Marked for Elia Giani
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match17 Oct 2026
4 matches without a win for Carpi
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Carpi are no longer polite ones.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Tempers go at Carpi
Erik Gerbi 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.
Match17 Oct 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Nobody could get near Elia Giani
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad19 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Matteo Figoli, and the manager let it.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Abdoulaye Sall 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.
In brief
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Squad
The manager has not finished forgetting Jacopo Sala's mistake
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Player ratings
Jacopo Sala could not find anything
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
No sign of nerves from Cristian Carrara at 18 — 7.81
The hardest thing about being 18 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Cristian Carrara did not need any: 7.81, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Erik Gerbi 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 Carpi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match10 Oct 2026
A bad afternoon for Carpi against Arezzo
1‑2 to Arezzo, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Nobody could get near Elia Giani
Successful dribbles: 29. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Tempers go at Carpi
Erik Gerbi 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.
Match3 Oct 2026
A bad afternoon for Carpi against Livorno
1‑2 to Livorno, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Matteo Figoli 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.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
121% of the income goes out in wages at Carpi
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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Nobody could get near Elia Giani
Successful dribbles: 25. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Tempers go at Carpi
Erik Gerbi 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Jacopo Sala
“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
Steady
Match12 Sep 2026
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Carpi scored in the 92th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
No sign of nerves from Cristian Carrara at 18 — 7.93
The hardest thing about being 18 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Cristian Carrara did not need any: 7.93, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Elia Giani runs at them all day
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.
Match12 Sep 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Cristian Carrara. 2‑1 against Sambenedettese, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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 Carpi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces14 Sep 2026
At 23 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Elia Giani runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Tempers go at Carpi
Tommaso Panelli 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Davide Zagnoni
“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
Steady
Squad17 Aug 2026
Erik Gerbi 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 Carpi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market17 Aug 2026
Casarano paid $300.0K and Carpi took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Jacopo Sala has outgrown this division
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Carpi know it, and so does everybody who watches him.