A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
“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 The request is on a desk at Carrarese, and it is not being withdrawn.
Carrarese have gone to Venezia with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Monza have kept their man, and Carrarese go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The name of Stefano Mazzini has come up in conversations Carrarese were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Benevento have kept their man, and Carrarese go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Rahul Sharma 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 have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Carrarese will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 35 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
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.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Virtus Entella had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
“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.
Julián Illanes 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Lecce have kept their man, and Carrarese go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Carrarese know it.
Carrarese interviewed the field and appointed the corridor: Emanuele Lombardi keeps the job he had been doing in all but title. Sometimes the safest pair of hands is the one already holding the wheel.
“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.
The offer from Avellino for Federico Accornero 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.
“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.
1 for Filippo Melegoni, marked 7.77, 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.
The deal with Virtus Entella 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.
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 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.
“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.
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.
Niccolò Belloni 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 Federico Accornero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 dugout29 May 2028
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.” Emanuele Lombardi, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
“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.
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.” Emanuele Lombardi on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
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.
“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.
14 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.
Rahul Sharma 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 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.
The end came on a Tuesday, as these things usually do: a short meeting, a shorter statement, and Marco Medici clearing his office by noon. Football’s cruellest ritual, performed to schedule.
Position 19 and 25 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 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.
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 picks the team on Saturday. This week it is me, and that is as far as I have thought.” No promises were made in either direction, which is how these usually begin.
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.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
“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.
Nicolò Zaniolo 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 was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Carrarese has been clear about where Nicolás Schiavi stands, which is more than many ever get.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Carrarese told Julián Illanes something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“I watch every Carrarese game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Parma runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“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.
4 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.
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.
500 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
0‑1 to Palermo, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Words at Carrarese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Federico Accornero 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.
Rahul Sharma 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.
Marked 6.72 on 11 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
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 did not go to Audace Cerignola to sit and watch. I want to come back to Carrarese and fight for my place.” 4 appearances in 33 matches say the rest.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
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 Marco Medici to a room that had heard them before.
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.
“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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Stefano Mazzini will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Carrarese the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Niccolò Belloni 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.
Player ratings10 Apr 2028
Nicolò Zaniolo was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.05. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
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.
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.
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.
0‑3 to Cagliari, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
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.
“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.
“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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Federico Accornero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Rahul Sharma 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.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Words at Carrarese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Federico Accornero 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Fabio Abiuso trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Carrarese will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
3 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Carrarese could ask drops and the wages Federico Accornero can ask rise.
Carrarese have let the market know Giovanni Gabriele Garofani can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
Two goals and a mark of 8.86 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Carrarese, and 4 appearances in 29 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
The dugout20 Mar 2028
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.” Marco Medici kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
He went out to keep goal every week and came back with 0 games and 0 of them shut out. Somebody at Carrarese argued for this move last summer; nobody is arguing for it now.
Nobody at Carrarese 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 16 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Position 19 and 21 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Stefano Mazzini will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Carrarese the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
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.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Carrarese can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
“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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Matteo Papaccioli is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Squad28 Feb 2028
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.
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.” Marco Medici after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Modena 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 Federico Accornero trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Nicolò Zaniolo. 2‑1 against Sampdoria, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
5 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Sampdoria were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
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 did not go to Audace Cerignola to sit and watch. I want to come back to Carrarese and fight for my place.” 4 appearances in 25 matches say the rest.
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.
0‑3 to Arezzo, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
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.
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.
Squad14 Feb 2028
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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Carrarese can tell you which week it ends in.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Mattia Finotto had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Marco Medici has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The bid was some way short and Carrarese did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Deadline passes with 2 signed and 4 gone
That is the business done at Carrarese until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
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. AS Roma have kept their man, and Carrarese go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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 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.
In brief
BoardroomNobody left the Carrarese dressing room in a hurry
“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 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.
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.
Carrarese asked and Forli 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.
Half the programme played, position 17, 17 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
“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.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Sambenedettese had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The offer from Juve Stabia for Nicola Ravaglia 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.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
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.
$390.0K was the most the club would pay and Renate 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.
Squad17 Jan 2028
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 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.
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. 12 actions, 6.77, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 87th, and Cosenza spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
“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.
Carrarese have gone to Renate with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Add another name to the list: Ravenna have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Mateo Scheffer. The answer from Carrarese has not changed — yet.
6 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Cosenza were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Squad10 Jan 2028
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Hamburger SV have kept their man, and Carrarese go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 15 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“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 Potenza for Federico Accornero 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.
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.
6 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
The phone has started ringing about Gabriele Parlanti again, and this time the name on the line is Sorrento. Carrarese are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad3 Jan 2028
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 22 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 5 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
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.
Fabio Andrea Ruggeri 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.
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.
“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.
“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.
4 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.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Carrarese can tell you which week it ends in.
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.
Rahul Sharma 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.
0‑3 to Venezia, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
“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.
Position 18 and 11 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.
“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 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.
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 chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
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.
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.
“I did not go to Dolomiti Bellunesi to sit and watch. I want to come back to Carrarese and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 22 matches say the rest.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Rahul Sharma is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Julián Illanes trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“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 crowd waited for a goal that never came. Palermo defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
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.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
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. 11 actions, 6.80, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Tomás Almada 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.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Jacopo Martini has his answer from Carrarese; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
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.
“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.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 15 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
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 Julián Illanes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A 1‑0 win over Virtus Entella, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Didier Leroux is 18, and Carrarese 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.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
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.” Marco Medici kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
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.
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.
“I watch every Carrarese game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Livorno runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
He is 19, and nobody at Carrarese signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
He is 18, and nobody at Carrarese signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
5 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 14 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
0‑3 to Cagliari, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Giuliano Barbagallo has, at Carrarese, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Carrarese, and 3 appearances in 10 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout8 Nov 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 0‑3 defeat, delivered by Marco Medici to a room that had heard them before.
Two goals and a mark of 9.16 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Two goals and a mark of 8.39 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Julián Illanes and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad1 Nov 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.
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Catanzaro spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
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.
The dugout1 Nov 2027
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.” Marco Medici kept it short after the 4‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
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.
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.
Squad25 Oct 2027
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.
Something was said to Simone Zanon and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout25 Oct 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 0‑1 Marco Medici left the room before anybody could ask which.
0‑3 to Modena, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Stefano Mazzini will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Carrarese the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad18 Oct 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.
Rahul Sharma 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.
7 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 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 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 Fabio Andrea Ruggeri is on it.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Modena in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
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.
Nicolás Schiavi 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.
Squad4 Oct 2027
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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Carrarese, and 0 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
Minute 86, against Parma, 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.
“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.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Words at Carrarese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tomás Almada 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.
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Marco Medici after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
David Spinelli 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.
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.
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad20 Sep 2027
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.
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.
16 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
At 20 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Leo Moya has just signed for Carrarese, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad13 Sep 2027
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.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Pisa scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
Add another name to the list: Sambenedettese have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Mattia Finotto. The answer from Carrarese has not changed — yet.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 19 arrived, 7 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Nicolò Zaniolo 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 version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Jallal-Dine Yansané is living that version at Carrarese, and it tends to show in the first month.
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Words at Carrarese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tomás Almada 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.
“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.
1 for Matthias Braunöder, 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.
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.
Rahul Sharma 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Alcione Milano waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Carrarese is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The deal with AC Milan 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.
Simone Zanon 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.
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
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 no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Valentino Marino 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.
“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.
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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Theo Di Carlo is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Carrarese asked and Genoa 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 name of Jakob Schragl has come up in conversations Carrarese were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Carrarese will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
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.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Carrarese that is a harder question to answer.
Add another name to the list: Sambenedettese have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Mattia Finotto. The answer from Carrarese has not changed — yet.
The offer went to Fiorentina 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.
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. Monza have kept their man, and Carrarese go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mattia Finotto trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The name of Stefano Mazzini has come up in conversations Carrarese were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Francesco Pio Attanasio and Carrarese agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
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.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mattia Finotto trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The offer from Padova for Stefano Mazzini 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Fiorentina have kept their man, and Carrarese go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Rahul Sharma 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 watch every Carrarese game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Lecce runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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 offer from Sambenedettese for Mattia Finotto 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.
“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.
Carrarese asked and Genoa 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.
He is 19, and nobody at Carrarese signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Add another name to the list: Sambenedettese have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Mattia Finotto. The answer from Carrarese has not changed — yet.
Carrarese have gone to Cosenza with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
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 Filippo Oliana was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
He is 19, and nobody at Carrarese signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
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.
Simone Zanon 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.
$140.0K was the most the club would pay and Livorno 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.
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. Arezzo have kept their man, and Carrarese go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
7 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.
“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.
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.
$140.0K on the table at Livorno. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
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 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.
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.
Carrarese and Como have settled on $120.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Carrarese asked and Fiorentina 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.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mattia Finotto trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
Add another name to the list: Giana Erminio have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Mattia Finotto. The answer from Carrarese has not changed — yet.
$1.1M on the table at Juventus. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
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.
“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.
Position 11 on 50 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
“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.
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 7.79 for the rest of it.
Squad7 Jun 2027
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Udinese have kept their man, and Carrarese go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Filippo Reale 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.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 85th, and Ascoli spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
1 for Nicolás Schiavi, marked 7.62, 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.
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.
5 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Ascoli were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
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.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Mattia Finotto.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Stefano Mazzini will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Carrarese the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
“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.
The dugout24 May 2027
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.” Marco Medici chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
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.
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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Carrarese can tell you which week it ends in.
Mamadou Gaye 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 dugout17 May 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 0‑1 Marco Medici left the room before anybody could ask which.
14 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Carrarese lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Beaten 0‑3 by Modena, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Squad10 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.
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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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.
22 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Carrarese lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 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.” 0‑1, 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.
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 7.76 for the rest of it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Stefano Mazzini will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Carrarese the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
A point taken on 88 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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Marco Medici after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
7.50, 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Giovanni Gabriele Garofani 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.
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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Marco Medici on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
14 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
1 for Filippo Melegoni, marked 7.79, 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.
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.
Squad12 Apr 2027
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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Cristian Bordoni and Carrarese agree another 3 years.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Carrarese told Filippo Melegoni something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Marco Medici after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
In brief
The dugoutFabio Abiuso knocks on the manager's door
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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Cristian Bordoni is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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.
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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 Dachi Lordkipanidze is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Fabio Abiuso signs something — a contract at Carrarese or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
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 7.80 for the rest of it.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
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.
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.
Marked 6.48 on 12 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Two goals and a mark of 8.98 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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.
“I watch every Carrarese game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Spezia runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
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.” Marco Medici, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Somebody watched every match in the division at the weekend and decided he was the best thing in any of them. A small honour, and most careers end without one.
1 for Filippo Melegoni, marked 7.67, 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Carrarese can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fabio Andrea Ruggeri was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Cremonese scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Marco Medici after the 3‑3 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Nicolás Schiavi scored, was marked 7.88, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Carrarese know it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Stefano Mazzini will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Carrarese the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
Gonçalo Esteves 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.
Marked 7.93 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Carrarese had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
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.” Marco Medici kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
In brief
Looking aheadCarrarese take on the side everybody is chasing
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Giovanni Gabriele Garofani will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Carrarese the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Matthias Braunöder 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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
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.
Fabio Abiuso scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Padova, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
The dugout22 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 1‑2 Marco Medici 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.
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.
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.
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.
“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.
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.
Carrarese asked and Parma 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 2‑0 win over Vicenza, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Nikola Sekulov was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.08. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
21 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad15 Feb 2027
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.
In brief
The dugoutNicolás Schiavi is still being punished for one mistake
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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.15 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Carrarese had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Genoa, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
“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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
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 Frosinone said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
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.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Stefano Mazzini had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
Tommaso Rubino, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.71
A mark of 7.71 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.
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Lazio is saying, and nobody at Carrarese is enjoying the guessing.
Carrarese asked and Lumezzane 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.
The clubs have shaken hands with Novara; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Carrarese have done the hard part with Genoa, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Stefano Mazzini will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Carrarese the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
Add another name to the list: Pescara have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Gabriele Parlanti. The answer from Carrarese has not changed — yet.
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 hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Tommaso Rubino did not need any: 8.00, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
The clubs have shaken hands with Lumezzane; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Carrarese offered $2.1M; Novara said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
The deal with Inter 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.
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.
The offer went to Novara 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Filippo Reale is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Carrarese asked and Frosinone said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
In brief
BoardroomNobody left the Carrarese dressing room in a hurry
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 hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Tommaso Rubino did not need any: 7.69, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Tommaso Rubino is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
The deal with AC Milan 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.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Tommaso Rubino. 2‑0 against Empoli, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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 hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Tommaso Rubino did not need any: 7.74, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Cristian Bordoni is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-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.
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 45 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Nicholas Bonfanti. 1‑0 against Sampdoria, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Carrarese has been clear about where Filippo Oliana stands, which is more than many ever get.
“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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad14 Dec 2026
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.
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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Carrarese told Fabio Abiuso something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Successful dribbles: 12. 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.
“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.
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.
Position 19 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 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.
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.
“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.
The award is a small thing with a heavy meaning: for four weeks nobody in this division did his job better. Carrarese have the trophy on a shelf and the player in the side.
David Vujević 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.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Matthias Braunöder. 2‑1 against Pisa, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Marco Medici could afford to be generous.
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 7.96 for the rest of it.
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.
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 dugout23 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.” Marco Medici, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
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.
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.
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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Südtirol in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Nobody at Carrarese 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.
“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.
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.
Sassuolo go through and Carrarese go home, 0‑3 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
0-3, 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.
Squad9 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.
Marked 6.90 on 13 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
0‑4 against Catanzaro, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Squad2 Nov 2026
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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Fabio Andrea Ruggeri is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The run now stands at 8, and the questions being asked around Carrarese are no longer polite ones.
Squad26 Oct 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Fabio Abiuso, and the manager let it.
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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Marco Medici after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Jacopo Martini 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Carrarese can tell you which week it ends in.
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 were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Marco Medici after 0‑1, 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.
In brief
Looking aheadA test against the best for Carrarese
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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
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.
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.
6 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.
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 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.
“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.
2 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Dachi Lordkipanidze did not need any: 7.95, 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.
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 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.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Benevento defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
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.
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.
0‑5 against Hellas Verona, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
“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 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.” 0‑5, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
David Vujević 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.
Beaten 5 times, 4 saves, and an afternoon that will go on his record whether it was his fault or the defence’s. It is the quiet unfairness of the position.
“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.
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.
The phone has started ringing about Stefano Mazzini again, and this time the name on the line is Campobasso. Carrarese are listening politely and promising nothing.
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.
In brief
The dugoutFilippo Oliana asks for a word with the manager
“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 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.
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.
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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 2‑2, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The deal with Lazio 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Lazio is saying, and nobody at Carrarese is enjoying the guessing.
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.
Carrarese have made the call to Sassuolo. 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Crvena Zvezda 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.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Reda Belahyane is in the works
Carrarese had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at AS Roma, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Matteo Vitale 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Gennaro 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Edoardo 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Mario Barbieri 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.
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.
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.