“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Monopoli have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
6 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Cavese were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Bruno Valenti 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Marco Battaglia could afford to be generous.
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 Catania.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Juventus go through and Monopoli go home, 3‑4 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Gabriele Bernardotto provided it, and the 8.82 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
A mark of 8.02 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Monopoli and Juventus, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Edoardo Piana
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alessandro Vinciguerra was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Filippo Tosi is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Claudio Manzi's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
It needed Salvatore Longo to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Audace Cerignola, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
“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.
Raffaele Pucino was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alessandro Vinciguerra was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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. 12 actions, 7.18, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Edoardo Piana knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Edoardo Piana'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.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Salvatore Longo 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. Monopoli told Maguette Fall something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Marco Battaglia after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
“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 Monopoli will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
“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.
Chances created: 5. 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.
21 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Monopoli lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Luca Garritano 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 Monopoli, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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 Niccolò Bagatti is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Freddi Greco signs something — a contract at Monopoli or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The words a physio says slowly. 28 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.
2 behind and going nowhere, until Gabriele Bernardotto decided otherwise. Cesena had done the hard part and then watched it come apart, and the noise at the final whistle was the sort a ground keeps.
Two goals and a mark of 9.14 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Position 14 and 7 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Freddi Greco and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Monopoli are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
35 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Monopoli lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Monopoli have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.80 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Marked 6.95 on 19 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Marco Battaglia kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Monopoli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Monopoli can tell you which week it ends in.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Riccardo Calcagni, and the manager let it.
Squad26 Oct 2026
8 new faces, and Monopoli are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The 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 Marco Battaglia to a room that had heard them before.
Something was said to Riccardo Calcagni and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Cristian Battocchio trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Casertana next, and one man in the Monopoli dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Giugliano next, and one man in the Monopoli dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
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.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
“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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Skirmantas Paukštys is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Luca Vido’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Monopoli needing him to play as if none of it matters.
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 Raffaele Spanò is on it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Monopoli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
“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; Monopoli are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
A 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.
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.
In brief
The dugoutBruno Valenti knocks on the manager's door
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Luca Vido provided it, and the 8.78 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Raffaele Spanò did not need any: 7.86, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Salvatore Longo was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Marco Battaglia after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
The 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.
Picerno next, and one man in the Monopoli dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Monopoli can pretend not to have heard.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Almere City have kept their man, and Monopoli go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Monopoli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Altamura in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
That is the business done at Monopoli 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.
Freddi Greco 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 manager has re-ordered his thinking and Luca Garritano has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Cristian Battocchio trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Monopoli asked and Cremonese said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
Squad31 Aug 2026
8 new faces, and Monopoli 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 dugout31 Aug 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑3 defeat, delivered by Marco Battaglia to a room that had heard them before.
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.
Nobody at Monopoli is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
“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 Monopoli, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Le Havre AC is saying, and nobody at Monopoli is enjoying the guessing.
Salvatore Longo 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Spezia have kept their man, and Monopoli go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
Monopoli have made the call to Defensores. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Paul Argney is in the works
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Dinamo Bucharest keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Luca Garritano 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Edoardo Serra 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. Silvio Canali has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Claudio Monti 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. Massimo Bosco 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.
Monopoli have made the call to Rapid Wien. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Raffaele Pucino 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.
Still no offer on the table, and Freddi Greco’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Monopoli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bruno Valenti 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.
In brief
Squad8 new faces, and Monopoli are still learning each other