From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad2 Nov 2026
A fracture rules Tommaso D'Orazio out for 128 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Pineto will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match31 Oct 2026
No end in sight to Pineto's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Pineto has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad2 Nov 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 Pineto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Filippo D'Andrea was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.00. 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.
Match31 Oct 2026
Late, late show earns Pineto a point
Minute 89, against Perugia, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
Wages swallow 102% of the Pineto income
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
The dugout2 Nov 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.
Match31 Oct 2026
It needed Filippo D'Andrea to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Perugia, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Oct 2026
135 days out for Tommaso D'Orazio after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Pineto will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Marco Spina beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 24. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at Pineto
Luca Schirone 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Filippo D'Andrea 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.
Match24 Oct 2026
The goals have deserted Pineto
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Pineto can tell you which week it ends in.
The terraces26 Oct 2026
He is 23 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
8 new faces, and Pineto 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 ratings26 Oct 2026
Marked 7.65 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Pineto had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Stefano Amadio
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad19 Oct 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 144 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad19 Oct 2026
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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at Pineto
Filippo D'Andrea 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Pineto training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tommaso D'Orazio 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 dugout19 Oct 2026
“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.
Match17 Oct 2026
A bad afternoon for Pineto against Livorno
0‑1 to Livorno, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Pineto told Diego Andrada something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
Domenico Frare 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 Domenico Frare trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad12 Oct 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pineto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Oct 2026
A row about effort at Pineto
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luca Lombardi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match10 Oct 2026
Torres left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Market12 Oct 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Giacomo Troisi is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market12 Oct 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Filippo Parise 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.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“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 dugout12 Oct 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 10. 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 16 combined actions and a mark of 7.20, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Squad5 Oct 2026
A falling-out at Pineto
Tommaso D'Orazio and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match3 Oct 2026
The drought breaks for Pineto
6 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Vis Pesaro were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Match3 Oct 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Filippo D'Andrea. 3‑1 against Vis Pesaro, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Filippo D'Andrea 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 terraces5 Oct 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Luca Schirone 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.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
132% of the income goes out in wages at Pineto
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.35, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Sep 2026
4 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Match23 Sep 2026
Pineto through in the cup
A 1‑1 win over Union Brescia, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Marco Spina beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 34. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Match26 Sep 2026
The wait goes on for Pineto
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Alessandro Marrancone, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.80
A mark of 7.80 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at Pineto
Tommaso D'Orazio 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.
Match26 Sep 2026
1‑2 to Sambenedettese, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match19 Sep 2026
1‑5 to Ascoli, 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
20 days out for Jacopo Cecconi after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Pineto will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match19 Sep 2026
4 matches without a win for Pineto
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Pineto are no longer polite ones.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Tempers go at Pineto
Tommaso D'Orazio 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Pineto and Ascoli in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Marco Spina beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 18. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Giovanni Di Renzo, and the manager let it.
Boardroom21 Sep 2026
Nobody left the Pineto 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 dugout21 Sep 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑5, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Sep 2026
A fracture rules Jacopo Cecconi out for 27 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Pineto will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad14 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pineto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Pineto
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Filippo D'Andrea was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match12 Sep 2026
Pineto cannot find the net
3 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.
Transfer targets14 Sep 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.
Market14 Sep 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Manuel Zorzi 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.
Match12 Sep 2026
Campobasso left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
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 0‑1 Michele Fiorini left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Stefano Amadio
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Sep 2026
A fracture rules Jacopo Cecconi out for 35 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Pineto will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 13 in, 0 out at Pineto
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 13 arrived, 0 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The medical room confirms 21 days on the sidelines for Tommaso D'Orazio, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad7 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pineto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Pineto asked and Stevenage said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Gianluca Vigliotti is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Michele Fiorini after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 13. 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad31 Aug 2026
42 days out for Jacopo Cecconi after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Pineto will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
The deal with Boca Juniors is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Pineto
Tommaso D'Orazio 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 targets31 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.
Match29 Aug 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad31 Aug 2026
8 new faces, and Pineto are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
A loan move for Samuel Ezekiel is in the works
Pineto have made the call to Ikorodu City. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 Aug 2026
A fracture rules Jacopo Cecconi out for 49 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Pineto will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Pineto have done the hard part with Boca Juniors, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Pineto had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Boca Juniors, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Pineto
Tommaso D'Orazio 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Pineto training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Filippo D'Andrea 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
Pineto asked and Slavia Prague 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 targets24 Aug 2026
Boca Juniors 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.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
Pineto 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.
Looking ahead24 Aug 2026
Ravenna next, and one man in the Pineto dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Pineto have done the hard part with Torino, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad17 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pineto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market17 Aug 2026
Signings arrive with a picture of the club in their head, and this one’s picture was bigger than the building. He will play well and he will be gone, in that order, and everybody knows it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Aug 2026
The medical room confirms 51 days on the sidelines for Tommaso D'Orazio, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Cremonese keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Pineto
Tommaso D'Orazio 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Giovanni Di Renzo and Pineto agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Transfer targets10 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
One of our own: Mauro Armani joins the Pineto first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Mauro Armani 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
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Fabio Palumbo 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
One of our own: Pietro Piras joins the Pineto first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Pietro Piras 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
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Jacopo Cecconi has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Tommaso D'Orazio and Pineto agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Pineto
Tommaso D'Orazio and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Pineto
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Filippo D'Andrea was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets3 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
“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.
Market3 Aug 2026
49 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.