“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cavese can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cavese this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Up for the corner, and Davide Munari delivers — 7.93
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Davide Munari scored, was marked 7.93, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Francesco Orlando 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.
A 2‑1 win over Audace Cerignola, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cavese this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
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.
35 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Cavese lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cavese this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The words a physio says slowly. 53 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
A mark of 7.85 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.
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.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Words at Cavese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Brando Moruzzi 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cavese this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
112 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Cavese lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brando Moruzzi 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.
Sorrento held the lead for 3 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Cavese answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
It needed Sveinn Aron Guðjohnsen to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Sorrento, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The words a physio says slowly. 120 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cavese this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadBrando Moruzzi falls out with a teammate over standards
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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cavese this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Sep 2027
7 new faces, and Cavese are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
It needed Leonardo Ubaldi to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against Salernitana, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Words at Cavese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicolai Apland 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.
35 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Cavese lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Raffaele Maria Di Costanzo is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ivanildo Siga will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Cavese the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Francesco Orlando 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.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Words at Cavese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kimarni Smith 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.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Giovanni Sirico has his answer from Cavese; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The words a physio says slowly. 43 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Words at Cavese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Davide Munari 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.
Valerio Boffelli 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 50 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Cavese may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Davide Munari 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.
65 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Cavese lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ivanildo Siga will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Cavese the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
Sten Kremers 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 96 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“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 Cavese, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Cavese they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Nicolai Apland has just signed for Cavese, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Words at Cavese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giuseppe Fella 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cavese this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 ratings21 Dec 2026
Leonardo Ubaldi was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.37. 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.
In brief
SquadWords at Cavese training over how hard people work
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cavese this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I watch every Cavese game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Pineto runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Cavese, and both men came out saying it was fine.