Marked for Einar Galilea
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad10 Jul 2028
Tempers go at Empoli
Josh Doig 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.
Market10 Jul 2028
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Empoli they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Oliver Blini is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad10 Jul 2028
At 25 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Salvatore Elia 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.
Market10 Jul 2028
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Duccio Degli Innocenti signs something — a contract at Empoli or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match13 Dec 2027
Empoli refuse to drop out of the race
Position 2, 29 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Squad13 Dec 2027
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.
Market13 Dec 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad13 Dec 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 Empoli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Words at Empoli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Salvatore Elia 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.
Squad13 Dec 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Einar Galilea commits to Empoli for another 2 years.
Loan watch13 Dec 2027
Herculano Nabian: I did not sign for Empoli to play for other people
“Every summer it is another club, another set of team-mates, another manager to convince. I have done all that. Now I want a pre-season at Empoli and a proper look at me.” He remains Málaga’s player until the spell runs out — but the argument is with the club that owns him.
Player ratings13 Dec 2027
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.70 on the card, and the Empoli support went home talking about one name.
Player ratings13 Dec 2027
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 15 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match28 Aug 2027
The run at home goes on for Empoli
12 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Diego Perillo is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Tempers go at Empoli
Emmanuel Gyasi 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.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Words at Empoli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fredrik Sjøvold 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.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Market30 Aug 2027
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.
Player ratings30 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market30 Aug 2027
The Yael Trepy conversation is coming
Everyone has stopped pretending: Petrolul will make the call about Yael Trepy this week. Empoli have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Match28 Aug 2027
Empoli and Padova take a point apiece
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom16 Aug 2027
Pressure builds in the Empoli boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market16 Aug 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ismaël Konaté is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Market16 Aug 2027
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Squad16 Aug 2027
At 28 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Salvatore Elia 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
Market17 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Empoli
Antonio Candela 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Empoli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrea Fulignati 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.