Marked for Ivan Saio
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match23 Oct 2027
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 4‑0 against Crotone, and it could have been more.
Player ratings25 Oct 2027
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Alexandre Duville-Parsemain provided it, and the 8.72 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings25 Oct 2027
Two goals and a mark of 8.17 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Match23 Oct 2027
Nobody wants to play Bari right now
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Squad25 Oct 2027
A row about effort at Bari
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Arthur Gomes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings25 Oct 2027
Marked 8.42 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad25 Oct 2027
200 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Sandro Villa on a 4‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Player ratings25 Oct 2027
Successful dribbles: 13. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match11 Sep 2027
Bari strike at the death to beat Potenza
There were 89 minutes on the clock and Potenza had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Bari did not stop to explain themselves.
Squad13 Sep 2027
A move Arthur Gomes would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Arthur Gomes is living that version at Bari, and it tends to show in the first month.
Market13 Sep 2027
“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 The request is on a desk at Bari, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match11 Sep 2027
Bari cannot stop winning
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Market13 Sep 2027
The deal that would have taken Ivan Saio to Empoli has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Bari with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Words at Bari training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Arthur Gomes 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 ratings13 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match11 Sep 2027
Bari get the job done against Potenza
A 1‑0 win over Potenza, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad13 Sep 2027
8 new faces, and Bari 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad19 Jul 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 45 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
Bari have gone to Como with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Market19 Jul 2027
Bari may not be able to give Mathías Laborda what he wants
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Mathías Laborda wants continental football; whether Bari can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
Bari asked and Altamura said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Giulio Maggiore 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.
Market19 Jul 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Bari have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad19 Jul 2027
“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; Bari are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The dugout19 Jul 2027
The manager makes an example of Ivan Saio
“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 dugout19 Jul 2027
Nobody at Bari 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad14 Jun 2027
Kevin Piscopo damages knee ligaments — 65 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 65 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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
A fracture rules Fernando Alarcón out for 86 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Bari will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2027
$10.3M settles it between the clubs for Gianluca Mancini
AS Roma have accepted the money. What Bari do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Market14 Jun 2027
Alessandro Renzi arrives at Bari in a $3.7M statement of intent
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Bari have paid $3.7M for Alessandro Renzi, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Alessandro Renzi has just signed for Bari, and for once the answer mattered.
Market14 Jun 2027
Ivan Saio puts it in writing
“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 Bari, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Casarano have kept their man, and Bari go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2027
The offer went to Bologna this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Market14 Jun 2027
Palermo paid $1.1M and Bari took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
In brief
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The terraces
Bari spend $3.7M on the signing the town wanted
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Squad
Words at Bari training over how hard people work
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The dugout
No hiding place for Flavio Junior Bianchi
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market7 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 Bari, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 8 in, 1 out at Bari
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 8 arrived, 1 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Everything agreed with Cremonese, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Padova wanted more than $300.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Anthony Partipilo is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Bari will explain it as a decision about the team, and it may well be one. A dressing room has never once read it that way.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Guido Gomez has moved up it.
The dugout7 Sep 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 Bari, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match29 Aug 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.
Boardroom31 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $307.1K — a club that wants Giovanni Giunti enough to be asked twice.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
$300.0K on the table at Padova. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Market31 Aug 2026
The fee is $180.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Pescara drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Spezia wanted more than $190.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dinamo Zagreb have kept their man, and Bari go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Matteo Della Morte was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.14. 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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Giulio Maggiore was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.01. 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Too much change too quickly at Bari
18 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad31 Aug 2026
27 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Pescara lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market31 Aug 2026
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Pescara have paid $5.0M for Leandro Andrade, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
The clubs have shaken hands with Cagliari; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Boardroom31 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $111.2K — a club that wants Mario Ierardi enough to be asked twice.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Catania wanted more than $110.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
The town asked, and Pescara paid $5.0M
Leandro Andrade was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $5.0M. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
Market31 Aug 2026
Bari pay $180.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Pescara asked and Cremonese said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
The deal with Polissia is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Market24 Aug 2026
Ivan Saio hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Pescara can pretend not to have heard.
Market24 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.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
$100.0K on the table at Catania. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Catania wanted more than $100.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
1 academy players handed senior numbers at Pescara
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Pescara asked and FC Argeș said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market24 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Emanuele Castelli is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Orji Okwonkwo 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $111.2K — a club that wants Andrea Allegretto enough to be asked twice.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
The offer went to Catania this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
$100.0K was the most the club would pay and Catania were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Pescara
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Orji Okwonkwo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Pescara
Lorenzo Meazzi 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A new face in his position and a shirt he thought he owned suddenly up for discussion. Pescara have promised nothing, which is what clubs promise at this stage.
Squad17 Aug 2026
This league is too small for Joselito
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Pescara will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Market17 Aug 2026
A season-long audition: Perugia still own him, but the shirt and the minutes are Pescara's to give. A loan is a bet both clubs believe they are winning.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
The offer went to Minnesota United FC this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Gastón Brugman and Pescara agree another 2 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Pescara
Sebastiano Desplanches 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.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Market3 Aug 2026
The name of Leonardo Graziani has come up in conversations Pescara were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Orji Okwonkwo 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Pescara will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Market3 Aug 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
Giacomo Olzer 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 Pescara, and both men came out saying it was fine.