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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at Carrarese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gonçalo Esteves 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Alfonso Grasso after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer 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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Sampdoria in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Arezzo in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Nicolás Schiavi scored, was marked 7.87, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
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.
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.
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.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 14 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Julián Illanes 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.
“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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Carrarese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gonçalo Esteves 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 dugout23 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Alfonso Grasso to a room that had heard them before.
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.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
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.
Südtirol 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.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jacopo Martini trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Carrarese will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
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 afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 12 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
0-4, and long before the end the away end had switched from encouragement to something considerably more pointed. Nobody rings a phone-in about losing narrowly.
Matthias Braunöder 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 Nicolás Schiavi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
David Vujević 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.
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.
“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 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.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Tommaso Rubino is 19, and for one weekend he was the best of everybody his age in the division. Nobody should build a career on it and everybody quietly does.
In brief
The dugoutFilippo Reale is still being punished for one mistake
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 midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 13 actions, 7.01, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 13 actions, 6.59, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
A point taken on 91 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.
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.
A 1‑1 draw with Cremonese leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Alfonso Grasso chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Tommaso Guercio is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Alfonso Grasso to a room that had heard them before.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Nikola Sekulov’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.
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 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 Giovanni Gabriele Garofani has written the date down.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Gabriele Parlanti is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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 Gonçalo Esteves was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Nicolás Schiavi’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.
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.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
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.
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
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.
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.” Alfonso Grasso after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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 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 7.99 for the rest of it.
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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Dachi Lordkipanidze 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 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.
Vicenza 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.
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.
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.
“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.
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.
“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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Carrarese close the window on a squad of their own making
12 in and 2 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.
Carrarese had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Dinamo Zagreb, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Stefano Mazzini reports back to Carrarese with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Squad7 Sep 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.
Carrarese asked and Inter said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Gonçalo Esteves 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.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Lorenzo Romani is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Nicolás Schiavi has moved up it.
“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.
The offer from Stade Nyonnais for Giovanni Gabriele Garofani 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at PAOK is saying, and nobody at Carrarese is enjoying the guessing.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. PAOK have kept their man, and Carrarese go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Nicholas Bonfanti. 1‑0 against Mantova, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The deal with PAOK 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 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.
Nicola Ravaglia 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 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.
Carrarese had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Como, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Torino have kept their man, and Carrarese go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
Add another name to the list: Ascoli have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Stefano Mazzini. The answer from Carrarese has not changed — yet.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Las Palmas 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.
Carrarese asked and Sassuolo 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Giorgio Bartoli 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. Marco Mazza 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. Filippo Melis 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. Pietro Sanna 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 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.
“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.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Stefano Mazzini has his answer from Carrarese; what he does with it is the next window’s story.