“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Gubbio can pretend not to have heard.
Giovanni Di Noia 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: 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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Filippo Falco falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Latina waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Gubbio is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Alan Galeano is living that version at Gubbio, and it tends to show in the first month.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Gubbio have done the hard part with Inter, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Cagliari is saying, and nobody at Gubbio is enjoying the guessing.
Andrea La Mantia and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at Gubbio training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alan Galeano is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
At 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Gubbio can pretend not to have heard.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Amoako Minta did not need any: 7.61, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Gubbio have done the hard part with Cagliari, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gubbio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Alberto Spinelli is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Filippo Falco
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Everything agreed with Vis Pesaro, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Gubbio can tell you which week it ends in.
Andrea La Mantia 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.
“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; Gubbio are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Filippo Falco falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Andrea La Mantia 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Gubbio can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Filippo Falco falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Gubbio has been clear about where Andrea Signorini stands, which is more than many ever get.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Davide Fabbri after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Livorno defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Gubbio, and both men came out saying it was fine.
12 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Francesco Zallu 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.
Position 16, 12 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.
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Davide Fabbri was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Gubbio 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 Torres? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Successful dribbles: 28. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at Gubbio training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Filippo Falco 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.
Samuele Duro 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 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Gubbio, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
Position 16 and 10 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
A mark of 7.79 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Giovanni Di Noia 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 Filippo Falco was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Tommaso Ghirardello 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.
Andrea La Mantia 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.
“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 dugout30 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Davide Fabbri left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Alessio Di Massimo’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Gubbio needing him to play as if none of it matters.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Tommaso Ghirardello signs something — a contract at Gubbio or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
7.55, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Filippo Falco was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Filippo Falco trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gubbio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Gubbio, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Gubbio told Saber Hraiech something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
A call-up flatters the player and the club that produced him in the same breath. Gubbio would like him back in one piece and know they will not be consulted.
Position 16 and 7 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Andrea La Mantia 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: 13. 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Gubbio told Iwo Kaczmarski something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Carpi in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
7 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
7.83, 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.
7.76, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Filippo Falco was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It needed Giacomo Rosaia to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against Forli, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Davide Fabbri was not hiding it after 2‑2, and nobody in the Gubbio dressing room was either.
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Tommaso Ghirardello commits to Gubbio for another 5 years.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Gubbio training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Filippo Falco is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
11 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 dugout26 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Davide Fabbri to a room that had heard them before.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Giacomo Rosaia trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A point taken on 94 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
A 2‑2 draw with Ternana leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Davide Fabbri chose the glass-half-full version of 2‑2; the supporters left with the other one.
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Gubbio have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 21 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Andrea La Mantia was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at Gubbio training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Filippo Falco is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Orazio Rizzo 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.
“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 dugout12 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Davide Fabbri left the room before anybody could ask which.
In brief
The dugoutGiacomo Rosaia dropped after a run of poor form
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Gubbio will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Andrea La Mantia 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 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 Gubbio know it.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Alessio Di Massimo is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Davide Fabbri after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Successful dribbles: 18. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad28 Sep 2026
11 new faces, and Gubbio 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.
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Davide Fabbri chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Lorenzo Podda
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gubbio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Filippo Falco falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Tommaso Ghirardello. 2‑1 against Guidonia Montecelio, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
He is 20 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Davide Fabbri could afford to be generous.
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.
16 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Gubbio lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Gubbio training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Filippo Falco is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Santos have kept their man, and Gubbio go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Paolo Mazza 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. Andrea Cipriani 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.
23 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Gubbio lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A 1‑4 beating by Arezzo was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Gubbio close the window on a squad of their own making
14 in and 0 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.
Gubbio asked and Bodo/Glimt said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
11 combined actions and 6.82. 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.
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout7 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 1‑4 defeat, delivered by Davide Fabbri to a room that had heard them before.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Manuel Ferrini 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 31 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at PAOK is saying, and nobody at Gubbio is enjoying the guessing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gubbio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Filippo Falco falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Gubbio asked and Gimnasia La Plata said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
10 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Davide Fabbri after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Gubbio have made the call to Rayo Vallecano. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gubbio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boca Juniors have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
The 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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Livorno in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Most careers contain one of these and almost none of them are reported until they have already worked. The manager wants Titas Krapikas doing something different, and the coming weeks are the awkward part.
Andrea La Mantia 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. Ascoli have kept their man, and Gubbio go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Andrea La Mantia and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Filippo Falco falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Ruggero Corsini is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Achille Bianco 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Matteo Palumbo is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Andrea La Mantia 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.
Gubbio asked and Monaco said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
24 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
Squad3 Aug 2026
7 new faces, and Gubbio 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.