Marked for Davide Buglio
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market3 Jul 2028
The unthinkable, invoiced: Mehdi Dorval sold
Udinese arrived with $8.5M and left with the best player in the building. The board will call it business; the queue at the ticket office will use other words.
Boardroom3 Jul 2028
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Boardroom3 Jul 2028
The Catanzaro board call everybody in
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Market3 Jul 2028
“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 The request is on a desk at Catanzaro, and it is not being withdrawn.
The terraces3 Jul 2028
Mehdi Dorval has gone, the accounts have $8.5M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
Market3 Jul 2028
Udinese paid $4.4M and Catanzaro took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Transfer targets3 Jul 2028
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Defensores is saying, and nobody at Catanzaro is enjoying the guessing.
Squad3 Jul 2028
Nicolò Buso and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 Jul 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Thomas Henry and Catanzaro agree another 2 years.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom5 Jun 2028
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Sandro Fiorini has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Match3 Jun 2028
Beaten 0‑3 by Cagliari, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Market5 Jun 2028
Catanzaro say no — this time
The offer from Atalanta for Costantino Favasuli 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.
Market5 Jun 2028
“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 Catanzaro, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market5 Jun 2028
The phone has started ringing about Emanuele Pecorino again, and this time the name on the line is Torino. Catanzaro are listening politely and promising nothing.
Match3 Jun 2028
The wait goes on for Catanzaro
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.
The dugout5 Jun 2028
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Mehdi Dorval and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad5 Jun 2028
A move Yuki Yoshihara would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Yuki Yoshihara is living that version at Catanzaro, and it tends to show in the first month.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom8 May 2028
Sandro Fiorini has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Catanzaro can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Market8 May 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market8 May 2028
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Catanzaro they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The dugout8 May 2028
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad8 May 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Mirko Pigliacelli and Catanzaro agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad8 May 2028
Marin Pongračić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match6 May 2028
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Catanzaro did not have in the autumn.
Squad8 May 2028
Words at Catanzaro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Federico Di Francesco is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Player ratings8 May 2028
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 19 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout17 Apr 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Catanzaro may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match15 Apr 2028
The wait goes on for Catanzaro
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 Apr 2028
Words exchanged at Catanzaro
Marin Pongračić 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.
Squad17 Apr 2028
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.
Market17 Apr 2028
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Catanzaro has been clear about where Mattia De Sciglio stands, which is more than many ever get.
The dugout17 Apr 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 dugout17 Apr 2028
Nicola Mosti 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.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Sandro Fiorini after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Match15 Apr 2028
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Pisa will be the happier side with the point.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market10 Apr 2028
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Costantino Favasuli will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Catanzaro the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Player ratings10 Apr 2028
Jens Cajuste goes up and wins it — 7.80
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.80 for the rest of it.
Squad10 Apr 2028
A row about effort at Catanzaro
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Federico Di Francesco was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad10 Apr 2028
200 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
Player ratings10 Apr 2028
Successful dribbles: 15. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout10 Apr 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.
Match8 Apr 2028
A 1‑1 draw with Südtirol leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Yaya Diakité and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout10 Apr 2028
“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
Uneasy
Boardroom3 Apr 2028
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Sandro Fiorini has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Boardroom3 Apr 2028
Pressure builds in the Catanzaro boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market3 Apr 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad3 Apr 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 Catanzaro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Apr 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Michael Liguori and Catanzaro agree another 4 years.
Loan watch3 Apr 2028
“I did not go to Audace Cerignola to sit and watch. I want to come back to Catanzaro and fight for my place.” 7 appearances in 12 matches say the rest.
Boardroom3 Apr 2028
91% of the income goes out in wages at Catanzaro
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.
Squad3 Apr 2028
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Christian Marietta has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Catanzaro will explain it as a decision about the team, and it may well be one. A dressing room has never once read it that way.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market13 Mar 2028
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Costantino Favasuli will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Catanzaro the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Marin Pongračić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings13 Mar 2028
Mehdi Dorval beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 19. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match11 Mar 2028
A 1‑0 win over Cosenza, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad13 Mar 2028
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Player ratings13 Mar 2028
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.98 on the card, and the Catanzaro support went home talking about one name.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
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.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Sandro Fiorini could afford to be generous.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom6 Mar 2028
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Match4 Mar 2028
The 87th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Giuseppe Coppola decided nobody was going anywhere. Juve Stabia had no time left to answer.
Market6 Mar 2028
Davide Buglio 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 Catanzaro can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom6 Mar 2028
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Catanzaro
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Mehdi Dorval in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Catanzaro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad6 Mar 2028
At 19 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.
Squad6 Mar 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Nicola Mosti and Catanzaro agree another 3 years.
The terraces6 Mar 2028
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Giuseppe Coppola 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.
Match4 Mar 2028
Juve Stabia made Catanzaro work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Feb 2028
Marin Pongračić was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The dugout28 Feb 2028
The manager makes an example of Michael Liguori
“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.
Match26 Feb 2028
Level with 89 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Catanzaro had all but put away. Padova will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
Squad28 Feb 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Tiago Galeiras and Catanzaro agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Geron Tocka 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 ratings28 Feb 2028
Marked 7.73 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Catanzaro had the best player on the pitch.
Player ratings28 Feb 2028
Mehdi Dorval beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 15. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match26 Feb 2028
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout28 Feb 2028
“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
Crisis
Player ratings21 Feb 2028
Successful dribbles: 26. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Transfer targets21 Feb 2028
Catanzaro asked and Gimnasia y Tiro 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 dugout21 Feb 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.
Match19 Feb 2028
0‑1 to Pescara, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad21 Feb 2028
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 16 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Sandro Fiorini after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Words exchanged at Catanzaro
Yaya Diakité 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.
Looking ahead21 Feb 2028
A test against the best for Catanzaro
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Padova.
Player ratings21 Feb 2028
Shots: 11, not one of them in. A centre forward is paid for one thing, and on this evidence he has forgotten which thing it is.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market31 Jan 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
The dugout31 Jan 2028
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Boardroom31 Jan 2028
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Tancredi Vella 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.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Marin Pongračić 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 targets31 Jan 2028
Catanzaro asked and Palermo said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Transfer targets31 Jan 2028
Catanzaro have made the call to Gimnasia y Tiro. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Too much change too quickly at Catanzaro
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.
Match29 Jan 2028
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 dugout31 Jan 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market10 Jan 2028
Udinese come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Catanzaro did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market10 Jan 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad10 Jan 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 Catanzaro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets10 Jan 2028
The offer went to Cittadella this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Market10 Jan 2028
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Catanzaro have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Player ratings10 Jan 2028
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.
Transfer targets10 Jan 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Zamalek have kept their man, and Catanzaro go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market10 Jan 2028
Nicolò Buso is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Catanzaro has been clear about where Nicolò Buso stands, which is more than many ever get.
Match8 Jan 2028
Avellino left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad29 Nov 2027
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.
Player ratings29 Nov 2027
Successful dribbles: 24. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Mehdi Dorval and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad29 Nov 2027
A row about effort at Catanzaro
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Costantino Favasuli was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
Nicolò Buso 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 Nicolò Buso trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Sandro Fiorini after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Squad29 Nov 2027
One booking too many, and a game watched from the stand. Catanzaro lose him for the most avoidable reason in the sport.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad11 Oct 2027
Mehdi Dorval in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Catanzaro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Too much change too quickly at Catanzaro
7 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Boardroom11 Oct 2027
Wages eat 86% of everything Catanzaro 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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
A row about effort at Catanzaro
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mustafa Gürkan Varlık was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad11 Oct 2027
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Catanzaro are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Market11 Oct 2027
The name of Mehdi Dorval keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Catanzaro say nothing, which says plenty.
Looking ahead11 Oct 2027
Juve Stabia next, and one man in the Catanzaro dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
Ewerton gets picked when it counts
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 Ewerton is on it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout20 Sep 2027
Marin Pongračić: 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.” Catanzaro have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Marin Pongračić 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 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Transfer targets20 Sep 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Fiorentina have kept their man, and Catanzaro go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match18 Sep 2027
0‑1 to Venezia, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad20 Sep 2027
A row about effort at Catanzaro
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Costantino Favasuli was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Loan watch20 Sep 2027
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Catanzaro, and 3 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Sandro Fiorini left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
Davide Buglio knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Catanzaro, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market6 Sep 2027
Davide Buglio 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 Catanzaro can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 25 signed and 25 gone
That is the business done at Catanzaro 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.
Market6 Sep 2027
B.93 come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Catanzaro did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market6 Sep 2027
So close: Ewerton’s move dies late
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Benevento moved on, Ewerton reports back to Catanzaro, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Marin Pongračić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets6 Sep 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Juventus have kept their man, and Catanzaro go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market6 Sep 2027
Crotone are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Catanzaro will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Costantino Favasuli 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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market9 Aug 2027
“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 Catanzaro, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market9 Aug 2027
The name of Jacopo Petriccione has come up in conversations Catanzaro were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Market9 Aug 2027
The fee is $850.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Picerno drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Market9 Aug 2027
Catanzaro say no — this time
The offer from Szeged-Csanád GA for Tancredi Vella 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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Marin Pongračić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad9 Aug 2027
A row about effort at Catanzaro
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Costantino Favasuli was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout9 Aug 2027
The manager makes an example of Davide Buglio
“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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Catanzaro will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market2 Aug 2027
Catanzaro say no — this time
The offer from AlbinoLeffe for Jacopo Petriccione 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.
Market2 Aug 2027
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Catanzaro have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market2 Aug 2027
Sayha Seha 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 Catanzaro can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets2 Aug 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ravenna have kept their man, and Catanzaro go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Words exchanged at Catanzaro
Marin Pongračić 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 targets2 Aug 2027
Catanzaro offered $22.0K; Ascoli said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
The dugout2 Aug 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Samuel Giovane slips down the pecking order
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Samuel Giovane is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings31 May 2027
Two goals and a mark of 8.74 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings31 May 2027
Patrick Nuamah, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.62
A mark of 7.62 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad31 May 2027
Ersin Kocacenk arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Ersin Kocacenk has, at Catanzaro, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad31 May 2027
Simone Pafundi 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.
Match29 May 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Emanuele Pecorino. 2‑1 against Avellino, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad31 May 2027
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Squad31 May 2027
Tommaso Cassandro and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout31 May 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Davide Buglio, and the manager let it.
The dugout31 May 2027
Mirko Pigliacelli is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market29 Mar 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Catanzaro is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
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.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
Davide Buglio 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 Davide Buglio trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
Ewerton gets picked when it counts
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 Ewerton is on it.
Market29 Mar 2027
The name of Emanuele Pecorino keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Catanzaro say nothing, which says plenty.
Squad29 Mar 2027
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Catanzaro will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Squad29 Mar 2027
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match13 Feb 2027
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Simone Pafundi will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Catanzaro escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Squad15 Feb 2027
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.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Marked 7.81 at 20, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Match13 Feb 2027
Still nobody has beaten Catanzaro
The unbeaten run reaches 8. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad15 Feb 2027
At 20, Simone Pafundi is already the best thing here
An average of 7.01 in a first team he is several years too young for. Catanzaro have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Mehdi Dorval was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 9 actions, 7.46, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Match13 Feb 2027
It needed Simone Pafundi to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against Sampdoria, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match26 Dec 2026
0‑3 to Juve Stabia, 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Mehdi Dorval in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Catanzaro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Cristian Samaritani is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Catanzaro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marco Ruggero 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 dugout28 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Marco Ruggero
“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.
Boardroom28 Dec 2026
Wages swallow 117% of the Catanzaro 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.
Boardroom28 Dec 2026
Nobody left the Catanzaro dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑3, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Looking ahead28 Dec 2026
Catanzaro take on the side everybody is chasing
Cremonese arrive as leaders. A side at the top is beaten roughly once a month, and the club that does it gets a week it remembers for a year.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad21 Dec 2026
A row about effort at Catanzaro
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marco Ruggero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match19 Dec 2026
Padova left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
“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 dugout21 Dec 2026
Marco Ruggero 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 Marco Ruggero trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
“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 dugout21 Dec 2026
The plan did not have a place for Marco Ruggero
Nobody at Catanzaro is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
Squad21 Dec 2026
A booking nobody needed, on a night the game was already won. Catanzaro lose a player for the most avoidable reason there is.
Market21 Dec 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Emanuele Pecorino’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market14 Sep 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Catanzaro can pretend not to have heard.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Simone Pafundi, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.92
A mark of 7.92 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Pietro Iemmello, 34, rolls back the years — 7.98
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.98 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Market14 Sep 2026
Only the photograph left for Gabriele Alesi
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Gabriele Alesi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Catanzaro the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match12 Sep 2026
Three points for Catanzaro, 2‑1 the final word against Palermo in a contest settled by the finer margins.
The terraces14 Sep 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Patrick Nuamah 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.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Sandro Fiorini kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Squad14 Sep 2026
The first one is the one every signing is asked about until it arrives. It has arrived, and he can stop being asked.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market7 Sep 2026
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Catanzaro, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 8 in, 3 out at Catanzaro
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 8 arrived, 3 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Mehdi Dorval in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Catanzaro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Sep 2026
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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Marco Ruggero moves up the pecking order
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Catanzaro than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
Davide Buglio 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.
Looking ahead7 Sep 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Mirko Pigliacelli’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Catanzaro needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A season on the outside for Mehdi Dorval
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Catanzaro has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Market7 Sep 2026
The hardest part of developing a footballer is admitting he needs to be somewhere else for a while. Tancredi Vella leaves on loan to get the football he was not going to get here, which is the point of the exercise and not an admission of anything.
In brief
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Looking ahead
Looking ahead: the trip to Palermo
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The dugout
The manager plants his flag on Nicola Mosti