From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad1 Mar 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Jon McLaughlin
118 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.
Match27 Feb 2027
Nowhere to hide for Lumezzane
0‑3 against Cittadella, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Squad1 Mar 2027
“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.
Player ratings1 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market1 Mar 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Lumezzane is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad1 Mar 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad22 Feb 2027
Jon McLaughlin damages knee ligaments — 126 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 126 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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
“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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Michele Rocca 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.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
A performance of 9.24 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Davide De Marino 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 terraces22 Feb 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Jacopo Deratti 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.
Match20 Feb 2027
Ospitaletto made Lumezzane work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
Defensive actions: 19. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.12, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad15 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.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Marked 9.39. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Lumezzane.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at Lumezzane training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jon McLaughlin 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.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
20 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
The manager makes an example of Jon McLaughlin
“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.
Match13 Feb 2027
A 1‑0 win over Pro Vercelli, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
A performance of 8.39 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Defensive actions: 16. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Nobody at Lumezzane 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad8 Feb 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.37 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Mattia Iori in a row with a teammate
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
Jon McLaughlin 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.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad8 Feb 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.
Match6 Feb 2027
2‑2, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
The cruellest goal, and it is Sasha Mancini's
A touch he did not want, a bounce he could not have read, and his name in the wrong column. There is no consoling a man after one of these, and Lumezzane will not try tonight.
Market8 Feb 2027
Francesco Bonardi returns from a loan that gave him nothing
0 appearances and 0 goals is not a season, it is a year somebody has lost. Whether that is his fault, the borrowing club's or the people who arranged it is the argument the next few weeks will have.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match30 Jan 2027
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
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.
Market1 Feb 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Lumezzane is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Luigi Caccavo has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
23 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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Mattia Iori 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.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
Marked 9.07. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Lumezzane.
The terraces1 Feb 2027
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.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
Mattia Iori was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.39. 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad25 Jan 2027
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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Mattia Iori in a row with a teammate
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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Jon McLaughlin 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.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match23 Jan 2027
Alcione Milano left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Boardroom25 Jan 2027
Wages eat 122% 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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Marco Moscati, and the manager let it.
Loan watch25 Jan 2027
“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 Lumezzane, and 0 appearances in 21 say he has earned the hearing.
The terraces25 Jan 2027
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match16 Jan 2027
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Riccardo Stivanello will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Lumezzane escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Squad18 Jan 2027
“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.
Squad18 Jan 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at Lumezzane training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jon McLaughlin 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.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Riccardo Stivanello was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.86. 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jon McLaughlin, and the manager let it.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.56, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Ninety minutes of Mattia Iori at his very best
Marked 8.36. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Lumezzane.
Match16 Jan 2027
It needed Riccardo Stivanello to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against Arzignano, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad11 Jan 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Lumezzane may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 25. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market11 Jan 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Michele Rocca 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.
Squad11 Jan 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.
Match9 Jan 2027
0‑1 to Union Brescia, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad4 Jan 2027
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.
Market4 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Lumezzane may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Samuele Diodato, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.63
A mark of 7.63 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.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad4 Jan 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.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Marked 9.29 — 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words at Lumezzane training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jon McLaughlin 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 terraces4 Jan 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match26 Dec 2026
No end in sight to Lumezzane's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Lumezzane has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Michele Rocca 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Jon McLaughlin 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.
Boardroom28 Dec 2026
245% 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.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Defensive actions: 18, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Squad28 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.
Loan watch28 Dec 2026
“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 Lumezzane, and 0 appearances in 17 say he has earned the hearing.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Defensive actions: 15, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Donny van der Lijcke, 17, plays like he has been here for years — 8.17
A mark of 8.17 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 17-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Match19 Dec 2026
The wait goes on for Lumezzane
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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Mattia Iori 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.
Squad21 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.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Dec 2026
Fabrizio Paghera damages knee ligaments — 16 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 16 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.
Match9 Dec 2026
Lumezzane bow out of the cup
AC Milan go through and Lumezzane go home, 0‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Match12 Dec 2026
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Donny van der Lijcke will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Lumezzane escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Donny van der Lijcke provided it, and the 8.35 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Gesualdo Napolitano, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.00
A mark of 8.00 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.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Age has not caught Mattia Rolando yet — 8.06
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.06 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Mattia Iori in a row with a teammate
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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at Lumezzane training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tobías Ramírez 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 terraces14 Dec 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Gesualdo Napolitano 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad7 Dec 2026
Fabrizio Paghera damages knee ligaments — 23 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 23 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
“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.
Squad7 Dec 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.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Lumezzane training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jon McLaughlin 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.
Match5 Dec 2026
Triestina left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad30 Nov 2026
Fabrizio Paghera damages knee ligaments — 30 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 30 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.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Donny van der Lijcke, 17, plays like he has been here for years — 8.48
A mark of 8.48 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 17-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Michele Rocca 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.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
300% 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.
The terraces30 Nov 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 17-year-old it feels ownership of. Donny van der Lijcke 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.
Match28 Nov 2026
A 1‑0 win over Renate, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.27, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Loan watch30 Nov 2026
“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 Lumezzane, and 0 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad23 Nov 2026
Fabrizio Paghera damages knee ligaments — 37 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 37 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.
Match21 Nov 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 ratings23 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad23 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Lumezzane training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jon McLaughlin 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.
Match21 Nov 2026
0‑1 to Virtus Verona, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Nov 2026
Fabrizio Paghera damages knee ligaments — 44 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 44 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.
Match14 Nov 2026
No end in sight to Lumezzane's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Lumezzane has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Michele Rocca 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Jon McLaughlin 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 terraces16 Nov 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Riccardo Stivanello 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.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Riccardo Stivanello was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.74. 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.
Squad16 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.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match14 Nov 2026
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad9 Nov 2026
Giacomo Drago decides it from twelve yards
3 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Fabrizio Paghera damages knee ligaments — 51 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 51 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.
Match4 Nov 2026
Lumezzane through in the cup
A 0‑0 win over Empoli, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match7 Nov 2026
4 matches without a win for Lumezzane
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Lumezzane are no longer polite ones.
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad2 Nov 2026
Fabrizio Paghera damages knee ligaments — 58 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 58 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Mattia Iori in a row with a teammate
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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Jon McLaughlin 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
Crisis
Squad26 Oct 2026
Fabrizio Paghera damages knee ligaments — 65 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 65 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Lumezzane may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Mattia Iori was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Lumezzane training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giacomo Drago 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.
Match24 Oct 2026
0‑1 to Novara, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Oct 2026
Fabrizio Paghera damages knee ligaments — 72 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 72 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Aiman Riahi is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Mattia Iori in a row with a teammate
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.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
20 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.
Squad19 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad12 Oct 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Fabrizio Paghera
80 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.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.70 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad12 Oct 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad5 Oct 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Fabrizio Paghera
87 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
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.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Michele Rocca 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
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.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Wages eat 507% 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
Steady
Squad28 Sep 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Fabrizio Paghera
94 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.
Match23 Sep 2026
Lumezzane march on in the cup
Pro Vercelli are out and Lumezzane go through, 1‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Gesualdo Napolitano, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 9.19
A mark of 9.19 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.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
A debut Matteo Scanzi will not forget — 7.49
There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 0 on the scoresheet, 7.49 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.
The terraces28 Sep 2026
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 6 of the 28 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
Squad28 Sep 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 terraces28 Sep 2026
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Squad28 Sep 2026
“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.
Match26 Sep 2026
Trento left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad21 Sep 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Fabrizio Paghera
101 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.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.70 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Michele Rocca 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Aiman Riahi is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Giacomo Drago 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
It finished 2‑1, and it was Alfredo Donnarumma’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Lumezzane.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Sep 2026
Fabrizio Paghera damages knee ligaments — 109 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 109 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Mattia Iori 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Lumezzane training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giacomo Drago 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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match12 Sep 2026
0‑1 to Alcione Milano, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Marco Moscati, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Sep 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Fabrizio Paghera
117 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.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Mattia Iori in a row with a teammate
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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
340% 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Jon McLaughlin
“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 Sep 2026
Jon McLaughlin 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.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Shots: 4. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.57 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Mattia Iori 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Lumezzane training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giacomo Drago 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.
Match29 Aug 2026
It finished 2‑1, and it was Gaetano Monachello’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Lumezzane.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad31 Aug 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.
Market31 Aug 2026
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Jacopo Deratti has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Lumezzane.
Squad31 Aug 2026
The plan did not have a place for Marco Moscati
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.
Market31 Aug 2026
A season-long look at somebody else’s player: Tobías Ramírez arrives from River Plate with something to prove and a return ticket in the drawer. Good loans make everybody richer; this one starts Saturday.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market24 Aug 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Michele Rocca 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.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
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.
Market24 Aug 2026
Samuele D'Agostino has left for Pro Patria in a $150.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Market24 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Alessandro Martinelli 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.
Market24 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Samuele Costa is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 Aug 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Lumezzane know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Squad17 Aug 2026
The competition arrived without a word said to him about it. Alfredo Donnarumma keeps the shirt for now, at Lumezzane's convenience rather than his own.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Aug 2026
Lumezzane say no — this time
The offer from Forli for Francesco Bonardi 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.
Squad10 Aug 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Lumezzane training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giacomo Drago 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.
Market10 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The clock runs on Mattia Rolando's contract
24 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
Squad10 Aug 2026
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Lumezzane has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Michele Rocca commits to Lumezzane for another 3 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Michele Rocca 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Giacomo Drago 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
The phone has started ringing about Francesco Bonardi again, and this time the name on the line is Forli. Lumezzane are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad3 Aug 2026
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Lumezzane know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Market3 Aug 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.