Marked for Danilo Russo
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad1 May 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Ernesto Starita
125 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Benevento lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad1 May 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad1 May 2028
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Benevento will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market1 May 2028
“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 The request is on a desk at Benevento, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market1 May 2028
Chris Long has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Benevento they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Match29 Apr 2028
The wait goes on for Benevento
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.
Squad1 May 2028
Mattia Maita 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 Benevento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match29 Apr 2028
1‑3 to Cosenza, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings1 May 2028
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.80, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 Apr 2028
A one-man rearguard from Danilo Russo
There were 7 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.
Market3 Apr 2028
“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 The request is on a desk at Benevento, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings3 Apr 2028
Age has not caught Mattia Maita yet — 7.85
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.85 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market3 Apr 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Benevento is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad3 Apr 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Andrea Cristini commits to Benevento for another 2 years.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Gianmarco Vannucchi 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.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Mattia Maita 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.
Match1 Apr 2028
It finished 2‑1, and it was Christian Kouan’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Benevento.
Player ratings3 Apr 2028
A performance of 8.66 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match4 Mar 2028
7 matches without a win for Benevento
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Benevento are no longer polite ones.
Market6 Mar 2028
Angelo Talia 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 Benevento can pretend not to have heard.
Squad6 Mar 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Benevento may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match4 Mar 2028
Benevento cannot find the net
5 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad6 Mar 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Gianmarco Vannucchi commits to Benevento for another 4 years.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Mattia Maita 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 Benevento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Words at Benevento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Antonio Prisco 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.
Match4 Mar 2028
Potenza left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings6 Mar 2028
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match5 Feb 2028
No end in sight to Benevento's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Benevento has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Gianmarco Vannucchi 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 Feb 2028
Mattia Maita 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.
Match5 Feb 2028
Casertana left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings7 Feb 2028
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad7 Feb 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Danilo Russo commits to Benevento for another 1 years.
Squad7 Feb 2028
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.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
89% of the income goes out in wages at Benevento
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.
Market7 Feb 2028
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Jacopo Manconi’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market31 Jan 2028
Gubbio come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Benevento did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market31 Jan 2028
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Manuel Esposito will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Benevento the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom31 Jan 2028
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Manuel Esposito has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Mattia Maita 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.
Market31 Jan 2028
Carrarese paid $36.0K and Benevento took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad31 Jan 2028
“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.
Match29 Jan 2028
0‑1 to Giugliano, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Words at Benevento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Edoardo Pierozzi 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.
Squad31 Jan 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Danilo Russo and Benevento agree another 1 years.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings15 Nov 2027
37 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Player ratings15 Nov 2027
33 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Player ratings15 Nov 2027
Defensive actions: 24, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Jacopo Manconi 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.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Words at Benevento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mattia Maita 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.
Squad15 Nov 2027
The manager makes an example of Andrea Cristini
“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.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Nobody at Benevento 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.
Player ratings15 Nov 2027
Successful dribbles: 14. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match13 Nov 2027
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Crotone will be the happier side with the point.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings4 Oct 2027
Age has not caught Jacopo Manconi yet — 9.16
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.16 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad4 Oct 2027
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.
Squad4 Oct 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Mattia Maita commits to Benevento for another 2 years.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Jacopo Manconi 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.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Words at Benevento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mattia Maita 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.
Match2 Oct 2027
A 1‑1 draw with Trapani leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Player ratings4 Oct 2027
10 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
Market4 Oct 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Benevento know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Player ratings4 Oct 2027
Successful dribbles: 11. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.