It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Juan Carlos Arana wants continental football; whether Racing Santander can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Iván Martín was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Racing Santander. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Racing Santander will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
4 clean sheets from 11 appearances at Pacos de Ferreira. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aritz Aldasoro was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Racing Santander will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 19 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Racing Santander hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Juan Carlos Arana and Racing Santander agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Iván Martín was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
86 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Pisa lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pisa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The name of Filippo Pittarello has come up in conversations Pisa were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Pisa are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Simone Canestrelli signs something — a contract at Pisa or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pisa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
23 appearances and 1 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Antonio Caracciolo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Marked 7.75. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
The dugout31 May 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Raffaele Ricci, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Mateusz Machaj commits to Pisa for another 1 years.
The dugout3 May 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 Raffaele Ricci to a room that had heard them before.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Antonio Caracciolo.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Ichem Ferrah is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
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.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pisa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
7 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 one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Raffaele Ricci was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Pisa dressing room was either.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Pisa heard it as anything else.
Felipe Loyola 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Antonio Caracciolo 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.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Pisa know it.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Pisa know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
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. 19 actions, 6.97, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Pisa are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Felipe Loyola 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.
At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Every long career reaches the week the last one is thought about. He would like it to be where he started, and Pisa know now that the thought has arrived.
A 1‑1 draw with Arezzo leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Raffaele Ricci was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Pisa dressing room was either.
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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Pisa have done the hard part with Renate, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
“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 Pisa, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Pisa close the window on a squad of their own making
8 in and 4 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Felipe Loyola 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Eskimó is living that version at Pisa, and it tends to show in the first month.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Pisa people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The offer from Cremonese for Simone Canestrelli 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.
Pisa asked and Crotone said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
A point taken on 94 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
Two goals and a mark of 8.95 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Gabriele Piccinini scored, was marked 7.66, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Felipe Loyola 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.
The phone has started ringing about Arturo Calabresi again, and this time the name on the line is Crotone. Pisa are listening politely and promising nothing.
Pisa asked and Como said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Mehdi Léris was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.29. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Filip Stojilković 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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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.
Virtus Entella next, and one man in the Pisa dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Felipe Loyola 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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Pisa heard it as anything else.
A mark of 7.72, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Raffaele Ricci, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
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.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
İsak Vural, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.89
A mark of 7.89 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.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Pisa hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. İsak Vural 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.
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.
He has had enough of the noise. Whether Pisa can be a quieter place for him, or whether the only cure is a move somewhere the phone-ins are gentler, is a question for the next few months.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Raffaele Ricci after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
In brief
Squadİsak Vural is the weekend's best young player
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Pianese waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Pisa is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pisa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Pisa hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.