From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market1 Feb 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market1 Feb 2027
“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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
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.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
Marked 7.66 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.96 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 2 signed and 2 gone
That is the business done at Casarano until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
Everything agreed with Cremonese, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad1 Feb 2027
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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Yanis Paquillé gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Yanis Paquillé has just signed for Casarano, and for once the answer mattered.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad25 Jan 2027
The match ball belongs to Cosimo Patierno, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Market25 Jan 2027
“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 The request is on a desk at Casarano, and it is not being withdrawn.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 dugout25 Jan 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Match23 Jan 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Cosimo Patierno. 3‑1 against Cavese, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
Casarano asked and Giugliano said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
The game went through Cosimo Chiricò — 6.71
Marked 6.71 on 12 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Match23 Jan 2027
Cavese blown away early
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Cavese tried to reorganise, Casarano did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
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.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
A loan move for Salvatore Elia is in the works
Casarano have made the call to Cremonese. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market18 Jan 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Catanzaro waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Casarano is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Yorkman Tello 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.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Cremonese have kept their man, and Casarano go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match16 Jan 2027
0‑2 to Sorrento, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
Karlo Lulić gets it from the manager
“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 Jan 2027
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
A loan enquiry to Hellas Verona: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
Somebody else is better right now than Ismael Cajazzo
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Squad18 Jan 2027
One yellow too many, and a match watched from the stand. The most avoidable absence in football, and Casarano will feel it on Saturday.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Raffaele Maiello, 35, rolls back the years — 8.27
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.27 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
The deal with Hellas Verona 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad11 Jan 2027
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 35 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Match9 Jan 2027
A 2‑1 win over Audace Cerignola, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
“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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Casarano training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gaetano Logoluso 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.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
Cremonese 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market4 Jan 2027
Casarano say no — this time
The offer from Hellas Verona 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.
Market4 Jan 2027
“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.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
The deal with Hellas Verona 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 38 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Match2 Jan 2027
0‑2 to Potenza, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Vito Leonetti, and the manager let it.
Market4 Jan 2027
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
The dugout4 Jan 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 0‑2 Davide Messina left the room before anybody could ask which.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match26 Dec 2026
0‑3 to Bari, 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
8 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words exchanged at Casarano
Mario Mercadante 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Casarano training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yorkman Tello 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 dugout28 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Yorkman Tello
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Boardroom28 Dec 2026
131% of the income goes out in wages at Casarano
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.
Match28 Dec 2026
Casarano at the halfway mark
Half the programme played, position 6, 19 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
Boardroom28 Dec 2026
Nobody left the Casarano dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Casarano told Vito Leonetti something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
At 35 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.18, and nobody on the pitch better.
Match19 Dec 2026
Whatever happens, Casarano do not lose
7 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad21 Dec 2026
A falling-out at Casarano
Yorkman Tello and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match19 Dec 2026
Three points for Casarano, 2‑0 the final word against Foggia in a contest settled by the finer margins.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Niccolò Zanellato, and the manager let it.
Squad21 Dec 2026
A row about effort at Casarano
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gaetano Logoluso was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Davide Messina could afford to be generous.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 13. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 13 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Dec 2026
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Federico Giraudo 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.
Match12 Dec 2026
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Casarano did not have in the autumn.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“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 dugout14 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Davide Messina was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Casarano dressing room was either.
Squad14 Dec 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.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
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.
Match12 Dec 2026
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Casertana will be the happier side with the point.
Looking ahead14 Dec 2026
Foggia next, and one man in the Casarano dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match5 Dec 2026
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.23, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Borna Knezović, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.84
A mark of 7.84 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Casarano training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yorkman Tello 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
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.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Market7 Dec 2026
“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 Patierno.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Pietro Ciotti makes the team of the month
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout7 Dec 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.” Davide Messina, on a 3‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
No sign of nerves from Borna Knezović at 21 — 8.07
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Borna Knezović did not need any: 8.07, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Casarano
Yorkman Tello 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.
Match28 Nov 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Borna Knezović’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Casarano.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
Wages eat 130% of everything Casarano earn
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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Casarano training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gaetano Logoluso 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 dugout30 Nov 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Davide Messina could afford to be generous.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Defensive actions: 15, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
Cosimo Patierno asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Casarano may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
No sign of nerves from Borna Knezović at 21 — 7.65
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Borna Knezović did not need any: 7.65, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Match21 Nov 2026
The wait goes on for Casarano
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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
A falling-out at Casarano
Yorkman Tello and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The terraces23 Nov 2026
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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
100 times in these colours, in all weathers and under four or five different managers. That kind of service is quietly disappearing from the game.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match21 Nov 2026
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Davide Messina after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Nov 2026
Federico Giraudo was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Casarano training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yorkman Tello 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 dugout16 Nov 2026
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Looking ahead16 Nov 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Mario Mercadante’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.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Looking ahead16 Nov 2026
Looking ahead: Monopoli at home
A side in position 14 visits next. The result will not make anybody’s season and it could quietly break the shape of one, which is why the manager has been watching the video since Sunday.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
A falling-out at Casarano
Karlo Lulić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad9 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Casarano
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yorkman Tello was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market9 Nov 2026
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Vincenzo Ferrara has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Casarano.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Gaetano Logoluso, and the manager let it.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
Vito Leonetti asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The plan did not have a place for Cosimo Chiricò
Nobody at Casarano is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
Match7 Nov 2026
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Picerno came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout2 Nov 2026
Leonardo Pérez: that is not what I was promised
“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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Casarano
Yorkman Tello 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.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
Wages eat 130% of everything Casarano earn
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 dugout2 Nov 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Marked 7.78. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Squad2 Nov 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Pietro Ciotti
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Pietro Ciotti has come out of that comparison in the side, and Casarano have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Match31 Oct 2026
It needed Cosimo Patierno to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Altamura, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Davide Messina was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Casarano dressing room was either.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match24 Oct 2026
Beaten 0‑3 by Cosenza, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at Casarano
Federico Giraudo 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 dugout26 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Niccolò Zanellato, and the manager let it.
Boardroom26 Oct 2026
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Squad26 Oct 2026
A row about effort at Casarano
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gaetano Logoluso was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑3, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The plan did not have a place for Vito Leonetti
Nobody at Casarano is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
Looking ahead26 Oct 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Altamura in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Niccolò Chiorra trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Cosimo Chiricò, and the manager let it.
Match17 Oct 2026
Three points for Casarano, 1‑0 the final word against Salernitana in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
A performance of 8.14 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 37 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Casarano is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Gaetano Logoluso falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 1‑0, already talking about the next one.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
15 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Squad19 Oct 2026
One yellow too many, and a match watched from the stand. The most avoidable absence in football, and Casarano will feel it on Saturday.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Oct 2026
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 35 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Yorkman Tello 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.
Market12 Oct 2026
Ismael Cajazzo is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Casarano has been clear about where Ismael Cajazzo stands, which is more than many ever get.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“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.
Looking ahead12 Oct 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Salernitana in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Squad12 Oct 2026
This league is too small for Yorkman Tello
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Casarano will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Ismael Cajazzo knocks on the manager's door
“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 dugout12 Oct 2026
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Casarano. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Casarano will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
No sign of nerves from Borna Knezović at 21 — 7.88
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Borna Knezović did not need any: 7.88, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Match3 Oct 2026
The wait goes on for Casarano
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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
A falling-out at Casarano
Federico Giraudo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match3 Oct 2026
Casarano leaking at the back
4 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Match3 Oct 2026
Catania left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
166% of the income goes out in wages at Casarano
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Casarano training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gaetano Logoluso 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Casarano are still strangers to each other
8 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match23 Sep 2026
The small margins put Casarano out
Out, 0‑2 to Trento, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Squad28 Sep 2026
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Raffaele Maiello, 35, rolls back the years — 7.80
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.80 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at Casarano
Federico Giraudo 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Salvatore Cerbone is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad28 Sep 2026
The medical room confirms 15 days on the sidelines for Francesco Grandolfo, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Match26 Sep 2026
Raffaele Maiello scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑3 to Cavese, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Match26 Sep 2026
No time for Cavese to settle
The goal that put Cavese ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Casarano equalised, 3 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at Casarano
Karlo Lulić 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
Cosimo Patierno scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Sorrento, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Borna Knezović ran the middle of the pitch — 6.81
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 9 combined actions and a mark of 6.81, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Squad21 Sep 2026
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.
Looking ahead21 Sep 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Cosimo Chiricò’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.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
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.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 9. 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Marked 7.79 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Match12 Sep 2026
It finished 2‑1, and it was Flavio Di Dio’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Casarano.
The terraces14 Sep 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Borna Knezović 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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.04, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Niccolò Chiorra, and the manager let it.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Karlo Lulić beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 15. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 2‑1, already talking about the next one.
Squad14 Sep 2026
The one goal every signing is asked about until it comes. It has come, and a press-conference question has been retired.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The plan did not have a place for Cosimo Chiricò
Nobody at Casarano is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market7 Sep 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 12 signed and 1 gone
That is the business done at Casarano until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A falling-out at Casarano
Federico Giraudo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad7 Sep 2026
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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Casarano will explain it as a decision about the team, and it may well be one. A dressing room has never once read it that way.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Niccolò Zanellato has moved up it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market31 Aug 2026
“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.
Match29 Aug 2026
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Cosimo Patierno
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Too much change too quickly at Casarano
7 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Davide Messina to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Casarano have no good answer.
Squad31 Aug 2026
“Nobody outside is coming to save us.” It was short, it was not comfortable, and by all accounts the Casarano squad were quieter afterwards than they had been all season.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 6. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
Casarano turn down the training-ground plan
It is the quietest way a club tells you what its ambitions are. The money was asked for, the money was refused, and the people who work there every day now know exactly where they stand.
Looking ahead24 Aug 2026
Potenza next, and one man in the Casarano dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Looking ahead24 Aug 2026
Looking ahead: Potenza at home
A side in position 15 visits next. The result will not make anybody’s season and it could quietly break the shape of one, which is why the manager has been watching the video since Sunday.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
No thanks: Nick Homan rejects the move
Casarano had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at AZ, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Market17 Aug 2026
The minutes were not coming at Casarano, so they will be looked for at Bellinzona. A loan out is not a goodbye, but it is always a question: about the player, or about the plan.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Niccolò Zanellato is the talk of the training ground
Sharpest man there all week, by every account. It is the quietest line on this page and it usually runs the week before somebody’s run in the side begins.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Cosimo Patierno and Casarano agree another 1 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Casarano
Federico Giraudo 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.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Panathinaikos have kept their man, and Casarano go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Nicola D'Angelo 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Sandro Parisi is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Orazio Negri is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 Aug 2026
KuPS come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Casarano did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Raffaele Maiello and Casarano agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Karlo Lulić in a row with a teammate
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.
Market3 Aug 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Market3 Aug 2026
49 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
Squad3 Aug 2026
7 new faces, and 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.