Murilo 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.
At 22 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.
“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.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Isaac Prado 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.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Giugliano know which stage they are at.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Giugliano is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.22 for the rest of it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pedro Justiniano was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Luciano Peluso has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Giugliano can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
A goalkeeper’s error has no defender behind it to tidy it away. He knew before the ball crossed the line, the crowd knew a second later, and there is nothing anybody can say tonight.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Flavio Tagliabue after 1‑4, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Isaac Prado was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Giovanni Vaglica has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Jamal Iddrissou is 20, and for one weekend he was the best of everybody his age in the division. Nobody should build a career on it and everybody quietly does.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Giugliano is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
4 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.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Giugliano and Casertana in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Giugliano can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Arsenie Mocan knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 2‑4 defeat, delivered by Flavio Tagliabue to a room that had heard them before.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Isaac Prado 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.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Giugliano know it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pedro Justiniano was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Something was said to Luciano Peluso and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Marco Caldore’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Giugliano needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Alessandro Orlandi 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.
A mark of 7.72, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Words at Giugliano training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Isaac Prado 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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Flavio Tagliabue after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pedro Justiniano was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Giugliano will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Monopoli in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Salvatore La Vardera trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nobody at Giugliano 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Giugliano will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Giugliano have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Giugliano can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Flavio Tagliabue was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Giugliano dressing room was either.
In brief
Looking aheadA test against the best for Giugliano
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Marco Caldore
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 26 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The offer from Livorno for Isaac Prado 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Edgar Ghevondyan has, at Giugliano, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
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.
Alessandro Orlandi 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Luciano Peluso has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 33 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 Giugliano, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Giugliano close the window on a squad of their own making
13 in and 7 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Words at Giugliano training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pedro Justiniano 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Mantova have kept their man, and Giugliano go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Giugliano ran out of time with Cagliari. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Giugliano, another week without a signature from Luciano Peluso.
A new manager did not pick last season’s side and does not care what it looked like. Thomas Battistella has taken that personally, in the best sense, and Giugliano are seeing a version of him the last regime had stopped seeing.
Giugliano interviewed the field and appointed the corridor: Nicola Trevisan keeps the job he had been doing in all but title. Sometimes the safest pair of hands is the one already holding the wheel.
Squad3 May 2027
Words at Giugliano training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giuliano Laezza 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.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Giugliano than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
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.
Position 16 on 25 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Words at Giugliano training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giuseppe Borello 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.
Luigi D'Avino 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.
It finished 2‑2, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Nicola Trevisan chose the glass-half-full version of 2‑2; the supporters left with the other one.
Something was said to Luigi D'Avino and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Giugliano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Words at Giugliano training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giuliano Laezza 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.
11 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.
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.
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Nicola Trevisan was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Giugliano dressing room was either.
Words at Giugliano training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giuliano Laezza 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.
Successful dribbles: 17. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Giugliano will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
The dugout22 Mar 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.” Leonardo Bruno kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
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 Mario Prezioso is on it.
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.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.48 for the rest of it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Giuliano Laezza was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 2‑2 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Giugliano would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
7 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.
“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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at Giugliano training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giuseppe Borello 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 is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Giugliano, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.69 for the rest of it.
Pedro Justiniano 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.
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Leonardo Bruno was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Giugliano dressing room was either.
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Giugliano have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Cosenza in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Giugliano can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Giugliano close the window on a squad of their own making
12 in and 6 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Giuliano Laezza was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Almirante Brown have kept their man, and Giugliano go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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. Jérémie Broh has moved up it.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Catania in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Giuliano Laezza 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.
Giugliano asked and All Boys said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Gianluca Schiavone has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Luca Iannuzzi has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Marco Rinaldi is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Massimo Tombesi has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.