Marked for Răzvan Paşcalău
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match27 Mar 2028
Cosenza are in real trouble now
Position 20, 14 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Market27 Mar 2028
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Squad27 Mar 2028
A falling-out at Cosenza
Matteo Darmian and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
“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.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Giorgio Tumbarello 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.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Cosenza are still strangers to each other
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
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.
Looking ahead27 Mar 2028
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Virtus Entella in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Market27 Mar 2028
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Aldo Florenzi signs something — a contract at Cosenza or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market11 Oct 2027
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Cosenza can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Matías Pérez Acuña 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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
A row about effort at Cosenza
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mattia Zaramella was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mattia Zaramella, and the manager let it.
Loan watch11 Oct 2027
“I did not go to Cagliari to sit and watch. I want to come back to Cosenza and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
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.
Looking ahead11 Oct 2027
Empoli next, and one man in the Cosenza dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Cosenza have no good answer.
Market11 Oct 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Michele Emmausso signs something — a contract at Cosenza or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market30 Aug 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Lumezzane waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Cosenza is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Match28 Aug 2027
Still nobody has beaten Cosenza
The unbeaten run reaches 10. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Market30 Aug 2027
Mantova come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Cosenza did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
The dugout30 Aug 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Cosenza may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Transfer targets30 Aug 2027
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Cosenza have done the hard part with Potenza, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Market30 Aug 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Cosenza is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad30 Aug 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cosenza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets30 Aug 2027
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.
Squad30 Aug 2027
A row about effort at Cosenza
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mattia Zaramella was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market7 Jun 2027
Cosenza say no — this time
The offer from Cagliari for Simone Mazzocchi 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.
Market7 Jun 2027
“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.
Market7 Jun 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alessandro Arioli will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Cosenza the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Transfer targets7 Jun 2027
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Cosenza have done the hard part with Frosinone, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Transfer targets7 Jun 2027
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 Jun 2027
Michele Emmausso 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 Jun 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Răzvan Paşcalău and Cosenza agree another 4 years.
Transfer targets7 Jun 2027
Temperley have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Market7 Jun 2027
“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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad24 May 2027
A falling-out at Cosenza
Mario Perlingieri and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout24 May 2027
Matteo Rizzo has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Cosenza 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.
Market24 May 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Aldo Florenzi’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout24 May 2027
The manager makes Germán Niz a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Cosenza. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The dugout24 May 2027
Sofiane Achour 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.
Squad24 May 2027
The least glamorous thing a foreign signing ever does and the one that decides most of them. A player who can hear the shout behind him is a different footballer from one who cannot.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout10 May 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Cosenza may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market10 May 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Cosenza is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The dugout10 May 2027
“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.
The dugout10 May 2027
Michele Emmausso 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.
The dugout10 May 2027
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 Enrico Giannini is on it.
Squad10 May 2027
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Cosenza the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad29 Mar 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Nicolò Contiliano and Cosenza agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad29 Mar 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cosenza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
The manager makes an example of Ed McJannet
“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 dugout29 Mar 2027
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.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
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.
Market29 Mar 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Cosenza know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Squad29 Mar 2027
A wage question at Cosenza
Matteo Rizzo has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
The manager makes Germán Niz a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Cosenza. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Squad29 Mar 2027
“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 Cosenza will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad16 Nov 2026
A falling-out at Cosenza
Matías Pérez Acuña and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Paolo Dametto
“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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Baldovino Cimino 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.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Baldovino Cimino 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.
Market16 Nov 2026
The name of Aldo Florenzi keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Cosenza say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad26 Oct 2026
Răzvan Paşcalău damages knee ligaments — 15 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 15 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.
Match24 Oct 2026
Cosenza cannot stop winning
7 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
A falling-out at Cosenza
Matías Pérez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match24 Oct 2026
Another one collected away from home
4 on the bounce on the road for Cosenza. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Match24 Oct 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Riccardo Palmieri’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Cosenza.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.10, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
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.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Germán Niz, and the manager let it.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Nicolò Barbieri could afford to be generous.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad19 Oct 2026
Răzvan Paşcalău damages knee ligaments — 22 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 22 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.
Match17 Oct 2026
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Cosenza scored in the 91th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.34, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Match17 Oct 2026
Cosenza cannot stop winning
6 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Match17 Oct 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Aldo Florenzi. 3‑2 against Foggia, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Match17 Oct 2026
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for Cosenza. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
17 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad12 Oct 2026
Răzvan Paşcalău damages knee ligaments — 29 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 29 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.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Aldo Florenzi and Cosenza agree another 4 years.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Germán Niz 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 Cosenza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Oct 2026
15 new faces, and Cosenza 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.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alessandro Dalmazzi, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad5 Oct 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Răzvan Paşcalău
36 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Cosenza lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match3 Oct 2026
Cosenza make it 5 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Cosenza have 5 straight wins of it.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at Cosenza
Matías Pérez 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.
Match3 Oct 2026
Three points for Cosenza, 3‑1 the final word against Casertana in a contest settled by the finer margins.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Four weeks in which nobody in the division did his job better. The award goes on a shelf and the player goes back into the side, which is the order Cosenza prefer.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Marked 7.63 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Cosenza had the best player on the pitch.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Wages swallow 86% of the Cosenza income
Every club 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 it has been tried.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Aug 2026
26 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Cosenza lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market10 Aug 2026
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Cosenza have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Squad10 Aug 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 Cosenza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Cremonese have kept their man, and Cosenza go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad10 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. Cosenza will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Răzvan Paşcalău and Cosenza agree another 4 years.
Market10 Aug 2026
61 months and counting on Matteo Rizzo
Still no offer on the table, and Matteo Rizzo’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
AZ have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Market10 Aug 2026
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Aldo Florenzi commits to Cosenza for another 4 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Cosenza
Mario Perlingieri and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Spezia have kept their man, and Cosenza go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market3 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Cosenza have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Cosenza
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gianluca Clemente was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad3 Aug 2026
15 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Market3 Aug 2026
24 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan move for Rubén López is in the works
Cosenza have made the call to Deportivo La Coruña. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Market3 Aug 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Cosenza, another week without a signature from Gianluca Clemente.