Marked for Luca Coccolo
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces25 May 2037
Anger at Pro Vercelli spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Squad25 May 2037
A fracture rules Luca Coccolo out for 84 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Pro Vercelli will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match25 May 2037
Every point is an argument now for Pro Vercelli
Position 19 and 26 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Market25 May 2037
“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 The request is on a desk at Pro Vercelli, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad25 May 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pro Vercelli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 May 2037
Words at Pro Vercelli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Clemente Perotti 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.
Boardroom25 May 2037
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
Squad25 May 2037
Denis Valko knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Denis Valko trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad18 May 2037
A fracture rules Luca Coccolo out for 91 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Pro Vercelli will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match16 May 2037
0‑5 against Virtus Verona, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Match16 May 2037
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad18 May 2037
“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.
Squad18 May 2037
Mattia Del Favero was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad18 May 2037
Petar Radić is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.47 with 10 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Boardroom18 May 2037
Wages eat 217% of everything Pro Vercelli 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.
Boardroom18 May 2037
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Player ratings18 May 2037
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad11 May 2037
A fracture rules Luca Coccolo out for 98 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Pro Vercelli will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market11 May 2037
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Pro Vercelli can pretend not to have heard.
Match9 May 2037
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.
Squad11 May 2037
Denis Valko 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.
Squad11 May 2037
Words at Pro Vercelli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Clemente Perotti 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.
Squad11 May 2037
11 goals and a season average of 7.29. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Match9 May 2037
0‑1 to Pergolettese, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings11 May 2037
The one thing Denis Valko could not do
Shots: 12, enough of them from close enough that a striker in form scores two. He is not a striker in form.
Market11 May 2037
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Pro Vercelli know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad4 May 2037
A fracture rules Luca Coccolo out for 105 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Pro Vercelli will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings4 May 2037
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.74 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad4 May 2037
“The easiest signature of my career.” Mattia Del Favero and Pro Vercelli agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad4 May 2037
Dean Huiberts was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad4 May 2037
Clemente Perotti 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.
Boardroom4 May 2037
$1.4M of the owner's money at Pro Vercelli
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
The terraces4 May 2037
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Andreas Ilsanker 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 ratings4 May 2037
A performance of 8.69 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings4 May 2037
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The terraces27 Apr 2037
Anger at Pro Vercelli spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Squad27 Apr 2037
A fracture rules Luca Coccolo out for 112 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Pro Vercelli will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match27 Apr 2037
Every point is an argument now for Pro Vercelli
Position 18 and 25 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Market27 Apr 2037
Peter Rusnak 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 Pro Vercelli can pretend not to have heard.
Squad27 Apr 2037
Clemente Perotti 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.
Boardroom27 Apr 2037
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad20 Apr 2037
A fracture rules Luca Coccolo out for 119 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Pro Vercelli will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad20 Apr 2037
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad20 Apr 2037
10 goals and a season average of 7.50. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad20 Apr 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pro Vercelli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom20 Apr 2037
Wages eat 181% of everything Pro Vercelli 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.
Player ratings20 Apr 2037
A performance of 8.86 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings20 Apr 2037
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match18 Apr 2037
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Player ratings20 Apr 2037
10 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad13 Apr 2037
A fracture rules Luca Coccolo out for 126 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Pro Vercelli will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match11 Apr 2037
0‑4 to Cittadella, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Squad13 Apr 2037
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market13 Apr 2037
“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.
Squad13 Apr 2037
Bálint Faragó 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.
Squad13 Apr 2037
Words at Pro Vercelli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Clemente Perotti 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 ratings13 Apr 2037
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Boardroom13 Apr 2037
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
Player ratings13 Apr 2037
One lapse, one goal, and ninety minutes of honest work counting for nothing. That is the job at Pro Vercelli, and it is a cruel one.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad6 Apr 2037
A fracture rules Luca Coccolo out for 133 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Pro Vercelli will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Boardroom6 Apr 2037
The caretaker keeps it: Interim Coach confirmed
A month of looking elsewhere ended where it started. He already knows every name in the building; the rest of it he now has to prove in public.
Squad6 Apr 2037
Denis Valko: 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.” Pro Vercelli have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad6 Apr 2037
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad6 Apr 2037
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Achraf el Bouchataoui and Pro Vercelli agree another 2 years.
Boardroom6 Apr 2037
$1.3M of the owner's money at Pro Vercelli
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
Match4 Apr 2037
A 2‑1 win over Ospitaletto, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The terraces6 Apr 2037
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Andreas Ilsanker 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.
Boardroom6 Apr 2037
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces30 Mar 2037
Anger at Pro Vercelli spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Squad30 Mar 2037
A fracture rules Luca Coccolo out for 140 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Pro Vercelli will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match30 Mar 2037
21 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Player ratings30 Mar 2037
Clemente Perotti, 34, rolls back the years — 9.02
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.02 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad30 Mar 2037
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.
Market30 Mar 2037
“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 Pro Vercelli, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad30 Mar 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pro Vercelli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Mar 2037
Words at Pro Vercelli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Clemente Perotti 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.
Match28 Mar 2037
It finished 3‑1, and it was Clemente Perotti’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Pro Vercelli.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad23 Mar 2037
A fracture rules Luca Coccolo out for 147 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Pro Vercelli will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings23 Mar 2037
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.84 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Match21 Mar 2037
No end in sight to Pro Vercelli's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Pro Vercelli has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad23 Mar 2037
“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.
Match21 Mar 2037
No clean sheets in sight for Pro Vercelli
6 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Market23 Mar 2037
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Pro Vercelli they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad23 Mar 2037
10 goals and a season average of 7.53. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Match21 Mar 2037
Trento left with the points after a 3‑4 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad23 Mar 2037
Clemente Perotti falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Mar 2037
A fracture rules Luca Coccolo out for 154 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Pro Vercelli will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market16 Mar 2037
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Pro Vercelli can pretend not to have heard.
Match14 Mar 2037
No end in sight to Pro Vercelli's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Pro Vercelli has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad16 Mar 2037
Clemente Perotti 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 Mar 2037
A muscle injury sidelines Murad Xaçayev for 19 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Pro Vercelli will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Match14 Mar 2037
No clean sheets in sight for Pro Vercelli
5 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Squad16 Mar 2037
9 goals and a season average of 7.50. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Match14 Mar 2037
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Pro Vercelli and Giana Erminio in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Player ratings16 Mar 2037
Marked 9.83 — 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
Crisis
Squad9 Feb 2037
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad9 Feb 2037
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Dean Huiberts and Pro Vercelli agree another 2 years.
Squad9 Feb 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pro Vercelli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Feb 2037
The medical room confirms 22 days on the sidelines for Luca Coccolo, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Match7 Feb 2037
Vicenza made Pro Vercelli work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings9 Feb 2037
19 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Player ratings9 Feb 2037
A performance of 8.31 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Boardroom9 Feb 2037
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
Player ratings9 Feb 2037
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom29 Dec 2036
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Pro Vercelli
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Squad29 Dec 2036
There were 8 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match27 Dec 2036
5 matches without a win for Pro Vercelli
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Pro Vercelli are no longer polite ones.
Market29 Dec 2036
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Pro Vercelli is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad29 Dec 2036
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pro Vercelli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad29 Dec 2036
Words at Pro Vercelli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Clemente Perotti 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.
Boardroom29 Dec 2036
Wages eat 198% of everything Pro Vercelli 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.
Match27 Dec 2036
Pergolettese left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Boardroom29 Dec 2036
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad27 Oct 2036
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market27 Oct 2036
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Pro Vercelli they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad27 Oct 2036
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pro Vercelli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Oct 2036
Clemente Perotti falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad27 Oct 2036
The manager makes an example of Luca Coccolo
“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 ratings27 Oct 2036
Successful dribbles: 13. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market27 Oct 2036
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Pro Vercelli know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Player ratings27 Oct 2036
5.58 on the card. Some afternoons a footballer looks like a man who has only just been introduced to the game, and this was one of them.