From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad22 Feb 2027
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.
Match20 Feb 2027
0‑1 to Dolomiti Bellunesi, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Flavio Martini after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
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 dugout22 Feb 2027
Giacomo Drago knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Lumezzane, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 13. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
“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.
Looking ahead22 Feb 2027
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Mattia Iori’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Lumezzane needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Market22 Feb 2027
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Francesco Bonardi has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Lumezzane.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match13 Feb 2027
The 2-goal deficit was real and so was the recovery. Gennaro Anatriello was at the centre of it, AlbinoLeffe were at the end of it, and everybody who left early will hear about this one for years.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Two goals and a mark of 8.77 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
At 34 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.14, and nobody on the pitch better.
Squad15 Feb 2027
100 goals for the club, every one of them filed away in the memory of a supporter somewhere.
Match13 Feb 2027
It finished 3‑2, and it was Gennaro Anatriello’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Lumezzane.
The terraces15 Feb 2027
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.
Match13 Feb 2027
It had gone 5 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Giacomo Drago, and the manager let it.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Flavio Martini on a 3‑2 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout8 Feb 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Lumezzane may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market8 Feb 2027
“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 Lumezzane, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match6 Feb 2027
The wait goes on for Lumezzane
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Market8 Feb 2027
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Francesco Bonardi reports back to Lumezzane with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Squad8 Feb 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lumezzane this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad8 Feb 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Archie Whitehall commits to Lumezzane for another 4 years.
Market8 Feb 2027
He is 20, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Samuele Diodato named in the team of the month
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Samuele Diodato is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
“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.
In brief
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Player ratings
Mattia Iori beats them one at a time
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Squad
A row about effort at Lumezzane
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market1 Feb 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Lumezzane people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
Vincenzo Colangiuli, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.88
A mark of 7.88 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.
Market1 Feb 2027
“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 Lumezzane, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Lumezzane 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.
Market1 Feb 2027
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Juve Stabia moved on, Gaetano Monachello reports back to Lumezzane, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Market1 Feb 2027
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Lumezzane they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Match30 Jan 2027
No end in sight to Lumezzane's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Lumezzane has to find a result from somewhere.
The terraces1 Feb 2027
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.
Match30 Jan 2027
A point taken on 88 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market25 Jan 2027
“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.
Market25 Jan 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Lumezzane people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market25 Jan 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Francesco Bonardi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Lumezzane the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match23 Jan 2027
Lumezzane cannot find the net
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
Lumezzane asked and Padova 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 dugout25 Jan 2027
“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.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
A loan enquiry to Lecce: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
7.19, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Lumezzane had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
In brief
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Squad
Words at Lumezzane training over how hard people work
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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The dugout
Mattia Rolando asks for a word with the manager
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market18 Jan 2027
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Lumezzane have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market18 Jan 2027
Juve Stabia come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Lumezzane did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market18 Jan 2027
“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 Lumezzane, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
Matteo Ferro: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Lumezzane have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
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.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Pisa is saying, and nobody at Lumezzane is enjoying the guessing.
Match16 Jan 2027
0‑1 to Renate, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Fabrizio Paghera, and the manager let it.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market11 Jan 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Audace Cerignola waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Lumezzane is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market11 Jan 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lumezzane can pretend not to have heard.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Riccardo Stivanello is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Market11 Jan 2027
Lumezzane say no — this time
The offer from Pianese for Luigi Caccavo 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.
Market11 Jan 2027
The name of Gaetano Monachello has come up in conversations Lumezzane were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Match9 Jan 2027
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 16. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Flavio Martini to a room that had heard them before.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
Hellas Verona 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Two goals and a mark of 8.94 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market4 Jan 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lumezzane can pretend not to have heard.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Marco Moscati pulls a muscle — 17 days out
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 17 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Match2 Jan 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ernesto Torregrossa. 2‑0 against Arzignano, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Market4 Jan 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Lumezzane have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
The game went through Michele Rocca — 7.28
Marked 7.28 on 11 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Ninety minutes of Mattia Iori at his very best
Marked 8.04. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Lumezzane.
Squad4 Jan 2027
The medical room confirms 23 days on the sidelines for Alessandro Pavanati, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Market4 Jan 2027
Spezia are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Lumezzane will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.83 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Riccardo Stivanello and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match26 Dec 2026
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Lumezzane and Union Brescia in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Match26 Dec 2026
Beaten 2‑4, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Andrea Boffelli, and the manager let it.
Match28 Dec 2026
Lumezzane at the halfway mark
Half the programme played, position 8, 19 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Goalkeepers do not get to make mistakes; they get to make goals. He made one, he knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
The dugout28 Dec 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 2‑4 defeat, delivered by Flavio Martini to a room that had heard them before.
Boardroom28 Dec 2026
Wages eat 88% of everything Lumezzane earn
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The terraces21 Dec 2026
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.
Match19 Dec 2026
Carpi made Lumezzane work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Sasha Mancini, and the manager let it.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.73 on the card, and the Lumezzane support went home talking about one name.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Francesco Gallea Beidi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Flavio Martini could afford to be generous.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
The plan did not have a place for Mattia Rolando
Nobody at Lumezzane is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 11. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Lumezzane. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Lumezzane have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“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.
Match12 Dec 2026
0‑1 to Cittadella, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at Lumezzane training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matteo Ferro 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 dugout14 Dec 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Sasha Mancini
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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
One yellow too many, and a match watched from the stand. The most avoidable absence in football, and Lumezzane will feel it on Saturday.
Looking ahead14 Dec 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Jacopo Deratti’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Lumezzane needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 10. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match5 Dec 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Michele Rocca’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Lumezzane.
Squad7 Dec 2026
52 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
A performance of 8.06 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad7 Dec 2026
The award is a small thing with a heavy meaning: for four weeks nobody in this division did his job better. Lumezzane have the trophy on a shelf and the player in the side.
Squad7 Dec 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Ernesto Torregrossa
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Ernesto Torregrossa has come out of that comparison in the side, and Lumezzane have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Market7 Dec 2026
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Gaetano Monachello has his answer from Lumezzane; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 1‑0, already talking about the next one.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
“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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Matteo Ferro 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.75, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad30 Nov 2026
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Match28 Nov 2026
No time for Trento to settle
The goal that put Trento ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Lumezzane equalised, 3 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Samuele Diodato
“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.
Match28 Nov 2026
A 2‑2 draw with Trento leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
Wages eat 88% of everything Lumezzane earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
The dugout30 Nov 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.” Flavio Martini chose the glass-half-full version of 2‑2; the supporters left with the other one.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
One booking too many, and a game watched from the stand. Lumezzane lose him for the most avoidable reason in the sport.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match21 Nov 2026
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 6‑0 against Giana Erminio, and it could have been more.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
A brace, and Ernesto Torregrossa takes the afternoon — 9.29
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ernesto Torregrossa provided it, and the 9.29 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Match21 Nov 2026
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Lumezzane and Giana Erminio in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
The terraces23 Nov 2026
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.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Marked 8.38. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Lumezzane.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Marked 8.33 — 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 ratings23 Nov 2026
A performance of 8.16 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Fabrizio Paghera, and the manager let it.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Flavio Martini on a 6‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“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
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lumezzane this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Lumezzane training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matteo Ferro 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
Giacomo Drago knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Giacomo Drago trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad16 Nov 2026
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
Looking ahead16 Nov 2026
Next up at home: Giana Erminio, who go into it in position 16. The kind of fixture a season is quietly built on or quietly loses its shape in.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Marked 8.11 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Squad9 Nov 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lumezzane this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces9 Nov 2026
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.
Match7 Nov 2026
It finished 2‑0, and it was Gennaro Anatriello’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Lumezzane.
Match7 Nov 2026
Lumezzane are at home on the road
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.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Gennaro Anatriello was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.22. 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 dugout9 Nov 2026
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Flavio Martini on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“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 dugout9 Nov 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Michele Rocca, and the manager let it.
Match31 Oct 2026
Dolomiti Bellunesi left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Flavio Martini to a room that had heard them before.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Lumezzane
Francesco Gallea Beidi 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.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
Wages eat 88% of everything Lumezzane earn
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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Ernesto Torregrossa
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Ernesto Torregrossa has come out of that comparison in the side, and Lumezzane have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Squad2 Nov 2026
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Matteo Ferro falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
At 34 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.13, and nobody on the pitch better.
Match24 Oct 2026
Three points for Lumezzane, 1‑0 the final word against AlbinoLeffe in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad26 Oct 2026
10 new faces, and Lumezzane are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Flavio Martini could afford to be generous.
Squad26 Oct 2026
A row about effort at Lumezzane
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matteo Ferro was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Sasha Mancini dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Tommaso Ravaglioli, and the manager let it.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The plan did not have a place for Mattia Rolando
Nobody at Lumezzane is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 8. 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Oct 2026
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.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.07 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Match17 Oct 2026
It had gone 6 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Mattia Rolando
“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.
Match17 Oct 2026
Three points for Lumezzane, 1‑0 the final word against Novara in a contest settled by the finer margins.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Flavio Martini on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
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.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
12 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Oct 2026
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Samuele Diodato
“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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at Lumezzane training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matteo Ferro 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 dugout12 Oct 2026
Lorenzo Andrenacci is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Looking ahead12 Oct 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Novara in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
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 Mattia Rolando has written the date down.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and Lumezzane will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Francesco Bonardi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad12 Oct 2026
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad5 Oct 2026
Fabrizio Paghera damages knee ligaments — 18 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 18 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Match3 Oct 2026
The wait goes on for Lumezzane
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.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.87 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“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 Lumezzane know it.
Match3 Oct 2026
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Lumezzane and Lecco in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Match3 Oct 2026
Lecco left with the points after a 2‑4 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“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.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
111% of the income goes out in wages at Lumezzane
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad28 Sep 2026
Fabrizio Paghera damages knee ligaments — 25 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 25 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.
Match23 Sep 2026
The small margins put Lumezzane out
Out, 0‑2 to Picerno, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Squad28 Sep 2026
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Match26 Sep 2026
5 matches without a win for Lumezzane
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Lumezzane are no longer polite ones.
Match26 Sep 2026
3 matches without a goal for Lumezzane
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.
Match26 Sep 2026
Pro Vercelli left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Too much change too quickly at Lumezzane
10 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 dugout28 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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Flavio Martini to a room that had heard them before.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Francesco Gallea Beidi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad21 Sep 2026
32 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Lumezzane lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Ernesto Torregrossa and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“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.
Match19 Sep 2026
0‑1 to Renate, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The dugout21 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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Flavio Martini to a room that had heard them before.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Matteo Ferro 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.
Market21 Sep 2026
Matteo Scanzi is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Lumezzane has been clear about where Matteo Scanzi stands, which is more than many ever get.
Looking ahead21 Sep 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Pro Vercelli in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Sep 2026
Fabrizio Paghera damages knee ligaments — 39 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 39 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.
Market14 Sep 2026
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Francesco Bonardi reports back to Lumezzane with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Empoli have kept their man, and Lumezzane go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match12 Sep 2026
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad14 Sep 2026
A goalkeeper’s error has no defender behind it to tidy it away. He knew before the ball crossed the line, the crowd knew a second later, and there is nothing anybody can say tonight.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Flavio Martini after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Lumezzane training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matteo Ferro 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 dugout14 Sep 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Sep 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Fabrizio Paghera
47 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Lumezzane lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 12 signed and 1 gone
That is the business done at Lumezzane until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Market7 Sep 2026
“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 Lumezzane, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market7 Sep 2026
The deal that would have taken Matteo Scanzi to Benevento has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Lumezzane with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Lumezzane asked and Sampdoria said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Andrea Boffelli is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Squad7 Sep 2026
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. Marco Moscati has moved up it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Lumezzane would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
Sasha Mancini knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Sasha Mancini trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad31 Aug 2026
54 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Lumezzane lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market31 Aug 2026
Matteo Scanzi hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lumezzane can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Lumezzane had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Feyenoord, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
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. 14 actions, 7.00, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ludogorets have kept their man, and Lumezzane go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match29 Aug 2026
0‑1 to Arzignano, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Market31 Aug 2026
The phone has started ringing about Francesco Bonardi again, and this time the name on the line is Campobasso. Lumezzane are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Lumezzane are still strangers to each other
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.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market24 Aug 2026
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Lumezzane have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market24 Aug 2026
Maissa Ndiaye hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lumezzane can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Lumezzane have done the hard part with AZ, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Lumezzane asked and Padova said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Lumezzane have made the call to Feyenoord. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Lumezzane
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matteo Ferro was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
The deal with Feyenoord 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A muscle injury sidelines Marco Moscati for 16 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Lumezzane will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Cremonese have kept their man, and Lumezzane go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market17 Aug 2026
The name of Matteo Scanzi has come up in conversations Lumezzane were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad17 Aug 2026
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 Lumezzane would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Market17 Aug 2026
Lumezzane have made Francesco Bonardi available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Empoli have kept their man, and Lumezzane go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Martino Ravelli 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Bruno Agostini 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Filippo Villa is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Tommaso Raimondi 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Francesco Gallea Beidi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Ernesto Torregrossa commits to Lumezzane for another 2 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Ernesto Torregrossa 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Market3 Aug 2026
36 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
Lumezzane are still strangers to each other
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.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Universitatea Craiova 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.