Marked for Stefano Tuzza
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match17 May 2027
Every point is an argument now for Bra
Position 18 and 15 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.
Squad17 May 2027
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 dugout17 May 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 dugout17 May 2027
Stefano Tuzza 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 Bra, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market17 May 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Enrico Baldini’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout17 May 2027
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Bra. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match20 Mar 2027
The wait goes on for Bra
21 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.
Match22 Mar 2027
Bra sink to position 18
12 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Bra have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words at Bra training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Franklyn Akammadu 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.
Match20 Mar 2027
A bad afternoon for Bra against Pineto
1‑2 to Pineto, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad22 Mar 2027
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.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
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 Gregorio Peretti to a room that had heard them before.
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
Damiano Lia beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 13. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad22 Mar 2027
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
Crisis
The terraces1 Feb 2027
The mood at Bra has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Match30 Jan 2027
No end in sight to Bra's wait for a win
13 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Bra has to find a result from somewhere.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
The scrutiny sharpens at Bra
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Bra is running low.
Match30 Jan 2027
Bra taken apart
0‑3 to Ascoli, 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.
Market1 Feb 2027
“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.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 0 signed and 0 gone
That is the business done at Bra 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.
Match30 Jan 2027
3 matches without a goal for Bra
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
Bra asked and Spezia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad1 Feb 2027
54 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Dec 2026
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.
Match12 Dec 2026
The wait goes on for Bra
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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
A row about effort at Bra
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Franklyn Akammadu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match12 Dec 2026
1‑2 to Sambenedettese, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Stefano Palumbo after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mattia Leoncini, and the manager let it.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
Stefano Tuzza 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 Bra, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 11. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The plan did not have a place for Giorgio Lionetti
Nobody at Bra 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match30 Nov 2026
Every point is an argument now for Bra
Position 17 and 7 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.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Bra may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad30 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Bra
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Giorgio Lionetti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
124% of the income goes out in wages at Bra
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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
A falling-out at Bra
Riccardo Campedelli and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Giorgio Lionetti, and the manager let it.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
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 dugout30 Nov 2026
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match24 Oct 2026
8 matches without a win for Bra
The run now stands at 8, and the questions being asked around Bra are no longer polite ones.
Match24 Oct 2026
5 matches without a goal for Bra
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 5 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Franklyn Akammadu 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.
Match24 Oct 2026
A bad afternoon for Bra against Ternana
0‑1 to Ternana, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Bra are still strangers to each other
11 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Stefano Palumbo to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
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
Uneasy
Squad12 Oct 2026
At 20 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 Oct 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ismet Sinani and Bra agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at Bra training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Franklyn Akammadu 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 Oct 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bra this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Stefano Tuzza, and the manager let it.
Looking ahead12 Oct 2026
Gubbio next, and one man in the Bra dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Aug 2026
Loris Fiorito 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. Loris Fiorito has, at Bra, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Christian Raggioli commits to Bra for another 3 years.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Franklyn Akammadu 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Bra
Alessio Brambilla 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Federico D'Angelo is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Antonio Piras has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Marco Bertoni 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
One of our own: Gianmarco Gallo joins the Bra first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Gianmarco Gallo is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.