Marked for Marco Sala
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 May 2027
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Avellino will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market24 May 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 Avellino can pretend not to have heard.
Squad24 May 2027
Daniel Fila 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 Avellino this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings24 May 2027
Successful dribbles: 20. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match22 May 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Daniel Fila. 1‑0 against Cremonese, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The dugout24 May 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.
Player ratings24 May 2027
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.64 on the card, and the Avellino support went home talking about one name.
The dugout24 May 2027
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.” Riccardo De Angelis kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Player ratings24 May 2027
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 15 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad29 Mar 2027
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Avellino will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
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 Martin Palumbo is on it.
Looking ahead29 Mar 2027
Virtus Entella next, and one man in the Avellino dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Market29 Mar 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Avellino know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
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.
Market29 Mar 2027
Avellino have let the market know Marco Armellino can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
Raffaele Russo 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 Avellino, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Looking ahead29 Mar 2027
They sit in position 8 and they will be waiting. Away form is where a season shows its true character, and this side has a point to make about its own.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
The manager plants his flag on Kelvin Yeboah
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Kelvin Yeboah’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market15 Feb 2027
Avellino say no — this time
The offer from Bryne for Martin Palumbo 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Daniel Fila 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.
Match13 Feb 2027
A 2‑0 win over Arezzo, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Michele Besaggio, and the manager let it.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
7.87, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Avellino had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 2‑0, already talking about the next one.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
A defender's afternoon for Marco Sala
Defensive actions: 15. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
Tommaso Biasci 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 Tommaso Biasci trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Loan watch15 Feb 2027
The goals keep arriving from Valerio Crespi’s exile
8 goals in 22 games at Union Brescia — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Avellino updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad11 Jan 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 10 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
Avellino asked and Slavia Prague said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match9 Jan 2027
0‑2 to Cremonese, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout11 Jan 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.
Market11 Jan 2027
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
The dugout11 Jan 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 dugout11 Jan 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Gennaro Tutino's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Squad11 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 Avellino this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Avellino may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad16 Nov 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 Avellino this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
A promise honoured at Avellino
Something was said to Michele Besaggio and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Luca Pandolfi has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Avellino will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Market16 Nov 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Walid Cheddira’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Looking ahead16 Nov 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Marco Sala’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Avellino needing him to play as if none of it matters.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“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.
Loan watch16 Nov 2026
9 appearances at Union Brescia and the goals keep coming. Avellino are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
Looking ahead16 Nov 2026
Next up at home: Virtus Entella, who go into it in position 7. The kind of fixture a season is quietly built on or quietly loses its shape in.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match31 Oct 2026
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.87, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Marco Sala was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.24. 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.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Luca Palmiero, and the manager let it.
Squad2 Nov 2026
The award is a small thing with a heavy meaning: for four weeks nobody in this division did his job better. Avellino have the trophy on a shelf and the player in the side.
Squad2 Nov 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Gennaro Tutino
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Gennaro Tutino has come out of that comparison in the side, and Avellino have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
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.” Riccardo De Angelis, on a 3‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Squad2 Nov 2026
The captaincy has been taken off Armando Izzo. Avellino will call it a decision about the team; a dressing room reads it as a verdict on a man.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
Tommaso Biasci 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Michele Besaggio, and the manager let it.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Walid Cheddira's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Too much change too quickly at Avellino
9 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.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Marked 7.47. 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 dugout26 Oct 2026
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Riccardo De Angelis after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
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.
Match24 Oct 2026
Point won or two lost for Avellino?
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Empoli? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
5.04 on the card. Some afternoons a footballer looks like a man who has only just been introduced to the game, and this was one of them.
Looking ahead26 Oct 2026
Cesena next, and one man in the Avellino dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.67, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Avellino have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad19 Oct 2026
At 21 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.
Match17 Oct 2026
Beaten 2‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Daniel Fila, and the manager let it.
Squad19 Oct 2026
A defender's mistake gets tidied up by somebody else; a goalkeeper's ends up in the net. He knew before the ball crossed the line, and so did everybody in the ground.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 2‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Antony Iannarilli's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Looking ahead19 Oct 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Empoli in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Sep 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 10 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Match12 Sep 2026
Nowhere to hide for Avellino
0‑3 against Pisa, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
The dugout14 Sep 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.
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
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.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
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 0‑3 Riccardo De Angelis left the room before anybody could ask which.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
4.23 on the card. Some afternoons a footballer looks like a man who has only just been introduced to the game, and this was one of them.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Marco Sala could not find anything
4.51. Every footballer has these and most of them happen away from a full ground; his did not, and he will be aware of that all week.
Looking ahead14 Sep 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Palermo in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.