Marked for Andrei Anton
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market28 Oct 2030
“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 The request is on a desk at Triestina, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad28 Oct 2030
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad28 Oct 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Triestina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings28 Oct 2030
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.
Squad28 Oct 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alessandro Faggioli, and the manager let it.
Match26 Oct 2030
Virtus Verona left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Boardroom28 Oct 2030
113% of the income goes out in wages at Triestina
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.
Market28 Oct 2030
Idriz Voca linked with a move away
The name of Idriz Voca keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Triestina say nothing, which says plenty.
Player ratings28 Oct 2030
Olaf Kok keeps on missing
Shots: 5, not one of them in. A centre forward is paid for one thing, and on this evidence he has forgotten which thing it is.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match25 Sep 2030
Padova ended it 4‑5. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Market30 Sep 2030
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad30 Sep 2030
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.
Squad30 Sep 2030
Olaf Kok 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 Triestina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings30 Sep 2030
Marked 10.00 — 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.
Player ratings30 Sep 2030
A performance of 10.00 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings30 Sep 2030
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.87, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings30 Sep 2030
A performance of 8.78 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Boardroom30 Sep 2030
Wages eat 99% of everything Triestina earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad23 Sep 2030
There were 11 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Player ratings23 Sep 2030
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 28 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Squad23 Sep 2030
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Triestina have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad23 Sep 2030
Olaf Kok 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.
Player ratings23 Sep 2030
Defensive actions: 21, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Match21 Sep 2030
It finished 2‑0, and it was Olaf Kok’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Triestina.
Player ratings23 Sep 2030
One of those days for Olaf Kok
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.56, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings23 Sep 2030
A performance of 8.37 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad23 Sep 2030
Andrei Anton gets it from the manager
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom12 Aug 2030
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Triestina
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Squad12 Aug 2030
Olaf Kok 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.
Loan watch12 Aug 2030
“I watch every Triestina game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Pergolettese runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad12 Aug 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Andrei Anton, and the manager let it.
Squad12 Aug 2030
“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.
Market12 Aug 2030
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Christian D'Urso’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Jan 2030
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market14 Jan 2030
Triestina say no — this time
The offer from Parma for Leonardo Pedicillo 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.
Squad14 Jan 2030
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad14 Jan 2030
Olaf Kok 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 Triestina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match12 Jan 2030
0‑1 to Trento, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings14 Jan 2030
Nobody could get near Olaf Kok
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad14 Jan 2030
The manager makes an example of Andrei Anton
“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 ratings14 Jan 2030
Shots: 12. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
Player ratings14 Jan 2030
Shots: 4, enough of them from close enough that a striker in form scores two. He is not a striker in form.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market10 Dec 2029
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Triestina they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad10 Dec 2029
Olaf Kok 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.
Boardroom10 Dec 2029
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Triestina now.
Player ratings10 Dec 2029
One of those days for Olaf Kok
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.04, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad10 Dec 2029
6 goals and a season average of 7.33. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Player ratings10 Dec 2029
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match8 Dec 2029
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Squad10 Dec 2029
The manager makes an example of Andrei Anton
“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.
Squad10 Dec 2029
Christian D'Urso 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
Upbeat
Market12 Nov 2029
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad12 Nov 2029
Olaf Kok 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.
Boardroom12 Nov 2029
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Triestina now.
Match10 Nov 2029
Three points for Triestina, 3‑2 the final word against AlbinoLeffe in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings12 Nov 2029
One of those days for Olaf Kok
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.33, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings12 Nov 2029
Marked 8.57 — 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.
Squad12 Nov 2029
5 goals and a season average of 7.26. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Market12 Nov 2029
He is 20, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
Squad12 Nov 2029
The manager makes an example of Andrei Anton
“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
Uneasy
Boardroom6 Aug 2029
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Ciro Casella has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Market6 Aug 2029
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Marco Dalle Pezze will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Triestina the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad6 Aug 2029
Olaf Kok 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.
Boardroom6 Aug 2029
87% of the income goes out in wages at Triestina
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.
Squad6 Aug 2029
The manager makes an example of Andrei Anton
“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.
Market6 Aug 2029
The name of Kristjan Matošević keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Triestina say nothing, which says plenty.
Market6 Aug 2029
“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.
Squad6 Aug 2029
Hudson Davis 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
Uneasy
Squad11 Jun 2029
Leonardo Pedicillo 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.
Boardroom11 Jun 2029
123% of the income goes out in wages at Triestina
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.
Market11 Jun 2029
He is 19, and nobody at Triestina signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Squad11 Jun 2029
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Jefferson Diaz commits to Triestina for another 3 years.
Market11 Jun 2029
Triestina bring in an old head
Thulani Zungu is 37 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
Market11 Jun 2029
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Alessandro Faggioli’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad9 Apr 2029
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.
Market9 Apr 2029
Jakob Tschöll 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 Triestina can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings9 Apr 2029
Defensive actions: 26. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Squad9 Apr 2029
Getting past Kristjan Matošević has become the hardest job in the division
16 clean sheets and counting. Forwards used to back themselves here; now they shoot early, shoot wide, and look for somebody to blame.
Squad9 Apr 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Triestina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings9 Apr 2029
Nobody could get near Olaf Kok
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings9 Apr 2029
Defensive actions: 21, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Squad9 Apr 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alessandro Faggioli, and the manager let it.
Player ratings9 Apr 2029
Defensive actions: 15. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market12 Feb 2029
“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 Triestina, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad12 Feb 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Triestina may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad12 Feb 2029
Olaf Kok 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.
Squad12 Feb 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Markús Páll Ellertsson, and the manager let it.
Squad12 Feb 2029
Eetu Vertainen 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 Triestina, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market12 Feb 2029
The Olaf Kok story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Olaf Kok signs something — a contract at Triestina or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match13 Jan 2029
No end in sight to Triestina's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Triestina has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad15 Jan 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Triestina may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Leonardo Pedicillo 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 Jan 2029
Pro Vercelli left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Hudson Davis gets it from the manager
“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.
Player ratings15 Jan 2029
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The terraces15 Jan 2029
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
Player ratings15 Jan 2029
Shots: 8, enough of them from close enough that a striker in form scores two. He is not a striker in form.
Market15 Jan 2029
The Olaf Kok story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Olaf Kok signs something — a contract at Triestina or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.