From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
A defender's afternoon for Marco Sala
Defensive actions: 53. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 37 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Match4 Nov 2026
Avellino through in the cup
A 1‑0 win over Cosenza, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Market9 Nov 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 The request is on a desk at Avellino, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad9 Nov 2026
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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Armando Izzo 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 Avellino this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Nov 2026
“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; Avellino are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Marked 9.02 — 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.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
A performance of 8.90 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match31 Oct 2026
A 2-goal lead gone for Avellino
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Pescara kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Avellino will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Cosimo Patierno, 35, rolls back the years — 8.15
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.15 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad2 Nov 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 Avellino this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market2 Nov 2026
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Gabriel Novaes wants continental football; whether Avellino can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
Wages eat 168% of everything Avellino 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Armando Izzo gets it from the manager
“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.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.83, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Mattia Destro 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Avellino told Juan Diego Castillo something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
24 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 ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Tommaso Biasci 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Avellino training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lorenco Šimić 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.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 18 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Squad26 Oct 2026
5 new faces, and Avellino 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Juan Diego Castillo is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad19 Oct 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 Avellino this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match17 Oct 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Lorenco Šimić 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Andrea Favilli, and the manager let it.
In brief
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Boardroom
Nobody left the Avellino dressing room in a hurry
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Player ratings
The one thing Cosimo Patierno could not do
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Cosimo Patierno, 35, rolls back the years — 8.34
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.34 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Armando Izzo 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 Avellino this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Justin Kumi is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad12 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.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Defensive actions: 20, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Match10 Oct 2026
A 1‑0 win over Spezia, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad12 Oct 2026
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.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
8 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Oct 2026
Armando Izzo 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Filippo Reale 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.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
264% of the income goes out in wages at Avellino
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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Juan Diego Castillo, and the manager let it.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Lorenco Šimić 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.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Ninety minutes of Gennaro Tutino at his very best
Marked 8.23. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Avellino.
Loan watch5 Oct 2026
“I did not go to Siracusa to sit and watch. I want to come back to Avellino and fight for my place.” 1 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.
Match3 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 terraces5 Oct 2026
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad28 Sep 2026
Armando Izzo 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 Avellino this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match26 Sep 2026
Roberto Insigne scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑3 to Palermo, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Marked 8.78 — 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Avellino training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lorenco Šimić 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.
Squad28 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad21 Sep 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Cosimo Patierno, 35, rolls back the years — 8.07
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.07 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Armando Izzo 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
A defender's afternoon for Luca Palmiero
Defensive actions: 23. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Match19 Sep 2026
Frosinone made Avellino work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 19 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
Upbeat
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
34 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 ratings14 Sep 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 23 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Tommaso Biasci 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 ratings14 Sep 2026
Ninety minutes of Gennaro Tutino at his very best
Marked 8.92. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Avellino.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Cosimo Patierno, and the manager let it.
Match12 Sep 2026
Three points for Avellino, 1‑0 the final word against Mantova in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Avellino training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lorenco Šimić 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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad14 Sep 2026
5 new faces, and Avellino 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Sep 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 Avellino this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market7 Sep 2026
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Gabriel Novaes wants continental football; whether Avellino can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Match5 Sep 2026
Gennaro Tutino scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Südtirol, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
320% of the income goes out in wages at Avellino
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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Juan Diego Castillo, and the manager let it.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Ninety minutes of Gennaro Tutino at his very best
Marked 8.40. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Avellino.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Lorenco Šimić 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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Squad7 Sep 2026
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Juan Diego Castillo knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad31 Aug 2026
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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
27 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Tommaso Biasci 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 ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
A performance of 8.91 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Match29 Aug 2026
Three points for Avellino, 2‑0 the final word against Virtus Entella in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Defensive actions: 20, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Squad31 Aug 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Squad31 Aug 2026
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Avellino have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 Aug 2026
Armando Izzo 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.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
Graduation day at Avellino
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Lorenco Šimić 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.
Market24 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Massimo Casella is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market24 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Michele Sartori 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
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Salvatore Raimondi 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 Aug 2026
Armando Izzo 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 Avellino this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market17 Aug 2026
The name of Arthur Spadoni has come up in conversations Avellino were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Gabriel Novaes 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
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Armando Izzo and Avellino agree another 2 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Armando Izzo 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 Avellino this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market10 Aug 2026
36 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Tommaso Biasci and Avellino agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Armando Izzo 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 Aug 2026
Lorenco Šimić 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
36 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Armando Izzo knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Armando Izzo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Avellino, another week without a signature from Marco Armellino.