It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Casertana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 6.34 on 14 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Words at Casertana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Shady Oukhadda 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 is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Filippo Scotti provided it, and the 9.03 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“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 The request is on a desk at Casertana, and it is not being withdrawn.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 Casertana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Casertana and Latina in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Words at Casertana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Shady Oukhadda is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Casertana heard it as anything else.
Francesco Amatucci was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad4 Sep 2028
Words at Casertana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Kontek 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 mood at Casertana 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 hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Filippo Scotti did not need any: 8.89, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
The offer from Catania for Michele Vano was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Casertana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The name of Bruno Cantanhede has come up in conversations Casertana were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Words at Casertana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Shady Oukhadda 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 Bari for Gabriele Rocchi 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.
“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 Casertana, and it is not being withdrawn.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 15 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Casertana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 34 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 4 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.
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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Salvatore Vitale 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.
“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 Casertana, and it is not being withdrawn.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Filippo Scotti is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Casertana is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Karlo Butić was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
At 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.
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 upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Casertana is running low.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Casertana can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Francesco Ferrara is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Casertana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Daniele Franco has improved at 33, 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.
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 Signorini is 38 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
In brief
BoardroomCasertana pull $575.2K back off the table
The mood at Casertana 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 name of Karlo Butić has come up in conversations Casertana were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Cristian Dabellonio is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Pietro Martino 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.
“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 Casertana, and it is not being withdrawn.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Gabriele Bertolini is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Casertana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Thomas Pledl has improved at 34, 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.
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Casertana will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Words at Casertana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Francesco Amatucci is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
In brief
Boardroom103% of the income goes out in wages at Casertana
“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 Casertana, and it is not being withdrawn.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Michele Vano will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Casertana 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 Casertana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Words at Casertana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Shady Oukhadda 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.
8 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Casertana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Francesco Ferrara is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Words at Casertana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Francesco Amatucci 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 club looked outside for a month, found nothing it preferred, and handed the job to the man who had been doing it anyway. He knows the building; now he has to prove he knows the rest.
The terraces3 Jul 2028
The mood at Casertana 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 Casertana can pretend not to have heard.
Add another name to the list: Virtus Entella have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Karlo Butić. The answer from Casertana has not changed — yet.
Shady Oukhadda 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.
He is 20, and nobody at Casertana signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
“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 Casertana, and it is not being withdrawn.
Francesco Amatucci 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.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Casertana, and it is not being withdrawn.
Karlo Butić 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.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Casertana know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Squad19 Jun 2028
5 new faces, and Casertana 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Ivan Kontek is living that version at Casertana, and it tends to show in the first month.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Franck Rivollier was one of the reasons people came, and $930.0K does not replace that by itself.
Modena paid $930.0K and Casertana 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.
Four paragraphs on the club website, none of them about football. The board thanked him, wished him well, and had the search under way before the page went up.
The terraces5 Jun 2028
The mood at Casertana 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 Casertana can pretend not to have heard.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
“I am not thinking past Saturday, and I would advise nobody else to.” The caretaker’s first rule is to pretend the job is small; Teodoro Ferraro recited it perfectly.
Add another name to the list: Potenza have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Karlo Butić. The answer from Casertana has not changed — yet.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Casertana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Casertana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad29 May 2028
Words at Casertana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Francesco Amatucci is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Shady Oukhadda was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Francesco Bellone did not need any: 7.71, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Casertana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Leonardo Rodella is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
6 goals in one match, Giovanni Perini on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Casertana and Audace Cerignola.
Squad15 May 2028
Words at Casertana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Francesco Amatucci 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.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Casertana can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Casertana can pretend not to have heard.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Karlo Butić 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.
Position 17 and 32 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 Casertana, 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 Casertana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 May 2028
Words at Casertana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Francesco Amatucci is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Francesco Amatucci's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Casertana know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Casertana can pretend not to have heard.
Pietro Martino 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.
8 goals in 32 games at Alcione Milano — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Casertana updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Casertana can pretend not to have heard.
5 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.
Francesco Amatucci 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.
“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 Casertana, and it is not being withdrawn.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Casertana can tell you which week it ends in.
Shady Oukhadda 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.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Shady Oukhadda will call it something else in private.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Casertana is running low.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Casertana can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Casertana can pretend not to have heard.
Francesco Amatucci was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The 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.
“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 Casertana, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
The terraces27 Mar 2028
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 6 of the 30 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Casertana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Words at Casertana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Shady Oukhadda 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.
8 goals in 29 games at Alcione Milano — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Casertana updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Casertana can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Casertana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Words at Casertana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Francesco Amatucci is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Casertana know it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Thomas Pledl signs something — a contract at Casertana or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A mark of 7.78 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Francesco Bellone. 3‑1 against Monopoli, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.11 — 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Casertana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Casertana 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 Casertana, and it is not being withdrawn.
A mark of 7.64 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Francesco Amatucci 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
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.
Gabriele Indragoli 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.
8 goals in 25 games at Alcione Milano — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Casertana updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Casertana can pretend not to have heard.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Francesco Bellone did not need any: 7.67, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Words at Casertana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Francesco Amatucci 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.
At 19 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.
Leon Ćuk was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Casertana can pretend not to have heard.
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Casertana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Words at Casertana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Shady Oukhadda is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Giuseppe Pio Giordano and Casertana agree another 4 years.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Casertana can pretend not to have heard.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Giugliano moved on, Leon Ćuk reports back to Casertana, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Casertana has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Words at Casertana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Francesco Amatucci 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 Casertana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
“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 Casertana, 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 Casertana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Words at Casertana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Shady Oukhadda 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 long career reaches the week the player starts thinking about the last one. He would like it to be at the club that first put him on a pitch, and Casertana now know that too.
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.
8.46. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Denny Tassotti was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Casertana can pretend not to have heard.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Cristian Dabellonio is living that version at Casertana, and it tends to show in the first month.
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.
Pisa will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Filippo Checcacci has pre-agreed a move to Casertana, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
“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; Casertana are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“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 Casertana, and 0 appearances in 21 say he has earned the hearing.
“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 Casertana, and it is not being withdrawn.
Francesco Amatucci 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.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
“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; Casertana are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
A touch he did not want, a bounce he could not have read, and his name in the wrong column. There is no consoling a man after one of these, and Casertana will not try tonight.
Francesco Amatucci 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.
“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; Casertana are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Karlo Butić. 1‑0 against Audace Cerignola, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
17 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.
In brief
Player ratingsThe afternoon belonged to Karlo Butić
Boardroom85% of the income goes out in wages at Casertana
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Casertana 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.” Casertana have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Casertana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Casertana know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Casertana can pretend not to have heard.
Francesco Amatucci 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Casertana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Words at Casertana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Shady Oukhadda 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.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 19 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
9 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Foggia defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
“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 Casertana, 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 Casertana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Words at Casertana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Francesco Amatucci is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Casarano kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Casertana will be asked about the last half hour all week.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Casertana can pretend not to have heard.
One scored and one made, which is a different afternoon from scoring twice and an easier one to overlook. Marked 7.65, and involved in 2 of his side's goals.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Casertana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Words at Casertana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Shady Oukhadda 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Casertana, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Casertana know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Casertana can pretend not to have heard.
Francesco Amatucci 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 Casertana, and 0 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
“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 Casertana, and it is not being withdrawn.
The terraces15 Nov 2027
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 6 of the 28 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Casertana have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
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 given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Casertana know it.
Shots: 13. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Casertana can pretend not to have heard.
Francesco Amatucci was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Casertana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Words at Casertana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Shady Oukhadda is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Casertana know it.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Casertana, 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 Casertana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 6.49 on 15 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Words at Casertana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Francesco Amatucci is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Casertana can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Karlo Butić 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.
8.39. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Pietro Martino signs something — a contract at Casertana or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Casertana 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.” Casertana have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
One scored and one made, which is a different afternoon from scoring twice and an easier one to overlook. Marked 7.73, and involved in 2 of his side's goals.
Francesco Amatucci 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 have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Casertana can pretend not to have heard.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Casertana know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“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 Casertana, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Francesco Amatucci was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
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.
1‑5 to Catania, 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.
The terraces20 Sep 2027
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 8 of the 29 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Casertana have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Gabriele Bertolini is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Casertana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
6 goals in one match, Franck Rivollier on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Casertana and Catania.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Words at Casertana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Shady Oukhadda 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 a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Francesco Amatucci and Casertana agree another 4 years.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Words at Casertana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Francesco Amatucci is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Casertana know it.
8 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 88th, and Crotone spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Union Brescia moved on, Karlo Butić reports back to Casertana, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Casertana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 26 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.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Casertana, and it is not being withdrawn.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Gabriele Bertolini did not need any: 8.31, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
The name of Karlo Butić has come up in conversations Casertana were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Charlie Penman is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Casertana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Gabriele Bertolini is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Boardroom23 Aug 2027
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Casertana
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Words at Casertana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Shady Oukhadda 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 no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Fabio Bonetti has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Fabio Vitale has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The words a physio says slowly. 17 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Casertana can pretend not to have heard.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Leon Ćuk has improved at 24, 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.
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 words a physio says slowly. 24 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Gabriele Indragoli is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Pietro Martino 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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Words at Casertana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Shady Oukhadda 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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Gabriele Rocchi signs something — a contract at Casertana or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The words a physio says slowly. 31 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Leandro Galli has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
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.
Leon Ćuk 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.
39 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Casertana lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 Casertana, and it is not being withdrawn.
The phone has started ringing about Karlo Butić again, and this time the name on the line is Brisbane Roar. Casertana are listening politely and promising nothing.
In brief
SquadWords at Casertana training over how hard people work
46 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Casertana lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Casertana can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Casertana 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.
Bruno Cantanhede arrives at 34 with nothing left to prove and plenty left to pass on. Legs are a young man's currency; knowing where to stand never ages.
“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 Casertana, and it is not being withdrawn.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Giovanni Perini has just signed for Casertana, and for once the answer mattered.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Casertana is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Giovanni Perini is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Casertana is running low.
The phone has started ringing about Umberto Galletta again, and this time the name on the line is Alcione Milano. Casertana are listening politely and promising nothing.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Casertana are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Jonas Heinz 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.
Squad5 Jul 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Karlo Butić's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Denny Tassotti is 20, and Casertana have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
He is 20, and nobody at Casertana signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
“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 Casertana, and it is not being withdrawn.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Casertana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadLeon Ćuk has improved at 24, which nobody expected
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Casertana is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Casertana can pretend not to have heard.
The phone has started ringing about Karlo Butić again, and this time the name on the line is Padova. Casertana are listening politely and promising nothing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Casertana 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.
Squad7 Jun 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Karlo Butić's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Casertana can pretend not to have heard.
Karlo Butić 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.
In brief
SquadWords at Casertana training over how hard people work
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Casertana 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.
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 chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 5 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Casertana is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad17 May 2027
Words at Casertana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Shady Oukhadda 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Casertana, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Casertana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Casertana can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Casertana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 May 2027
Words at Casertana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Shady Oukhadda 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 Casertana, 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 Casertana 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Casertana can tell you which week it ends in.
“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 Casertana, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Casertana is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Karlo Butić 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.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Words at Casertana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Shady Oukhadda 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 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Casertana 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.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Player ratings5 Apr 2027
Tjaš Begić was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.54. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
The terracesThe press cannot get enough of Tjaš Begić
35Edition
The Casertana Gazette
29 Mar 2027
From our football correspondentCrisis
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at Casertana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Shady Oukhadda 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 never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Casertana can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Casertana they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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 given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Casertana know it.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Shady Oukhadda. 2‑1 against Sorrento, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
Shady Oukhadda was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.81. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Pietro Martino 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.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words at Casertana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Shady Oukhadda 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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Karlo Butić signs something — a contract at Casertana or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Casertana 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 Casertana 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.
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.
Marked 5.42. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
In brief
Player ratingsAn afternoon Karlo Butić will want back
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Casertana can pretend not to have heard.
Pietro Martino 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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Words at Casertana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Shady Oukhadda is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
11 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Casertana will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Casertana 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 Casertana 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Casertana will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Karlo Butić 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at Casertana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Shady Oukhadda 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 warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Tjaš Begić 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 ratings15 Feb 2027
Tjaš Begić was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.40. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Nobody's fault and entirely his: a goal that goes into the book with his name against it and nothing about it intended. Casertana deserved better, and so did he.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Casertana will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
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.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
The loan was meant to give him football. 0 games and 0 goals later he is back at Casertana no further forward, and everybody involved will explain why it was not their doing.
In brief
Player ratingsThe chances came and went for Karlo Butić
The run now stands at 8, and the questions being asked around Casertana are no longer polite ones.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words at Casertana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Shady Oukhadda 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.
Gabriele Indragoli 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 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.
0 appearances and 0 goals is not a season, it is a year somebody has lost. Whether that is his fault, the borrowing club's or the people who arranged it is the argument the next few weeks will have.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Michele Vano will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Casertana 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 Casertana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
There is 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Casertana, another week without a signature from Charlie Penman.
Pietro Martino 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at Casertana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Shady Oukhadda 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 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Casertana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Trento paid $250.0K and Casertana took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I watch every Casertana game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Alcione Milano runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad11 Jan 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Shady Oukhadda's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Casertana will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
The offer from Sambenedettese for Michele Vano 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.
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.
Pietro Martino 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 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Casertana 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 Casertana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Leon Ćuk has improved at 24, 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.
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 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
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.
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
Words at Casertana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Shady Oukhadda 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.
Gabriele Indragoli 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.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Casertana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I watch every Casertana game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Alcione Milano runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Shady Oukhadda was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.53. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
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.
Nobody at Casertana 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.
Position 1, 28 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Pietro Martino 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Casertana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Shady Oukhadda is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Yayah Kallon is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Michele Vano will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Casertana 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 Casertana 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Thomas Pledl. 1‑0 against Casarano, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Two goals and a mark of 9.30 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Karlo Butić 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Casertana and Giugliano, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Yayah Kallon. 4‑2 against Giugliano, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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 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.
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Cavese the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Casertana will enjoy reviewing.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
A brace, and Karlo Butić takes the afternoon — 8.09
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Karlo Butić provided it, and the 8.09 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Casertana 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 Casertana 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.
Position 1, 21 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Pescara go through and Casertana go home, 0‑0 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
1 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Karlo Butić 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Casertana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Shady Oukhadda 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.
At 22 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Casertana they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Casertana 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. Casertana told João Carvalho something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Shady Oukhadda is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
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.
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Casertana training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Shady Oukhadda 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.
Gabriele Indragoli 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
7 new faces, and Casertana 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.