Marked for Leonardo Benedetti
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 36. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match18 Jan 2027
17 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market18 Jan 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Virtus Entella can pretend not to have heard.
Match16 Jan 2027
No end in sight to Virtus Entella's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Virtus Entella has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 25 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Market18 Jan 2027
The offer from Pontedera for Matteo Carbone 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.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 24 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Squad18 Jan 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Virtus Entella this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market18 Jan 2027
Como paid $610.0K and Virtus Entella took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match21 Dec 2026
16 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market21 Dec 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 Virtus Entella can pretend not to have heard.
Squad21 Dec 2026
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Virtus Entella have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad21 Dec 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 Virtus Entella this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match19 Dec 2026
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Defensive actions: 25. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Defensive actions: 24. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 23 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Squad7 Dec 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 Virtus Entella this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.52, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match5 Dec 2026
Three points for Virtus Entella, 1‑0 the final word against Pescara in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Loan watch7 Dec 2026
15 appearances away from home and 13 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
Squad7 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Brando Moruzzi
“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.
Loan watch7 Dec 2026
“I watch every Virtus Entella game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at AlbinoLeffe runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad2 Nov 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Virtus Entella may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match31 Oct 2026
No end in sight to Virtus Entella's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Virtus Entella has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Timothée Kolodziejczak 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.
Match31 Oct 2026
1‑3 to Bari, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
Wages eat 242% of everything Virtus Entella 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.
Squad2 Nov 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Sep 2026
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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Timothée Kolodziejczak 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 ratings7 Sep 2026
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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
308% of the income goes out in wages at Virtus Entella
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.
Squad7 Sep 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.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.66, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Market7 Sep 2026
The name of Matteo Carbone has come up in conversations Virtus Entella were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Match5 Sep 2026
A 1‑1 draw with Mantova leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The captaincy has been taken off Leonardo Benedetti. Virtus Entella will call it a decision about the team; a dressing room reads it as a verdict on a man.