From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 30. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match10 Oct 2026
The wait goes on for Padova
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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“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; Padova are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad12 Oct 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Padova this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Match10 Oct 2026
Mantova left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad12 Oct 2026
At 24 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Marked 5.65. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
A mark of 5.69 tells the story without any need for embellishment. He will want the tape of this one quietly lost.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad5 Oct 2026
A fracture rules Mattia Fortin out for 18 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Padova will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match3 Oct 2026
The wait goes on for Padova
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
A chastening introduction for Denis Şandro — 5.28
It is a hard way to meet a crowd. Marked 5.28 on the day he was handed the shirt, and the important thing now is what the next one looks like.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Tempers go at Padova
Lorenzo Crisetig was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Louis Mouquet is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Padova training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gianluca Caprari 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.
Match3 Oct 2026
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Wages eat 467% of everything Padova earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad28 Sep 2026
Mattia Fortin breaks a bone — 26 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 26 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Alejandro Gómez, 38, rolls back the years — 8.78
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.78 at 38, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Match26 Sep 2026
5 matches without a win for Padova
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Padova are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad28 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Padova this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Emiliano Lo Biundo is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Match26 Sep 2026
Carrarese left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad28 Sep 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Shots: 11, enough of them from close enough that a striker in form scores two. He is not a striker in form.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Sep 2026
Mattia Fortin breaks a bone — 33 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 33 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Kevin Varas, 33, rolls back the years — 8.86
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.86 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Match19 Sep 2026
4 matches without a win for Padova
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Padova are no longer polite ones.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Luca Di Maggio is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Tempers go at Padova
Gianluca Caprari was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match19 Sep 2026
A 1‑1 draw with Cesena leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Loan watch21 Sep 2026
The goals keep arriving from Enrico Silletti’s exile
2 goals in 4 games at Altamura — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Padova updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Sep 2026
A fracture rules Mattia Fortin out for 41 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Padova will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad14 Sep 2026
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 29. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Gianluca Caprari 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Tempers go at Padova
Mattia Bortolussi 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.
Match12 Sep 2026
Juve Stabia left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.63, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Shots: 10, enough of them from close enough that a striker in form scores two. He is not a striker in form.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Marked 5.80, and generously at that. Nothing came off, and by the end the crowd had stopped expecting it to.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad7 Sep 2026
A fracture rules Mattia Fortin out for 50 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Padova will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Tempers go at Padova
Lorenzo Crisetig 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Louis Mouquet is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Padova training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gianluca Caprari 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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Wages eat 425% of everything Padova earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Match5 Sep 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Market7 Sep 2026
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Gianluca Caprari signs something — a contract at Padova or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
A mark of 5.54 tells the story without any need for embellishment. He will want the tape of this one quietly lost.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad31 Aug 2026
A fracture rules Mattia Fortin out for 57 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Padova will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.03 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market31 Aug 2026
Jacopo Bacci hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Padova can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad31 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Padova this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match29 Aug 2026
A bad afternoon for Padova against Pescara
1‑2 to Pescara, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad31 Aug 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Mattia Fortin lets one through his hands
A defender's mistake gets tidied up by somebody else; a goalkeeper's ends up in the net. He knew before the ball crossed the line, and so did everybody in the ground.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
A mark of 5.71 tells the story without any need for embellishment. He will want the tape of this one quietly lost.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market24 Aug 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market24 Aug 2026
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Padova have paid $940.0K for Juan Ignacio Molina, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Padova
Lorenzo Crisetig was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
Graduation day at Padova
3 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Padova training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gianluca Caprari 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.
Market24 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Ciro Tombesi 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Padova this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Padova training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alessandro Seghetti 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Padova would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Padova this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Francesco Di Mariano commits to Padova for another 3 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Market10 Aug 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Padova, another week without a signature from Francesco Belli.
Market10 Aug 2026
36 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
Market10 Aug 2026
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Christian Pastina has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Padova.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Alejandro Gómez commits to Padova for another 2 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Padova
Lorenzo Crisetig was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Padova training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gianluca Caprari 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Lorenzo Crisetig has his answer from Padova; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Market3 Aug 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Market3 Aug 2026
Still no offer on the table, and Kevin Lasagna’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.