Marked for Gianluca Busio
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Dec 2026
16 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Venezia lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad28 Dec 2026
A falling-out at Venezia
Juan Jesus and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match26 Dec 2026
7 unbeaten for Venezia
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 7 matches without defeat is a foundation Venezia did not have in the autumn.
Squad28 Dec 2026
14 goals and a season average of 7.31. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad28 Dec 2026
A row about effort at Venezia
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kike Pérez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match26 Dec 2026
Venezia make home a hard place to visit
9 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Boardroom28 Dec 2026
Wages eat 182% of everything Venezia 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.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
One of those days for Akor Adams
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.05, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Dec 2026
The words a physio says slowly. 38 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.
Match7 Dec 2026
Venezia are in among the leaders
Position 2 and 26 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Venezia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kike Pérez 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.
Loan watch7 Dec 2026
“I watch every Venezia game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Parma runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words exchanged at Venezia
Matías Moreno 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.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Gianluca Busio, and the manager let it.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
The month belongs to Akor Adams
The award is a small thing with a heavy meaning: for four weeks nobody in this division did his job better. Venezia have the trophy on a shelf and the player in the side.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Alessio Bruni was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Venezia dressing room was either.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Nov 2026
Juan Jesus 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Venezia
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kike Pérez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market16 Nov 2026
Marin Šverko is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Venezia has been clear about where Marin Šverko stands, which is more than many ever get.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Lorenzo Montipò 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 dugout16 Nov 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and Venezia will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
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 Antoine Hainaut is on it.
Market16 Nov 2026
Kike Pérez linked with a move away
The name of Kike Pérez keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Venezia say nothing, which says plenty.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Lorenzo Montipò has seen what the next man earns
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Venezia that is a harder question to answer.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. 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.
Match17 Oct 2026
7 unbeaten for Venezia
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 7 matches without defeat is a foundation Venezia did not have in the autumn.
Squad19 Oct 2026
At 18 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Venezia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kike Pérez 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.
Match17 Oct 2026
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 5 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
One of those days for Akor Adams
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.06, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad19 Oct 2026
A falling-out at Venezia
Matías Moreno and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
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.
Match17 Oct 2026
It needed Akor Adams to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Avellino, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad12 Oct 2026
Filip Stanković has improved at 24, which nobody expected
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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at Venezia
Matías Moreno 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.
Market12 Oct 2026
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Filip Stanković has his answer from Venezia; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout12 Oct 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Alberto Olteanu 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
A wage question at Venezia
John Yeboah 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.
Market12 Oct 2026
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Venezia know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Alessandro Pietrelli has written the date down.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Filip Stanković trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
In brief
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Market
The stand keeps filling up for Akor Adams
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Looking ahead
Home comforts ahead for Venezia
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The dugout
Kike Pérez keeps his manager's vote
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad21 Sep 2026
Juan Jesus 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 ratings21 Sep 2026
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.
Match19 Sep 2026
Three points for Venezia, 1‑0 the final word against Bari in a contest settled by the finer margins.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Gianluca Busio
“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 ratings21 Sep 2026
The afternoon belonged to Kike Pérez
A mark of 7.83, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Alessio Bruni on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Lorenzo Montipò trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market21 Sep 2026
Venezia have made John Yeboah available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Venezia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alberto Olteanu 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 Aug 2026
Castellón come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Venezia did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market3 Aug 2026
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Venezia heard it as anything else.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Juan Jesus and Venezia agree another 2 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Venezia
Juan Jesus and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market3 Aug 2026
The phone has started ringing about Lion Lauberbach again, and this time the name on the line is Eibar. Venezia are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Venezia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kike Pérez 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.
In brief
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Market
Nobody at Venezia has picked up the phone to Kike Pérez
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Squad
9 new faces, and Venezia are still learning each other
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The dugout
Akor Adams asks for a word with the manager