8 Mar 2029
Thursday
Process
136 Edition

The Parma Gazette

5 Mar 2029
From our football correspondent Triumph

Match

No mercy from Parma

Sampdoria will want this one forgotten quickly: 5‑2, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Parma were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.

Squad

Defences have started doubling up on Toni Fruk

24 goals and a season average of 7.68 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.

Match

Nobody wins at Parma

16 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.

Squad

Toni Fruk takes the match ball home

3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.

Market

Toni Fruk wants more than Parma are offering

“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.

Squad

Words exchanged at Parma

Emanuele Valeri 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.

Match

Whatever happens, Parma do not lose

7 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.

Match

7 goals as Parma and Sampdoria go for it

Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Parma and Sampdoria, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.

Squad

A move Anis Khemaissia would have made for nothing

There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Anis Khemaissia is living that version at Parma, and it tends to show in the first month.

In brief

Back issues
135 Edition

The Parma Gazette

26 Feb 2029
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

The view from the top for Parma

63 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.

Squad

Tempers go at Parma

Toni Fruk 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.

Squad

Hans Nicolussi Caviglia 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.

Match

6 unbeaten for Parma

Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Parma did not have in the autumn.

Squad

Parma lose Andrija Burcar

59 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.

Match

Frosinone end the Parma run at 5

Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 5 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.

Player ratings

Jacob Ondrejka was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 17. 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.

Squad

Home is on Iván Ramírez's mind

“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; Parma are dealing with a man who wants a different country.

The dugout

Emanuele Valeri is still being punished for one mistake

Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.

In brief

134 Edition

The Parma Gazette

19 Feb 2029
From our football correspondent Triumph

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Jacob Ondrejka

Successful dribbles: 39. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Match

Nobody wins at Parma

15 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.

Squad

David Romero takes the match ball home

3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.

Match

Parma make it 5 in a row

Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Parma have 5 straight wins of it.

Market

Mattia Caldara has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Parma they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

Emanuele Valeri in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Parma this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Words at Parma training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hans Nicolussi Caviglia is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

Player ratings

Ninety minutes of David Romero at his very best

Marked 9.50. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Parma.

Match

Parma get the job done against Pisa

A 3‑1 win over Pisa, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.

In brief

133 Edition

The Parma Gazette

12 Feb 2029
From our football correspondent Triumph

Player ratings

David Romero scores twice — 8.79

Two goals and a mark of 8.79 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.

Match

Parma cannot stop winning

4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.

Player ratings

Jacob Ondrejka was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 23. 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.

Squad

A falling-out at Parma

Toni Fruk and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Words at Parma training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hans Nicolussi Caviglia 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.

Squad

Peter Amoran signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Peter Amoran and Parma agree another 4 years.

Boardroom

Parma beat the market to Di Mateo Lovrić from Hellas Verona

Hellas Verona will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Di Mateo Lovrić has pre-agreed a move to Parma, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.

Transfer targets

Parma rebuffed over Ertijon Gega

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Casarano have kept their man, and Parma go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

The dugout

David Romero gets it from the manager

“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.

In brief

132 Edition

The Parma Gazette

5 Feb 2029
From our football correspondent Triumph

Match

Toni Fruk leads the rout of Bari

6‑1, and Toni Fruk took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Parma tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.

Player ratings

Toni Fruk scores twice — 9.94

Two goals and a mark of 9.94 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.

Squad

Defences have started doubling up on Toni Fruk

21 goals and a season average of 7.64 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.

Match

The run at home goes on for Parma

14 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.

Market

Nicola Bagnolini turns St. Gallen down

“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.

Boardroom

Window shuts: 7 in, 9 out at Parma

The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 7 arrived, 9 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.

Transfer targets

Andrea Piazza turns down Parma

The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Giana Erminio keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.

Match

Parma cannot stop winning

3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.

Squad

Toni Fruk in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Parma this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

In brief

  • Match Toni Fruk among the goals in a wild afternoon
  • Squad Claudio Manzi arrives at the club he grew up with
  • Squad A row about effort at Parma
131 Edition

The Parma Gazette

29 Jan 2029
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

Parma run riot against Carrarese

4‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.

Match

Parma are top

53 points and nobody above them. The word is not being said around the ground yet, and it is being thought in every seat.

Player ratings

David Romero scores twice — 8.74

Two goals and a mark of 8.74 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.

Squad

Toni Fruk is carrying Parma

19 goals and a season average of 7.57. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.

Market

Toni Fruk wants more than Parma are offering

“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.

Squad

A falling-out at Parma

Hans Nicolussi Caviglia and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Pontus Almqvist

Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Michele Avella

Parma asked and Renate said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

Market

St. Gallen join the queue for Nicola Bagnolini

Add another name to the list: St. Gallen have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Nicola Bagnolini. The answer from Parma has not changed — yet.

In brief

130 Edition

The Parma Gazette

22 Jan 2029
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Market

Terms done: Oliver Sørensen is going

Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Juve Stabia waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Parma is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.

Match

Toni Fruk leads the rout of Cesena

3‑0, and Toni Fruk took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Parma tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.

Player ratings

A brace, and Toni Fruk takes the afternoon — 9.26

There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Toni Fruk provided it, and the 9.26 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.

Market

Nesta Elphege turns Deportivo La Coruña down

“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.

Squad

Defences have started doubling up on Toni Fruk

18 goals and a season average of 7.54 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.

Match

Parma make home a hard place to visit

13 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.

Market

Mario Mosset asks to leave Parma

“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.

Market

Mattia Caldara has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Parma they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Transfer targets

Giovanni Giunti will not be coming to Parma

Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Empoli is saying, and nobody at Parma is enjoying the guessing.

In brief

129 Edition

The Parma Gazette

15 Jan 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Match

Parma refuse to drop out of the race

Position 2, 47 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.

Market

Parma turn down AC Milan for Toni Fruk

The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.

Market

Mandela Keita asks to leave Parma

“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.

Market

Parma sell Matija Frigan for $12.2M

Matija Frigan has left for AS Roma in a $12.2M deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.

Market

Abdoulaye Ndiaye moves on

AC Milan pay $7.3M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.

The terraces

Parma sell a favourite for $12.2M

The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Matija Frigan was one of the reasons people came, and $12.2M does not replace that by itself.

Transfer targets

Giovanni Giunti due for a Parma medical

Everything agreed with Empoli, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.

Transfer targets

Alessandro Seghetti will not be coming to Parma

Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Padova is saying, and nobody at Parma is enjoying the guessing.

Player ratings

Jacob Ondrejka was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 23. 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.

In brief

128 Edition

The Parma Gazette

8 Jan 2029
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

Parma tear Modena apart

Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 7‑1 against Modena, and it could have been more.

Market

Oliver Sørensen says no to Cosenza

“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Oliver Sørensen had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.

Player ratings

Matija Frigan scores twice — 9.34

Two goals and a mark of 9.34 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.

Market

Adrián Bernabé moves on

Juventus pay $10.3M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.

The terraces

Supporters turn on the $10.3M sale of Adrián Bernabé

He is going to Juventus, the club has $10.3M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.

Squad

Defences have started doubling up on Toni Fruk

16 goals and a season average of 7.50 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.

Market

AS Roma join the queue for Matija Frigan

Add another name to the list: AS Roma have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Matija Frigan. The answer from Parma has not changed — yet.

Market

Anthony Partipilo has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Parma they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Match

The run at home goes on for Parma

12 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.

In brief

127 Edition

The Parma Gazette

1 Jan 2029
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

Parma run riot against Reggiana

8‑2, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.

Squad

A day Toni Fruk will not forget

4 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.

Market

Matija Frigan 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 Parma can pretend not to have heard.

Match

Nobody above Parma

First, on 44 points. The table is a fact and a fact is allowed to be enjoyed, which is as far as anybody at the club is prepared to go in public.

Player ratings

Both of them Adrián Bernabé's — 8.43

2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.43, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.

Squad

Adrián Bernabé honoured for the season

The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Parma had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.

Squad

Toni Fruk is in the form of his life

A season average of 7.41 with 15 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.

Match

Parma make home a hard place to visit

11 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.

Squad

Tempers go at Parma

Toni Fruk 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.

In brief

126 Edition

The Parma Gazette

25 Dec 2028
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Adrián Bernabé 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 Parma can pretend not to have heard.

Market

Nesta Elphege says no to Vélez

“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Nesta Elphege had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.

Market

Palestino come back empty-handed

The bid was some way short and Parma did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.

Squad

Words exchanged at Parma

Toni Fruk 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.

Squad

Defences have started doubling up on Matija Frigan

13 goals and a season average of 7.37 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.

Squad

A row about effort at Parma

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hans Nicolussi Caviglia was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Player ratings

Ninety minutes of Toni Fruk at his very best

Marked 8.38. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Parma.

Player ratings

One of those days for Matija Frigan

There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.33, and no argument anywhere in the ground.

Match

Parma refuse to lose to Torino

A point taken on 92 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.

In brief

125 Edition

The Parma Gazette

18 Dec 2028
From our football correspondent Steady

Match

The small margins put Parma out

Out, 0‑3 to Bologna, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.

Squad

Filippo Rinaldi keeps Parma in it on his own

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.

Market

Mandela Keita puts it in writing

“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 Parma, and it is not being withdrawn.

The terraces

Parma are taken apart by Bologna — and the town wants answers

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.

Market

Mattia Caldara is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Parma is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Player ratings

Jacob Ondrejka was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 24. 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.

Squad

A falling-out at Parma

Toni Fruk and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Match

The run at home goes on for Parma

10 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Filippo Rinaldi

“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.

In brief

124 Edition

The Parma Gazette

11 Dec 2028
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

Still nobody has beaten Parma

The unbeaten run reaches 16. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.

Squad

The knee: Alessandro Ciardi out for 18 days

18 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Parma lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Match

No mercy from Parma

Mantova will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Parma were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.

Market

Emanuele Valeri 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 Parma can pretend not to have heard.

Match

Parma up to position 2

37 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.

Market

Anthony Partipilo is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Parma is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Market

Parma say no — this time

The offer from Instituto for Nesta Elphege 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.

Squad

Words exchanged at Parma

Emanuele Valeri 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.

Squad

Lucas Coronel arrives at the club he grew up with

Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Lucas Coronel has, at Parma, and the first month will show what that does to a man.

In brief

123 Edition

The Parma Gazette

4 Dec 2028
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

Whatever happens, Parma do not lose

15 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.

Squad

Alessandro Ciardi damages knee ligaments — 26 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 26 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.

Match

No mercy from Parma

Virtus Entella will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Parma were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.

Market

Matija Frigan asks to leave Parma

“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.

Squad

Matija Frigan takes the match ball home

3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.

Player ratings

Jacob Ondrejka was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 23. 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.

Squad

Tempers go at Parma

Toni Fruk 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.

Squad

Defences have started doubling up on Matija Frigan

12 goals and a season average of 7.35 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.

Match

The run at home goes on for Parma

9 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.

In brief

122 Edition

The Parma Gazette

27 Nov 2028
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

Still nobody has beaten Parma

The unbeaten run reaches 14. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.

Market

Adrián Bernabé puts it in writing

“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 Parma, and it is not being withdrawn.

Market

Jacob Ondrejka wants more than Parma are offering

“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.

Squad

Words exchanged at Parma

Toni Fruk 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 dugout

The manager makes an example of David Romero

“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.

Squad

Words at Parma training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nahuel Estévez 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.

Match

Parma share the spoils with Cagliari

A 1‑1 draw with Cagliari leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.

Player ratings

Adrián Bernabé runs at them all day

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 dugout

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.” Interim Coach chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.

In brief

121 Edition

The Parma Gazette

20 Nov 2028
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

Still nobody has beaten Parma

The unbeaten run reaches 13. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.

Market

Mandela Keita puts it in writing

“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 Parma, and it is not being withdrawn.

Market

Mattia Caldara is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Parma is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Squad

A falling-out at Parma

Toni Fruk and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Hans Nicolussi Caviglia 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.

Match

The run is over for Parma

6 matches without defeat, and then Catanzaro. Nobody at the ground pretended it would go on forever; nobody expected it to stop here either.

Match

Nobody wins at Parma

8 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.

Looking ahead

Parma and Cagliari meet at the summit

The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.

The dugout

No hiding place for Pontus Almqvist

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Pontus Almqvist, and the manager let it.

In brief

120 Edition

The Parma Gazette

13 Nov 2028
From our football correspondent Triumph

Market

Emanuele Valeri puts it in writing

“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 Parma, and it is not being withdrawn.

Match

Parma up to position 2

29 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.

Match

Nobody wants to play Parma right now

6 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.

Market

Anthony Partipilo has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Parma they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

Toni Fruk in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Parma this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Hans Nicolussi Caviglia 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.

Match

Toni Fruk sends Parma past Cremonese

It finished 2‑0, and it was Toni Fruk’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Parma.

Player ratings

Matija Frigan in the eights

A performance of 8.78 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Jacob Ondrejka

Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

In brief

119 Edition

The Parma Gazette

6 Nov 2028
From our football correspondent Triumph

Match

Parma march on in the cup

Trento are out and Parma go through, 1‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.

Market

Matija Frigan puts it in writing

“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 Parma, and it is not being withdrawn.

Player ratings

Both of them Matija Frigan's — 8.99

2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.99, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.

Match

Parma cannot stop winning

5 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.

Squad

Tempers go at Parma

Toni Fruk 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.

Match

Parma find a way past Juve Stabia

Juve Stabia made Parma work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.

The terraces

One of their own: Afonso Semedo

He is 19 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.

Match

Juve Stabia blown away early

There is a particular helplessness in conceding 3 times before the twentieth minute. Juve Stabia tried to reorganise, Parma did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.

Player ratings

Hans Nicolussi Caviglia in the eights

A performance of 8.40 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.

In brief

118 Edition

The Parma Gazette

30 Oct 2028
From our football correspondent Triumph

Market

Adrián Bernabé puts it in writing

“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 Parma, and it is not being withdrawn.

Match

Nobody wants to play Parma right now

3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.

Squad

Words exchanged at Parma

Toni Fruk 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.

Squad

A row about effort at Parma

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hans Nicolussi Caviglia was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Match

Jacob Ondrejka the difference as Parma beat Avellino

Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Jacob Ondrejka. 3‑1 against Avellino, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.

Player ratings

Matija Frigan was on a different afternoon to everybody else

8.56. 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.

Player ratings

One of those days for Adrián Bernabé

There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.30, and no argument anywhere in the ground.

Player ratings

A masterclass from Jacob Ondrejka

Marked 8.21 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.

Player ratings

One of those days for Toni Fruk

There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.12, and no argument anywhere in the ground.

In brief

117 Edition

The Parma Gazette

23 Oct 2028
From our football correspondent Triumph

Player ratings

Toni Fruk scores twice — 9.17

Two goals and a mark of 9.17 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.

Market

Oliver Sørensen 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 Parma can pretend not to have heard.

Player ratings

Jacob Ondrejka was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 26. 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 dugout

Jeremy Kandje Mbambi: that is not what I was promised

“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Parma have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Market

Mattia Caldara has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Parma they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Match

Whatever happens, Parma do not lose

8 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.

Boardroom

Mattia Caldara signs for Genoa while still at Parma

The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Mattia Caldara has agreed terms with Genoa for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.

Squad

Tempers go at Parma

Emanuele Valeri 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.

Squad

Hans Nicolussi Caviglia 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.

In brief

116 Edition

The Parma Gazette

16 Oct 2028
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

Adrián Bernabé leads the rout of Frosinone

3‑0, and Adrián Bernabé took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Parma tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.

Market

Emanuele Valeri 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 Parma can pretend not to have heard.

Market

Only the photograph left for Anthony Partipilo

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Anthony Partipilo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Parma the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

Toni Fruk in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Parma this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Match

Still nobody has beaten Parma

The unbeaten run reaches 7. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.

Player ratings

A masterclass from Adrián Bernabé

Marked 8.25 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.

Player ratings

Hans Nicolussi Caviglia in the eights

A performance of 8.17 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.

Player ratings

Toni Fruk in the eights

A performance of 8.03 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.

Player ratings

Jacob Ondrejka runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

In brief

115 Edition

The Parma Gazette

9 Oct 2028
From our football correspondent Upbeat

The terraces

The mood at Parma has turned into something else

Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.

Market

Matija Frigan puts it in writing

“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 Parma, and it is not being withdrawn.

Squad

A fracture rules Ryan Hartley out for 17 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Parma will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

The dugout

Andrea Signorini says Parma went back on their word

“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.

Player ratings

Hans Nicolussi Caviglia was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 25. 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.

Market

Jacob Ondrejka wants more than Parma are offering

“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.

Squad

Tempers go at Parma

Toni Fruk 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.

Squad

Hans Nicolussi Caviglia 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.

Match

Whatever happens, Parma do not lose

6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.

In brief

114 Edition

The Parma Gazette

2 Oct 2028
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

Parma run riot against Südtirol

3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.

Market

Adrián Bernabé puts it in writing

“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 Parma, and it is not being withdrawn.

The dugout

Emanuele Valeri: that is not what I was promised

“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Parma have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Player ratings

Toni Fruk scores twice — 9.21

Two goals and a mark of 9.21 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.

Squad

Ryan Hartley breaks a bone — 25 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 25 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Match

Parma make it 3 in a row

Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Parma have 3 straight wins of it.

Squad

Words exchanged at Parma

Toni Fruk 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.

Squad

Words at Parma training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hans Nicolussi Caviglia 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.

Match

Parma settle it inside twenty minutes

2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Südtirol spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.

In brief

113 Edition

The Parma Gazette

25 Sep 2028
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Boardroom

The interim tag comes off Interim Coach

Parma interviewed the field and appointed the corridor: Interim Coach keeps the job he had been doing in all but title. Sometimes the safest pair of hands is the one already holding the wheel.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Jacob Ondrejka

Successful dribbles: 34. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Market

Mandela Keita asks to leave Parma

“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.

Squad

A fracture rules Ryan Hartley out for 32 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Parma will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

The dugout

Nesta Elphege says Parma went back on their word

“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.

Squad

A falling-out at Parma

Toni Fruk and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Match

Parma get the job done against Bari

A 2‑0 win over Bari, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.

Squad

Toni Fruk reaches 200 appearances

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.

Player ratings

Matija Frigan was on a different afternoon to everybody else

8.31. 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.

In brief

112 Edition

The Parma Gazette

18 Sep 2028
From our football correspondent Steady

Player ratings

Jacob Ondrejka runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 38. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Match

Parma run riot against Carrarese

3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.

Market

Emanuele Valeri puts it in writing

“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 Parma, and it is not being withdrawn.

Player ratings

Matija Frigan scores twice — 9.02

Two goals and a mark of 9.02 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.

Squad

A fracture rules Ryan Hartley out for 39 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Parma will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

The dugout

Ramiro Buratti: that is not what I was promised

“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Parma have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Market

Anthony Partipilo has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Parma they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

Toni Fruk in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Parma this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Hans Nicolussi Caviglia 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.

In brief

111 Edition

The Parma Gazette

11 Sep 2028
From our football correspondent Steady

The terraces

Anger at Parma spills outside the ground

It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Jacob Ondrejka

Successful dribbles: 35. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Market

Matija Frigan asks to leave Parma

“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.

Player ratings

Toni Fruk scores twice — 8.85

Two goals and a mark of 8.85 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.

Squad

A fracture rules Ryan Hartley out for 46 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Parma will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Squad

Words exchanged at Parma

Toni Fruk 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.

Squad

A row about effort at Parma

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hans Nicolussi Caviglia was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Filippo Rinaldi

“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.

Match

Two points walk out of the ground

Level with 89 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Parma had all but put away. Cesena will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.

In brief

110 Edition

The Parma Gazette

4 Sep 2028
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Adrián Bernabé 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 Parma can pretend not to have heard.

The dugout

Emanuele Valeri keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Parma may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Squad

Ryan Hartley breaks a bone — 54 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 54 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Boardroom

Deadline passes with 19 signed and 13 gone

That is the business done at Parma 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.

Squad

Tempers go at Parma

Toni Fruk 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 ratings

Nobody could get near Hans Nicolussi Caviglia

Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Boardroom

Still nobody in the Parma dugout

15 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.

Squad

Filippo Rinaldi signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Filippo Rinaldi and Parma agree another 5 years.

Match

Jacob Ondrejka sends Parma past Empoli

It finished 1‑0, and it was Jacob Ondrejka’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Parma.

In brief

109 Edition

The Parma Gazette

28 Aug 2028
From our football correspondent Crisis

Market

Toni Fruk asks to leave Parma

“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.

Squad

6 saves: Filippo Rinaldi was the team

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.

The dugout

Cristiano Furno: that is not what I was promised

“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Parma have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Market

Stade Lavallois come back empty-handed

The bid was some way short and Parma did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.

Market

Jacob Ondrejka wants to know where this is going

“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Parma hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.

Squad

Toni Fruk in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Parma this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Transfer targets

Parma rebuffed over Santiago Puzzo

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Atalanta have kept their man, and Parma go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Squad

Hans Nicolussi Caviglia 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.

Squad

David Romero has improved at 25, which nobody expected

Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.

In brief

108 Edition

The Parma Gazette

21 Aug 2028
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Boardroom

Parma part company with Interim Coach

The statement thanked him for his efforts and wished him well, in that order and in about that many words. The search begins immediately.

Boardroom

Parma give the job to Interim Coach

The club looked outside for a month, found nothing it preferred, and handed the job to the man who had been doing it anyway. He knows the building; now he has to prove he knows the rest.

Market

Emanuele Valeri asks to leave Parma

“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.

Boardroom

A stranger takes charge at Parma

The coaching staff has emptied out entirely and there was nobody internal to promote, so the club has appointed a name almost none of its supporters will recognise. Clubs recover from this; none of them enjoy explaining it.

Boardroom

Interim Coach takes charge at Parma

“Somebody has to pick the team on Saturday, and this week that is me.” An interim appointment with no promises attached, which is how most of them start.

Transfer targets

$880.0K settles it between the clubs for Jacopo Pellegrini

Union Brescia have accepted the money. What Parma do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.

Market

Afonso Semedo turns Alcione Milano down

“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.

Market

Anthony Partipilo has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Parma they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

Real improvement from Gabriel Ramaj at Parma

Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Gabriel Ramaj is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.

In brief

107 Edition

The Parma Gazette

14 Aug 2028
From our football correspondent Uneasy

The terraces

Supporters organise against the Parma board

A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.

The dugout

David Romero keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Parma may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Market

Abdoulaye Ndiaye turns KV Kortrijk down

“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.

Market

Giuseppe Salvo asks to leave Parma

“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.

Transfer targets

No deal for Silvio Merkaj at that price

Parma offered $4.7M; Vicenza said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.

Squad

Ramiro Buratti arrives at the club he grew up with

Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Ramiro Buratti has, at Parma, and the first month will show what that does to a man.

Market

Parma turn down Altamura for Anthony Partipilo

The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.

Squad

Jeremy Kandje Mbambi is a better footballer than he was

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.

Squad

Words exchanged at Parma

Toni Fruk 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.

In brief

106 Edition

The Parma Gazette

7 Aug 2028
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Oliver Sørensen asks to leave Parma

“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.

Transfer targets

Parma make their move for Silvio Merkaj

$4.1M on the table at Vicenza. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.

The dugout

Pasquale Marranzino says Parma went back on their word

“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.

Market

Nicola Bagnolini is a Parma player

The fee is $1.6M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Bologna drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.

Boardroom

Still nobody in the Parma dugout

37 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.

Transfer targets

The paperwork begins on Jeremy Kandje Mbambi

A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Parma have done the hard part with Pisa, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.

Squad

Real improvement from Mateusz Kowalski at Parma

Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Mateusz Kowalski is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.

Squad

Tempers go at Parma

Toni Fruk 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.

Squad

Filippo Rinaldi has improved at 25, which nobody expected

Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 4 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.

In brief

105 Edition

The Parma Gazette

31 Jul 2028
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Christian Ordoñez asks to leave Parma

“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.

Transfer targets

Parma baulk at the price for Lorenzo Di Stefano

Torres wanted more than $5.8M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.

Market

Genoa join the queue for Christian Ordoñez

Add another name to the list: Genoa have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Christian Ordoñez. The answer from Parma has not changed — yet.

Squad

Toni Fruk in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Parma this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

The step up is real for Afonso Semedo

At 19 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.

Squad

Matija Frigan has improved at 25, which nobody expected

Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.

Squad

Words at Parma training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emanuele Valeri 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.

Market

Business is business: Elia Cantarelli goes

AlbinoLeffe paid $100.0K and Parma took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Emre Ünüvar

Parma asked and Ajax said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

In brief

104 Edition

The Parma Gazette

24 Jul 2028
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Emanuele Valeri puts it in writing

“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 Parma, and it is not being withdrawn.

Market

Anthony Partipilo has said yes to Altamura

The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Parma have lost him in all but the paperwork.

Transfer targets

Parma bid $5.8M for Lorenzo Di Stefano

The offer went to Torres 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.

Transfer targets

Parma make their move for Giovanni Bruzzaniti

$4.9M on the table at Vis Pesaro. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.

Market

Simone Saporetti has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Parma they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

A falling-out at Parma

Toni Fruk and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Real improvement from Alessandro Ciardi at Parma

Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Alessandro Ciardi is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.

Squad

A late step up for Jacob Ondrejka

At 25 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.

Squad

A row about effort at Parma

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emanuele Valeri was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

In brief

103 Edition

The Parma Gazette

17 Jul 2028
From our football correspondent Uneasy

The terraces

The mood at Parma has turned into something else

Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.

Squad

15 days out for Mandela Keita after a fracture

A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Parma will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.

Market

Marco Lambert 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 Parma can pretend not to have heard.

Market

Business is business: Lautaro Valenti goes

Palermo paid $3.6M and Parma took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.

Market

Central Córdoba SdE come back empty-handed

The bid was some way short and Parma did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.

Squad

The step up is real for Gabriel Ramaj

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.

Squad

Words exchanged at Parma

Toni Fruk 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.

Squad

Late improvement for Hans Nicolussi Caviglia

At 28 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 3 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Hans Nicolussi Caviglia

“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.

In brief

102 Edition

The Parma Gazette

10 Jul 2028
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

A fracture rules Mandela Keita out for 22 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Parma will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Market

Oliver Sørensen 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 Parma can pretend not to have heard.

Market

Parma turn down Altamura for Anthony Partipilo

The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.

Market

Emanuele Valeri wants to know where this is going

“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Parma hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.

Squad

Matija Frigan stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Matija Frigan and Parma agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Squad

Tempers go at Parma

Toni Fruk 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.

Squad

Real improvement from Mateusz Kowalski at Parma

Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Mateusz Kowalski is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.

Market

Palermo watching Lautaro Valenti

The interest is real enough to have reached print. Parma have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.

Boardroom

Still no name above the door at Parma

Day 9 of the vacancy. Candidates have been priced, sounded out and quietly ruled out — and the caretaker’s win ratio is becoming an argument all by itself.

In brief

101 Edition

The Parma Gazette

3 Jul 2028
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Boardroom

Parma go down

It is arithmetic now, and the arithmetic is done. A summer of hard questions starts early at Parma, and next season's fixture list reads very differently.

Boardroom

Davide Grasso is out at Parma

Four paragraphs on the club website, none of them about football. The board thanked him, wished him well, and had the search under way before the page went up.

Squad

Mandela Keita breaks a bone — 29 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 29 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

The dugout

Hans Nicolussi Caviglia says Parma went back on their word

“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.

Boardroom

Parma have nobody left to take training

Not an interim appointment — an institution with an empty coaching office. Somebody unfamiliar will run the sessions this week, and the question of how a club gets into this state is one the board will be asked and will not answer.

Boardroom

The Parma board call everybody in

Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.

Market

Lautaro Valenti puts it in writing

“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 Parma, and it is not being withdrawn.

Market

Parma turn down Audax Italiano for Joel Orlando

The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.

Market

Toni Fruk wants to know where this is going

“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Parma hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.

In brief

100 Edition

The Parma Gazette

26 Jun 2028
From our football correspondent Crisis

Boardroom

Pressure builds in the Parma boardroom

The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.

Market

Gabriel Ramaj puts it in writing

“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 Parma, and it is not being withdrawn.

Transfer targets

Parma rebuffed over Thomas Vettorel

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. AS Roma have kept their man, and Parma go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Market

Simone Saporetti has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Parma they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

A falling-out at Parma

Toni Fruk and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Words at Parma training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hans Nicolussi Caviglia 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.

Market

Matteo Galli attracts admirers

The name of Matteo Galli has come up in conversations Parma were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.

Squad

Marco Lambert wants to go home

“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 Parma know it.

Transfer targets

A loan move for Thimothée Lo-Tutala is in the works

Parma have made the call to Hull City. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.

In brief

99 Edition

The Parma Gazette

19 Jun 2028
From our football correspondent Crisis

The terraces

The mood at Parma has turned into something else

Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.

Match

Parma are in real trouble now

Position 20, 21 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.

Market

Anthony Partipilo has said yes to Altamura

The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Parma have lost him in all but the paperwork.

Market

Anthony Partipilo 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 Parma can pretend not to have heard.

The dugout

Nicholas Fantoni says Parma went back on their word

“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.

Squad

Words exchanged at Parma

Toni Fruk 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.

Market

Christian Ordoñez wants European nights

The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.

Squad

Words at Parma training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hans Nicolussi Caviglia 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.

Squad

Iván Ramírez wants to go home

“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 Parma know it.

In brief

98 Edition

The Parma Gazette

12 Jun 2028
From our football correspondent Crisis

Market

Oliver Sørensen 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 Parma can pretend not to have heard.

Market

Parma turn down Juve Stabia for Oliver Sørensen

The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.

The dugout

Simone Ghidotti keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Parma may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Squad

A falling-out at Parma

Emanuele Valeri and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Market

Christian Ordoñez wants to know where this is going

“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Parma hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Áron Yaakobishvili

Parma asked and Barcelona said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

Market

Altamura expected to open talks for Anthony Partipilo

Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Parma will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.

Squad

Words at Parma training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giuseppe Salvo 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.

Transfer targets

Parma ask about Mateo Morro

A loan enquiry to Espanyol: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.

In brief

97 Edition

The Parma Gazette

5 Jun 2028
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for David Romero

14 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Parma lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Boardroom

Davide Grasso has until the next board meeting

What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Parma can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.

Market

Lautaro Valenti asks to leave Parma

“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.

Market

Emanuele Valeri wants to know where this is going

“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Parma hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.

Squad

Toni Fruk in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Parma this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Christian Ordoñez signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Christian Ordoñez commits to Parma for another 5 years.

Squad

Words at Parma training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emanuele Valeri 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.

Transfer targets

Parma rebuffed over Bernt Klaverboer

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Heerenveen have kept their man, and Parma go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

The dugout

Rachid Kouda gets it from the manager

“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.

In brief

96 Edition

The Parma Gazette

29 May 2028
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

David Romero damages knee ligaments — 22 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 22 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.

Boardroom

Pressure builds in the Parma boardroom

The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.

Market

Only the photograph left for Simone Saporetti

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Simone Saporetti will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Parma the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

A falling-out at Parma

Toni Fruk and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Words at Parma training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emanuele Valeri 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.

Market

A season away well spent by Christian Ordoñez

37 games, 2 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at Parma now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.

Squad

Peter Amoran signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Peter Amoran and Parma agree another 3 years.

The dugout

No hiding place for Andrea Signorini

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Andrea Signorini, and the manager let it.

The dugout

Christian Ordoñez asks for a word with the manager

“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.

In brief

95 Edition

The Parma Gazette

22 May 2028
From our football correspondent Uneasy

The terraces

The mood at Parma has turned into something else

Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for David Romero

29 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Parma lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Match

Parma sink to position 20

21 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.

Market

Marco Lambert asks to leave Parma

“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.

Squad

Words exchanged at Parma

Toni Fruk 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 dugout

No hiding place for David Romero

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to David Romero, and the manager let it.

Squad

Giuseppe Salvo 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.

Market

No place for Anthony Partipilo in the plan

“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Anthony Partipilo has his answer from Parma; what he does with it is the next window’s story.

The dugout

A promise honoured for Pasquale Marranzino

It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Parma told Pasquale Marranzino something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.

In brief

94 Edition

The Parma Gazette

15 May 2028
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Gabriel Ramaj puts it in writing

“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 Parma, and it is not being withdrawn.

Squad

Tempers go at Parma

Toni Fruk 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.

Squad

Words at Parma training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hans Nicolussi Caviglia 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 dugout

No hiding place for Anthony Partipilo

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Anthony Partipilo, and the manager let it.

The dugout

Hans Nicolussi Caviglia knocks on the manager's door

“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Parma, and both men came out saying it was fine.

Market

The Emanuele Valeri story refuses to die

It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Emanuele Valeri signs something — a contract at Parma or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.

Loan watch

Christian Ordoñez has made Lecce’s shirt his own

35 starts now, an average of 6.88, and the team sheet at Lecce has stopped being a question. Exactly what everybody signed up for.

Squad

A wage question at Parma

Filippo Rinaldi has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.

Squad

Toni Fruk is doing the arithmetic

The table has started to be checked before the results are in, and that is always the tell. Nobody at Parma says the word out loud, and everybody in the building is thinking it.

In brief

93 Edition

The Parma Gazette

8 May 2028
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

Nowhere to hide for Parma

0‑3 against Inter, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.

Match

Full time on the season at Parma

Position 20 on 21 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.

Market

Lautaro Valenti puts it in writing

“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 Parma, and it is not being withdrawn.

Squad

Toni Fruk in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Parma this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Mandela Keita stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Mandela Keita and Parma agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Squad

Words at Parma training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hans Nicolussi Caviglia 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.

Squad

Home is on Joel Orlando's mind

“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; Parma are dealing with a man who wants a different country.

Boardroom

Inquest at Parma

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.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Jacob Ondrejka

Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

In brief

92 Edition

The Parma Gazette

1 May 2028
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

Nowhere to hide for Parma

0‑3 against Lazio, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.

Market

Iván Ramírez puts it in writing

“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 Parma, and it is not being withdrawn.

Boardroom

The silence upstairs is getting loud at Parma

Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.

Market

Simone Saporetti has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Parma they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

A falling-out at Parma

Toni Fruk and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

The dugout

Filippo Rinaldi gets it from the manager

“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.

Squad

Luca Scarlato stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Luca Scarlato and Parma agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Boardroom

Inquest at Parma

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.

Squad

Viery 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.

In brief

  • The dugout The view from the dugout
  • The dugout Mariano Penepil dropped after a run of poor form
  • Market The Toni Fruk story refuses to die
91 Edition

The Parma Gazette

24 Apr 2028
From our football correspondent Uneasy

The terraces

The mood at Parma has turned into something else

Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.

Match

Every point is an argument now for Parma

Position 20 and 21 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.

Match

Parma end the wait against Monza

It had gone 12 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.

Market

Oliver Sørensen puts it in writing

“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 Parma, and it is not being withdrawn.

Squad

A falling-out at Parma

Adrián Bernabé and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Emanuele Valeri falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

Player ratings

Jacob Ondrejka was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 19. 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.

Match

Parma find a way past Monza

Monza made Parma work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.

Player ratings

A masterclass from Toni Fruk

Marked 8.21 — 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.

In brief

90 Edition

The Parma Gazette

17 Apr 2028
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Player ratings

Jacob Ondrejka was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 40. 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.

Match

No end in sight to Parma's wait for a win

12 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Parma has to find a result from somewhere.

Boardroom

Parma give the job to Davide Grasso

The club looked outside for a month, found nothing it preferred, and handed the job to the man who had been doing it anyway. He knows the building; now he has to prove he knows the rest.

The dugout

Joel Orlando: that is not what I was promised

“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Parma have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Squad

Cristiano Furno arrives at the club he grew up with

Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Cristiano Furno has, at Parma, and the first month will show what that does to a man.

Squad

Tempers go at Parma

Toni Fruk 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.

Squad

Words at Parma training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hans Nicolussi Caviglia 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.

Squad

Home is on Iván Ramírez's mind

“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; Parma are dealing with a man who wants a different country.

Boardroom

Rikardo Sheji will join Parma for nothing

The paperwork is done long before the player is. Rikardo Sheji has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Parma have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.

In brief

89 Edition

The Parma Gazette

10 Apr 2028
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

The wait goes on for Parma

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.

Market

Gabriel Ramaj 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 Parma can pretend not to have heard.

Boardroom

Parma still without a manager

40 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.

Player ratings

Jacob Ondrejka runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Squad

Toni Fruk in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Parma this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Words at Parma training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emanuele Valeri 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.

Match

Toni Fruk’s goal not enough for Parma

Toni Fruk scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Pescara, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.

The dugout

No hiding place for Mariano Penepil

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mariano Penepil, and the manager let it.

The dugout

Davide Grasso answers for it

“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.

In brief

88 Edition

The Parma Gazette

3 Apr 2028
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

The wait goes on for Parma

10 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.

Squad

Filippo Rinaldi stands alone

8 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.

The dugout

Mariano Penepil says Parma went back on their word

“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.

Market

Lautaro Valenti puts it in writing

“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 Parma, and it is not being withdrawn.

Market

Simone Saporetti has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Parma they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

A falling-out at Parma

Toni Fruk and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Toni Fruk

Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Squad

Words at Parma training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emanuele Valeri 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.

Squad

Mariano Penepil signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Mariano Penepil commits to Parma for another 4 years.

In brief

87 Edition

The Parma Gazette

27 Mar 2028
From our football correspondent Crisis

The terraces

Anger at Parma spills outside the ground

It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.

Match

Parma are in real trouble now

Position 20, 17 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.

Match

No end in sight to Parma's wait for a win

9 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Parma has to find a result from somewhere.

Market

Oliver Sørensen puts it in writing

“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 Parma, and it is not being withdrawn.

Squad

Words exchanged at Parma

Toni Fruk 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.

Squad

Words at Parma training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hans Nicolussi Caviglia 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.

Match

Sassuolo take the points off Parma

Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Hans Nicolussi Caviglia

“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.

Player ratings

Jacob Ondrejka runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

In brief

86 Edition

The Parma Gazette

20 Mar 2028
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

The wait goes on for Parma

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.

Squad

Tempers go at Parma

Toni Fruk 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.

Boardroom

Parma agree a free transfer for Claudio Azaldegui

Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.

The dugout

No hiding place for Adrián Bernabé

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Adrián Bernabé, and the manager let it.

Match

A bad afternoon for Parma against Atalanta

1‑2 to Atalanta, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.

Squad

Words at Parma training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pontus Almqvist 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 dugout

Davide Grasso faces the questions

“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Davide Grasso after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.

Squad

Parma are still strangers to each other

5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.

The dugout

Hans Nicolussi Caviglia knocks on the manager’s door

“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Hans Nicolussi Caviglia trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.

In brief

85 Edition

The Parma Gazette

13 Mar 2028
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

No end in sight to Parma's wait for a win

7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Parma has to find a result from somewhere.

Market

Marco Lambert asks to leave Parma

“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.

Boardroom

Simone Saporetti signs for Alcione Milano while still at Parma

The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Simone Saporetti has agreed terms with Alcione Milano for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.

Squad

Toni Fruk in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Parma this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Words at Parma training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hans Nicolussi Caviglia 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.

Boardroom

Parma still without a manager

12 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.

Match

Parma come up short against Como

Como left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.

Squad

Appearance number 200 for Jacob Ondrejka

200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Matija Frigan

“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.

In brief

84 Edition

The Parma Gazette

6 Mar 2028
From our football correspondent Crisis

Boardroom

Adriano Scalise is out at Parma

Four paragraphs on the club website, none of them about football. The board thanked him, wished him well, and had the search under way before the page went up.

Boardroom

The Parma board call everybody in

Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.

Squad

Filippo Rinaldi keeps Parma in it on his own

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.

Boardroom

Davide Grasso minds the shop at Parma

“I am not thinking past Saturday, and I would advise nobody else to.” The caretaker’s first rule is to pretend the job is small; Davide Grasso recited it perfectly.

Market

Lautaro Valenti asks to leave Parma

“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.

Match

No end in sight to Parma's wait for a win

6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Parma has to find a result from somewhere.

Player ratings

Viery goes up and wins it — 7.27

A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.27 for the rest of it.

Market

Emanuele Valeri raises the bar for Parma

“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Parma heard it as anything else.

Market

Simone Saporetti is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Parma is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

In brief

83 Edition

The Parma Gazette

28 Feb 2028
From our football correspondent Crisis

The terraces

The mood at Parma has turned into something else

Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.

Boardroom

Pressure builds in the Parma boardroom

The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.

Match

Parma are in real trouble now

Position 19, 17 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.

Match

Parma taken apart

0‑3 to Juventus, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.

Market

Oliver Sørensen 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 Parma can pretend not to have heard.

Match

No end in sight to Parma's wait for a win

5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Parma has to find a result from somewhere.

Squad

Emanuele Valeri in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Parma this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Match

4 matches without a goal for Parma

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.

Squad

Words at Parma training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pontus Almqvist 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

82 Edition

The Parma Gazette

21 Feb 2028
From our football correspondent Crisis

Player ratings

Pontus Almqvist runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 38. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

The dugout

Joel Orlando says Parma went back on their word

“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.

Match

No end in sight to Parma's wait for a win

4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Parma has to find a result from somewhere.

Boardroom

Parma to lose Vittorio Tognaccini for free

There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Vittorio Tognaccini has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.

Squad

Tempers go at Parma

Toni Fruk 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.

Squad

Hans Nicolussi Caviglia 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.

Squad

Iván Ramírez wants to go home

“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 Parma know it.

Match

The goals have deserted Parma

3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Parma can tell you which week it ends in.

The dugout

Luca Scarlato gets it from the manager

“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.

In brief

81 Edition

The Parma Gazette

14 Feb 2028
From our football correspondent Crisis

Market

Marco Lambert 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 Parma can pretend not to have heard.

Squad

Emanuele Valeri signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Emanuele Valeri and Parma agree another 5 years.

Squad

Toni Fruk in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Parma this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Words at Parma training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hans Nicolussi Caviglia 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.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Gioele Zacchi

Parma asked and Sassuolo said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

Squad

Joel Orlando wants to go home

“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Parma can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.

The dugout

No hiding place for Mariano Penepil

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mariano Penepil, and the manager let it.

The dugout

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.” Adriano Scalise chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.

The dugout

Parma keep their word to Anthony Partipilo

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.

In brief

80 Edition

The Parma Gazette

7 Feb 2028
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

Nowhere to hide for Parma

0‑4 against AC Milan, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.

Boardroom

Parma spell it out for Adriano Scalise

The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Adriano Scalise has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.

Market

Lautaro Valenti 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 Parma can pretend not to have heard.

Squad

A one-man rearguard from Filippo Rinaldi

There were 6 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.

Boardroom

Parma close the window on a squad of their own making

2 in and 3 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.

Squad

Pasquale Marranzino arrives at the club he grew up with

Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Pasquale Marranzino has, at Parma, and the first month will show what that does to a man.

Squad

A falling-out at Parma

Toni Fruk and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Transfer targets

Nicola Bagnolini stays at Bologna as time runs out

A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Parma will try again when the window opens; Bologna may not be selling by then.

Transfer targets

Cremonese tell Parma: Yuri Rocchetti is not for sale

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.

In brief

79 Edition

The Parma Gazette

31 Jan 2028
From our football correspondent Uneasy

The terraces

Anger at Parma spills outside the ground

It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Jacob Ondrejka

Successful dribbles: 35. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Match

Parma are in real trouble now

Position 19, 15 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.

Market

Business is business: Edoardo Corvi goes

Pescara paid $7.3M and Parma took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.

Boardroom

Pressure builds in the Parma boardroom

The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.

The terraces

A $7.3M sale, and a town that did not want it

Edoardo Corvi has gone, the accounts have $7.3M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.

Market

Mattia Caldara puts it in writing

“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 Parma, and it is not being withdrawn.

Squad

Words exchanged at Parma

Toni Fruk 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.

Transfer targets

Parma rebuffed over Francesco Camarda

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. AC Milan have kept their man, and Parma go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

In brief

78 Edition

The Parma Gazette

24 Jan 2028
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Match

Cruel end for Pisa as Parma pounce

There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Parma scored in the 91th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.

Match

At last: Parma win one

10 matches without a win, and then this, against Pisa. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.

Player ratings

Jacob Ondrejka beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 27. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Market

Nahuel Estévez 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 Parma can pretend not to have heard.

Squad

Tempers go at Parma

Toni Fruk 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.

Squad

Edoardo Corvi 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.

Transfer targets

Parma rebuffed over Håkon Evjen

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Willem II have kept their man, and Parma go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Match

Toni Fruk sends Parma past Pisa

It finished 2‑1, and it was Toni Fruk’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Parma.

Squad

Matija Frigan reaches 50 goals

50 goals for the club, every one of them filed away in the memory of a supporter somewhere.

In brief

77 Edition

The Parma Gazette

17 Jan 2028
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

10 matches without a win for Parma

The run now stands at 10, and the questions being asked around Parma are no longer polite ones.

Match

Parma taken apart

0‑6 to AS Roma, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.

Market

Pescara come back empty-handed

The bid was some way short and Parma did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.

Match

8 matches without a goal for Parma

The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 8 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.

Squad

Edoardo Corvi stands alone

6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.

The dugout

Luca Scarlato says Parma went back on their word

“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.

Market

Marcelo Herrera puts it in writing

“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 Parma, and it is not being withdrawn.

Squad

Tempers go at Parma

Adrián Bernabé 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 ratings

Nobody could get near Jacob Ondrejka

Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

In brief

  • Match Nobody could stop scoring
  • Squad Words at Parma training over how hard people work
  • Transfer targets Parma rebuffed over Silvio Merkaj
76 Edition

The Parma Gazette

10 Jan 2028
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

9 matches without a win for Parma

The run now stands at 9, and the questions being asked around Parma are no longer polite ones.

Match

The goals have deserted Parma

7 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Parma can tell you which week it ends in.

Market

Oliver Sørensen 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 Parma can pretend not to have heard.

Market

Pescara join the queue for Edoardo Corvi

Add another name to the list: Pescara have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Edoardo Corvi. The answer from Parma has not changed — yet.

Squad

A row about effort at Parma

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Enrico Delprato was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Squad

Tempers go at Parma

Emanuele Valeri 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.

Transfer targets

Parma rebuffed over Dion Beljo

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Hellas Verona have kept their man, and Parma go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Edoardo Corvi

“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.

Match

A bad afternoon for Parma against Bologna

0‑2 to Bologna, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.

In brief

75 Edition

The Parma Gazette

3 Jan 2028
From our football correspondent Crisis

The terraces

Anger at Parma spills outside the ground

It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.

Match

Parma sink to position 20

11 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.

Market

Enrico Delprato puts it in writing

“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 Parma, and it is not being withdrawn.

Match

The wait goes on for Parma

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.

Player ratings

Jacob Ondrejka was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 30. 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 dugout

Mariano Penepil: that is not what I was promised

“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Parma have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Boardroom

Pressure builds in the Parma boardroom

The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.

Squad

Edoardo Corvi stands alone

6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.

Match

Parma cannot find the net

6 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.

In brief

74 Edition

The Parma Gazette

27 Dec 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

11 saves: Edoardo Corvi was the team

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 11 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.

Market

Edoardo Corvi 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 Parma can pretend not to have heard.

Match

The wait goes on for Parma

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.

The dugout

Mattia Caldara says Parma went back on their word

“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.

Match

5 matches without a goal for Parma

The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 5 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.

Player ratings

Jacob Ondrejka runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Squad

Tempers go at Parma

Adrián Bernabé 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.

Match

Parma come up short against Inter

Inter left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.

Squad

Words at Parma training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pontus Almqvist 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

73 Edition

The Parma Gazette

20 Dec 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Match

A hiding for Parma

Beaten 0‑8 by Lazio, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.

Match

Parma out of the cup

Hellas Verona ended it 0‑0. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.

Squad

Filippo Rinaldi wins the shoot-out

1 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.

Player ratings

Jacob Ondrejka runs at them all day

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.

Match

No end in sight to Parma's wait for a win

6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Parma has to find a result from somewhere.

Squad

Adrián Bernabé in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Parma this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Match

The goals have deserted Parma

4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Parma can tell you which week it ends in.

Match

8 goals as Parma and Lazio go for it

Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 8 goals between Parma and Lazio, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.

Squad

Enrico Delprato 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.

In brief

72 Edition

The Parma Gazette

13 Dec 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

Market

Oliver Sørensen asks to leave Parma

“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.

Match

4 matches without a win for Parma

The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Parma are no longer polite ones.

Squad

A falling-out at Parma

Adrián Bernabé and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Mariano Penepil pulls a muscle — 14 days out

The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.

Squad

Words at Parma training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Enrico Delprato 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.

Boardroom

Olaf Gorter will join Parma for nothing

The paperwork is done long before the player is. Olaf Gorter has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Parma have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.

Match

Parma come up short against Monza

Monza left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.

Market

Lautaro Valenti wants European nights

The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.

Squad

Joel Orlando wants to go home

“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Parma can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.

In brief

71 Edition

The Parma Gazette

6 Dec 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Enrico Delprato puts it in writing

“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 Parma, and it is not being withdrawn.

Match

Parma are in real trouble now

Position 18, 11 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Jacob Ondrejka

Successful dribbles: 30. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Squad

Words exchanged at Parma

Adrián Bernabé 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.

Market

Emanuele Valeri wants to know where this is going

“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Parma hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.

Match

A bad afternoon for Parma against Padova

0‑1 to Padova, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.

Squad

A row about effort at Parma

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pontus Almqvist was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout

No hiding place for Mandela Keita

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mandela Keita, and the manager let it.

Squad

Luca Scarlato is the month’s best young player

At 18 he was better than everybody his age in the division for four weeks running, which is harder than one good afternoon. Parma will try not to make too much of it.

In brief

  • The dugout The view from the dugout
  • Squad Luca Scarlato named in the team of the month
  • The dugout Mariano Penepil dropped after a run of poor form
70 Edition

The Parma Gazette

29 Nov 2027
From our football correspondent Steady

Player ratings

Jacob Ondrejka runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 42. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Match

A hiding for Parma

Beaten 1‑4 by Pescara, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.

Market

Edoardo Corvi 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 Parma can pretend not to have heard.

The dugout

Nicholas Fantoni keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Parma may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Squad

Tempers go at Parma

Adrián Bernabé 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.

Squad

Enrico Delprato 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 dugout

Oliver Sørensen gets it from the manager

“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.

Boardroom

Doors closed at Parma

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 dugout

Parma keep their word to Toni Fruk

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.

In brief

69 Edition

The Parma Gazette

22 Nov 2027
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Enrico Delprato 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.

Squad

A falling-out at Parma

Emanuele Valeri and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

The dugout

Adriano Scalise on the point

“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Adriano Scalise after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.

The dugout

The form table has caught Mariano Penepil

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.

Squad

The division's best last weekend was a Parma man

It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Toni Fruk was the best thing in any of them.

The dugout

Pontus Almqvist knocks on the manager’s door

“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Pontus Almqvist trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.

Market

The Enrico Delprato question follows Parma around

Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Enrico Delprato’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.

Player ratings

Toni Fruk keeps on missing

Shots: 8, not one of them in. A centre forward is paid for one thing, and on this evidence he has forgotten which thing it is.

Match

Parma and Udinese cancel each other out

Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Udinese came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.

In brief

68 Edition

The Parma Gazette

15 Nov 2027
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Player ratings

Toni Fruk scores twice — 9.27

Two goals and a mark of 9.27 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.

Market

Marcelo Herrera asks to leave Parma

“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.

Match

Nobody wants to play Parma right now

3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.

Squad

A falling-out at Parma

Adrián Bernabé and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

A move Simone Paolini would have made for nothing

There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Simone Paolini is living that version at Parma, and it tends to show in the first month.

Player ratings

Jacob Ondrejka was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 21. 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.

Match

Parma see off Sassuolo

Three points for Parma, 2‑0 the final word against Sassuolo in a contest settled by the finer margins.

Squad

Words at Parma training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pontus Almqvist is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

Player ratings

One of those days for Enrico Delprato

There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.02, and no argument anywhere in the ground.

In brief

67 Edition

The Parma Gazette

8 Nov 2027
From our football correspondent Steady

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Simone Saporetti

Successful dribbles: 43. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Match

Parma march on in the cup

Venezia are out and Parma go through, 3‑2 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.

Match

Nahuel Estévez wins it after the whistle should have gone

116 minutes played. Nahuel Estévez found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Venezia went from a point to nothing inside one movement.

Match

Parma sink to position 19

7 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.

Squad

Edoardo Corvi keeps Parma in it on his own

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.

Player ratings

A brace, and Nahuel Estévez takes the afternoon — 8.48

There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Nahuel Estévez provided it, and the 8.48 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.

Player ratings

Luis Fariña, 36, rolls back the years — 8.06

There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.06 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.

Market

Marco Lambert asks to leave Parma

“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.

Squad

Words exchanged at Parma

Adrián Bernabé 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.

In brief

66 Edition

The Parma Gazette

1 Nov 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

The wait goes on for Parma

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.

Market

Edoardo Corvi puts it in writing

“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 Parma, and it is not being withdrawn.

Squad

Tempers go at Parma

Adrián Bernabé 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.

Market

Oliver Sørensen wants more than Parma are offering

“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.

Player ratings

Jacob Ondrejka was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 21. 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.

Squad

Words at Parma training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Enrico Delprato 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 dugout

No hiding place for Edoardo Corvi

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Edoardo Corvi, and the manager let it.

Match

A bad afternoon for Parma against Como

0‑1 to Como, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.

The dugout

A promise honoured for Enrico Delprato

It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Parma told Enrico Delprato something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.

In brief

  • Squad Marcelo Herrera wants one last season at home
  • The dugout The view from the dugout
  • Player ratings Matija Frigan turns it into his own net
65 Edition

The Parma Gazette

25 Oct 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

10 matches without a win for Parma

The run now stands at 10, and the questions being asked around Parma are no longer polite ones.

Market

Enrico Delprato 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 Parma can pretend not to have heard.

Match

Genoa punish Parma for switching off

2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Mandela Keita will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Parma escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.

Player ratings

Up for the corner, and Mandela Keita delivers — 7.58

Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Mandela Keita scored, was marked 7.58, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.

Squad

Adrián Bernabé in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Parma this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Match

Mandela Keita’s goal not enough for Parma

Mandela Keita scored, and precious little else went right: 2‑3 to Genoa, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.

Match

Parma are shipping goals every week

Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.

Player ratings

Matija Frigan runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Squad

Giorgio Chimezie stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Giorgio Chimezie and Parma agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

In brief

64 Edition

The Parma Gazette

18 Oct 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

9 matches without a win for Parma

The run now stands at 9, and the questions being asked around Parma are no longer polite ones.

Match

Parma taken apart

0‑3 to Juventus, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Jacob Ondrejka

Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Squad

A falling-out at Parma

Adrián Bernabé and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Luca Scarlato signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Luca Scarlato commits to Parma for another 5 years.

Squad

Enrico Delprato 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.

Boardroom

Nobody left the Parma 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.

The dugout

Adriano Scalise faces the questions

“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Adriano Scalise after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.

Squad

Marco Lambert wants to go home

“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Parma can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.

In brief

63 Edition

The Parma Gazette

11 Oct 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

The wait goes on for Parma

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.

Squad

A one-man rearguard from Edoardo Corvi

There were 6 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.

Market

Marco Lambert puts it in writing

“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 Parma, and it is not being withdrawn.

Squad

Words exchanged at Parma

Adrián Bernabé 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.

Squad

Enrico Delprato 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.

Match

Parma come up short against Lecce

Lecce left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.

Market

Lautaro Valenti wants European nights

The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.

Player ratings

Toni Fruk beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 19. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Squad

Marlon Mena Martinez signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Marlon Mena Martinez commits to Parma for another 3 years.

In brief

62 Edition

The Parma Gazette

4 Oct 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

Market

Edoardo Corvi asks to leave Parma

“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.

Match

No end in sight to Parma's wait for a win

7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Parma has to find a result from somewhere.

Squad

Words exchanged at Parma

Emanuele Valeri 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 dugout

Edoardo Corvi gets it from the manager

“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.

Match

Napoli take the points off Parma

Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.

Player ratings

Jacob Ondrejka beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 17. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

The dugout

The manager’s verdict

“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 0‑2 Adriano Scalise left the room before anybody could ask which.

The dugout

Somebody else is better right now than Mariano Penepil

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 dugout

Mandela Keita knocks on the manager's door

“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Parma, and both men came out saying it was fine.

In brief

61 Edition

The Parma Gazette

27 Sep 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

13 saves: Edoardo Corvi was the team

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 13 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.

Match

The wait goes on for Parma

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.

Squad

Adrián Bernabé in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Parma this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

A row about effort at Parma

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Enrico Delprato was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Market

Oliver Sørensen is free to find somewhere else

“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Parma has been clear about where Oliver Sørensen stands, which is more than many ever get.

Match

Parma refuse to lose to AC Milan

A point taken on 88 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.

Squad

Parma count the cost of losing Mario Lombardo

43 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Oliver Sørensen

“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.

Match

Parma share the spoils with AC Milan

A 1‑1 draw with AC Milan leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.

In brief

60 Edition

The Parma Gazette

20 Sep 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Boardroom

The interim tag comes off Adriano Scalise

Parma interviewed the field and appointed the corridor: Adriano Scalise keeps the job he had been doing in all but title. Sometimes the safest pair of hands is the one already holding the wheel.

The dugout

Daniele Ghilardi keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Parma may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Match

The wait goes on for Parma

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.

Squad

Words exchanged at Parma

Toni Fruk 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.

Squad

Peter Amoran is a better footballer than he was

Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.

Squad

A late step up for Jacob Ondrejka

At 25 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.

Squad

A row about effort at Parma

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Enrico Delprato was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Player ratings

Pontus Almqvist was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 15. 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 dugout

Half-satisfied: Adriano Scalise on the draw

“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.

In brief

59 Edition

The Parma Gazette

13 Sep 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Player ratings

Toni Fruk runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 28. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Match

The wait goes on for Parma

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.

Squad

The step up is real for Joel Orlando

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.

Squad

A falling-out at Parma

Toni Fruk and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

A late step up for Adrián Bernabé

At 26 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.

Squad

Oliver Sørensen wants to go home

“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 Parma know it.

Loan watch

Christian Ordoñez counts the days

“I watch every Parma game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Lecce runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.

The dugout

Anthony Partipilo gets it from the manager

“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.

Match

Honours even between Parma and Pisa

1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.

In brief

58 Edition

The Parma Gazette

6 Sep 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

Chastening afternoon for Parma

A 0‑3 beating by AS Roma was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.

Market

Edoardo Corvi asks to leave Parma

“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.

Market

Parma say no — this time

The offer from Palermo for Edoardo Corvi 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.

The dugout

Viery keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Parma may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Boardroom

Parma close the window on a squad of their own making

12 in and 23 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.

Boardroom

Parma still without a manager

36 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.

Squad

Toni Fruk in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Parma this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

The step up is real for Mateusz Kowalski

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.

Market

Emanuele Valeri raises the bar for Parma

“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Parma heard it as anything else.

In brief

57 Edition

The Parma Gazette

30 Aug 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Parma make Toni Fruk the dearest name in their history

$28.2M. Fees like that buy a footballer and rent a debate: every touch will be measured against the number for a season at least.

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Karlo Pajsar

56 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Parma lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Market

Marcelo Herrera 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 Parma can pretend not to have heard.

Market

Edoardo Corvi attracts admirers

The name of Edoardo Corvi has come up in conversations Parma were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.

The dugout

Luis Fariña says Parma went back on their word

“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.

Squad

Adrián Bernabé in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Parma this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Emanuele Valeri

Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Squad

Real improvement from Alessandro Ciardi at Parma

Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Alessandro Ciardi is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.

Squad

Enrico Delprato 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.

In brief

56 Edition

The Parma Gazette

23 Aug 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

Transfer targets

Parma agree $28.2M for Toni Fruk

The clubs have shaken hands with FC Augsburg; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Karlo Pajsar

64 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Parma lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Match

A hiding for Parma

Beaten 1‑5 by Fiorentina, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.

Market

Nesta Elphege has said yes to Groningen

The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Parma have lost him in all but the paperwork.

Market

Luis Fariña puts it in writing

“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 Parma, and it is not being withdrawn.

Squad

A falling-out at Parma

Adrián Bernabé and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Peter Amoran is a better footballer than he was

Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.

Squad

A late step up for Jacob Ondrejka

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.

Match

Nobody could stop scoring

6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Parma and Fiorentina in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.

In brief

55 Edition

The Parma Gazette

16 Aug 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Karlo Pajsar damages knee ligaments — 72 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 72 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.

Transfer targets

No deal for Juan David Arizala at that price

Parma offered $3.9M; Udinese said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.

Market

Parma say no — this time

The offer from Arouca for Nesta Elphege 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.

Squad

Joel Orlando is a better footballer than he was

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.

Squad

A late step up for Adrián Bernabé

At 26 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.

Squad

A row about effort at Parma

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Enrico Delprato was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Market

Parma promote Enrico Guerra from within

The academy exists for exactly this morning. Enrico Guerra 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.

Market

One of our own: Giorgio Serra joins the Parma first team

Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Giorgio Serra is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.

Market

One of our own: Paolo Donati joins the Parma first team

Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Paolo Donati is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.

In brief

54 Edition

The Parma Gazette

9 Aug 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

The knee: Karlo Pajsar out for 79 days

79 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Parma lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Market

Edoardo Corvi 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 Parma can pretend not to have heard.

Transfer targets

Parma bid $3.9M for Juan David Arizala

The offer went to Udinese 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.

Market

Parma sell Giovanni Daffara for $1.3M

Giovanni Daffara has left for Bari in a $1.3M deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.

Squad

Tempers go at Parma

Adrián Bernabé 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.

Squad

The step up is real for Mateusz Kowalski

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.

Market

Arouca join the queue for Nesta Elphege

Add another name to the list: Arouca have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Nesta Elphege. The answer from Parma has not changed — yet.

Squad

Words at Parma training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Enrico Delprato 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.

Boardroom

Still nobody in the Parma dugout

8 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.

In brief

53 Edition

The Parma Gazette

2 Aug 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Boardroom

Parma part company with Giulio Graziani

The statement thanked him for his efforts and wished him well, in that order and in about that many words. The search begins immediately.

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Karlo Pajsar

86 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Parma lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Market

Parma say no — this time

The offer from Palermo for Edoardo Corvi 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.

Boardroom

The Parma board call everybody in

Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.

The dugout

Emanuele Valeri says Parma went back on their word

“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.

Market

Marcelo Herrera puts it in writing

“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 Parma, and it is not being withdrawn.

Boardroom

Adriano Scalise takes charge at Parma

“Somebody has to pick the team on Saturday, and this week that is me.” An interim appointment with no promises attached, which is how most of them start.

Squad

Adrián Bernabé in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Parma this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Words at Parma training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pontus Almqvist 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

  • Squad Joel Orlando wants to go home
  • Boardroom news_h_severance_paid
  • The dugout A promise honoured at Parma
52 Edition

The Parma Gazette

26 Jul 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Mattia Caldara

38 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Parma lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Market

Oliver Sørensen puts it in writing

“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 Parma, and it is not being withdrawn.

Market

Mariano Troilo moves on

Reggiana pay $3.8M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.

Squad

A falling-out at Parma

Adrián Bernabé and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

A row about effort at Parma

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Enrico Delprato was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout

Luca Scarlato gets it from the manager

“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.

Squad

Too much change too quickly at Parma

9 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.

Market

The Enrico Delprato talk will not go away

Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Parma know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.

The dugout

Matija Frigan asks for a word with the manager

“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.

In brief

51 Edition

The Parma Gazette

19 Jul 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

Mattia Caldara damages knee ligaments — 48 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 48 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.

Market

Mariano Troilo has said yes to Reggiana

The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Parma have lost him in all but the paperwork.

Market

Enrico Delprato puts it in writing

“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 Parma, and it is not being withdrawn.

Market

Nesta Elphege says no to Arouca

“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Nesta Elphege had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.

Transfer targets

Daniele Ghilardi due for a Parma medical

Everything agreed with AS Roma, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.

Squad

Words exchanged at Parma

Adrián Bernabé 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.

Squad

A row about effort at Parma

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Enrico Delprato was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Market

Parma sell Gianluca Astaldi for $180.0K

Gianluca Astaldi has left for Pineto in a $180.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.

Squad

Marcelo Herrera wants to go home

“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 Parma know it.

In brief

50 Edition

The Parma Gazette

12 Jul 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

The knee: Mattia Caldara out for 56 days

56 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Parma lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Market

Edoardo Corvi 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 Parma can pretend not to have heard.

Market

Parma turn down Groningen for Nesta Elphege

The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.

Squad

Jacob Ondrejka signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jacob Ondrejka and Parma agree another 4 years.

Squad

Tempers go at Parma

Adrián Bernabé 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.

Squad

Real improvement from Matteo Galli at Parma

Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Matteo Galli is 17, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.

Market

Parma sell Domenico Dalla Valle for $210.0K

Domenico Dalla Valle has left for Carrarese in a $210.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.

Market

Business is business: Simone Lontani goes

Cosenza paid $72.0K and Parma took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.

Transfer targets

Lecce tell Parma: Emirhan İlkhan is not for sale

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.

In brief

49 Edition

The Parma Gazette

5 Jul 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

The knee: Mattia Caldara out for 64 days

64 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Parma lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Boardroom

Pressure builds in the Parma boardroom

The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.

Boardroom

Parma spell it out for Giulio Graziani

The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Giulio Graziani has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.

Market

Mariano Troilo puts it in writing

“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 Parma, and it is not being withdrawn.

Squad

Adrián Bernabé in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Parma this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Lukas Rosengren is a better footballer than he was

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.

Squad

Words at Parma training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Enrico Delprato 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.

Market

Oliver Sørensen comes back from a loan that worked

28 appearances and 1 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.

Market

Cosenza join the queue for Simone Lontani

Add another name to the list: Cosenza have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Simone Lontani. The answer from Parma has not changed — yet.

In brief

48 Edition

The Parma Gazette

28 Jun 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Mattia Caldara

72 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Parma lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Market

Mariano Troilo agrees terms with Cittadella

The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Parma people have started saying his name in the past tense.

Market

Gaspar Iñíguez asks to leave Parma

“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.

Loan watch

20 clean sheets on loan for Filippo Rinaldi

35 appearances at Catania and the goals have stopped going in. Parma lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.

Squad

Real improvement from Luca Scarlato at Parma

Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Luca Scarlato is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.

Squad

Matija Frigan signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Matija Frigan and Parma agree another 5 years.

Squad

Emanuele Valeri in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Parma this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Transfer targets

CSKA Moscow tell Parma: Alerrandro is not for sale

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.

The dugout

No hiding place for Pontus Almqvist

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Pontus Almqvist, and the manager let it.

In brief

47 Edition

The Parma Gazette

21 Jun 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

The knee: Mattia Caldara out for 79 days

79 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Parma lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Market

Enrico Delprato 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 Parma can pretend not to have heard.

Market

Parma say no — this time

The offer from Avellino for Enrico Delprato 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.

Transfer targets

Parma baulk at the price for Lion Lauberbach

Venezia wanted more than $5.8M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.

Squad

Words exchanged at Parma

Adrián Bernabé 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.

Squad

Alessandro Ciardi is a better footballer than he was

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.

Squad

A late step up for Edoardo Corvi

At 26 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.

Transfer targets

Parma try to borrow Alerrandro

CSKA Moscow have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.

The dugout

Hans Nicolussi Caviglia knocks on the manager’s door

“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Hans Nicolussi Caviglia trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.

In brief

46 Edition

The Parma Gazette

14 Jun 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Mattia Caldara

86 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Parma lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Market

Edoardo Corvi asks to leave Parma

“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.

Transfer targets

An offer of $5.4M for Lion Lauberbach

Parma have gone to Venezia 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.

Market

Como come back empty-handed

The bid was some way short and Parma did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.

Transfer targets

Viery due for a Parma medical

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.

Market

Domenico Dalla Valle has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Parma they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

A falling-out at Parma

El Bilal Touré and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Thomás De Martis is a better footballer than he was

Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 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.

Squad

Diego Carlos 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.

In brief

45 Edition

The Parma Gazette

7 Jun 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Mattia Caldara

94 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Parma lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Boardroom

Pressure builds in the Parma boardroom

The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.

Squad

Words exchanged at Parma

El Bilal Touré 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.

Market

Emanuele Valeri wants to know where this is going

“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Parma hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.

Transfer targets

Parma rebuffed over Viktor Bjarki Daðason

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. FC Copenhagen have kept their man, and Parma go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Market

Lautaro Valenti wants European nights

The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.

Squad

Words at Parma training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emanuele Valeri 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 dugout

Marcelo Herrera gets it from the manager

“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.

Market

Lecce expected to open talks for Christian Ordoñez

Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Parma will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.

In brief

44 Edition

The Parma Gazette

31 May 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Mattia Caldara damages knee ligaments — 102 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 102 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.

Market

Mariano Troilo 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 Parma can pretend not to have heard.

Loan watch

Nobody is scoring past Filippo Rinaldi at Catania

20 shut-outs in 35 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Filippo Rinaldi has been having a lot of them.

Squad

Tempers go at Parma

El Bilal Touré 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.

Squad

Emanuele Valeri 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 dugout

Gastón Sauro gets it from the manager

“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.

Market

Edoardo Corvi linked with a move away

The name of Edoardo Corvi keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Parma say nothing, which says plenty.

The dugout

A promise honoured at Parma

Something was said to Marco Lambert and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.

The dugout

David Romero asks for a word with the manager

“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.

In brief

43 Edition

The Parma Gazette

24 May 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

The knee: Mattia Caldara out for 109 days

109 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Parma lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Market

Enrico Delprato 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 Parma can pretend not to have heard.

Squad

El Bilal Touré in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Parma this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Mandela Keita 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 dugout

The manager makes an example of Luca Scarlato

“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 dugout

A fresh start for Enrico Delprato under the new man

Nothing resets a career like somebody arriving who did not pick the side last season. Enrico Delprato has taken the hint, and Parma are getting a version of him the previous regime had stopped seeing.

Squad

Luca Scarlato wants out of the dugout

“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and Parma will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.

Market

The Adrián Bernabé question follows Parma around

Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Adrián Bernabé’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.

The dugout

Gaspar Iñíguez knocks on the manager’s door

“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Gaspar Iñíguez trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.

In brief

42 Edition

The Parma Gazette

17 May 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Boardroom

The interim tag comes off Giulio Graziani

Parma interviewed the field and appointed the corridor: Giulio Graziani keeps the job he had been doing in all but title. Sometimes the safest pair of hands is the one already holding the wheel.

Market

Edoardo Corvi puts it in writing

“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 Parma, and it is not being withdrawn.

Market

Only the photograph left for Domenico Dalla Valle

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Domenico Dalla Valle will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Parma the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

Marcelo Herrera wants to go home

“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 Parma know it.

Squad

Words at Parma training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emanuele Valeri 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 dugout

A clean slate for Enrico Delprato

A new manager did not pick last season’s side and does not care what it looked like. Enrico Delprato has taken that personally, in the best sense, and Parma are seeing a version of him the last regime had stopped seeing.

Squad

Marco Lambert in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Parma this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Loan watch

Mateusz Kowalski keeps scoring at Dolomiti Bellunesi

31 appearances away from home and 8 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.

Market

The Enrico Delprato story refuses to die

It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Enrico Delprato signs something — a contract at Parma or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.

In brief

41 Edition

The Parma Gazette

10 May 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Player ratings

El Bilal Touré was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 39. 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.

Match

Full time on the season at Parma

Position 16 on 29 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.

Boardroom

Still nobody in the Parma dugout

39 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.

Match

The drought breaks for Parma

6 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Fiorentina were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.

Squad

Gaspar Iñíguez wants to go home

“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Parma can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.

The terraces

Parma supporters have found a favourite in Romeo Vermant

There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Romeo Vermant 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.

Squad

Emanuele Valeri 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.

Match

Parma see off Fiorentina

Three points for Parma, 1‑0 the final word against Fiorentina in a contest settled by the finer margins.

Player ratings

Ninety minutes of Romeo Vermant at his very best

Marked 8.18. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Parma.

In brief

40 Edition

The Parma Gazette

3 May 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

Nowhere to hide for Parma

0‑5 against Inter, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.

Market

Mariano Troilo asks to leave Parma

“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.

Match

The wait goes on for Parma

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.

Loan watch

Filippo Rinaldi’s loan is measured in nothing happening

20 clean sheets from 34 appearances at Catania. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.

Match

Parma are shipping goals every week

Two or more conceded in each of the last 5 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.

Squad

Gastón Sauro wants to go home

“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 Parma know it.

Squad

Romeo Vermant in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Parma this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Words at Parma training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emanuele Valeri 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 dugout

The manager makes an example of Hans Nicolussi Caviglia

“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.

In brief

39 Edition

The Parma Gazette

26 Apr 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

Edoardo Corvi stands alone

9 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.

Market

Enrico Delprato puts it in writing

“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 Parma, and it is not being withdrawn.

Match

No end in sight to Parma's wait for a win

5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Parma has to find a result from somewhere.

Loan watch

19 clean sheets on loan for Filippo Rinaldi

33 appearances at Catania and the goals have stopped going in. Parma lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.

Squad

El Bilal Touré in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Parma this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Match

Parma are shipping goals every week

Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.

Match

Romeo Vermant’s goal not enough for Parma

Romeo Vermant scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Lazio, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.

Squad

Words at Parma training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emanuele Valeri 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 dugout

Mariano Penepil gets it from the manager

“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.

In brief

38 Edition

The Parma Gazette

19 Apr 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

Parma taken apart

0‑3 to Napoli, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.

Market

Lucas Villarruel 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 Parma can pretend not to have heard.

Match

No end in sight to Parma's wait for a win

4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Parma has to find a result from somewhere.

Loan watch

18 clean sheets on loan for Filippo Rinaldi

32 appearances at Catania and the goals have stopped going in. Parma lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.

Market

Only the photograph left for Domenico Dalla Valle

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Domenico Dalla Valle will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Parma the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

El Bilal Touré in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Parma this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Emanuele Valeri 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 dugout

Matija Frigan gets it from the manager

“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.

Boardroom

Doors closed at Parma

The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.

In brief

37 Edition

The Parma Gazette

12 Apr 2027
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

Chastening afternoon for Parma

A 0‑3 beating by Torino was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.

Market

Gastón Sauro 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 Parma can pretend not to have heard.

Squad

Tempers go at Parma

El Bilal Touré 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.

Squad

Mandela Keita stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Mandela Keita and Parma agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Boardroom

Still nobody in the Parma dugout

11 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.

Market

Christian Ordoñez has his eye on Europe

It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Parma can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.

Squad

A row about effort at Parma

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emanuele Valeri was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Boardroom

Nobody left the Parma 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.

The dugout

Daniele Pellegrini: “No excuses”

“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑3, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.

In brief