 17 signed and 22 gone
That is the business done at Cosenza until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Transfer targets3 Sep 2029
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Atalanta keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad3 Sep 2029
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Cosenza can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad3 Sep 2029
Nicolò Contiliano 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.
Transfer targets3 Sep 2029
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Catanzaro have kept their man, and Cosenza go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Transfer targets20 Aug 2029
The deal with Atalanta is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Squad20 Aug 2029
Words exchanged at Cosenza
Sascha Britschgi 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.
Transfer targets20 Aug 2029
Cosenza asked and Benevento said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad20 Aug 2029
A row about effort at Cosenza
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrea Cogoni was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout20 Aug 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Andrea Cogoni, and the manager let it.
Transfer targets20 Aug 2029
A loan enquiry to Catanzaro: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Squad20 Aug 2029
5 new faces, and Cosenza 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.
The dugout20 Aug 2029
Simone Mazzocchi has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Cosenza will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Squad20 Aug 2029
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Cosenza are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad23 Jul 2029
Words exchanged at Cosenza
Lautaro Valenti 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.
Transfer targets23 Jul 2029
Cosenza asked and Benevento said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad23 Jul 2029
Gianmarco Greco is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
Squad23 Jul 2029
At 25 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 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.
Squad23 Jul 2029
Too much change too quickly at Cosenza
5 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.
The dugout23 Jul 2029
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Simone Mazzocchi is on it.
Market23 Jul 2029
Everyone has stopped pretending: Monopoli will make the call about Gianmarco Greco this week. Cosenza have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
The dugout23 Jul 2029
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Cosenza, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market23 Jul 2029
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Simone Mazzocchi signs something — a contract at Cosenza or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market16 Jul 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cosenza can pretend not to have heard.
Squad16 Jul 2029
At 23 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Words exchanged at Cosenza
Nicolò Contiliano 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.
Squad16 Jul 2029
At 30 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 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.
Boardroom16 Jul 2029
Lazio will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Ciro Palmieri has pre-agreed a move to Cosenza, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Transfer targets16 Jul 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.
Squad16 Jul 2029
“The easiest signature of my career.” Mattia Ievoli and Cosenza agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Market16 Jul 2029
He is 19, and nobody at Cosenza signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
The dugout16 Jul 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market2 Jul 2029
Bologna come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Cosenza did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market2 Jul 2029
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alessandro Dalmazzi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Cosenza the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The dugout2 Jul 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.
Market2 Jul 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cosenza can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets2 Jul 2029
Everything agreed with Juventus, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad2 Jul 2029
“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 Cosenza know it.
Squad2 Jul 2029
Sascha Britschgi was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad2 Jul 2029
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Marco Vettor is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Transfer targets2 Jul 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.
In brief
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Squad
Mattia Ievoli has improved at 24, which nobody expected
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Boardroom
Intake day at the Cosenza academy
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Boardroom
Cosenza counting the cost
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market25 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.
Transfer targets25 Jun 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.
Squad25 Jun 2029
A falling-out at Cosenza
Nicolò Contiliano and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets25 Jun 2029
A loan move for Lucas Beltrán is in the works
Cosenza have made the call to Juventus. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout25 Jun 2029
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Simone Mazzocchi is on it.
Squad25 Jun 2029
Words at Cosenza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Antonino Infante 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.
Market25 Jun 2029
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Simone Mazzocchi signs something — a contract at Cosenza or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout25 Jun 2029
Andrea Cogoni asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market25 Jun 2029
3 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Cosenza money.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market4 Jun 2029
Cosenza say no — this time
The offer from Fiorentina for Simone Mazzocchi was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Market4 Jun 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cosenza can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout4 Jun 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Cosenza may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market4 Jun 2029
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alessandro Dalmazzi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Cosenza the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom4 Jun 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.
Squad4 Jun 2029
Lautaro Valenti 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.
Transfer targets4 Jun 2029
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Partizan have kept their man, and Cosenza go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout4 Jun 2029
The manager makes an example of Enrique Blanco
“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.
Market4 Jun 2029
Andrea Cogoni is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Cosenza has been clear about where Andrea Cogoni stands, which is more than many ever get.
In brief
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Boardroom
The Cosenza board find $210.4K for the manager
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Transfer targets
A loan move for Joel Pereira is in the works
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Transfer targets
A loan move for Joe Wildsmith is in the works
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad28 May 2029
Words exchanged at Cosenza
Nicolò Contiliano 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 May 2029
37 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
The dugout28 May 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.
The dugout28 May 2029
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Simone Mazzocchi is on it.
Market28 May 2029
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Simone Mazzocchi’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout28 May 2029
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Matteo Vescovi has written the date down.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings14 May 2029
Successful dribbles: 31. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Player ratings14 May 2029
Two goals and a mark of 8.28 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Match12 May 2029
Cosenza make it 3 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Cosenza have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad14 May 2029
Sascha Britschgi 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.
Match12 May 2029
It finished 2‑0, and it was Aldo Florenzi’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Cosenza.
Player ratings14 May 2029
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.04, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Boardroom14 May 2029
Wages swallow 107% of the Cosenza 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.
Squad14 May 2029
A season average of 7.32 with 3 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
The dugout14 May 2029
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Filippo Testa, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad30 Apr 2029
A season average of 7.74 with 29 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Player ratings30 Apr 2029
Two goals and a mark of 8.35 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad30 Apr 2029
A falling-out at Cosenza
Lautaro Valenti and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad30 Apr 2029
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Cosenza can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Match28 Apr 2029
Benevento made Cosenza work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Market30 Apr 2029
13 games and 0 goals away from here, and a man the manager did not have last summer. The loan did what loans are supposed to do and almost never do.
Player ratings30 Apr 2029
A performance of 8.48 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings30 Apr 2029
Sascha Britschgi was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.42. 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.
Squad30 Apr 2029
A row about effort at Cosenza
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tim Väyrynen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad23 Apr 2029
A season average of 7.72 with 28 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad23 Apr 2029
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Squad23 Apr 2029
“The easiest signature of my career.” Baldovino Cimino and Cosenza agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad23 Apr 2029
Words exchanged at Cosenza
Lautaro Valenti 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.
Match21 Apr 2029
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Cosenza and Catania in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Match21 Apr 2029
Beaten 2‑4, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Boardroom23 Apr 2029
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
The terraces23 Apr 2029
At 22 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 ratings23 Apr 2029
Ninety minutes of Sascha Britschgi at his very best
Marked 8.13. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Cosenza.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings16 Apr 2029
Successful dribbles: 40. 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.
Market16 Apr 2029
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Squad16 Apr 2029
Lautaro Valenti 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.
Squad16 Apr 2029
Words at Cosenza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Salvatore Monaco 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.
Boardroom16 Apr 2029
Wages swallow 106% of the Cosenza 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 ratings16 Apr 2029
7.83, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Cosenza had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout16 Apr 2029
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Cosenza told Stefano Specker something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Match14 Apr 2029
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout16 Apr 2029
Half-satisfied: Filippo Testa on the draw
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad9 Apr 2029
27 goals and a season average of 7.71. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Market9 Apr 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cosenza can pretend not to have heard.
Market9 Apr 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Cosenza is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad9 Apr 2029
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Enrique Blanco and Cosenza agree another 2 years.
Squad9 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 Cosenza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Apr 2029
Words at Cosenza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Salvatore Monaco 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.
Match7 Apr 2029
A 2‑1 win over Crotone, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings9 Apr 2029
A performance of 8.22 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings9 Apr 2029
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.19, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Mar 2029
22 goals and a season average of 7.67. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Player ratings26 Mar 2029
A brace, and Marco Tumminello takes the afternoon — 9.49
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Marco Tumminello provided it, and the 9.49 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad26 Mar 2029
Words exchanged at Cosenza
Sascha Britschgi 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.
Match24 Mar 2029
Beaten 2‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad26 Mar 2029
Salvatore Monaco 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 dugout26 Mar 2029
Tim Väyrynen gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout26 Mar 2029
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 2‑3 defeat, delivered by Filippo Testa to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout26 Mar 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.
The dugout26 Mar 2029
Salvatore Monaco asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad19 Mar 2029
26 goals and a season average of 7.72. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Player ratings19 Mar 2029
Successful dribbles: 30. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad19 Mar 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 Cosenza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Mar 2029
Words at Cosenza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Baldovino Cimino 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.
Match17 Mar 2029
It finished 2‑1, and it was Simone Mazzocchi’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Cosenza.
The terraces19 Mar 2029
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Player ratings19 Mar 2029
Simone Mazzocchi was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.69. 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 ratings19 Mar 2029
Ninety minutes of Marco Tumminello at his very best
Marked 8.36. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Cosenza.
Boardroom19 Mar 2029
Wages swallow 95% of the Cosenza 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.
In brief
-
The dugout
The view from the dugout
-
The dugout
A promise honoured at Cosenza
-
The dugout
Salvatore Monaco asks for a word with the manager
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market12 Mar 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 Cosenza, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market12 Mar 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Cosenza is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The dugout12 Mar 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.
Squad12 Mar 2029
Salvatore Monaco 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.
Squad12 Mar 2029
Enrique Blanco wants one last season at home
Every long career reaches the week the last one is thought about. He would like it to be where he started, and Cosenza know now that the thought has arrived.
Squad12 Mar 2029
A row about effort at Cosenza
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Baldovino Cimino was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout12 Mar 2029
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Christos Kourfalidis is on it.
Looking ahead12 Mar 2029
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Potenza in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
The dugout12 Mar 2029
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Riccardo Palmieri trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad26 Feb 2029
A season average of 7.70 with 25 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Match24 Feb 2029
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings26 Feb 2029
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.47, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings26 Feb 2029
Successful dribbles: 23. 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.
Squad26 Feb 2029
Words exchanged at Cosenza
Lautaro Valenti 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.
Squad26 Feb 2029
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Cosenza can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad26 Feb 2029
Salvatore Monaco 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 ratings26 Feb 2029
A performance of 8.20 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings26 Feb 2029
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.15, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad19 Feb 2029
23 goals and a season average of 7.65. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
The dugout19 Feb 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.
Market19 Feb 2029
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Lautaro Valenti wants continental football; whether Cosenza can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Transfer targets19 Feb 2029
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Atalanta is saying, and nobody at Cosenza is enjoying the guessing.
Squad19 Feb 2029
Lautaro Valenti 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 ratings19 Feb 2029
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.45, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match17 Feb 2029
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Marco Tumminello. 3‑1 against Casertana, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad19 Feb 2029
A row about effort at Cosenza
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nicolò Contiliano was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets19 Feb 2029
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Hellas Verona have kept their man, and Cosenza go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Feb 2029
22 goals and a season average of 7.64. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Player ratings12 Feb 2029
A brace, and Simone Mazzocchi takes the afternoon — 9.32
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Simone Mazzocchi provided it, and the 9.32 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market12 Feb 2029
Tim Väyrynen has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Cosenza they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Boardroom12 Feb 2029
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Tim Väyrynen 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.
Squad12 Feb 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 Cosenza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match10 Feb 2029
Beaten 2‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad12 Feb 2029
Words at Cosenza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Salvatore Monaco 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 targets12 Feb 2029
Cosenza asked and Partizan said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The dugout12 Feb 2029
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Filippo Testa after 2‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match3 Feb 2029
7‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Squad5 Feb 2029
The match ball belongs to Simone Mazzocchi, whose 4 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Player ratings5 Feb 2029
A brace, and Marco Tumminello takes the afternoon — 10.00
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Marco Tumminello provided it, and the 10.00 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad5 Feb 2029
A season average of 7.58 with 20 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Boardroom5 Feb 2029
Cosenza close the window on a squad of their own making
0 in and 6 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Market5 Feb 2029
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Cosenza heard it as anything else.
Squad5 Feb 2029
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Lautaro Valenti and Cosenza agree another 4 years.
Squad5 Feb 2029
A falling-out at Cosenza
Sascha Britschgi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings5 Feb 2029
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 10.00, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match27 Jan 2029
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Sorrento, and it could have been more.
Squad29 Jan 2029
Defences have started doubling up on Simone Mazzocchi
16 goals and a season average of 7.51 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad29 Jan 2029
A falling-out at Cosenza
Salvatore Monaco and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad29 Jan 2029
Nicolò Contiliano 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.
Transfer targets29 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 terraces29 Jan 2029
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Player ratings29 Jan 2029
Simone Mazzocchi was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.69. 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 ratings29 Jan 2029
Ninety minutes of Sascha Britschgi at his very best
Marked 8.40. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Cosenza.
Player ratings29 Jan 2029
Marked 8.17 — 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
Uneasy
Market22 Jan 2029
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Cosenza people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Squad22 Jan 2029
Defences have started doubling up on Simone Mazzocchi
15 goals and a season average of 7.47 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Player ratings22 Jan 2029
Successful dribbles: 24. 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.
Transfer targets22 Jan 2029
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Atalanta keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad22 Jan 2029
Salvatore Monaco 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.
Transfer targets22 Jan 2029
Cosenza asked and Hellas Verona said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad22 Jan 2029
Words exchanged at Cosenza
Andrea Cogoni 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 ratings22 Jan 2029
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.76, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout22 Jan 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match13 Jan 2029
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 4‑0 against Picerno, and it could have been more.
Player ratings15 Jan 2029
A brace, and Simone Mazzocchi takes the afternoon — 9.36
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Simone Mazzocchi provided it, and the 9.36 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market15 Jan 2029
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
The dugout15 Jan 2029
Leo Minelli: 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.” Cosenza have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Defences have started doubling up on Marco Tumminello
15 goals and a season average of 7.49 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Market15 Jan 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.
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 Cosenza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Baldovino Cimino 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 ratings15 Jan 2029
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.23, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market8 Jan 2029
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Cavese waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Cosenza is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market8 Jan 2029
Bologna come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Cosenza did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market8 Jan 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 Cosenza, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match6 Jan 2029
5 matches without a win for Cosenza
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Cosenza are no longer polite ones.
Squad8 Jan 2029
A falling-out at Cosenza
Lautaro Valenti and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets8 Jan 2029
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Hellas Verona have kept their man, and Cosenza go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match6 Jan 2029
Cosenza are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 5 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Squad8 Jan 2029
12 goals and a season average of 7.36. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad8 Jan 2029
A row about effort at Cosenza
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Baldovino Cimino was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match30 Dec 2028
Cosenza throw away a 2-goal lead
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Casarano the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Cosenza will enjoy reviewing.
Market1 Jan 2029
Andrea Cogoni hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cosenza can pretend not to have heard.
Squad1 Jan 2029
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Cosenza have had the benefit of it.
Squad1 Jan 2029
A season average of 7.44 with 14 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Match30 Dec 2028
4 matches without a win for Cosenza
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Cosenza are no longer polite ones.
Squad1 Jan 2029
Words exchanged at Cosenza
Lautaro Valenti 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.
Squad1 Jan 2029
A row about effort at Cosenza
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Salvatore Monaco was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match30 Dec 2028
Cosenza 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.
Player ratings1 Jan 2029
Simone Mazzocchi was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.86. 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad25 Dec 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 Cosenza know it.
Squad25 Dec 2028
Sascha Britschgi 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 Dec 2028
Words at Cosenza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Salvatore Monaco 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
0‑2 to Salernitana, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings25 Dec 2028
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout25 Dec 2028
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout25 Dec 2028
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.
The dugout25 Dec 2028
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
The dugout25 Dec 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 Cosenza, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad11 Dec 2028
Defences have started doubling up on Marco Tumminello
13 goals and a season average of 7.43 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad11 Dec 2028
A row about effort at Cosenza
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Salvatore Monaco was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match9 Dec 2028
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
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 Cosenza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout11 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.
Player ratings11 Dec 2028
Marked 8.21 — 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.
Boardroom11 Dec 2028
100% of the income goes out in wages at Cosenza
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.
The dugout11 Dec 2028
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Filippo Testa after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout11 Dec 2028
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
From our football correspondent
Steady
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
A falling-out at Cosenza
Salvatore Monaco and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout4 Dec 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Salvatore Monaco, and the manager let it.
Squad4 Dec 2028
10 goals and a season average of 7.28. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Match2 Dec 2028
It finished 1‑0, and it was Simone Mazzocchi’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Cosenza.
Player ratings4 Dec 2028
A performance of 8.35 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Market4 Dec 2028
Antonino Infante is 20, and Cosenza have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Squad4 Dec 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Antonino Infante and Cosenza agree another 3 years.
The dugout4 Dec 2028
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 1‑0, already talking about the next one.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad27 Nov 2028
Lautaro Valenti 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 ratings27 Nov 2028
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad27 Nov 2028
A row about effort at Cosenza
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nicolò Contiliano was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match25 Nov 2028
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings27 Nov 2028
Aldo Florenzi was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.07. 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.
Market27 Nov 2028
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Riccardo Palmieri has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Cosenza.
The dugout27 Nov 2028
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Filippo Testa to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout27 Nov 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alessandro Dalmazzi, and the manager let it.
The dugout27 Nov 2028
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad20 Nov 2028
There were 7 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.
Market20 Nov 2028
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Cosenza they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad20 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 Cosenza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Nov 2028
Words at Cosenza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Baldovino Cimino 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.
Match18 Nov 2028
Siracusa left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad20 Nov 2028
9 goals and a season average of 7.25. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
The dugout20 Nov 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Tim Väyrynen, and the manager let it.
The dugout20 Nov 2028
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout20 Nov 2028
Nobody at Cosenza will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings13 Nov 2028
Two goals and a mark of 9.64 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad13 Nov 2028
A season average of 7.45 with 12 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad13 Nov 2028
A falling-out at Cosenza
Lautaro Valenti and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings13 Nov 2028
Successful dribbles: 22. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match11 Nov 2028
Cosenza leaking at the back
5 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Match11 Nov 2028
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Cosenza and Audace Cerignola, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Match11 Nov 2028
It finished 4‑2, and it was Marco Tumminello’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Cosenza.
Squad13 Nov 2028
A row about effort at Cosenza
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Baldovino Cimino was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings13 Nov 2028
Marked 8.66 — 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
Match1 Nov 2028
Cosenza out of the cup
Spezia ended it 1‑2. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Market6 Nov 2028
Lautaro Valenti wants to know where this is going
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Cosenza hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Words exchanged at Cosenza
Sascha Britschgi 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.
Squad6 Nov 2028
A row about effort at Cosenza
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nicolò Contiliano was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad6 Nov 2028
10 goals and a season average of 7.35. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Match4 Nov 2028
Cosenza leaking at the back
4 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Player ratings6 Nov 2028
Marked 8.64 — 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.
Player ratings6 Nov 2028
Marked 8.49 — 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.
Match4 Nov 2028
Level with 89 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Cosenza had all but put away. Potenza will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad30 Oct 2028
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Cosenza are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad30 Oct 2028
Sascha Britschgi 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.
Squad30 Oct 2028
A row about effort at Cosenza
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Salvatore Monaco was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout30 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.
The dugout30 Oct 2028
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Salvatore Monaco trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout30 Oct 2028
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.
Looking ahead30 Oct 2028
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Salvatore Monaco’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Cosenza needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Market30 Oct 2028
The name of Simone Mazzocchi keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Cosenza say nothing, which says plenty.
Looking ahead30 Oct 2028
They sit in position 11 and they will be waiting. Away form is where a season shows its true character, and this side has a point to make about its own.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings16 Oct 2028
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.11, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Match14 Oct 2028
11 unbeaten for Cosenza
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 11 matches without defeat is a foundation Cosenza did not have in the autumn.
Squad16 Oct 2028
Words exchanged at Cosenza
Salvatore Monaco 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.
Match14 Oct 2028
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Cosenza and Trapani, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Match14 Oct 2028
Three points for Cosenza, 4‑2 the final word against Trapani in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad16 Oct 2028
Nicolò Contiliano 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 ratings16 Oct 2028
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
Player ratings16 Oct 2028
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.40, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings16 Oct 2028
Marked 8.13 — 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
Match7 Oct 2028
10 unbeaten for Cosenza
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 10 matches without defeat is a foundation Cosenza did not have in the autumn.
The dugout9 Oct 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Cosenza may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market9 Oct 2028
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Cosenza heard it as anything else.
Squad9 Oct 2028
Words exchanged at Cosenza
Lautaro Valenti 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.
Squad9 Oct 2028
Salvatore Monaco 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 dugout9 Oct 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.
Market9 Oct 2028
No place for Leo Minelli in the plan
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Leo Minelli has his answer from Cosenza; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Market9 Oct 2028
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
The dugout9 Oct 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Filippo Testa was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Cosenza dressing room was either.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match30 Sep 2028
Giugliano will want this one forgotten quickly: 5‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Cosenza were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Squad2 Oct 2028
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Squad2 Oct 2028
There were 6 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.
Match30 Sep 2028
Still nobody has beaten Cosenza
The unbeaten run reaches 9. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
The dugout2 Oct 2028
Mattia Angeloni: 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.” Cosenza have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad2 Oct 2028
Lautaro Valenti 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 ratings2 Oct 2028
Marked 9.98 — 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.
Match30 Sep 2028
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Cosenza and Giugliano, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad2 Oct 2028
A row about effort at Cosenza
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Leonardo Consiglio was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match20 Sep 2028
Cosenza through in the cup
A 3‑0 win over Pineto, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Player ratings25 Sep 2028
A brace, and Leo Minelli takes the afternoon — 8.10
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Leo Minelli provided it, and the 8.10 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings25 Sep 2028
No sign of nerves from Gianmarco Greco at 19 — 8.41
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Gianmarco Greco did not need any: 8.41, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Match23 Sep 2028
8 unbeaten for Cosenza
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 8 matches without defeat is a foundation Cosenza did not have in the autumn.
Market25 Sep 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Cosenza is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad25 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 Cosenza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Nicolò Contiliano 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 terraces25 Sep 2028
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
The dugout25 Sep 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Leonardo Consiglio, and the manager let it.