Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Diego Perillo is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Successful dribbles: 20. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Tommaso Ravaglioli 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Tommaso Ravaglioli. 1‑0 against Giana Erminio, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.58 on the card, and the Lumezzane support went home talking about one name.
The dugout28 Feb 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Renato Pugliese kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
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.
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.
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.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Words at Lumezzane training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marco Moscati is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Lumezzane pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Matteo Fugaro, and the manager let it.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Renato Pugliese was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Lumezzane dressing room was either.
Giana Erminio next, and one man in the Lumezzane dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Lumezzane are no longer polite ones.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Marco Moscati 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Lumezzane can tell you which week it ends in.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Lumezzane will try again when the window opens; Cremonese may not be selling by then.
“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 dugout14 Feb 2028
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Renato Pugliese to a room that had heard them before.
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.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Lumezzane close the window on a squad of their own making
0 in and 0 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Lumezzane had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Lazio, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
The deal that would have taken Francesco Bonardi to Ascoli 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.
$27.0K on the table at Juve Stabia. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Lumezzane asked and Udinese said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
$27.0K was the most the club would pay and Juve Stabia were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Lumezzane and Cremonese have settled on $100.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
“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.
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. 16 actions, 7.08, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Lumezzane have gone to Lazio with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
$490.0K was the most the club would pay and Udinese were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Words at Lumezzane training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marco Moscati 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.
Paolo Gardoni and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The 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.
The offer from Renate for Tommaso Ravaglioli 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Fiorentina is saying, and nobody at Lumezzane is enjoying the guessing.
$490.0K on the table at Udinese. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Lumezzane have gone to Juve Stabia with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
$300.0K was the most the club would pay and Lazio were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Words at Lumezzane training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marco Moscati is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.92 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Everything agreed with Fiorentina, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
The offer went to Lazio this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Juve Stabia have kept their man, and Lumezzane go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ernesto Torregrossa. 2‑0 against Pro Vercelli, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 17 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
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.
Lumezzane had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Cesena, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Udinese have kept their man, and Lumezzane go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Juve Stabia wanted more than $27.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Words at Lumezzane training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marco Moscati 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.
“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.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Words at Lumezzane training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marco Moscati is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Hellas Verona have kept their man, and Lumezzane go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Lumezzane can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“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.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
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.
Three points for Lumezzane, 1‑0 the final word against Arzignano in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings27 Dec 2027
Sasha Mancini was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.19. 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.
Position 10, 18 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
“I 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 4 appearances in 25 say he has earned the hearing.
“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.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Words at Lumezzane training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Charlie Penman 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 manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marco Moscati was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Paolo Gardoni was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Lumezzane told Sasha Mancini something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Everybody at Lumezzane saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 35 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Marco Moscati 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.
Paolo Gardoni and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout13 Dec 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Oier Zarraga's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The dugout13 Dec 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 0‑4 defeat, delivered by Renato Pugliese to a room that had heard them before.
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.
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.
At 20 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 18 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
He is 18 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
At 18 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Marco Chiosa and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Words at Lumezzane training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marco Moscati is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
He is 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Tommaso Ravaglioli. 1‑0 against Ospitaletto, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“I watch every Lumezzane game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Thun runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
16 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
The dugoutDiego Perillo knocks on the manager's door
69Edition
The Lumezzane Post
22 Nov 2027
From our football correspondentUneasy
Squad22 Nov 2027
Marco Moscati 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.
Successful dribbles: 14. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Renato Pugliese was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Lumezzane dressing room was either.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Ospitaletto next, and one man in the Lumezzane dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rogelio Esparza was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Tommaso Ravaglioli is on it.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Alessandro Ghillani’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.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Mattia Iori signs something — a contract at Lumezzane or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Position 14 and 8 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.94 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marco Moscati was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
11 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Tommaso Ravaglioli did not need any: 7.88, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marco Moscati was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lumezzane this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
A 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. 10 actions, 7.10, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Lumezzane are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“I watch every Lumezzane game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Thun runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Paolo Gardoni 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.
Marked 8.15 — 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rogelio Esparza was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Michele Rocca trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The run now stands at 9, and the questions being asked around Lumezzane are no longer polite ones.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Words at Lumezzane training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marco Moscati 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.
Matteo Fugaro and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Mattia Iori signs something — a contract at Lumezzane or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Words at Lumezzane training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marco Moscati 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.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Lumezzane have no good answer.
A side in position 6 visits next. The result will not make anybody’s season and it could quietly break the shape of one, which is why the manager has been watching the video since Sunday.
8 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Alessandro Ghillani did not need any: 7.67, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“I watch every Lumezzane game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Thun runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
In brief
The dugoutSasha Mancini knocks on the manager's door
18 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.
7 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Words at Lumezzane training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marco Moscati is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
25 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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marco Moscati was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Lumezzane has been clear about where Francesco Bonardi stands, which is more than many ever get.
32 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.
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.
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.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Cittadella have kept their man, and Lumezzane go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Paolo Gardoni and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad13 Sep 2027
14 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.
“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.
“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.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 20 signed and 9 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.
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Juve Stabia have kept their man, and Lumezzane go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Words at Lumezzane training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marco Moscati is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lumezzane this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 offer went to Lazio this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Lumezzane have done the hard part with Cremonese, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marco Moscati was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Lumezzane asked and Picerno said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Rogelio Esparza and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“It 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 15 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Giugliano waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Lumezzane is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Marco Chiosa 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.
Lumezzane have gone to Pro Vercelli with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Modena have kept their man, and Lumezzane go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Giulio Gastaldello has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Angelo Parise has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Angelo Pellegrino has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Sasha Mancini
SquadWords at Lumezzane training over how hard people work
BoardroomNo investment in the facilities at Lumezzane
20 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Fiorentina is saying, and nobody at Lumezzane is enjoying the guessing.
Lumezzane have gone to Lazio with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
$220.0K on the table at Cremonese. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Lazio have kept their man, and Lumezzane go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marco Moscati was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
12 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
“It 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.
27 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.
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.
$5.0M was the most the club would pay and Frosinone were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
The deal with Cremonese died in the treatment room. Nobody will say what was found and everybody in the game will find out by Friday.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Marco Moscati 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.
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.
34 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.
Lumezzane have gone to Frosinone with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
$890.0K was the most the club would pay and Lazio were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
The offer went to Pro Vercelli this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Cittadella have kept their man, and Lumezzane go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Lumezzane have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Words at Lumezzane training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rogelio Esparza is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Nobody 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.
41 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.
The clubs have shaken hands with Cremonese; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Lumezzane have gone to Lazio with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marco Moscati was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
48 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.
“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.
The offer went to Pro Vercelli this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Lumezzane asked and Lazio said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Words at Lumezzane training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marco Moscati 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.
13 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
55 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Lumezzane have done the hard part with Bologna, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Brooklyn Bailey has just signed for Lumezzane, and for once the answer mattered.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Alessandro Ghillani and Lumezzane agree another 4 years.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Lumezzane will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
The words a physio says slowly. 62 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.
Marco Chiosa and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Marco Moscati 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.
Lumezzane asked and Empoli said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The phone has started ringing about Francesco Bonardi again, and this time the name on the line is Giugliano. Lumezzane are listening politely and promising nothing.
Cristian Samaritani is 20, and Lumezzane have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
4 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
In brief
The dugoutFabrizio Paghera is still being punished for one mistake
The dugoutSasha Mancini asks for a word with the manager
69 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.
Add another name to the list: Thun have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Luigi Caccavo. The answer from Lumezzane has not changed — yet.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Words at Lumezzane training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marco Moscati is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Hellas Verona have kept their man, and Lumezzane go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Lumezzane have made the call to Frosinone. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
“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.
The words a physio says slowly. 76 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.
The offer from Carpi 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.
$11.0K was the most the club would pay and Gubbio were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Lumezzane asked and Juventus said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Lumezzane have made the call to Padova. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Squad21 Jun 2027
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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“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.
The words a physio says slowly. 83 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.
“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.
Lumezzane asked and Frosinone said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Lumezzane have gone to Gubbio with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marco Moscati was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Francesco Gallea Beidi was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The words a physio says slowly. 90 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.
“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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marco Moscati was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Lumezzane asked and AS Roma said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
“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.
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Charlie Penman
BoardroomOpen for business: Lumezzane enter the window
97 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.
“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 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.
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.
104 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.
“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.
Squad24 May 2027
Words at Lumezzane training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marco Moscati is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Nobody at 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jacopo Deratti trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
111 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.
Squad17 May 2027
Words at Lumezzane training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marco Moscati is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lumezzane this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Lumezzane know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
In brief
The dugoutGiacomo Drago asks for a word with the manager
The words a physio says slowly. 118 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 127 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.
“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.
“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 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.
Squad3 May 2027
Marco Moscati 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.
15 clean sheets across a season, and the one award on the pitch nobody else is eligible for. Most keepers get through a whole career without a year like it.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Matteo Scanzi is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
134 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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Marco Moscati 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.
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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Tommaso Ebone is on it.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Lumezzane will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
141 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.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 38 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
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.
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 dugout19 Apr 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Renato Pugliese chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Union Brescia? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
149 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marco Moscati was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Mattia Iori had Lumezzane level again within 3 minutes, and Carpi never got to play with a lead at all.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Lumezzane can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Lumezzane has been clear about where Jacopo Deratti stands, which is more than many ever get.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Fabrizio Paghera's mistake
The words a physio says slowly. 156 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.
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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marco Moscati was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Gennaro Anatriello. 1‑0 against Cittadella, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Tommaso Ebone is on it.
“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.
MatchNothing left to play for but pride at Lumezzane
34Edition
The Lumezzane Post
22 Mar 2027
From our football correspondentCrisis
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words at Lumezzane training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marco Moscati is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 10 combined actions and a mark of 6.92, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Renato Pugliese after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Something was said to Sasha Mancini and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marco Moscati was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“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 5 say he has earned the hearing.
“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 dugout15 Mar 2027
Somebody else is better right now than Giacomo Drago
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
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.
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.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Andrea Boffelli has come out of that comparison in the side, and Lumezzane have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
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 dugout8 Mar 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Renato Pugliese chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
A brace, and Michele Rocca takes the afternoon — 8.34
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Michele Rocca provided it, and the 8.34 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Lumezzane can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marco Moscati was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Francesco Gallea Beidi was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Renato Pugliese kept it short after the 3‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Lumezzane may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Marco Moscati falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Andrea Boffelli was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.06. 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Lumezzane told Mattia Iori something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 16 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Renato Pugliese kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Samuele Diodato has his answer from Lumezzane; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Matteo Ferro
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.
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Renato Pugliese left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Lumezzane will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Lumezzane will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at Lumezzane training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marco Moscati is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lumezzane this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Renato Pugliese after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.96 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 0 signed and 0 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Padova have kept their man, and Lumezzane go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Add another name to the list: Latina have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Luigi Caccavo. The answer from Lumezzane has not changed — yet.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Nobody left the Lumezzane dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Tommaso Ebone was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The dugout1 Feb 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑4 defeat, delivered by Renato Pugliese to a room that had heard them before.
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.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.90 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“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 deal with Hellas Verona 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.
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.
“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 deal with Venezia 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Renato Pugliese after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
“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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Lumezzane have done the hard part with Frosinone, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
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.
Lumezzane asked and Hellas Verona said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Renato Pugliese after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lumezzane can pretend not to have heard.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Lumezzane have had the benefit of it.
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Lumezzane have done the hard part with Mantova, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
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.
Add another name to the list: Pineto have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Luigi Caccavo. The answer from Lumezzane has not changed — yet.
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.
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.
Position 9, 20 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
A 1‑1 draw with Union Brescia leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Squad28 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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
In brief
The dugoutMattia Iori knocks on the manager’s door
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Giacomo Drago
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Carpi defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
“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.
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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Tommaso Ebone is on it.
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 dugout14 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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Renato Pugliese to a room that had heard them before.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Lorenzo Andrenacci, and the manager let it.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Samuele Diodato is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
“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.
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.
The dugout7 Dec 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.” Renato Pugliese chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Cittadella.
A mark of 8.02 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
He is 20 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Minute 89, against Trento, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Lorenzo Andrenacci knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
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.
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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager’s verdict
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Lorenzo Andrenacci's mistake
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Luigi Caccavo
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.
5 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Lumezzane can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad23 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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
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.
Successful dribbles: 13. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
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.
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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“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.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Stefano Filigheddu may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
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.
A side in position 10 visits next. The result will not make anybody’s season and it could quietly break the shape of one, which is why the manager has been watching the video since Sunday.
It finished 0-3. A cup exit is a disappointment; this was a public dismantling, and the difference between the two is the number of people who will still be talking about it in August.
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.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Ernesto Torregrossa and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
It 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.
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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Renato Pugliese after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Riccardo Stivanello is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Michele Rocca trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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.
“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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Chances created: 6. Not on the scoresheet and not remotely anonymous — a passing performance that pulled a defence apart without leaving a mark on the column that gets read.
“If we are going to be beaten, let it not be because somebody in here could not be bothered.” He stood up and said it in front of everybody, which is a thing a squad remembers about a man for years.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.94 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
17 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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
In brief
The dugoutMarco Moscati is not enjoying his job description
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.
Francesco Gallea Beidi was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at 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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Lumezzane know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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.
“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.
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.
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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Marco Moscati
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Marco Moscati has come out of that comparison in the side, and Lumezzane have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
“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.
Squad5 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.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Tommaso Ebone obliged against Picerno. 3‑1 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Lumezzane.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
A brace, and Tommaso Ebone takes the afternoon — 8.56
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Tommaso Ebone provided it, and the 8.56 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
A mark of 7.94 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
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.
He is 22 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.
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.
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. 15 actions, 7.30, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Racing Genk have kept their man, and Lumezzane go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
16 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 dugout21 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Renato Pugliese, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
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.
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.
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Renato Pugliese after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Mattia Rolando’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.
“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.
Lumezzane close the window on a squad of their own making
12 in and 2 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.
“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 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.
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.
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.
“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.
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Mattia Iori’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Market7 Sep 2026
The window shut and Jacopo Deratti is still in the building
Lumezzane spent a month trying to move him and nobody rang back. He trains with a squad that has told him where he stands, and both sides start counting down to the next one.
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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Campobasso waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Lumezzane is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Lumezzane asked and Cremonese said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mattia Iori. 1‑0 against Arzignano, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Mattia Iori was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.20. 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.
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.
25 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.
“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.
Lumezzane had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at PSV, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Empoli have kept their man, and Lumezzane go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matteo Ferro was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The plan went upstairs and came back down. Nothing about that will make a headline anywhere else, and everybody who works at the training ground will remember it for years.
33 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.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Spezia keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Hellas Verona have kept their man, and Lumezzane go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Alberto Ranieri has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Cristiano Bonaventura is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Simone Barbieri has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Mario Gatti 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.
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.
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.