7 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Sandro Fiorini after 1‑4, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Catanzaro is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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 7.78 for the rest of it.
Marin Pongračić 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Carrarese next, and one man in the Catanzaro dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Catanzaro know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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.
Lorenzo Da Pozzo was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I watch every Catanzaro game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Südtirol runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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 is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Every touch weighed, every quote parsed, every mistake replayed. Some players grow into that; some are quietly finished by it; nobody knows which until afterwards.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Gonçalo Esteves
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Catanzaro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mustafa Gürkan Varlık was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Catanzaro are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Juve Stabia next, and one man in the Catanzaro dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Ewerton is on it.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Mirko Pigliacelli and Catanzaro agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Catanzaro, and 0 appearances in 8 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Catanzaro is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
At 22 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.
Marin Pongračić 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.
The dugout27 Sep 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 Sandro Fiorini left the room before anybody could ask which.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Catanzaro, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Catanzaro have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Marin Pongračić was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Fiorentina have kept their man, and Catanzaro go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Costantino Favasuli was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Catanzaro, and 3 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout20 Sep 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 Sandro Fiorini left the room before anybody could ask which.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Catanzaro, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Catanzaro have lost him in all but the paperwork.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Catanzaro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Máximo Espinola is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Catanzaro are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Squad13 Sep 2027
14 new faces, and Catanzaro 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Catanzaro can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 25 signed and 25 gone
That is the business done at Catanzaro until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Benevento moved on, Ewerton reports back to Catanzaro, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Juventus have kept their man, and Catanzaro go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The offer from Pro Vercelli for Jacopo Petriccione 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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Emanuele Pecorino provided it, and the 8.75 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Catanzaro can pretend not to have heard.
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.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Catanzaro can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The offer from Metalist for Emanuele Pecorino 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.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $910.0K — a club that wants Francesco Toniolo enough to be asked twice.
Catanzaro moved before anybody else could: a new deal for Sandro Fiorini, agreed quietly and announced loudly. Boards extend managers for many reasons; the good one is the one this looks like.
Catanzaro offered $780.0K; Arzignano 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.
Mehdi Dorval 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.
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.
Catanzaro 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Fabio Mariani is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Achille Parise is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Catanzaro, and it is not being withdrawn.
Add another name to the list: Grasshopper have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Samuel Giovane. The answer from Catanzaro has not changed — yet.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Catanzaro 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 Costantino Favasuli was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
20 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Giuseppe Coppola and Catanzaro agree another 4 years.
“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 Catanzaro, and it is not being withdrawn.
The name of Jacopo Petriccione has come up in conversations Catanzaro were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The fee is $850.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Picerno drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
The offer from Szeged-Csanád GA for Tancredi Vella 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Costantino Favasuli was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Catanzaro will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
The offer from AlbinoLeffe for Jacopo Petriccione 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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Catanzaro have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Catanzaro can pretend not to have heard.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ravenna have kept their man, and Catanzaro go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Marin Pongračić 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.
Catanzaro offered $22.0K; Ascoli 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 demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Samuel Giovane is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Everything agreed with Alcione Milano, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Mehdi Dorval 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 offer went to Ascoli 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.
Catanzaro asked and Sassuolo said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Costantino Favasuli 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.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Gubbio had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Catanzaro have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The fee is $470.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Cittadella drove a hard bargain; time will say who won 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 Catanzaro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Catanzaro asked and Bologna said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Costantino Favasuli was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
18 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.
“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 Catanzaro, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have shaken hands with Cittadella; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
The fee is $1.2M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Ravenna drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
The offer from Foggia for Christian Marietta 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.
Catanzaro 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.
Gonçalo Esteves was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The offer from Sanjoanense for N'dri Philippe Koffi 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.
The deal with Ravenna 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.
“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 Catanzaro, and it is not being withdrawn.
Mehdi Dorval and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Lazio have kept their man, and Catanzaro go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Costantino Favasuli was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Pietro Iemmello has gone, the accounts have $1.5M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Catanzaro have done the hard part with Reggiana, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Udinese paid $1.5M and Catanzaro took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Words at Catanzaro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Simone Pafundi 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.
Catanzaro asked and AS Roma said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 39 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Catanzaro is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Carpi waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Catanzaro is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The fee is $660.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Benevento 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 Lazio is saying, and nobody at Catanzaro is enjoying the guessing.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Words at Catanzaro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Simone Pafundi 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 Catanzaro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
6 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.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Vaduz had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Not a month, not a run of form — a whole season of being the best 21-year-old anybody in this division could put on a pitch. This is the honour that gets mentioned for the rest of his career.
“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 Catanzaro, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have shaken hands with Benevento; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
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 Catanzaro have had the benefit of it.
Catanzaro had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at AS Roma, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Alessandro De Luca is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Catanzaro 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.
Position 6 on 58 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Simone Pafundi did not need any: 7.92, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
The name of Matias Antonini has come up in conversations Catanzaro were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Mehdi Dorval and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.01, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Two goals and a mark of 8.74 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings31 May 2027
Patrick Nuamah, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.62
A mark of 7.62 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Ersin Kocacenk has, at Catanzaro, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Emanuele Pecorino. 2‑1 against Avellino, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
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.
In brief
BoardroomWages eat 91% of everything Catanzaro earn
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Catanzaro is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marco Ruggero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.02 — 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Sandro Fiorini on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
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.
8 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.04 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad17 May 2027
Words at Catanzaro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marco Ruggero 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.
Cremonese held the lead for 1 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Catanzaro answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Catanzaro can pretend not to have heard.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.11 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Pietro Iemmello. 1‑0 against Juve Stabia, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
Squad3 May 2027
Marco Ruggero 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.
Marked 8.25. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Catanzaro.
Squad3 May 2027
Patrick Nuamah is the division's best young player this month
At 21 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Catanzaro will try very hard not to make too much of 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.
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.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 86th, and Vicenza spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Pietro Iemmello provided it, and the 8.54 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Catanzaro they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
A season average of 7.00 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Catanzaro know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Marco Ruggero 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.
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
The goal that put Benevento ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Catanzaro equalised, 2 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Catanzaro pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
“I watch every Catanzaro game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at ESTAC Troyes runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marco Ruggero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nicolò Brighenti and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Marco Ruggero trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Sandro Fiorini after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Nobody at Catanzaro 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.
Mehdi Dorval 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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Words at Catanzaro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marco Ruggero is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Pietro Iemmello. 2‑0 against Mantova, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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. 9 actions, 7.83, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Simone Pafundi has come out of that comparison in the side, and Catanzaro have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Catanzaro is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Davide Buglio 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 Ewerton is on it.
“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 Catanzaro will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
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.
Patrick Nuamah, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.66
A mark of 7.66 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Catanzaro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Cristian Samaritani is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Marco Ruggero 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.
Something was said to Youssef Maleh and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“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 Catanzaro, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.02 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Catanzaro have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
A season average of 7.01 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Catanzaro know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Marco Ruggero 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Antonio Candela, and the manager let it.
The dugout15 Mar 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 Sandro Fiorini to a room that had heard them before.
In brief
Player ratingsYoussef Maleh beats them one at a time
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Marco Ruggero
The 85th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Pietro Iemmello decided nobody was going anywhere. Cesena had no time left to answer.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Simone Pafundi did not need any: 7.87, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.23 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Youssef Maleh was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Catanzaro know it.
At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Catanzaro they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Catanzaro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Alessandro De Luca is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Catanzaro know it.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Words at Catanzaro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marco Ruggero 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 much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Catanzaro told Marco Ruggero something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The first defeat in 8 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Modena; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Catanzaro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
1‑2 to Modena, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at Catanzaro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tommaso Cassandro 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 watch every Catanzaro game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at ESTAC Troyes runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Sandro Fiorini after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer 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 Catanzaro, and both men came out saying it was fine.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Simone Pafundi will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Catanzaro escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
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.
Mehdi Dorval 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 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. 9 actions, 7.46, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Simone Pafundi did not need any: 8.02, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.06 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
15 goals and a season average of 7.22. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at Catanzaro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marco Ruggero 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 20 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
The award is a small thing with a heavy meaning: for four weeks nobody in this division did his job better. Catanzaro have the trophy on a shelf and the player in the side.
“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 Catanzaro, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Angers SCO for N'dri Philippe Koffi 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.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Catanzaro close the window on a squad of their own making
3 in and 1 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Catanzaro they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marco Ruggero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Catanzaro ran out of time with Torres. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Catanzaro, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Cagliari for Mehdi Dorval was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.59 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
Simone Pafundi, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.89
A mark of 7.89 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.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Lazio keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Potenza waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Catanzaro is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.99 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Lazio keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at Catanzaro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marco Ruggero 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.
Catanzaro asked and Guarani said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Youssef Maleh 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.
Level with 87 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Catanzaro had all but put away. Avellino will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
Catanzaro have made the call to AC Milan. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Atalanta is saying, and nobody at Catanzaro is enjoying the guessing.
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 Marco Ruggero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Fellipe Jack 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 kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Pietro Iemmello provided it, and the 8.42 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Simone Pafundi did not need any: 7.81, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Catanzaro they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
6 goals in one match, Pietro Iemmello on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Catanzaro and Cremonese.
0‑3 to Juve Stabia, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Catanzaro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Cristian Samaritani is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Catanzaro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marco Ruggero 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.
Boardroom28 Dec 2026
Nobody left the Catanzaro dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marco Ruggero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Marco Ruggero trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nobody at Catanzaro 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.
Mehdi Dorval 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 is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Matias Antonini wants continental football; whether Catanzaro can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not 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, Sandro Fiorini could afford to be generous.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
The 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Catanzaro will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Emanuele Pecorino provided it, and the 9.04 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Gabriele Alesi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Catanzaro the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Alessandro De Luca is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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.
At 20 he was better than everybody his age in the division for four weeks running, which is harder than one good afternoon. Catanzaro will try not to make too much of it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 22 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Matias Antonini has his answer from Catanzaro; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Sandro Fiorini after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Every touch weighed, every quote parsed, every mistake replayed. Some players grow into that; some are quietly finished by it; nobody knows which until afterwards.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Catanzaro will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Two goals and a mark of 8.80 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Mantova left with the points after a 2‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Catanzaro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marco Ruggero 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.
Fellipe Jack 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Sandro Fiorini after 2‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Marco D'Alessandro’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Catanzaro needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 36 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Mehdi Dorval 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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Mattia De Sciglio and Catanzaro agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Mattia De Sciglio arrives at 34 with nothing left to prove and plenty left to pass on. Legs are a young man's currency; knowing where to stand never ages.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Catanzaro will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Gabriele Alesi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Catanzaro the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Level with 89 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Catanzaro had all but put away. Cremonese will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 51 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Simone Pafundi provided it, and the 8.68 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Catanzaro hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Marco Ruggero 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.
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.
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.
Mehdi Dorval was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Catanzaro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marco Ruggero 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.
Cesena left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad26 Oct 2026
12 new faces, and Catanzaro 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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Nobody at Catanzaro 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 used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Carrarese in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.09 at 34, 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.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 38 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Antonio Candela’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Catanzaro needing him to play as if none of it matters.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Catanzaro is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Catanzaro will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Angelo Ogbonna arrives at 38 with nothing left to prove and plenty left to pass on. Legs are a young man's currency; knowing where to stand never ages.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Antonio Candela’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Catanzaro needing him to play as if none of it matters.
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 Nicolò Brighenti has written the date down.
Pietro Iemmello had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Modena were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.96 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
7.87, 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.
“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; Catanzaro are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Catanzaro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
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.
Going 2 down does something to a side, and what it usually does is finish them. Not here. Catanzaro rebuilt the afternoon goal by goal, and Sampdoria had no answer to any of it.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.26 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Mehdi Dorval was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Catanzaro can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.98 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Mehdi Dorval 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.
Marked 8.09. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Catanzaro.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Sandro Fiorini, 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, Catanzaro have their man off the mark, and the second one is always easier.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Catanzaro can pretend not to have heard.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Simone Pafundi, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.92
A mark of 7.92 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. 7.98 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Gabriele Alesi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Catanzaro the goodbyes have quietly begun.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Patrick Nuamah 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 dugout14 Sep 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.” Sandro Fiorini kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
“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 Catanzaro, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 8 arrived, 3 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Catanzaro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Catanzaro than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Mirko Pigliacelli’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Catanzaro needing him to play as if none of it matters.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Catanzaro has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
The hardest part of developing a footballer is admitting he needs to be somewhere else for a while. Tancredi Vella leaves on loan to get the football he was not going to get here, which is the point of the exercise and not an admission of anything.
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 dugout31 Aug 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Sandro Fiorini to a room that had heard them before.
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.
In brief
The dugoutSimone Pafundi is not enjoying his job description
Player ratingsThe pass was always on for Mehdi Dorval
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Catanzaro people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
1 academy players handed senior numbers at Catanzaro
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Martino Pellegrino has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The plan went upstairs and came back down. Nothing about that will make a headline anywhere else, and everybody who works at the training ground will remember it for years.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Marco D'Alessandro’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Catanzaro needing him to play as if none of it matters.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Catanzaro has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Catanzaro would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Mehdi Dorval 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 no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Stefano Ventura has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Mirko Calabrese is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Mauro Gastaldello is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Riccardo Rossetti is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Catanzaro are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Catanzaro hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Catanzaro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Matias Antonini wants continental football; whether Catanzaro can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.