Emmanuele Salines 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.
Half the programme played, position 6, 22 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
The dugout28 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 Lorenzo Basile to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Mario Gargiulo'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.
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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Simone Leonardi, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.60
A mark of 7.60 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
1 for Emmanuele Salines, marked 7.93, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
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.
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.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Campobasso will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Lorenzo Carfora 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.
The dugout14 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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Lorenzo Basile to a room that had heard them before.
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.
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.
“Nobody outside is coming to save us.” It was short, it was not comfortable, and by all accounts the Campobasso squad were quieter afterwards than they had been all season.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Francesco Maisto provided it, and the 8.43 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Francesco Maisto 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.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Alessandro Martina has come out of that comparison in the side, and Campobasso have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The dugout7 Dec 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.” Lorenzo Basile kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
In brief
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Jacopo Sassi
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
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.” Lorenzo Basile, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Gubbio in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Simone Leonardi. 2‑0 against Pianese, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.19 — 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.
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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Lorenzo Basile on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Campobasso will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Lorenzo Carfora was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Campobasso training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Francesco Cerretelli 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Campobasso has been clear about where Francesco Cerretelli stands, which is more than many ever get.
Nobody at Campobasso 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.
Pianese next, and one man in the Campobasso dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Alfredo Bifulco has written the date down.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Federico Papini trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Campobasso will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Emmanuele Salines 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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Lorenzo Basile after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Campobasso will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Torino go through and Campobasso go home, 1‑3 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
7.94, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.87 for the rest of it.
Level with 85 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Campobasso had all but put away. Ravenna will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Francesco Maisto and Campobasso agree another 4 years.
Lorenzo Carfora 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.
9 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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Lorenzo Basile after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Nobody at Campobasso 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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Spezia in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Andrea Lombari trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Campobasso. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“I am not asking anybody to be better than they are. I am asking everybody to be as good as they are, every week.” Said out loud, in front of everybody, and the room at Campobasso was different afterwards.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Campobasso has been clear about where Christian Celesia stands, which is more than many ever get.
Nobody at Campobasso 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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Livorno in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Campobasso, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Edoardo Lancini has written the date down.
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.
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Riccardo Fogliata 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Francesco Maisto. 1‑0 against Vis Pesaro, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
100 times in these colours, in all weathers and under four or five different managers. That kind of service is quietly disappearing from the game.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
104% of the income goes out in wages at Campobasso
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.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Andrea Lombari scored in the 86th minute, Sambenedettese had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Campobasso took the lot.
At 20 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.
Lorenzo Carfora 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.
“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
9 new faces, and Campobasso 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Campobasso this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A goalkeeper’s error has no defender behind it to tidy it away. He knew before the ball crossed the line, the crowd knew a second later, and there is nothing anybody can say tonight.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Lorenzo Basile after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Sambenedettese next, and one man in the Campobasso dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Campobasso ran out of time with Altamura. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Giuseppe Bosco 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.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Campobasso can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
$240.0K settles it between the clubs for Alberto Spina
Altamura have accepted the money. What Campobasso do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 10 arrived, 0 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Cagliari is saying, and nobody at Campobasso is enjoying the guessing.
Campobasso ran out of time with Lumezzane. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Marco Decherf is 19, and Campobasso have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
“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 Campobasso, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer went to Lumezzane this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Campobasso asked and Spezia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad31 Aug 2026
8 new faces, and Campobasso 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Lorenzo Basile after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Campobasso have made the call to Cagliari. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Campobasso 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.
Campobasso asked and Rapid Bucharest said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
Pescara next, and one man in the Campobasso dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Campobasso have done the hard part with Lazio, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The deal with Cagliari 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.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Genoa keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Marco Fontana 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Romano Lombardi is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Fabrizio Milani is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Orazio Bertoni 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.
Lorenzo Carfora 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.
Emmanuele Salines 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.
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
7 new faces, and Campobasso 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.
Campobasso have made the call to Südtirol. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.