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.
Ernis Qestaj 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.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Foggia, and it is not being withdrawn.
Matteo Dagasso 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 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Foggia know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Foggia has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
“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; Foggia are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Matteo Dagasso was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad1 May 2028
Words at Foggia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giuseppe Panico 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 paperwork is done long before the player is. Gabriel Ramaj has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Foggia have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Something was said to Nicolò Bruschi and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Christian Tommasini may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
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. Christian Tommasini has moved up it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Foggia is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Federico Valietti has agreed terms with Trento 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.
Orazio Pazienza 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.
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 Christian Dimarco is on 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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Giuseppe Panico signs something — a contract at Foggia or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 44 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Foggia can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Giuseppe Panico was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
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 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 Foggia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Riccardo Brosco.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
The dugout10 Apr 2028
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Daniele Russo to a room that had heard them 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 Foggia can pretend not to have heard.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Francesco Cerretelli and Foggia agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Words at Foggia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Julián Rodríguez Seguer 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; Foggia are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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 0‑1 Daniele Russo left the room before anybody could ask which.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“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; Foggia are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Ernis Qestaj 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 Bevilacqua 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 Ernis Qestaj is on it.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Filippo Berra’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Foggia needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Matteo Dagasso and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Words at Foggia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giuseppe Panico 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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Daniele Russo after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Foggia have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.04 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Words at Foggia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Julián Rodríguez Seguer is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Luca Nocerino 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Foggia 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.
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.
“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 Foggia know it.
Julián Rodríguez Seguer 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Vincenzo Vitale, and the manager let it.
The dugout6 Mar 2028
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Daniele 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.
“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 Foggia, and it is not being withdrawn.
Position 3, 40 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.81 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Foggia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Words at Foggia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giuseppe Panico 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 goalkeeper's career is counted in the games nobody scored in, and Gianluca Saro now has 25 of them across 128 appearances. Nothing about that number was luck.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Foggia pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Words at Foggia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Julián Rodríguez Seguer is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Matteo Dagasso 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.
Ernis Qestaj 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 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Foggia has been clear about where Rodrigo Meccia stands, which is more than many ever get.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Riccardo Brosco trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“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.
“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 Foggia know 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Luca Nocerino 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.
Marked 7.93 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Foggia had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout14 Feb 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Riccardo Brosco'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.
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.” Daniele Russo, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 1 arrived, 3 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
$69.0K on the table at Sorrento. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Words at Foggia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giuseppe Panico 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.
Ernis Qestaj and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout7 Feb 2028
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 Daniele Russo to a room that had heard them before.
Position 3, 33 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Foggia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Foggia can tell you which week it ends in.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Foggia can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Something was said to Francesco Cerretelli and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Foggia can pretend not to have heard.
The offer went to Sorrento 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.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Words at Foggia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giuseppe Panico 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 tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Foggia can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Orazio Pazienza was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
“It is not 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.
In brief
The dugoutMaxime Giron is still being punished for one mistake
Foggia and Spezia have settled on $77.0K. 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.
Julián Rodríguez Seguer 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.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Words at Foggia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giuseppe Panico 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 point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Daniele Russo after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
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 Christian Dimarco is on it.
Successful dribbles: 13. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout17 Jan 2028
Somebody else is better right now than Maxime Giron
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Foggia can pretend not to have heard.
Matteo Dagasso 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. Catanzaro have kept their man, and Foggia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Foggia offered $62.0K; Altamura 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.
A 3‑1 win over Monopoli, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Words at Foggia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Julián Rodríguez Seguer 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 Foggia game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Farense runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Julián Rodríguez Seguer has, at Foggia, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
“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 Foggia, and it is not being withdrawn.
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 Foggia have had the benefit 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.
Foggia asked and Picerno said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Words at Foggia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giuseppe Panico 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.
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.
Position 4, 24 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Foggia can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Ernis Qestaj 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 Davide Di Pasquale was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Daniele Russo after 1‑3, 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 Foggia, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Foggia 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 Foggia 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Giuseppe Panico 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. Foggia will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 8 matches without defeat is a foundation Foggia did not have in the autumn.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Words at Foggia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giuseppe Panico 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 won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 12 combined actions and a mark of 6.91, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
11 combined actions and 6.81. 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.
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Foggia will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Foggia can pretend not to have heard.
7.64, 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.
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.
“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 Foggia know it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Davide Di Pasquale 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 Foggia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
The 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.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Words at Foggia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giuseppe Panico 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 tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Foggia can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Giuseppe Panico was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every Foggia game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Farense runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Rodrigo Meccia 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.
“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; Foggia are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Foggia, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Foggia has been clear about where Federico Valietti stands, which is more than many ever get.
Position 3, 16 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Foggia have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
13 combined actions and 6.79. 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.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Words at Foggia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Davide Di Pasquale 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 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nicolò Bruschi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Foggia can pretend not to have heard.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Foggia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Daniele Russo after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The dugout1 Nov 2027
Somebody else is better right now than Maxime Giron
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Giuseppe Panico was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad25 Oct 2027
12 new faces, and Foggia 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.
“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 dugout25 Oct 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Daniele Russo was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Foggia dressing room was either.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Foggia, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Casarano? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
“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 Foggia know it.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Marked 8.10. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Foggia.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Words at Foggia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Davide Di Pasquale 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.
Orazio Pazienza 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.
“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 Foggia, and 2 appearances in 10 say he has earned the hearing.
Words at Foggia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giuseppe Panico is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Nobody at Foggia 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.
Salernitana next, and one man in the Foggia dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
3 goals in 5 games at Stade Brestois — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Foggia updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Foggia. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Matteo Dagasso 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 Giuseppe Panico was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 89. Casertana had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.71 on the card, and the Foggia support went home talking about one name.
Squad4 Oct 2027
A place in the month's best eleven for Gianluca Saro
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Gianluca Saro has come out of that comparison in the side, and Foggia have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Rodrigo Meccia 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 Foggia know it.
Squad27 Sep 2027
14 new faces, and Foggia 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.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
The enquiry everybody at Foggia was hoping would not arrive has arrived. He has never pretended he did not want to go back, and now there is somewhere to go back to.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Words at Foggia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giuseppe Panico 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 tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Foggia can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 10 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Palermo is saying, and nobody at Foggia is enjoying the guessing.
The deal that would have taken Filippo Perucchini to Benevento has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Foggia with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 12 combined actions and a mark of 6.60, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
A 2‑0 win over Monopoli, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
Federico Zuccon was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.11. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 18 arrived, 17 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Foggia have done the hard part with Palermo, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Matteo Dagasso 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 asked and Palermo 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: Benevento have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Filippo Perucchini. The answer from Foggia has not changed — yet.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Foggia will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Foggia will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Foggia can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from Arzignano for Filippo Perucchini 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.
Foggia asked and Pescara said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Marked 8.12 — 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.
Marked 8.01 — 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.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Foggia can pretend not to have heard.
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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Silvio Damico 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Franco Fontana 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Diego Guerra 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.
“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 Foggia, and 0 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Foggia people have started saying his name in the past tense.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Foggia are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Words at Foggia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gianmarco Todisco 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.
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.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Foggia would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Foggia have done the hard part with Ascoli, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Foggia asked and Palermo 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 Foggia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Foggia are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Casertana waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Foggia is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Modena have kept their man, and Foggia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The name of Filippo Perucchini has come up in conversations Foggia were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“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 Foggia, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
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. Matteo Dagasso has moved up it.
The offer from Casertana for Marco Bevilacqua 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.
Everything agreed with another club, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Foggia had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Spezia, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sheffield United have kept their man, and Foggia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Ernis Qestaj 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Foggia can pretend not to have heard.
The deal with Spezia 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.
Foggia 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.
Matteo Dagasso 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 was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Foggia has been clear about where Felice D'Amico stands, which is more than many ever get.
“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.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Words at Foggia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gianmarco Todisco 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.
5 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 clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Foggia people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Foggia can pretend not to have heard.
Add another name to the list: Perugia have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Christian Tommasini. The answer from Foggia has not changed — yet.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Ernis Qestaj has, at Foggia, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Foggia asked and Virtus Entella said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Matteo Dagasso and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Vincenzo Garofalo has his answer from Foggia; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Foggia will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Foggia, and it is not being withdrawn.
Foggia asked and Modena 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 Foggia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Words at Foggia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gianmarco Todisco 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.
Salvatore Monaco is 20, and Foggia have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
4 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Foggia are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 40 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Foggia can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Marco Bevilacqua will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Foggia the goodbyes have quietly begun.
At 36, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
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.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Words at Foggia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gianmarco Todisco 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 48 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Everything agreed with Hellas Verona, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Vojvodina keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Foggia asked and FC Nantes said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Mohamed Seck 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 clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Foggia people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The phone has started ringing about Christian Tommasini again, and this time the name on the line is Benevento. Foggia are listening politely and promising nothing.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Blackburn Rovers is saying, and nobody at Foggia is enjoying the guessing.
Davide Petermann 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 Davide Di Pasquale was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Foggia can pretend not to have heard.
Add another name to the list: Pro Vercelli have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Luca Nocerino. The answer from Foggia has not changed — yet.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
A loan enquiry to Blackburn Rovers: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Foggia have made the call to Estudiantes. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Foggia have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Marco Oliva has agreed terms with Torres for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Foggia 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 Foggia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Foggia, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
What was a back-page story is now a matter for the terraces, and the terraces do not do nuance. Foggia would like it dealt with before it becomes the only question anybody asks.
Felice D'Amico 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.
Mamadou Coulibaly 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 Davide Di Pasquale was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Felice D'Amico is on it.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mamadou Coulibaly, and the manager let it.
Squad17 May 2027
Words at Foggia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Davide Di Pasquale 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 Foggia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Foggia. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Orazio Pazienza 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.
“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 dugout10 May 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Alexandru Borbei'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 Foggia, 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 Foggia. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
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 Foggia prefer.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Foggia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Marco Oliva is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Davide Petermann 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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at Foggia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gianmarco Todisco is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Nobody at Foggia will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Position 6, 45 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Foggia the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
In brief
SquadThe selectors could not leave Gianluca Saro out
“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 Foggia know it.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Maxime Giron.
Eric Biasiol 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 dugout19 Apr 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.” Daniele Russo chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
1 for Marco Oliva, marked 7.56, 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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Davide Petermann has his answer from Foggia; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Foggia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout12 Apr 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.” Daniele Russo chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Steeve-Mike Eyango was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
In brief
The dugoutAlexandru Borbei is still being punished for one mistake
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Andrea Gallo 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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gianmarco Todisco 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 Foggia, and 5 appearances in 33 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout5 Apr 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.” Daniele Russo, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
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 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 Foggia 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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Bari in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Foggia know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
40 points from position 6. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
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 Felice D'Amico has written the date down.
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.” Daniele Russo on a 4‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Something was said to Christian Tommasini and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Foggia can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gianmarco Todisco was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 2‑2 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Foggia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Words at Foggia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gianmarco Todisco 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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Foggia, and 5 appearances in 29 say he has earned the hearing.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Daniele Russo after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
14 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
“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 Foggia, and it is not being withdrawn.
Marked 8.27 — 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.
Davide Petermann 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 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.
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.
Eric Biasiol 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.
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 dugout22 Feb 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Daniele Russo was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Foggia dressing room was either.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Picerno? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Monopoli next, and one man in the Foggia dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Maxime Giron 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 tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Foggia can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gianmarco Todisco was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Foggia 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.
Andrea Gallo 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: Mario Ravasio. 2‑1 against Cosenza, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“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 Foggia, and 5 appearances in 25 say he has earned the hearing.
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Daniele Russo kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Foggia close the window on a squad of their own making
0 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.
Foggia have made the call to Unión de Santa Fe. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dynamo Kyiv have kept their man, and Foggia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Christian Tommasini has his answer from Foggia; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
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 Christian Tommasini trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“It is 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.
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.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Cavese? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
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 86th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Mario Ravasio decided nobody was going anywhere. Sorrento had no time left to answer.
Foggia asked and Estudiantes said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Marked 8.22 — 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.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Mario Ravasio was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.07. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gianmarco Todisco was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The 86th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Giuseppe Panico decided nobody was going anywhere. Audace Cerignola had no time left to answer.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Giuseppe Panico provided it, and the 8.64 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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 Foggia have had the benefit 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 Foggia, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match2 Jan 2027
Another one collected away from home
5 on the bounce on the road for Foggia. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
A 3‑2 win over Audace Cerignola, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Foggia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Federico Zuccon and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Successful dribbles: 17. 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 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gianmarco Todisco was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Daniele Russo was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Foggia dressing room was either.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
7.81, 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.
Match19 Dec 2026
Another one collected away from home
4 on the bounce on the road for Foggia. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Successful dribbles: 20. 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mario Ravasio. 2‑0 against Casarano, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Foggia told Mamadou Coulibaly something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Two goals and a mark of 9.43 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
3 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
“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 Foggia, and 5 appearances in 17 say he has earned the hearing.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Ferdinando Del Sole 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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Filippo Berra is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Maxime Giron
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Steeve-Mike Eyango was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.91 for the rest of it.
3 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.
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.
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.
Davide Petermann 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.
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.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Mario Ravasio scored in the 86th minute, Crotone had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Foggia took the lot.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 12 combined actions and a mark of 6.96, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gianmarco Todisco 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 Foggia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Andrea Gallo 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Foggia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Steeve-Mike Eyango is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Alexandru Borbei'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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Filippo Berra trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Crotone in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Gianluca Saro signs something — a contract at Foggia or anywhere else — this column belongs to 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 Francesco Rizzo is on it.
Federico Zuccon 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 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.
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 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.
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.
13 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 dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Federico Zuccon'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 needed Giuseppe Panico to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Altamura, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Daniele Russo was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Foggia dressing room was either.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Foggia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Steeve-Mike Eyango 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.71 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Daniele Russo after 2‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Davide Petermann 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 team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Cosenza.
Cosenza next, and one man in the Foggia 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 Francesco Rizzo is on it.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Foggia will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
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.
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 Foggia.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Mario Ravasio was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.07. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
“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; Foggia are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
3 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
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 7.56 for the rest of it.
Andrea Gallo 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.
13 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Foggia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 Foggia, and 1 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout21 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.” Daniele Russo kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Cremonese have kept their man, and Foggia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Marked 8.00 — 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.
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, 6.83, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
The dugout14 Sep 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 1‑3 defeat, delivered by Daniele Russo to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Maxime Giron
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
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 deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 11 arrived, 7 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Foggia 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.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Alessio Buttaro has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Foggia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Steeve-Mike Eyango 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.
Sorrento next, and one man in the Foggia dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Foggia than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Crvena Zvezda have kept their man, and Foggia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ferdinando Del Sole, and the manager let it.
Squad31 Aug 2026
13 new faces, and Foggia are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
“There 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.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Audace Cerignola? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
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 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Foggia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Steeve-Mike Eyango 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.
Audace Cerignola next, and one man in the Foggia dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Cremonese have kept their man, and Foggia 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 Steeve-Mike Eyango was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Foggia that is a harder question to answer.
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 Foggia would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
“Ambitious players need ambitious projects. Draw your own conclusions.” Federico Valietti’s representative said it with a smile, and made sure everyone wrote it down.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Cremonese have kept their man, and Foggia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Andrea Gallo 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Umberto Caputo is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Armando Valentini has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Gennaro Lombardi has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Roberto Tedesco 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Riccardo Brosco trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Federico Zuccon 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 Mamadou Coulibaly was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Still no offer on the table, and Giuseppe Panico’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
13 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Foggia, another week without a signature from Mamadou Coulibaly.