From our football correspondent
Steady
Market24 Aug 2026
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Picerno waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Benevento is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market24 Aug 2026
“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.
Market24 Aug 2026
Benevento say no — this time
The offer from Lecce for Angelo Talia 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.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Everything agreed with Lazio, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad24 Aug 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 Benevento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
5 academy graduates step up at Benevento
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.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Benevento asked and Padova said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market24 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Alberto Fontana 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Pier Luigi Simonetti 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 Aug 2026
Benevento say no — this time
The offer from Pisa for Filippo Nardi 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Stefano Scognamillo 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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. AZ have kept their man, and Benevento go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout17 Aug 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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Estudiantes 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Antonio Prisco 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Benevento have no good answer.
Market17 Aug 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Leonardo Sernicola’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Market17 Aug 2026
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Raffaele Romano may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Aug 2026
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Wycombe Wanderers had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Paris Saint-Germain keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Stefano Scognamillo and Benevento agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Stefano Scognamillo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Estudiantes have kept their man, and Benevento go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market10 Aug 2026
The name of Filippo Nardi has come up in conversations Benevento were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to LOSC Lille: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Porto: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Benevento, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Simone Verdi commits to Benevento for another 2 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Benevento
Stefano Scognamillo 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.
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.
Market3 Aug 2026
36 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Paris Saint-Germain: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.