Marked for Leonardo Benedetti
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad23 Nov 2026
Andrea Tiritiello and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Virtus Entella training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luca Parodi 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 ratings23 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Leonardo Benedetti, and the manager let it.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
7.48, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Virtus Entella had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
Diogo Ferreira 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 dugout23 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Tommaso Zanetti was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Virtus Entella dressing room was either.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Ivan Marconi
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Loan watch23 Nov 2026
13 appearances at Cittadella and the goals keep coming. Virtus Entella are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.94 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Davide Bariti 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and John Yeboah was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match24 Oct 2026
Catanzaro made Virtus Entella work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Tommaso Zanetti on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Squad26 Oct 2026
No place for Bernardo Liste in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Virtus Entella are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Virtus Entella, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Looking ahead26 Oct 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Leonardo Benedetti’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Virtus Entella needing him to play as if none of it matters.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Sep 2026
Andrea Tiritiello and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Sep 2026
John Yeboah 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.
Match26 Sep 2026
Reggiana made Virtus Entella work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.01, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout28 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.” Tommaso Zanetti kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Mattia Tirelli
“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 Sep 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Ivan Marconi
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Every signing waits for it and every press conference asks about it until it comes. It has come, Virtus Entella have their man off the mark, and the second one is always easier.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market14 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 Virtus Entella, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad14 Sep 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and John Yeboah was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Cittadella have kept their man, and Virtus Entella go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match12 Sep 2026
Palermo left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Francesco Mezzoni, and the manager let it.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Tommaso Zanetti after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 13. 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 dugout14 Sep 2026
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match29 Aug 2026
Avellino will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Virtus Entella were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Market31 Aug 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 Virtus Entella, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market31 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
A brace, and Luigi Cuppone takes the afternoon — 8.80
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Luigi Cuppone provided it, and the 8.80 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
The clubs have shaken hands with Foggia; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
A defender's goal wins it for Virtus Entella — 7.81
1 for Leonardo Benedetti, marked 7.81, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at River Plate is saying, and nobody at Virtus Entella is enjoying the guessing.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Virtus Entella offered $800.0K; Reggiana 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
John Yeboah 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.