From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Pianese
Leonardo Di Cosmo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Pianese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luca Fabrizi 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 targets24 Aug 2026
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.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
Pianese 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
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 Pianese would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Luca Fabrizi is not doing himself any favours
A manager forgives a bad Saturday far more readily than a bad Tuesday, because one of them he can explain and the other one he chose. The reports this week have not been good.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Pianese
Leonardo Di Cosmo 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 targets17 Aug 2026
Pianese asked and Young Boys said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Lorenzo Peli 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 targets17 Aug 2026
A loan move for Nicolás Nocetti is in the works
Pianese have made the call to Defensores. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Colón 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
No place for Tibério Cunha in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Pianese are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Pianese had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Patronato, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Simone Ianesi and Pianese agree another 4 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pianese this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Pianese
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luca Fabrizi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Paolo Serra 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Luciano Grassi 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Cristiano Gatti is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Tiziano Sala has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Luca Fabrizi and Pianese agree another 4 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Leonardo Di Cosmo was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Francesco Proietto 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 targets3 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Almirante Brown have kept their man, and Pianese go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market3 Aug 2026
The clock runs on Luca Fabrizi'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.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Pianese have made the call to Patronato. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.