$27.0K on the table at Cremonese. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Roberto Insigne was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Catania asked and Ascoli said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Catania this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout26 Jun 2028
Andrea Dini is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Catania, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Catania. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The deal with Inter is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Catania offered $15.0K; Pro Vercelli said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Words at Catania training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Roberto Insigne 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.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Catania this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Catania have lost him in all but the paperwork.
$15.0K on the table at Pro Vercelli. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. José Paternoster has, at Catania, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Franck Heffa Guiyong has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Catania have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Daniele Donnarumma has written the date down.
The name of Klāvs Bethers has come up in conversations Catania were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Manuel Martic will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Catania the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Manuel Martic has agreed terms with Juve Stabia for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Valerio Gelli has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Catania have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Catania have made the call to Sambenedettese. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 36 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Roberto Insigne was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout29 May 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Andrea Dini'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.
Yegor Kartashov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Brian Sobrero has written the date down.
In brief
MarketThe clock does Manuel Martic’s negotiating for him
The dugoutLapo Siviero asks for a word with the manager
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 64 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Denis Iguma was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Catania. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The standards have slipped, and in a building where everybody watches everybody it has not gone unremarked. This is how a player loses a place before he loses one.
In brief
SquadRoberto Insigne is training like a man with a point to make
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Catania will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Catania have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad15 May 2028
Words at Catania training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Roberto Insigne 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 Catania this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Catania has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Catania will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Roberto Insigne was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Lapo Siviero and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Catania, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 86 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Fabrizio Caligara and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout1 May 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Andrea Dini'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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Catania, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Catania will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Roberto Insigne was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Salvatore Caturano trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Two hours a week with a tutor, which is the least glamorous thing at Catania and the one that decides whether a foreign signing is still here in two years.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 100 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 39 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Catania have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Fabrizio Caligara scored, was marked 7.92, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
6 goals in one match, Andrea Lombari on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Catania and Monopoli.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Roberto Insigne was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Catania will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Gabriele Di Giovannantonio did not need any: 7.77, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
28 appearances at Latina and the goals have stopped going in. Catania lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
Francesco Di Tacchio was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Gabriele Di Giovannantonio 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 116 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout3 Apr 2028
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 2‑3 Domenico Russo left the room before anybody could ask which.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Catania 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Catania will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Roberto Insigne was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
7 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
Manuel Martic is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Catania. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jaiden Celestine-Charles trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 131 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Catania 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.
Successful dribbles: 14. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout20 Mar 2028
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Domenico Russo chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.10 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
7.75, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Roberto Insigne was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
15 shut-outs in 26 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Klāvs Bethers has been having a lot of them.
Francesco Di Tacchio was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Emanuele Cicerelli will call it something else in private.
1‑4 to Bari, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
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.
Francesco Di Tacchio and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Loan watch6 Mar 2028
Klāvs Bethers’s loan is measured in nothing happening
14 clean sheets from 25 appearances at Latina. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 34 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
7 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout28 Feb 2028
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Domenico Russo left the room before anybody could ask which.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Catania this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zain Tahir was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Catania this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Loan watch21 Feb 2028
Klāvs Bethers’s loan is measured in nothing happening
13 clean sheets from 23 appearances at Latina. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.05 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Roberto Insigne was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Filippo D'Andrea. 2‑0 against Audace Cerignola, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Salvatore Caturano, and the manager let it.
The dugout14 Feb 2028
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Domenico Russo, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Every signing waits for it and every press conference asks about it until it comes. It has come, Catania have their man off the mark, and the second one is always easier.
0‑3 to Potenza, 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.
“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 Catania, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 5 arrived, 3 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Catania had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Cagliari, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Daniele Donnarumma, and the manager let it.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Fabio Ponsi falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Words at Catania training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Roberto Insigne 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 Catania can pretend not to have heard.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Torino is saying, and nobody at Catania is enjoying the guessing.
$62.0K was the most the club would pay and Altamura were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Juve Stabia have kept their man, and Catania go back to a list with one name crossed off 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 Catania this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 Catania, and it is not being withdrawn.
The fee is $610.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Torino drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Genoa is saying, and nobody at Catania is enjoying the guessing.
The chase for Andrea Lombari ended with $310.0K changing hands and Campobasso out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Catania this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Catania have gone to Altamura with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Thomas Leggio from Como for $970.0K, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
“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 Catania, and it is not being withdrawn.
A mark of 7.75 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.15 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Benevento paid $370.0K and Catania took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
The name of Salvatore Caturano has come up in conversations Catania were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Catania can pretend not to have heard.
Marked 7.65 at 20, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Words at Catania training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Roberto Insigne 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.
Catania asked and Udinese said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Francesco Di Tacchio and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
He is 20 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Fabio Ponsi falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Half the programme played, position 10, 19 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
Edoardo Mannino and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
15 appearances at Latina and the goals have stopped going in. Catania lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
13 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Monopoli defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.89 for the rest of it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Roberto Insigne was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Catania this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 11 actions, 7.30, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Domenico Russo on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.85 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Fabrizio Caligara scored, was marked 7.95, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Roberto Insigne was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Catania told Alessandro Quaini something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Catania, and both men came out saying it was fine.
In brief
Loan watchKlāvs Bethers’s loan is measured in nothing happening
Francesco Di Tacchio and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Foggia left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Words at Catania training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fabio Ponsi 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 pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
The dugout6 Dec 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Domenico Russo left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Catania has been clear about where Simone Leonardi stands, which is more than many ever get.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Roberto Insigne was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Francesco Di Tacchio 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Domenico Russo after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Successful dribbles: 15. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
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.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Fabrizio Caligara scored, was marked 7.67, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
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.
6 goals in one match, Fabrizio Caligara on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Catania and Bari.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Words at Catania training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Roberto Insigne is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 3‑3 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Manuel Martic 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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Alessandro Quaini is on it.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Marco Perrotta’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Catania needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Lecce go through and Catania go home, 0‑4 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
There were 7 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 terraces8 Nov 2027
Catania are taken apart by Lecce — and the town wants answers
It finished 0-4. A cup exit is a disappointment; this was a public dismantling, and the difference between the two is the number of people who will still be talking about it in August.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Words at Catania training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Roberto Insigne is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
9 combined actions and 6.91. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Catania, and it is not being withdrawn.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.92 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
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.
Francesco Di Tacchio was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout1 Nov 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 2‑3 defeat, delivered by Domenico Russo to a room that had heard them before.
Something was said to Andrea Dini and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
1 for Fabrizio Caligara, marked 7.83, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
The goal that put Audace Cerignola ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Catania equalised, 2 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with 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 Catania this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Catania has been clear about where Alessandro Quaini stands, which is more than many ever get.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Domenico Russo on a 3‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Something was said to Marco Perrotta and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Manuel Martic
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Roberto Insigne was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 16. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Domenico Russo left the room before anybody could ask which.
Nobody at Catania 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.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Potenza in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Catania. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Andrea Dini has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Simone Leonardi is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
The dugout4 Oct 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Domenico Russo chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Alessandro Quaini has moved up it.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Casarano defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Catania will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Catania offered $3.5M; Sassuolo said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
The 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.
Manuel Martic and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Domenico Russo could afford to be generous.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Catania told Alessandro Raimo something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Catania will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Casertana kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Catania will be asked about the last half hour all week.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.80 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Roberto Insigne was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Catania this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Catania will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
$210.0K was the most the club would pay and Carrarese were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Catania ran out of time with Dolomiti Bellunesi. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Picerno have kept their man, and Catania go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Catania will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The clubs have shaken hands with Dolomiti Bellunesi; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
$3.5M on the table at Sassuolo. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Catania can pretend not to have heard.
The deal that would have taken Andrea Corbari to Venezia has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Catania with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Catania close the window on a squad of their own making
15 in and 21 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Torino wanted more than $340.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Words at Catania training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Roberto Insigne 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Catania will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Catania have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.18 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.85 for the rest of it.
Add another name to the list: Venezia have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Andrea Corbari. The answer from Catania has not changed — yet.
The offer went to Carrarese this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Roberto Insigne was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 56 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 Catania, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Catania they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
$630.0K on the table at Vis Pesaro. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Catania moved before anybody else could: a new deal for Domenico Russo, agreed quietly and announced loudly. Boards extend managers for many reasons; the good one is the one this looks like.
Fabrizio Caligara and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Not 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.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Catania 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Modena have kept their man, and Catania go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
7 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
“I watch every Catania game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Latina runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Alessandro Quaini is on it.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
The standards have slipped, and in a building where everybody watches everybody it has not gone unremarked. This is how a player loses a place before he loses one.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Catania will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Catania and Torino have settled on $870.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Catania can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Salvatore Aloi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Catania the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Catania asked and Udinese said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Catania, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Alessandro Raimo has his answer from Catania; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Filipe Quintas
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Catania will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Position 2, 57 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.
Fabrizio Caligara was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Andrea Allegretto has his answer from Catania; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
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.
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Michael Liguori has moved up it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Catania will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Catania can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Catania is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Roberto Insigne was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Catania asked and Ravenna said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Catania will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Virtus Entella have accepted the money. What Catania do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
“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 Catania, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Roberto Insigne was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Catania asked and Empoli said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Catania will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about 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 Catania, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Catania they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Catania asked and Lecco said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Giacomo Paciotti has just signed for Catania, and for once the answer mattered.
Francesco Di Tacchio 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Daniele Spinelli 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 109 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Salernitana waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Catania is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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 Catania, and it is not being withdrawn.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
28 games, 9 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at Catania now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Udinese have kept their man, and Catania go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 116 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 Catania, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Catania is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Catania have gone to Sambenedettese with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 35 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Catania is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fabrizio Caligara was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
12 goals in 29 games at Pineto — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Catania updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Catania will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about 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 Catania, and it is not being withdrawn.
Catania asked and Fiorentina said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Catania will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about 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 Catania, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have shaken hands with Torres; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Catania they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Words at Catania training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fabrizio Caligara is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. CSKA Moscow have kept their man, and Catania go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Edoardo Mannino and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Catania will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Latina waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Catania is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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 Catania, and it is not being withdrawn.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Edoardo Mannino is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Words at Catania training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fabrizio Caligara is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Udinese have kept their man, and Catania go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Eddy Cabianca and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Catania will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Riccardo Cargnelutti will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Catania the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Daniele Donnarumma trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nobody at Catania 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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Catania. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Catania will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Catania will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Massimo Coda and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Nobody at Catania will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Andrea Corbari trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Catania have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Salvatore Aloi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Catania the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Massimo Coda was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fabrizio Caligara was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Catania, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Nicolò Cavuoti is on it.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Catania. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Catania has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Catania, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I want to stay in the game when I stop, and I am not going to wait until I stop to prepare for it.” At 38 the badges have begun, and every manager in the division remembers doing the same.
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. Catania will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Riccardo Cargnelutti will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Catania the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Manuel Martic 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.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Tommaso Di Marco has come out of that comparison in the side, and Catania have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
9 goals in 28 games at Livorno — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Catania updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
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.
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 at Catania 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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Catania. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Edoardo Masciangelo has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
Nobody writes a headline about a tutor. Nobody has to be told, either, what happens to a signing who spends two years being the man nobody can talk to at lunch.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 57 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
7.86, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Catania they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Flavio Russo 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.
Match17 Apr 2027
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for Catania. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Fabrizio Caligara scored, was marked 7.64, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
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 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Domenico Russo on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
At 38 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.21 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Catania 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 Catania this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A season average of 7.23 with 16 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Words at Catania training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fabrizio Caligara 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Massimo Coda. 1‑0 against Altamura, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
12 goals in 28 games at Pineto — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Catania updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Catania pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Domenico Russo could afford to be generous.
Massimo Coda was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Nobody 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Daniele Donnarumma trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Salvatore Aloi is on it.
4 goals in 25 games at Campobasso — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Catania updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Catania would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Next up on the road: Altamura, position 12. The supporters who go will talk about it all week and the ones who do not will check their phones at ten to five.
At 38 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.95 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Salvatore Aloi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Catania the goodbyes have quietly begun.
A season average of 7.20 with 15 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words at Catania training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fabrizio Caligara 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 mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Catania are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Domenico Russo was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Catania dressing room was either.
Two goals and a mark of 9.05 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The offer from Brommapojkarna for Klāvs Bethers 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.
6 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Salernitana were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Domenico Russo, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
8 goals in 25 games at Livorno — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Catania updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
RAAL La Louviere have made their interest known and Catania have to have a conversation they never wanted. A manager other clubs ask about is a manager whose next contract costs more.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Catania they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Fabrizio Caligara was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
A brace, and Massimo Coda takes the afternoon — 8.86
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Massimo Coda provided it, and the 8.86 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
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.
Cavese held the lead for 1 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Catania answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
Salvatore Aloi was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Marco Perrotta will call it something else in private.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Marco Perrotta's mistake
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Salvatore Aloi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Catania the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at Catania training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fabrizio Caligara 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 player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Daniele Donnarumma will call it something else in private.
Something was said to Gabriele Pagliai and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
16 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Catania lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Audace Cerignola kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Catania will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Marked 8.40 — 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.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
There was one mistake and it ended in the net. Defenders are judged on the worst thing they did rather than on the eighty-nine minutes either side of it, which is unfair and is also the job.
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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Catania 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 Catania this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Filipe Quintas is living that version at Catania, 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 33 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 clubs have shaken hands with Giana Erminio; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
The offer went to Monopoli this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Catania close the window on a squad of their own making
1 in and 2 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fabrizio Caligara was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout1 Feb 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Domenico Russo to a room that had heard them before.
Nobody at Catania 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.
41 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Catania lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Carpi waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Catania is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.02 at 38, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Catania they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Tommaso Di Marco has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Catania people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Carpi have accepted the money. What Catania do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Catania 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.
Successful dribbles: 16. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Position 2, 37 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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Catania have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
$410.0K settles it between the clubs for Kevin Varas
Padova have accepted the money. What Catania do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Catania can pretend not to have heard.
Fabrizio Caligara 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.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 36 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Catania is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Casertana next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
In brief
SquadWords at Catania training over how hard people work
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Massimo Coda 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.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Catania have had the benefit of it.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Benfica have kept their man, and Catania go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
The name of Klāvs Bethers has come up in conversations Catania were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Matteo Di Gennaro has his answer from Catania; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
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.
At 38 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.19 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Massimo Coda and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
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.
24 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Catania lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
31 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Domenico Russo on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
32 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Catania lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The terraces14 Dec 2026
A cup hiding at Inter leaves Catania explaining themselves
0-4, and long before the end the away end had switched from encouragement to something considerably more pointed. Nobody rings a phone-in about losing narrowly.
40 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Catania lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Catania training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fabrizio Caligara 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.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Fabrizio Caligara has come out of that comparison in the side, and Catania have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Domenico Russo was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Catania dressing room was either.
Successful dribbles: 12. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Marco Perrotta trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The words a physio says slowly. 47 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.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.00 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fabrizio Caligara was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
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 point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Domenico Russo after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Catania, and both men came out saying it was fine.
16 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Catania lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.94 for the rest of it.
Fabrizio Caligara and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The first defeat in 6 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Bari; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Salvatore Caturano, and the manager let it.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Domenico Russo to a room that had heard them before.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Alessandro Quaini has his answer from Catania; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
23 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Catania lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Catania this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fabrizio Caligara was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Catania will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
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 is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Catania, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Marco Perrotta’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Catania needing him to play as if none of it matters.
30 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Catania lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Nicolò Cavuoti obliged against Juve Stabia. 2‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Catania.
At 38 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.18 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Emanuele Torrasi scored, was marked 7.81, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Massimo Coda was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Fabrizio Caligara. 3‑1 against Cavese, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
In brief
SquadWords at Catania training over how hard people work
38 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Catania lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Catania have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Alessandro Quaini 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.
Four weeks in which nobody in the division did his job better. The award goes on a shelf and the player goes back into the side, which is the order Catania prefer.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
The words a physio says slowly. 45 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.34 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Catania training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fabrizio Caligara 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.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
50 for the club now, each one filed in somebody’s memory with a date and a scoreline. Numbers like this are what supporters argue about in twenty years.
Salvatore Aloi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Domenico Russo kept it short after the 3‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The words a physio says slowly. 52 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.
At 37 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.00 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
7.75, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Successful dribbles: 22. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Catania training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fabrizio Caligara 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 finished 2‑0, and it was Massimo Coda’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Catania.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Domenico Russo kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
The words a physio says slowly. 59 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.
Somebody watched every match in the division at the weekend and decided he was the best thing in any of them. A small honour, and most careers end without one.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Potenza in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
106 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Catania lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
7.80, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Catania training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fabrizio Caligara 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.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Domenico Russo, on a 3‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.82 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Massimo Coda and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Sep 2026
11 new faces, and Catania 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.
Successful dribbles: 15. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Domenico Russo was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Catania dressing room was either.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Catania this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Domenico Russo chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
Foggia next, and one man in the Catania dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Nobody at Catania is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Domenico Russo could afford to be generous.
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Catania have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Salvatore Caturano’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Catania needing him to play as if none of it matters.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 8 signed and 4 gone
That is the business done at Catania until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fabrizio Caligara was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Cremonese have kept their man, and Catania go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Add another name to the list: Juve Stabia have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Andrea Allegretto. The answer from Catania has not changed — yet.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Flavio Russo has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
“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 Catania, and it is not being withdrawn.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.22 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The offer from Pescara for Mario Ierardi 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.
Successful dribbles: 19. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
11 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Domenico Russo could afford to be generous.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
“Nobody outside is coming to save us.” It was short, it was not comfortable, and by all accounts the Catania squad were quieter afterwards than they had been all season.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Crvena Zvezda keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
The phone has started ringing about Mario Ierardi again, and this time the name on the line is Pescara. Catania are listening politely and promising nothing.
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Catania training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fabrizio Caligara 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 plan went upstairs and came back down. Nothing about that will make a headline anywhere else, and everybody who works at the training ground will remember it for years.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Catania this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Crvena Zvezda have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
The word out of the training ground is that he has been the sharpest man there all week. It is the quietest story a paper carries and it usually runs the week before somebody's run in the side begins.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Salvatore Caturano and Catania agree another 2 years.
Catania asked and Cremonese said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Add another name to the list: Pescara have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Manuel Martic. The answer from Catania has not changed — yet.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Franco De Angelis is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Gerardo Spinelli 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.
Catania have made the call to Ludogorets. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Massimo Coda and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fabrizio Caligara was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Catania, another week without a signature from Massimo Coda.
11 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.