Pescara U18

Italian Serie B U18
10 Oct 2026
Saturday
Process
10 Edition

The Pescara Sentinel

5 Oct 2026
From our football correspondent Triumph

Market

Facundo Silva asks to leave Pescara

“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 Pescara right now

4 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

Gianluca Mancini 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 Pescara this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Player ratings

Orji Okwonkwo beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 21. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Match

Pescara see off Südtirol

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

Squad

Home is on Facundo Silva'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; Pescara are dealing with a man who wants a different country.

Player ratings

Michele D'Ausilio was on a different afternoon to everybody else

8.04. 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.

Squad

Gaetano Letizia makes the team of the month

Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.

The dugout

Angelo Grasso: “That is the standard”

“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 2‑0, already talking about the next one.

In brief

Back issues
9 Edition

The Pescara Sentinel

28 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Triumph

Squad

Sebastiano Desplanches 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.

Match

Pescara make it 3 in a row

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

Squad

Words exchanged at Pescara

Giacomo Olzer 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

Pescara keep winning on the road

3 away wins in a row. Travelling support is the truest kind, and this season it is being repaid in the only currency that counts.

Match

Frank Tsadjout the difference as Pescara beat Bari

Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Frank Tsadjout. 1‑0 against Bari, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.

Squad

A late step up for Ivan Saio

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.

Squad

14 new faces, and Pescara are still learning each other

A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.

Player ratings

Orji Okwonkwo stands above it all

Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.68 on the card, and the Pescara support went home talking about one name.

The dugout

Roberto Inglese dropped after a run of poor form

The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.

In brief

8 Edition

The Pescara Sentinel

21 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Triumph

Match

Roberto Inglese leads the rout of Catanzaro

4‑1, and Roberto Inglese took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Pescara tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.

Player ratings

Roberto Inglese scores twice — 8.70

Two goals and a mark of 8.70 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.

Player ratings

Michele D'Ausilio 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 Pescara

Giacomo Olzer 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

One of those days for Giacomo Olzer

There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.31, and no argument anywhere in the ground.

The dugout

Angelo Grasso has his say

“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Angelo Grasso on a 4‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Facundo Silva

“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

Michele D'Ausilio scores his first for Pescara

The one goal every signing is asked about until it comes. It has come, and a press-conference question has been retired.

The dugout

Pescara pick somebody else ahead of Facundo Silva

There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.

In brief

7 Edition

The Pescara Sentinel

14 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Player ratings

Vintage Roberto Inglese — 7.80

At 34 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 7.80, and nobody on the pitch better.

Market

Pescara say no — this time

The offer from Hellas Verona for Lorenzo Meazzi 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.

Match

Pescara see off Empoli

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

Player ratings

Ninety minutes of Orji Okwonkwo at his very best

Marked 8.00. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Pescara.

The dugout

No hiding place for Riccardo Capellini

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

The dugout

The manager’s verdict

“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Angelo Grasso kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.

Boardroom

Pescara counting the cost

The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Pescara now.

The dugout

Facundo Silva dropped after a run of poor form

The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.

Squad

Orji Okwonkwo scores his first for Pescara

The one goal every signing is asked about until it comes. It has come, and a press-conference question has been retired.

In brief

6 Edition

The Pescara Sentinel

7 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Fiorentina come back empty-handed

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

Boardroom

Deadline passes with 13 signed and 1 gone

That is the business done at Pescara 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

Gianluca Mancini 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 Pescara this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Market

So close: Ivan Saio’s move dies late

The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Hellas Verona moved on, Ivan Saio reports back to Pescara, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.

Player ratings

Orji Okwonkwo 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.

Market

Hellas Verona watching Lorenzo Meazzi

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

Match

Pescara come up short against Modena

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

Squad

Giacomo Olzer reaches 100 appearances

100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.

Squad

Giorgio Altare is no longer first choice

The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Giorgio Altare has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.

In brief

5 Edition

The Pescara Sentinel

31 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Triumph

Squad

Tempers go at Pescara

Gianluca Mancini 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

Giacomo Olzer the difference as Pescara beat Padova

Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Giacomo Olzer. 1‑0 against Padova, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.

Player ratings

Giacomo Olzer was the difference for Pescara

Marked 7.96. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.

Squad

14 new faces, and Pescara are still learning each other

A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.

The dugout

Angelo Grasso: “That is the standard”

“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 1‑0, already talking about the next one.

The dugout

Filippo Guccione dropped after a run of poor form

The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.

Market

Hellas Verona expected to open talks for Ivan Saio

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

Player ratings

Michele D'Ausilio beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 13. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Market

The Giacomo Olzer question follows Pescara around

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

In brief

4 Edition

The Pescara Sentinel

24 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Pescara turn down AC Milan for Gastón Brugman

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

Market

Ivan Saio 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 Pescara can pretend not to have heard.

Transfer targets

Pescara baulk at the price for Tobias Slotsager

Hellas Verona wanted more than $1.6M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.

Transfer targets

Facinet Conté turns down Pescara

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

Squad

Words exchanged at Pescara

Gianluca Mancini 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.

Boardroom

1 academy players handed senior numbers at Pescara

The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.

Market

One of our own: Matteo Marchetti joins the Pescara first team

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

Boardroom

Pescara say no to the training-ground money

The plan went upstairs and came back down. Nothing about that will make a headline anywhere else, and everybody who works at the training ground will remember it for years.

The terraces

The Gastón Brugman rumours reach the terraces

What was a back-page link has become a chant, and the chant is not friendly. Pescara would rather it were settled quietly, and it has stopped being quiet.

In brief

3 Edition

The Pescara Sentinel

17 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Pescara pay AS Roma $9.8M for a proper upgrade

AS Roma did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $9.8M for Gianluca Mancini, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.

Transfer targets

Pescara baulk at the price for Nico Paz

Como wanted more than $13.4M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.

Market

Pescara sign Francesco Coppola for $3.3M

The paperwork is done: Francesco Coppola joins from Pisa in a deal worth $3.3M. Now comes the harder part.

Transfer targets

Pescara bid $1.1M for Tobias Slotsager

The offer went to Hellas Verona 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

Pescara say no — this time

The offer from Lecce for Leonardo Graziani 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

No thanks: Jefferson Cuadrado rejects the move

Pescara had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at La Equidad, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.

Squad

A falling-out at Pescara

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

Squad

Gianluca Mancini needs a bigger stage

He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Pescara know which stage they are at.

Transfer targets

A loan move for Facinet Conté is in the works

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

In brief

2 Edition

The Pescara Sentinel

10 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Transfer targets

$9.8M settles it between the clubs for Gianluca Mancini

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

Transfer targets

Jefferson Cuadrado due for a Pescara medical

Everything agreed with La Equidad, 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 Pescara

Giacomo Olzer 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

Pescara rebuffed over Fredrik Sjøvold

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

Market

Lecce join the queue for Leonardo Graziani

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

Market

Pescara promote Umberto Dalla Valle from within

The academy exists for exactly this morning. Umberto Dalla Valle 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

Pescara promote Fabio Vignali from within

The academy exists for exactly this morning. Fabio Vignali 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

Raffaele Bruno steps up from the Pescara academy

There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Raffaele Bruno has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.

Squad

Michele D'Ausilio remains an outsider

A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Pescara would admit. It shows on Saturdays.

In brief

1 Edition

The Pescara Sentinel

3 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Transfer targets

Door shut on Tasos Douvikas

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

Transfer targets

Pescara make their move for Gianluca Mancini

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

Squad

Gastón Brugman stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Gastón Brugman and Pescara agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Squad

A falling-out at Pescara

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

Market

Pescara and Roberto Inglese are talking past each other

“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.

Market

The clock runs on Giacomo Olzer's contract

49 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.

Squad

Words at Pescara training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gennaro Acampora 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

Too much change too quickly at Pescara

11 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.

Transfer targets

Pescara try to borrow Jefferson Cuadrado

La Equidad 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.

In brief

  • Market Pescara bring in an old head
  • Market Ivan Saio is free to find somewhere else