At 18 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.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Flavio Di Dio has improved at 26, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pietro Ciotti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Casarano can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Casarano is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
At 23 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.
At 27 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Words at Casarano training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Flavio Di Dio 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 Casarano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Position 18 and 27 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.
“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 The request is on a desk at Casarano, and it is not being withdrawn.
Niccolò Chiorra 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Sandro Piras has just signed for Casarano, and for once the answer mattered.
Casarano asked and Lecce said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Casarano, another week without a signature from Giovanni Pinto.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Casarano can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Casarano they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Casarano have done the hard part with Modena, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Casarano 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.” Casarano have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Casarano have done the hard part with Ravenna, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Casarano 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.
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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Casarano will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
“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 Casarano, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Elgün Bayramov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Casarano the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The deal with Lecco 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.
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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Leonardo Leporini has just signed for Casarano, and for once the answer mattered.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 19 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.
Position 18 and 27 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.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Casarano can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
“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 Casarano, and it is not being withdrawn.
The phone has started ringing about Andrea Santarcangelo again, and this time the name on the line is Sorrento. Casarano are listening politely and promising nothing.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Casarano have done the hard part with Bari, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Arturo Calabresi and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pietro Ciotti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
26 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Casarano lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The terraces29 May 2028
The mood at Casarano has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Casarano is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Arturo Calabresi 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.
Squad29 May 2028
Pietro Ciotti 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.
33 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Casarano lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Casarano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Something was said to Cosimo Chiricò and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Casarano, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Giovanni Pinto has written the date down.
3 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Casarano could ask drops and the wages Elgün Bayramov can ask rise.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Casarano can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pietro Ciotti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
The dugout15 May 2028
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 Nicolò Sala left the room before anybody could ask which.
10 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Vito Leonetti and Casarano agree another 2 years.
Squad8 May 2028
Pietro Ciotti 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.
Andrea Santarcangelo was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
1‑5 against Salernitana, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Casarano can pretend not to have heard.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.05 at 37, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Leandro Versienti will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Casarano the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Arturo Calabresi 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.
6 goals in one match, Cosimo Patierno on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Casarano and Salernitana.
“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 Casarano, and it is not being withdrawn.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Casarano 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 Casarano 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.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Raffaele Maiello will call it something else in private.
7 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.
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 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.
Position 18 and 27 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.
“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 Casarano, and it is not being withdrawn.
Arturo Calabresi 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 one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Casarano, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“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.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Leandro Versienti will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Casarano the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Arturo Calabresi 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 Raffaele Maiello was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 7.98 for the rest of it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Casarano 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 Raffaele Maiello was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Pietro Ciotti will call it something else in private.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Giugliano scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Casarano have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Casarano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Something was said to Federico Accornero and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Casarano can pretend not to have heard.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Casarano will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
7.59, 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.
Niccolò Chiorra and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Raffaele Maiello was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Raffaele Maiello.
Level with 90 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Casarano had all but put away. Cavese will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
The mood at Casarano has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Casarano can pretend not to have heard.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 22 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Leandro Versienti will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Casarano the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Leandro Versienti has agreed terms with Monopoli for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Arturo Calabresi 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 29 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Two goals and a mark of 8.12 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 Casarano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
The dugout28 Feb 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.” Nicolò Sala kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 36 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Casarano can pretend not to have heard.
Arturo Calabresi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Words at Casarano training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raffaele Maiello is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Nicolò Sala after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
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.
In brief
SquadThe division's best last weekend was a Casarano man
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.68 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Arturo Calabresi and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Successful dribbles: 22. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Juan David Arizala 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.
“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 Casarano, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 4 arrived, 6 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Arturo Calabresi 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.
“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 dugout7 Feb 2028
Karlo Lulić is still being punished for one mistake
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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Casarano have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“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 Casarano, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Casarano 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 Raffaele Maiello was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Casarano asked and Udinese said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Edoardo Pierozzi. 1‑0 against Picerno, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.10 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Both clubs in the mire, one fixture between them, and a ground that will be louder and more frightened than at any point in the season. Casarano know what is at stake and so does everybody in the away end.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Raffaele Maiello was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Nicolò Sala after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Position 18 and 14 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.
“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 Casarano, 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.” Casarano have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Casarano have done the hard part with Carrarese, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Arturo Calabresi 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. Venezia have kept their man, and Casarano go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Half the programme played, position 18, 14 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Casarano 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 Casarano can pretend not to have heard.
Arturo Calabresi 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.
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.
Admira Wacker have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Andrea Santarcangelo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Casarano the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Arturo Calabresi 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.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Words at Casarano training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raffaele Maiello 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 Casarano, and it is not being withdrawn.
Arturo Calabresi 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Nicolò Sala after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
In brief
The dugoutGiovanni Pinto dropped after a run of poor form
8 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Casarano 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.” Casarano have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.09 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Raffaele Maiello was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
0‑3 to Trapani, 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 Casarano 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.
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.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Casarano is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Niccolò Chiorra 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.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Casarano will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Edoardo Pierozzi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Casarano are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Arturo Calabresi 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.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Words at Casarano training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raffaele Maiello 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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Nicolò Sala after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Position 17 and 9 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 Casarano can pretend not to have heard.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.93 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Raffaele Maiello was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Casarano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 21. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Casarano can tell you which week it ends in.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Edoardo Pierozzi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Casarano told Arturo Calabresi something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Casarano, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Casarano is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Arturo Calabresi 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.
“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 Casarano, and 5 appearances in 15 say he has earned the hearing.
14 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Casarano lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
At 2 goals adrift this was a formality, and the formality lasted right up until it did not. Casarano found something the first half had given no notice of, and Cavese could not hold what they had.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.72 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Arturo Calabresi 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: Cosimo Patierno. 3‑2 against Cavese, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Raffaele Maiello was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
21 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Casarano lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.
28 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Casarano lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
4 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Casarano 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 Raffaele Maiello 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 dugout18 Oct 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Nicolò Sala to a room that had heard them before.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Casarano is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Arturo Calabresi 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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Words at Casarano training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raffaele Maiello 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 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 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 Casarano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
0‑1 to Monopoli, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout4 Oct 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Nicolò Sala to a room that had heard them before.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Juan David Arizala is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Andrea Santarcangelo obliged against Vicenza. 2‑1 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Casarano.
Arturo Calabresi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Words at Casarano training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raffaele Maiello 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.
9 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Casarano have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Casarano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Lourenço Teixeira is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
At 31 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Words at Casarano training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raffaele Maiello 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.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Casarano is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Niccolò Chiorra 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.
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Casarano asked and Carrarese said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Casarano can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Casarano close the window on a squad of their own making
19 in and 11 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.
Casarano had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Napoli, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Italo Mota has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Niccolò Chiorra and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Casarano can pretend not to have heard.
Borna Knezović has gone, the accounts have $2.6M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
The offer from Alverca for Andrea Santarcangelo 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.
Padova paid $2.6M and Casarano took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Marco Ferilli is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
“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 Casarano, and it is not being withdrawn.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.
Casarano offered $200.0K; Livorno 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.
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 phone has started ringing about Vincenzo Ferrara again, and this time the name on the line is Forli. Casarano are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Words at Casarano training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Arturo Calabresi 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. Avellino have kept their man, and Casarano go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Catanzaro had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Casarano will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about 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 Casarano can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Casarano they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Arturo Calabresi 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 26 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Casarano can pretend not to have heard.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Livorno is saying, and nobody at Casarano is enjoying the guessing.
Arturo Calabresi and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Raffaele Maiello was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Casarano asked and Venezia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Cittadella waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Casarano is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Casarano will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
$260.0K 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.
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. Empoli have kept their man, and Casarano go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Casarano will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Mattia Attinasi has just signed for Casarano, and for once the answer mattered.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Casarano 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Casarano know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Casarano people have started saying his name in the past tense.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Casarano will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The offer from Crotone for Francesco Grandolfo 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.
Niccolò Zanellato has gone, the accounts have $940.0K in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Casarano is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, and a scan that said otherwise. He goes back to Udinese; Casarano go back to the market; and both will insist there is no story here.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.24, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Bari paid $940.0K and Casarano took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
20 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Casarano lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Casarano have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Casarano will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The terraces12 Jul 2027
Supporters turn on the $300.0K sale of Denny Pucci
He is going to Ravenna, the club has $300.0K it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
The name of Francesco Grandolfo has come up in conversations Casarano were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The deal with Udinese 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.
Niccolò Chiorra 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.
28 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Casarano lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Casarano 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 Casarano people have started saying his name in the past tense.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Casarano have done the hard part with Benevento, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
35 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Casarano lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 71 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Casarano have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Gustavo Rigazzi and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vincenzo Ferrara was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
42 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Casarano lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 78 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The offer from Potenza for Francesco Grandolfo 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 Casarano can pretend not to have heard.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.24, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Casarano offered $720.0K; Picerno 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.
51 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Casarano lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 85 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Casarano can pretend not to have heard.
The deal that would have taken Andrea Santarcangelo to Ascoli has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Casarano with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
The offer went to Picerno 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.
Add another name to the list: Potenza have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Francesco Grandolfo. The answer from Casarano has not changed — yet.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Gustavo Rigazzi is a Casarano player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
At 23 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.
Andrea Santarcangelo 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.
58 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Casarano lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Casarano will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Altamura waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Casarano is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Casarano can pretend not to have heard.
Casarano 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.
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Words at Casarano training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vincenzo Ferrara 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 Casarano 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Casarano, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“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 Casarano, and it is not being withdrawn.
A season average of 7.24 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Casarano know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Niccolò Chiorra 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 Vincenzo Ferrara was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Raffaele Maiello trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nobody at Casarano 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.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Andrea Santarcangelo has written the date down.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Nicolò Sala after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer 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.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Karlo Lulić trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Casarano is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Casarano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Casarano told Raffaele Maiello something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Nicolò Sala after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Casarano have had the benefit of it.
“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.
Squad3 May 2027
Words at Casarano training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vincenzo Ferrara 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 particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Borna Knezović provided it, and the 9.01 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Casarano and Trapani in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
It finished 3‑3, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at Casarano training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vincenzo Ferrara 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.
Niccolò Chiorra was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
A point taken on 90 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Cosimo Chiricò will call it something else in private.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vincenzo Ferrara was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.19 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Andrea Santarcangelo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Casarano 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 Casarano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Cosimo Patierno. 2‑1 against Casertana, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.09, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Words at Casarano training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vincenzo Ferrara 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 10 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vincenzo Ferrara was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Francesco Grandolfo.
In brief
SquadA place in the month's best eleven for Borna Knezović
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.13 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Ismael Cajazzo 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.
Successful dribbles: 18. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at Casarano training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vincenzo Ferrara 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 dugout29 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.” Nicolò Sala kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Andrea Santarcangelo 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.
Something was said to Vito Leonetti and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words at Casarano training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vincenzo Ferrara is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
“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.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Casarano they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout15 Mar 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 Nicolò Sala left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.” Filippo Bacchin has his answer from Casarano; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Ismael Cajazzo
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.03 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Gustavo Rigazzi 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Cosimo Patierno. 1‑0 against Crotone, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Casarano, another week without a signature from Cosimo Chiricò.
Sorrento will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Casarano were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings1 Mar 2027
Borna Knezović, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.34
A mark of 8.34 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Niccolò Chiorra 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.
He is 21 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.
Successful dribbles: 26. 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.
Niccolò Chiorra 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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Francesco Grandolfo has his answer from Casarano; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
“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.
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
BoardroomWages eat 89% of everything Casarano earn
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Casarano they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Up for the corner, and Karlo Lulić delivers — 7.68
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Karlo Lulić scored, was marked 7.68, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
1 for Federico Giraudo, marked 7.92, 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 Casarano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Casarano and Monopoli in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
1‑4 to Audace Cerignola, 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 could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑4, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at Casarano training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vincenzo Ferrara 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 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.
Signings arrive with a picture of the club in their head, and this one’s picture was bigger than the building. He will play well and he will be gone, in that order, and everybody knows it.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Borna Knezović has come out of that comparison in the side, and Casarano have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Casarano have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 4 arrived, 1 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
A season average of 7.18 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Casarano know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Casarano asked and Empoli said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.91 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The phone has started ringing about Andrea Santarcangelo again, and this time the name on the line is Bra. Casarano are listening politely and promising nothing.
Andrea Santarcangelo 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.
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.
Two goals and a mark of 9.29 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Pisa have kept their man, and Casarano go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Gustavo Rigazzi and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Successful dribbles: 19. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Casarano people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Franco Gastaldello has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Fabrizio Neri 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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Gustavo Rigazzi has his answer from Casarano; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Casarano training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ismael Cajazzo 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 offer from Frosinone for Cosimo Patierno 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.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.97 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Borna Knezović, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.19
A mark of 8.19 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Casarano have had the benefit of it.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.16, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Niccolò Chiorra 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.
Niccolò Chiorra 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 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Casarano told Raffaele Maiello something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑4, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vincenzo Ferrara was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Level with 94 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Casarano had all but put away. Salernitana will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
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.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.73 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Borna Knezović did not need any: 8.00, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Simone De Angelis is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Nicola Gatti is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Successful dribbles: 18. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Casarano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The instruction has come from upstairs rather than from the dugout, which is the version of this conversation no manager enjoys. Somebody in that squad is now available whether the man who picks the team thinks so or not.
The young player of the month award goes to a 21-year-old at Casarano who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Nicolò Sala after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Borna Knezović, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.05
A mark of 8.05 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Casarano told Pietro Ciotti something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Casarano training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ismael Cajazzo 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 Casarano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Francesco Grandolfo scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Catania, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Nicolò Sala to a room that had heard them before.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.08 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
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 is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Nicolò Sala after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Squad16 Nov 2026
The division's best last weekend was a Casarano man
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Cosimo Patierno was the best thing in any of them.
In brief
The dugoutIsmael Cajazzo dropped after a run of poor form
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Cosimo Patierno provided it, and the 9.88 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Two goals and a mark of 9.00 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.07, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Niccolò Chiorra 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Cesare Battaglia 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.
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.91 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
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 young player of the month award goes to a 21-year-old at Casarano who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Nicolò Sala after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Borna Knezović did not need any: 8.20, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
He is 21 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.
9 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Casarano training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vincenzo Ferrara is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Casarano scored in the 93th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Casarano 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 Ismael Cajazzo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Nicolò Sala kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Casarano have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Crotone in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.49 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Casarano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Cosimo Patierno. 2‑0 against Siracusa, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Ruggero Pavone is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Tiziano Raimondi 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.
1 for Raffaele Maiello, marked 7.37, 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.
Niccolò Chiorra 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 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Stefano Negro, and the manager let it.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Nicolò Sala left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Cosimo Patierno provided it, and the 9.18 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
21 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Flavio Di Dio 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.
He is 21 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Cosimo Patierno. 2‑0 against Audace Cerignola, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad28 Sep 2026
9 new faces, and Casarano 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.
In brief
SquadWords at Casarano training over how hard people work
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Cosimo Patierno provided it, and the 9.17 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
Flavio Di Dio 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Ismael Cajazzo 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.
Picerno made Casarano work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Nicolò Sala, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Audace Cerignola in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Cosimo Chiricò had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Potenza were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.40 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Valerio Lombardo 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.
200 times in these colours, in all weathers and under four or five different managers. That kind of service is quietly disappearing from the game.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Casarano training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vincenzo Ferrara 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 is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 2‑2 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 13 arrived, 0 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Crvena Zvezda have kept their man, and Casarano go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Andrea Santarcangelo 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 manager has re-ordered his thinking and Pietro Ciotti has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
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 dugout7 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Nicolò Sala was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Casarano dressing room was either.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Altamura defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Casarano asked and Mantova said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
9 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Austria Wien have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Vito Leonetti’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Casarano needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Next up on the road: Altamura, position 18. The supporters who go will talk about it all week and the ones who do not will check their phones at ten to five.
Gustavo Rigazzi 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.