Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Carrarese will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Carrarese is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Gabriele Finocchiaro is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Riccardo Gnudi has, at Carrarese, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Carrarese this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
$330.0K was the most the club would pay and Monopoli were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Carrarese have made the call to Sporting CP. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Carrarese is running low.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Carrarese will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Davide Atzeni is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
$330.0K on the table at Monopoli. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
At 25 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Simone Zanon 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. West Ham United have kept their man, and Carrarese go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Carrarese, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Carrarese will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Gabriele Platto is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Stefano Amadio 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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Words at Carrarese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Simone Zanon 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Chesterfield have kept their man, and Carrarese go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Carrarese have made the call to Cukaricki. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Mirko Bartoli has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 70 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Carrarese people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fabio Abiuso was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Carrarese will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Liverpool is saying, and nobody at Carrarese is enjoying the guessing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Carrarese this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Simone Zanon was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ajax have kept their man, and Carrarese go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Carrarese will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Carrarese will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Stefano Amadio 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 easiest signature of my career.” Fabio Andrea Ruggeri and Carrarese agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Simone Zanon was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Renate have kept their man, and Carrarese go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The name of Giovanni Gabriele Garofani has come up in conversations Carrarese were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Carrarese will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The chase for Gabriele Finocchiaro ended with $1.0M changing hands and Juventus out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Domenico Dalla Valle is 17, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Mirko Paganelli 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Jacopo Colletti 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Mario Piazza 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.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 100 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
The clubs have shaken hands with Juventus; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
He is going to Pro Patria, the club has $2.1M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Carrarese had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at AZ, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Bra paid $520.0K and Carrarese took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Words at Carrarese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Simone Zanon 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.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Carrarese people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Carrarese will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Jonas Rouhi 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.
At 24 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
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.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Carrarese is running low.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Carrarese people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Carrarese will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The offer went to Lecce 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Carrarese have done the hard part with Eintracht Frankfurt, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Nikola Sekulov 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.
At 21 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.
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Filippo Oliana had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Carrarese have done the hard part with Juventus, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Carrarese this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nikola Sekulov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Massimo Basile 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.
A loan enquiry to Eintracht Frankfurt: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Carrarese. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Carrarese know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Mirko Bartoli has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Carrarese have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Niccolò Belloni will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Carrarese the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Jonas Rouhi 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nikola Sekulov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Mattia Saitta has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Carrarese this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 May 2027
Words at Carrarese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Filippo Oliana 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.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Carrarese know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Carrarese can pretend not to have heard.
Squad24 May 2027
Words at Carrarese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikola Sekulov 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.
Filippo Oliana 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Carrarese know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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.
4 goals in 19 games at Nimes — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Carrarese updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Carrarese. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Matthias Braunöder scored, was marked 7.60, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Carrarese this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Carrarese they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Player ratings10 May 2027
Tommaso Rubino, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.78
A mark of 7.78 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Carrarese and Avellino, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Julián Illanes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Mirko Bartoli has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Carrarese can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Squad3 May 2027
Words at Carrarese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikola Sekulov 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Carrarese this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
12 combined actions and 6.65. 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.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 20 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Carrarese can pretend not to have heard.
8 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Juve Stabia were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nikola Sekulov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is 20 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.
Marked 8.10 — 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.
8 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Nikola Sekulov 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Filippo Oliana was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑3 Mirko Bartoli left the room before anybody could ask which.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Carrarese is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Words at Carrarese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikola Sekulov 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Carrarese this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Daniele Messina is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Mirko Bartoli was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Carrarese dressing room was either.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Two goals and a mark of 8.72 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nikola Sekulov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Jonas Rouhi 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Carrarese can pretend not to have heard.
Venezia left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at Carrarese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Filippo Oliana 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.
Jacopo Martini 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nikola Sekulov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Filippo Oliana 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.
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 Mar 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Mirko Bartoli was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Carrarese dressing room was either.
Nobody at Carrarese 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Carrarese they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Words at Carrarese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikola Sekulov 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Carrarese this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Tommaso Rubino, and the manager let it.
The dugout15 Mar 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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Mirko Bartoli to a room that had heard them before.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Carrarese will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Giovanni Gamberini 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.
“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 dugout8 Mar 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Nikola Sekulov'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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Carrarese can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nikola Sekulov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Filippo Oliana 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.
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Julián Illanes was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
In brief
SquadGetting past Semuel Pizzignacco has become the hardest job in the division
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Carrarese will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Nikola Sekulov 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.
At 23 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nicolás Schiavi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Mirko Bartoli on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Catanzaro next, and one man in the Carrarese dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
91 minutes played. Nicholas Bonfanti found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Modena went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Carrarese will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Niccolò Belloni will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Carrarese the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Carrarese this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Mirko Bartoli on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Carrarese have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Carrarese will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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 Carrarese, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at Carrarese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikola Sekulov 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.
Tommaso Macchioni 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 dugout8 Feb 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑3 Mirko Bartoli left the room before anybody could ask which.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Carrarese will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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 Carrarese, and it is not being withdrawn.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Carrarese is running low.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Carrarese close the window on a squad of their own making
0 in and 1 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.
Nikola Sekulov 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.
Three points for Carrarese, 1‑0 the final word against Reggiana in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words at Carrarese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicolás Schiavi 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Carrarese will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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.
Nikola Sekulov 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dinamo Moscow have kept their man, and Carrarese go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The phone has started ringing about Federico Accornero again, and this time the name on the line is Al Fujairah. Carrarese are listening politely and promising nothing.
13 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Carrarese will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Carrarese people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Words at Carrarese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikola Sekulov 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.
Jonas Rouhi 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.
Palermo left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout18 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 Mirko Bartoli to a room that had heard them before.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Carrarese have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Carrarese will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Position 18 and 13 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
“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.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Tommaso Rubino, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.65
A mark of 7.65 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
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.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 68 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Carrarese have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The deal with Juventus 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.
Nikola Sekulov 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.
Position 18, 13 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Carrarese will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ernesto Torregrossa provided it, and the 7.96 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Carrarese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikola Sekulov 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.
Level with 95 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Carrarese had all but put away. Avellino will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Carrarese will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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.
Minute 94, against Cesena, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Carrarese this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Mirko Bartoli after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 90 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Position 18 and 10 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Stefano Fiorentino 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Mirko Bartoli after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 17 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 97 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 Carrarese, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nikola Sekulov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A point taken on 92 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Carrarese this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 10 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Carrarese will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Nikola Sekulov 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Carrarese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicolás Schiavi 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.
A point taken on 90 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
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.
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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Carrarese will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
5 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Carrarese this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Carrarese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Julián Illanes 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.
“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.
Boardroom23 Nov 2026
Nobody left the Carrarese dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑4 Mirko Bartoli left the room before anybody could ask which.
In brief
Looking aheadA test against the best for Carrarese
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 119 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Matthias Braunöder and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Carrarese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Julián Illanes 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.
A performance of 8.03 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Mirko Bartoli left the room before anybody could ask which.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 127 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 Carrarese, and it is not being withdrawn.
Nikola Sekulov 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Niccolò Belloni was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Jacopo Martini 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.
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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Matteo Marchetti and Carrarese agree another 3 years.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Mirko Bartoli left the room before anybody could ask which.
Successful dribbles: 14. 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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Filippo Reale is on it.
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
Matthias Braunöder had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Bari were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Matthias Braunöder scored, was marked 7.77, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
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.
Jonas Rouhi 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
10 new faces, and Carrarese 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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 2‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.29 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Carrarese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikola Sekulov 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.
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Carrarese have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
Bari next, and one man in the Carrarese dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Nikola Sekulov 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.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Filippo Melegoni commits to Carrarese for another 3 years.
Squad12 Oct 2026
David Vujević 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.
“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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Catanzaro in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Words at Carrarese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikola Sekulov 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.
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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Mirko Bartoli after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Fabio Andrea Ruggeri has come out of that comparison in the side, and Carrarese have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Nobody at Carrarese 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 hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Filippo Reale did not need any: 7.66, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Carrarese this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
10 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.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Mirko Bartoli left the room before anybody could ask which.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.32 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Nicolás Schiavi scored, was marked 7.54, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Tommaso Rubino 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 dugout21 Sep 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.” Mirko Bartoli, on a 3‑1 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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Carrarese. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Fabio Andrea Ruggeri and Carrarese agree another 4 years.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Feyenoord have kept their man, and Carrarese go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Emanuele Costantini 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Carrarese this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Grodig waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Carrarese is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Carrarese close the window on a squad of their own making
12 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.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Salernitana moved on, Stefano Mazzini reports back to Carrarese, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Carrarese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikola Sekulov 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.
“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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Carrarese people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Mattersburg keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
The name of Fabio Andrea Ruggeri has come up in conversations Carrarese were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Carrarese asked and Fulham said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Carrarese this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nikola Sekulov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Jonas Rouhi 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.
Carrarese asked and Benfica said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
Carrarese have made the call to Mattersburg. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Nicholas Bonfanti’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Carrarese needing him to play as if none of it matters.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Davide Piccini
Carrarese had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Brighton, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Nikola Sekulov 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.
Carrarese asked and Sporting CP 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 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Carrarese can pretend not to have heard.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Fabio Abiuso had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Carrarese this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. PSV have kept their man, and Carrarese go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Marcello Altieri 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Alfonso Mariani 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.
His past walked in ahead of him. Players who have been where he has been get a hearing in a dressing room before they have earned one, and he has it for as long as his form does.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Matthias Braunöder and Carrarese agree another 4 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Carrarese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matthias Braunöder 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.
11 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.