From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match20 Feb 2027
The wait goes on for Arezzo
11 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.
Market22 Feb 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Arezzo can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
“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.
Match20 Feb 2027
A goal on 89 minutes turned three points into one and a good afternoon into an argument about game management that will run until Saturday.
Loan watch22 Feb 2027
23 appearances away from home and 11 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
Boardroom22 Feb 2027
Wages eat 94% of everything Arezzo 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.
Match20 Feb 2027
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 dugout22 Feb 2027
Matteo Gilli knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Arezzo, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
Half-satisfied: Simone Greco on the draw
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match13 Feb 2027
No end in sight to Arezzo's wait for a win
10 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Arezzo has to find a result from somewhere.
Match15 Feb 2027
Arezzo sink to position 19
19 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Squad15 Feb 2027
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.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
Nicolò Gigli: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Arezzo have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad15 Feb 2027
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Arezzo are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
The manager makes an example of Federico Serra
“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.
Loan watch15 Feb 2027
The goals keep arriving from Mario Ravasio’s exile
10 goals in 22 games at Foggia — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Arezzo updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Matteo Gilli's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Arezzo, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match6 Feb 2027
9 matches without a win for Arezzo
The run now stands at 9, and the questions being asked around Arezzo are no longer polite ones.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
Arezzo had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Lazio, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Matteo Gilli, and the manager let it.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 10 actions, 6.71, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Loan watch8 Feb 2027
21 appearances at Foggia and the goals keep coming. Arezzo are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
Match6 Feb 2027
It needed Camillo Tavernelli to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Catanzaro, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Arezzo, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout8 Feb 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.” Simone Greco chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
The dugout8 Feb 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match30 Jan 2027
0‑3 to Cremonese, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Match30 Jan 2027
8 matches without a win for Arezzo
The run now stands at 8, and the questions being asked around Arezzo are no longer polite ones.
Market1 Feb 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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
7 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
The dugout1 Feb 2027
Marco Chiosa: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Arezzo have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 0 signed and 0 gone
That is the business done at Arezzo until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
The deal with Lazio is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Match30 Jan 2027
3 matches without a goal for Arezzo
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
The dugout1 Feb 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market25 Jan 2027
“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 Arezzo, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match23 Jan 2027
7 matches without a win for Arezzo
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Arezzo are no longer polite ones.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
Everything agreed with Udinese, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Como have kept their man, and Arezzo go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout25 Jan 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.
Match19 Jan 2027
A bad afternoon for Arezzo against Padova
0‑1 to Padova, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Match25 Jan 2027
Halfway: Arezzo sit in position 19
17 points at the turn. The first half of a season is a promise; the second is a bill, and the town is about to find out which of the two this one was.
Boardroom25 Jan 2027
Wages eat 90% of everything Arezzo 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.
Loan watch25 Jan 2027
19 appearances at Lecco and the goals keep coming. Arezzo are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match18 Jan 2027
Arezzo are in real trouble now
Position 18, 16 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.
Match16 Jan 2027
5 matches without a win for Arezzo
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Arezzo are no longer polite ones.
Match16 Jan 2027
A bad afternoon for Arezzo against Vicenza
2‑3 to Vicenza, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
“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.
Match16 Jan 2027
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Alessandro Arena had Arezzo level again within 1 minutes, and Vicenza never got to play with a lead at all.
Squad18 Jan 2027
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Luca Chierico did the work nobody counts — 6.67
9 combined actions and 6.67. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
Squad18 Jan 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Milo Da Rugna and Arezzo agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Simone Greco after 2‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market11 Jan 2027
Arezzo say no — this time
The offer from Padova for Luca Trombini 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.
Match9 Jan 2027
No end in sight to Arezzo's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Arezzo has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad11 Jan 2027
At 19 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.
Match9 Jan 2027
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Transfer targets11 Jan 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.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
The manager makes an example of Matteo Gilli
“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 ratings11 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 17. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout11 Jan 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 1‑3 defeat, delivered by Simone Greco to a room that had heard them before.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
Lazio 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad4 Jan 2027
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Arezzo have had the benefit of it.
Squad4 Jan 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mauro Coppolaro and Arezzo agree another 4 years.
Match2 Jan 2027
Arezzo cannot find the net
3 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.
Match2 Jan 2027
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
“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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
“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 Arezzo know it.
The dugout4 Jan 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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Simone Greco to a room that had heard them before.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
Arezzo have made the call to Torino. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
A loan move for Adrien Tamèze is in the works
Arezzo have made the call to Torino. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market28 Dec 2026
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Camillo Tavernelli has his answer from Arezzo; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Camillo Tavernelli, and the manager let it.
Squad28 Dec 2026
200 times in these colours, in all weathers and under four or five different managers. That kind of service is quietly disappearing from the game.
Boardroom28 Dec 2026
111% of the income goes out in wages at Arezzo
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.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Simone Greco was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Arezzo dressing room was either.
Squad28 Dec 2026
One yellow too many, and a match watched from the stand. The most avoidable absence in football, and Arezzo will feel it on Saturday.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Marco Olivieri's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Match26 Dec 2026
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Mantova will be the happier side with the point.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The dugout21 Dec 2026
Gabriel Taglioni: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Arezzo have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match19 Dec 2026
0‑2 to Virtus Entella, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Giacomo Venturi
“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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
200 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Wildo Alonso is not the player he was
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 36 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Simone Greco to a room that had heard them before.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
1 error, one goal, and a night in front of the same three seconds. He will see it tonight, tomorrow and probably in February, and everybody who has played knows exactly which frame he keeps stopping on.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Dec 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Alessandro Renzi and Arezzo agree another 5 years.
The terraces14 Dec 2026
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Match12 Dec 2026
At last: Arezzo win one
5 matches without a win, and then this, against Carrarese. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Match12 Dec 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Emiliano Pattarello’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Arezzo.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Marked 7.64. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Simone Greco, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Luca Chierico
“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 ratings14 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 13. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match7 Dec 2026
Arezzo are in real trouble now
Position 18, 12 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.
The dugout7 Dec 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.
Match5 Dec 2026
5 matches without a win for Arezzo
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Arezzo are no longer polite ones.
Squad7 Dec 2026
36 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Match5 Dec 2026
Cesena left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout7 Dec 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.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Simone Greco after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Arezzo than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
Squad7 Dec 2026
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Arezzo have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match28 Nov 2026
No end in sight to Arezzo's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Arezzo has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
13 combined actions and 6.72. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
Match28 Nov 2026
Empoli left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout30 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.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
108% of the income goes out in wages at Arezzo
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.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
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.
Looking ahead30 Nov 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Cesena in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad23 Nov 2026
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.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Matteo Gilli, and the manager let it.
Market23 Nov 2026
Marco Chiosa is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Arezzo has been clear about where Marco Chiosa stands, which is more than many ever get.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
Half-satisfied: Simone Greco on the draw
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
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.
Match21 Nov 2026
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Modena defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Looking ahead23 Nov 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Empoli in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 11. 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
At 32 he has made the position his own, and the man he took it from has to find something to say about it. Arezzo have a decision that made itself.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market16 Nov 2026
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Shaka Mawuli Eklu has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Arezzo.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Nicolò Gigli
“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 dugout16 Nov 2026
Matteo Gilli 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.
Looking ahead16 Nov 2026
A test against the best for Arezzo
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Modena.
Squad16 Nov 2026
“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 Arezzo will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Looking ahead16 Nov 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Modena in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Market16 Nov 2026
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Arezzo know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
The penny has dropped for Fali Candé
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Arezzo the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad9 Nov 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 11 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match4 Nov 2026
The cup run ends for Arezzo
0‑2 against Modena, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad9 Nov 2026
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
A promise honoured at Arezzo
Something was said to Fali Candé and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout9 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.
Match7 Nov 2026
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 dugout9 Nov 2026
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Simone Greco after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Somebody watched every match in the division at the weekend and decided he was the best thing in any of them. A small honour, and most careers end without one.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match31 Oct 2026
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.29 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The terraces2 Nov 2026
Arezzo supporters have found a favourite in Kevin Leone
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Kevin Leone 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.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Gennaro Iaccarino, and the manager let it.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
Wages swallow 108% of the Arezzo 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Wildo Alonso and Arezzo agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad2 Nov 2026
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Emiliano Pattarello is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑0, Simone Greco could afford to be generous.
Squad2 Nov 2026
The division's best last weekend was a Arezzo man
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Emiliano Pattarello was the best thing in any of them.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match24 Oct 2026
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 dugout26 Oct 2026
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Simone Greco after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
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.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 9. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager makes Marco Chiosa a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Arezzo. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Asked to play a role that is not his, or taken off before the hour once too often — Gennaro Iaccarino has let it be known that he does not like the way Arezzo are using him. Managers hear this long before the press does.
Squad26 Oct 2026
“If we are going to be beaten, let it not be because somebody in here could not be bothered.” He stood up and said it in front of everybody, which is a thing a squad remembers about a man for years.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Matteo Gilli on a tightrope all afternoon
Fouls conceded: 5. Booked early, careless late, and the referee’s patience gone by the hour mark.
Looking ahead26 Oct 2026
Next up at home: Ascoli, who go into it in position 13. The kind of fixture a season is quietly built on or quietly loses its shape in.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Oct 2026
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.
Match17 Oct 2026
Three points for Arezzo, 1‑0 the final word against Pisa in a contest settled by the finer margins.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 1‑0, already talking about the next one.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Looking ahead19 Oct 2026
Palermo next, and one man in the Arezzo dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
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.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Fali Candé makes the position his own
At 28 he is in the side on merit and somebody else is watching. Places at Arezzo are won quietly and lost loudly, and this one was won.
Squad19 Oct 2026
“If we are going to be beaten, let it not be because somebody in here could not be bothered.” He stood up and said it in front of everybody, which is a thing a squad remembers about a man for years.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout12 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Luca Chierico
“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.
Looking ahead12 Oct 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Andrea Cagnano’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Arezzo needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Market12 Oct 2026
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Camillo Tavernelli signs something — a contract at Arezzo or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Fali Candé arrived with a record at a bigger club than this one, and the room has treated him accordingly. The young ones watch him train; the senior ones watch to see whether it lasts.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
Squad12 Oct 2026
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
Looking ahead12 Oct 2026
Looking ahead: Pisa at home
A side in position 8 visits next. The result will not make anybody’s season and it could quietly break the shape of one, which is why the manager has been watching the video since Sunday.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
The manager comes out for Matteo Gilli
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Matteo Gilli has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match3 Oct 2026
The wait goes on for Arezzo
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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
500 times in these colours, in all weathers and under four or five different managers. That kind of service is quietly disappearing from the game.
Match3 Oct 2026
Arezzo leaking at the back
4 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Match3 Oct 2026
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
128% of the income goes out in wages at Arezzo
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.
The dugout5 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Leonardo Mancuso is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Simone Greco to a room that had heard them before.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Too much change too quickly at Arezzo
6 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad28 Sep 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.
Match26 Sep 2026
A bad afternoon for Arezzo against Avellino
1‑2 to Avellino, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad28 Sep 2026
50 for the club now, each one filed in somebody’s memory with a date and a scoreline. Numbers like this are what supporters argue about in twenty years.
The dugout28 Sep 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.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Simone Greco to a room that had heard them before.
Market28 Sep 2026
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Luca Chierico has his answer from Arezzo; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
Matteo Gilli knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Arezzo, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Looking ahead28 Sep 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Andrea Cagnano’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Arezzo needing him to play as if none of it matters.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The dugout21 Sep 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
0‑2 to Catanzaro, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Simone Greco after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad21 Sep 2026
“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 Arezzo will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Looking ahead21 Sep 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Andrea Cagnano’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Arezzo needing him to play as if none of it matters.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Squad21 Sep 2026
A wage question at Arezzo
Matteo Gilli 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.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 9. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad21 Sep 2026
A season on the outside for Fali Candé
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Arezzo has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market14 Sep 2026
“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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Match12 Sep 2026
Pietro Cianci scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Cremonese, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Simone Greco to a room that had heard them before.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout14 Sep 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.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The plan did not have a place for Matteo Gilli
Nobody at Arezzo is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Gennaro Iaccarino trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Looking ahead14 Sep 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Leonardo Mancuso’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Arezzo needing him to play as if none of it matters.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market7 Sep 2026
“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 Arezzo, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Arezzo close the window on a squad of their own making
6 in and 3 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.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
The paperwork begins on Fali Candé
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Arezzo have done the hard part with Sassuolo, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Stade Rennais keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Andrea Cagnano 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Too much change too quickly at Arezzo
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Arezzo will explain it as a decision about the team, and it may well be one. A dressing room has never once read it that way.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Matteo Gilli moves up the pecking order
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Arezzo than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
“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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad31 Aug 2026
7 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Market31 Aug 2026
Spezia come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Arezzo did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Match29 Aug 2026
Three points for Arezzo, 2‑1 the final word against Juve Stabia in a contest settled by the finer margins.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Marked 8.18 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Match29 Aug 2026
Arezzo hit back inside 2 minutes
Juve Stabia held the lead for 2 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Arezzo answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
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.” Simone Greco kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market24 Aug 2026
“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.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
5 academy graduates step up at Arezzo
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Market24 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Filippo Zanetti has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market24 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Leandro Caruso 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.
Market24 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Alessandro Tarantino is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Como: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
Arezzo say no to the training-ground money
The plan went upstairs and came back down. Nothing about that will make a headline anywhere else, and everybody who works at the training ground will remember it for years.
Looking ahead24 Aug 2026
Looking ahead: the trip to Juve Stabia
Position 8 for the hosts, a long journey for the away end, and a fixture that will look ordinary on paper right up until it is not.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
The manager plants his flag on Mauro Coppolaro
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Mauro Coppolaro’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 Aug 2026
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Arezzo have done the hard part with Atalanta, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Artur Ioniţă pulls a muscle — 17 days out
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 17 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Aug 2026
A move Federico Serra would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Federico Serra is living that version at Arezzo, and it tends to show in the first month.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Arezzo have done the hard part with Lazio, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Arezzo had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Como, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Pietro Cianci commits to Arezzo for another 3 years.
Market10 Aug 2026
Everyone has stopped pretending: Pianese will make the call about Mattia Viviani this week. Arezzo have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Market10 Aug 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Squad10 Aug 2026
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Como 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
He is 20, and nobody at Arezzo signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Leonardo Mancuso commits to Arezzo for another 2 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Arezzo
Leonardo Mancuso 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Arezzo
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alessandro Arena was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Artur Ioniţă calls time on his country
“81 caps was 81 more than the boy who started ever expected.” At 35 he has stepped away from the national side and has not stepped away from Arezzo.
Market3 Aug 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Como 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.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan move for Elseid Hysaj is in the works
Arezzo have made the call to Lazio. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
Pietro Cianci knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Arezzo, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market3 Aug 2026
49 months and counting on Matteo Gilli
Still no offer on the table, and Matteo Gilli’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.