From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings24 Apr 2028
Successful dribbles: 36. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Market24 Apr 2028
“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 The request is on a desk at Potenza, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match22 Apr 2028
The wait goes on for Potenza
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.
Match22 Apr 2028
The goals have deserted Potenza
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Potenza can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad24 Apr 2028
A falling-out at Potenza
Luca Petrungaro and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout24 Apr 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nathan Fisher, and the manager let it.
The dugout24 Apr 2028
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Potenza pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Squad24 Apr 2028
“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; Potenza are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The dugout24 Apr 2028
Somebody else is better right now than Leandro Chaparro
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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match15 Apr 2028
Chastening afternoon for Potenza
A 0‑5 beating by Sorrento was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
“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.
Squad17 Apr 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Potenza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Lucas Felippe 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.
Match15 Apr 2028
3 matches without a goal for Potenza
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Player ratings17 Apr 2028
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 dugout17 Apr 2028
The manager makes an example of Cristian Riggio
“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.
Boardroom17 Apr 2028
Doors closed at Potenza
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Loan watch17 Apr 2028
“I watch every Potenza game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Vis Pesaro runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom10 Apr 2028
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Luca Petrungaro 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.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Words at Potenza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lucas Felippe 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.
Match8 Apr 2028
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings10 Apr 2028
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout10 Apr 2028
“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.
Squad10 Apr 2028
“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; Potenza are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The dugout10 Apr 2028
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Boardroom10 Apr 2028
90% of the income goes out in wages at Potenza
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 Apr 2028
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Raul Alessandro Bura will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Potenza the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market3 Apr 2028
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Lucas Felippe wants continental football; whether Potenza can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Match1 Apr 2028
7 unbeaten for Potenza
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 7 matches without defeat is a foundation Potenza did not have in the autumn.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Words exchanged at Potenza
Emanuele Schimmenti 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 dugout3 Apr 2028
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Player ratings3 Apr 2028
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.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Potenza are still strangers to each other
8 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.
Boardroom3 Apr 2028
Belts tighten at Potenza
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
The dugout3 Apr 2028
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Achille Cipriani after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings27 Mar 2028
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.90, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad27 Mar 2028
A falling-out at Potenza
Emanuele Schimmenti and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match25 Mar 2028
Whatever happens, Potenza 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.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Words at Potenza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lucas Felippe 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.
Match25 Mar 2028
Three points for Potenza, 2‑1 the final word against Altamura in a contest settled by the finer margins.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 2‑1, already talking about the next one.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
The manager makes an example of Henry Camara
“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 dugout27 Mar 2028
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Leandro Chaparro trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout20 Mar 2028
Tobías Córdoba: 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.” Potenza have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings20 Mar 2028
Successful dribbles: 23. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad20 Mar 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Potenza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Mar 2028
A row about effort at Potenza
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lucas Felippe was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout20 Mar 2028
A promise honoured at Potenza
Something was said to Lucas Felippe and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Loan watch20 Mar 2028
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Potenza, and 0 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
Player ratings20 Mar 2028
Marked 7.60 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Potenza had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout20 Mar 2028
Leandro Chaparro 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.
Match18 Mar 2028
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings13 Mar 2028
Two goals and a mark of 8.58 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Emanuele Schimmenti 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.
Match11 Mar 2028
Three points for Potenza, 2‑1 the final word against Salernitana in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings13 Mar 2028
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 dugout13 Mar 2028
The manager makes an example of Bilal Erradi
“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 dugout13 Mar 2028
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Achille Cipriani, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
Lucas Felippe 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 Lucas Felippe trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market13 Mar 2028
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market6 Mar 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Potenza is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad6 Mar 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Niko Kirwan and Potenza agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Words exchanged at Potenza
Luca Petrungaro 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 dugout6 Mar 2028
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad6 Mar 2028
Words at Potenza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lucas Felippe 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.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Potenza are still strangers to each other
8 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.
Boardroom6 Mar 2028
Wages eat 88% of everything Potenza earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
The dugout6 Mar 2028
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.
The dugout6 Mar 2028
“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
Squad28 Feb 2028
Nathan Fisher damages knee ligaments — 18 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 18 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.
Squad28 Feb 2028
A falling-out at Potenza
Emanuele Schimmenti and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Feb 2028
The improving has stalled for Nathan Fisher
He is 23 and he is exactly the player he was at the turn of the year. That is fine at twenty-eight and it is the beginning of a difficult conversation at his age.
Squad28 Feb 2028
25 shut-outs in 224 appearances. A keeper’s career is counted in games where nothing happened, and none of it happened by accident.
Loan watch28 Feb 2028
“I did not go to Catania to sit and watch. I want to come back to Potenza and fight for my place.” 11 appearances in 33 matches say the rest.
Player ratings28 Feb 2028
Successful dribbles: 15. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Boardroom28 Feb 2028
Potenza counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Potenza now.
The dugout28 Feb 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Henry Camara, and the manager let it.
The dugout28 Feb 2028
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Achille Cipriani after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad21 Feb 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Nathan Fisher
26 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Potenza lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market21 Feb 2028
Luigi Caccavo 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 Potenza can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Potenza may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad21 Feb 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Potenza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets21 Feb 2028
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.
Match19 Feb 2028
Latina made Potenza work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad21 Feb 2028
“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 Potenza know it.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Luca Mazzeo 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.
Loan watch21 Feb 2028
“I watch every Potenza game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Vis Pesaro runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Feb 2028
Nathan Fisher damages knee ligaments — 34 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 34 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.
Player ratings14 Feb 2028
Successful dribbles: 34. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Emanuele Schimmenti 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.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Ruslan Vysochanskyi has just signed for Potenza, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad14 Feb 2028
A row about effort at Potenza
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lucas Felippe was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match12 Feb 2028
The goals have deserted Potenza
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Potenza can tell you which week it ends in.
Transfer targets14 Feb 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Bari have kept their man, and Potenza go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout14 Feb 2028
“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.
Match12 Feb 2028
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Feb 2028
41 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Potenza lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Window shuts: 5 in, 6 out at Potenza
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 5 arrived, 6 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Market7 Feb 2028
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Potenza they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Words exchanged at Potenza
Emanuele Schimmenti 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.
Player ratings7 Feb 2028
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout7 Feb 2028
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Match5 Feb 2028
Still nobody has beaten Potenza
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Flavio Fuscaldi has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Potenza have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Transfer targets7 Feb 2028
Door shut on Mayke
Potenza asked and Hellas Verona said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings31 Jan 2028
Successful dribbles: 36. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad31 Jan 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Andrea Franzolini
39 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Potenza lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market31 Jan 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Potenza can pretend not to have heard.
Market31 Jan 2028
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Lucas Felippe wants continental football; whether Potenza can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad31 Jan 2028
A falling-out at Potenza
Emanuele Schimmenti and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets31 Jan 2028
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 dugout31 Jan 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Luca Petrungaro, and the manager let it.
Match29 Jan 2028
Nobody wins at Potenza
8 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Loan watch31 Jan 2028
“I did not go to Catania to sit and watch. I want to come back to Potenza and fight for my place.” 8 appearances in 29 matches say the rest.
In brief
-
Player ratings
The afternoon belonged to Edoardo Iannoni
-
The dugout
The manager’s verdict
-
Match
Point won or two lost for Potenza?
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 Jan 2028
46 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Potenza lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Player ratings24 Jan 2028
Successful dribbles: 36. 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.
Market24 Jan 2028
“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.
The terraces24 Jan 2028
Potenza sell a favourite for $360.0K
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Gabriele Selleri was one of the reasons people came, and $360.0K does not replace that by itself.
Squad24 Jan 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Potenza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market24 Jan 2028
Gabriele Selleri has left for Juve Stabia in a $360.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Match22 Jan 2028
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Emanuele Schimmenti. 2‑1 against Casarano, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The dugout24 Jan 2028
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Player ratings24 Jan 2028
Gianluca D'Auria was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.15. 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad17 Jan 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Andrea Franzolini
54 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Potenza lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market17 Jan 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Potenza can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout17 Jan 2028
Gabriele Selleri: 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.” Potenza have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Luca Petrungaro 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.
Market17 Jan 2028
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Francesco Gallo is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market17 Jan 2028
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Giulio Caprioli 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.
Market17 Jan 2028
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Romano Bonaventura is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The dugout17 Jan 2028
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
The dugout17 Jan 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ahmed Adams, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad10 Jan 2028
Andrea Franzolini damages knee ligaments — 61 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 61 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.
Market10 Jan 2028
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Potenza people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market10 Jan 2028
“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.
Market10 Jan 2028
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Potenza they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The dugout10 Jan 2028
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad10 Jan 2028
Words exchanged at Potenza
Emanuele Schimmenti 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.
Match8 Jan 2028
It had gone 5 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.
Match8 Jan 2028
Foggia made Potenza work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Match10 Jan 2028
Potenza at the halfway mark
Half the programme played, position 12, 22 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 Jan 2028
70 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Potenza lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market3 Jan 2028
“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 Potenza, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match1 Jan 2028
5 matches without a win for Potenza
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Potenza are no longer polite ones.
Match1 Jan 2028
5 matches without a goal for Potenza
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.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Words exchanged at Potenza
Luca Petrungaro 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.
Player ratings3 Jan 2028
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.
Market3 Jan 2028
The phone has started ringing about Gabriele Selleri again, and this time the name on the line is Carrarese. Potenza are listening politely and promising nothing.
The dugout3 Jan 2028
“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
Squad27 Dec 2027
78 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Potenza lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Player ratings27 Dec 2027
Successful dribbles: 33. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match25 Dec 2027
No end in sight to Potenza's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Potenza has to find a result from somewhere.
Match25 Dec 2027
Potenza cannot find the net
4 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.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Luca Petrungaro 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.
Market27 Dec 2027
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Leandro Chaparro has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Potenza.
The dugout27 Dec 2027
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.
The dugout27 Dec 2027
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.
The dugout27 Dec 2027
“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
Squad20 Dec 2027
Andrea Franzolini damages knee ligaments — 85 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 85 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.
Squad20 Dec 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Potenza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match18 Dec 2027
3 matches without a goal for Potenza
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Match18 Dec 2027
Giugliano left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout20 Dec 2027
“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.
Squad20 Dec 2027
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Potenza can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout20 Dec 2027
Emanuele Schimmenti 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.
The dugout20 Dec 2027
“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.
Player ratings20 Dec 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad13 Dec 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Andrea Franzolini
94 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Potenza lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings13 Dec 2027
Successful dribbles: 30. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Market13 Dec 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Potenza is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad13 Dec 2027
A falling-out at Potenza
Emanuele Schimmenti and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings13 Dec 2027
Marked 6.81 on 10 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
The dugout13 Dec 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ahmed Adams, and the manager let it.
The dugout13 Dec 2027
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.” Achille Cipriani chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The dugout13 Dec 2027
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.
Match11 Dec 2027
Point won or two lost for Potenza?
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Cavese? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market6 Dec 2027
“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 Potenza, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout6 Dec 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Potenza may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Words exchanged at Potenza
Emanuele Schimmenti 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 dugout6 Dec 2027
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Match4 Dec 2027
0‑1 to Sorrento, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad6 Dec 2027
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.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
Player ratings6 Dec 2027
Successful dribbles: 16. 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.
Loan watch6 Dec 2027
“I did not go to Catania to sit and watch. I want to come back to Potenza and fight for my place.” 5 appearances in 21 matches say the rest.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market29 Nov 2027
“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.
Market29 Nov 2027
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Lucas Felippe wants continental football; whether Potenza can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Match27 Nov 2027
Whatever happens, Potenza 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.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Luca Petrungaro 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.
Match27 Nov 2027
It finished 2‑0, and it was Emanuele Schimmenti’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Potenza.
Player ratings29 Nov 2027
Emanuele Schimmenti was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.12. 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 ratings29 Nov 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.08, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Achille Cipriani could afford to be generous.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
“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
Player ratings22 Nov 2027
Successful dribbles: 33. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match20 Nov 2027
Potenza strike at the death to beat Picerno
There were 85 minutes on the clock and Picerno had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Potenza did not stop to explain themselves.
Match20 Nov 2027
At last: Potenza win one
11 matches without a win, and then this, against Picerno. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Squad22 Nov 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Potenza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match20 Nov 2027
Still nobody has beaten Potenza
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
“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.
Match20 Nov 2027
Three points for Potenza, 1‑0 the final word against Picerno in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad22 Nov 2027
100 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.
Player ratings22 Nov 2027
A mark of 7.73, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match13 Nov 2027
11 matches without a win for Potenza
The run now stands at 11, and the questions being asked around Potenza are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings15 Nov 2027
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.
Player ratings15 Nov 2027
Luca Mazzeo, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.64
A mark of 7.64 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Market15 Nov 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Raul Alessandro Bura will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Potenza the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad15 Nov 2027
A falling-out at Potenza
Luca Petrungaro and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Emanuele Schimmenti, and the manager let it.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
Somebody else is better right now than Leandro Chaparro
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.
Match13 Nov 2027
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match6 Nov 2027
No end in sight to Potenza's wait for a win
10 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Potenza has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings8 Nov 2027
Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout8 Nov 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Potenza may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Words exchanged at Potenza
Luca Petrungaro 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 dugout8 Nov 2027
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
The dugout8 Nov 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Cornelius Staver, and the manager let it.
Loan watch8 Nov 2027
“I did not go to Catania to sit and watch. I want to come back to Potenza and fight for my place.” 4 appearances in 17 matches say the rest.
Boardroom8 Nov 2027
Wages eat 85% of everything Potenza earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
The dugout8 Nov 2027
Luigi Caccavo 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings1 Nov 2027
Successful dribbles: 36. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match30 Oct 2027
9 matches without a win for Potenza
The run now stands at 9, and the questions being asked around Potenza are no longer polite ones.
Market1 Nov 2027
Luigi Caccavo 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 Potenza can pretend not to have heard.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Emanuele Schimmenti 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.
Squad1 Nov 2027
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
The dugout1 Nov 2027
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.
The dugout1 Nov 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Bilal Erradi, and the manager let it.
Match30 Oct 2027
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Squad1 Nov 2027
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Gabriele Selleri 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match23 Oct 2027
8 matches without a win for Potenza
The run now stands at 8, and the questions being asked around Potenza are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings25 Oct 2027
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.
Squad25 Oct 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Potenza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match23 Oct 2027
The goals have deserted Potenza
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Potenza can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad25 Oct 2027
200 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
Leandro Chaparro 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.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
“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 dugout25 Oct 2027
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Market25 Oct 2027
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market18 Oct 2027
“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.
Match16 Oct 2027
7 matches without a win for Potenza
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Potenza are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings18 Oct 2027
Successful dribbles: 28. 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.
Market18 Oct 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Potenza is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad18 Oct 2027
A falling-out at Potenza
Emanuele Schimmenti and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad18 Oct 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Luca Mazzeo commits to Potenza for another 5 years.
Squad18 Oct 2027
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Potenza can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
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.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Andrea Franzolini, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match9 Oct 2027
No end in sight to Potenza's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Potenza has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings11 Oct 2027
Niko Kirwan beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 22. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Words exchanged at Potenza
Luca Petrungaro 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 dugout11 Oct 2027
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Match9 Oct 2027
A bad afternoon for Potenza against Latina
0‑2 to Latina, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
“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.
Loan watch11 Oct 2027
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Potenza, and 3 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
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 Achille Cipriani left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad11 Oct 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ahmed Adams and Potenza agree another 1 years.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market4 Oct 2027
“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 ratings4 Oct 2027
Successful dribbles: 30. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match2 Oct 2027
5 matches without a win for Potenza
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Potenza are no longer polite ones.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Emanuele Schimmenti 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.
The dugout4 Oct 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Gianluca D'Auria, and the manager let it.
Squad4 Oct 2027
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
Squad4 Oct 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ahmed Adams and Potenza agree another 1 years.
The dugout4 Oct 2027
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.
Match2 Oct 2027
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings27 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 51. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match22 Sep 2027
The cup run ends for Potenza
0‑0 against Pontedera, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Match25 Sep 2027
The wait goes on for Potenza
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.
Squad27 Sep 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Potenza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
“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.
Match25 Sep 2027
Nobody wins at Potenza
8 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Squad27 Sep 2027
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.
Player ratings27 Sep 2027
Twelve yards, a goalkeeper guessing, and it still did not go in. He will take the next one, and every soul in the ground will hold their breath.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Too much change too quickly at Potenza
5 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market20 Sep 2027
Lucas Felippe 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 Potenza can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Potenza have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market20 Sep 2027
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Potenza they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad20 Sep 2027
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.
Squad20 Sep 2027
A falling-out at Potenza
Luca Petrungaro and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad20 Sep 2027
At 27 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match18 Sep 2027
1‑2 to Audace Cerignola, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Market20 Sep 2027
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Salvatore Alessi is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The dugout13 Sep 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Potenza may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market13 Sep 2027
“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 Potenza, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market13 Sep 2027
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Gabriele Selleri reports back to Potenza with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Luigi Caccavo 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.
Match11 Sep 2027
The run is over for Potenza
9 matches without defeat, and then Casarano. Nobody at the ground pretended it would go on forever; nobody expected it to stop here either.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Words exchanged at Potenza
Emanuele Schimmenti 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.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Emanuele Schimmenti 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.
The dugout13 Sep 2027
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market6 Sep 2027
“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 Potenza, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Window shuts: 12 in, 6 out at Potenza
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 12 arrived, 6 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Emanuele Schimmenti 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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
At 20 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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
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.
Transfer targets6 Sep 2027
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 dugout6 Sep 2027
“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.
Market6 Sep 2027
Everyone has stopped pretending: Casertana will make the call about Gabriele Selleri this week. Potenza have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Danilo Petriccione has moved up it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market30 Aug 2027
“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.
Match28 Aug 2027
Still nobody has beaten Potenza
The unbeaten run reaches 9. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad30 Aug 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Potenza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Thiago Verardi 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.
Squad30 Aug 2027
At 29 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.
Match28 Aug 2027
A 1‑0 win over Foggia, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings30 Aug 2027
Luca Petrungaro was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.07. 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.
Squad30 Aug 2027
5 new faces, and Potenza 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 dugout30 Aug 2027
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market23 Aug 2027
“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 Potenza, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout23 Aug 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Potenza may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market23 Aug 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Raul Alessandro Bura will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Potenza the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Henry Camara 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.
Squad23 Aug 2027
A falling-out at Potenza
Luca Petrungaro and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad23 Aug 2027
At 27 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.
Boardroom23 Aug 2027
A promise the Potenza board did not keep
There was a commitment, there was a date, and the date went past. Trust at a football club takes years to build and one afternoon to spend.
The dugout23 Aug 2027
Lucas Felippe 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 Lucas Felippe trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Boardroom23 Aug 2027
No investment in the facilities at Potenza
Nothing about this will be in a press release. A plan went upstairs, came back rejected, and the version of the club that would have existed in three years' time just quietly stopped being possible.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market16 Aug 2027
“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 Potenza, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout16 Aug 2027
“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.
Squad16 Aug 2027
At 23 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.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Words exchanged at Potenza
Luca Petrungaro 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.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Emanuele Schimmenti 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.
Market16 Aug 2027
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Elia Altieri is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Squad16 Aug 2027
“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; Potenza are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Loan watch16 Aug 2027
“I watch every Potenza game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Catania runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout16 Aug 2027
Nicolò Bruschi has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Potenza will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market9 Aug 2027
“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 Potenza, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Andrea Franzolini 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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Luca Petrungaro 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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
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.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
Potenza asked and Venezia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The dugout9 Aug 2027
“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 dugout9 Aug 2027
“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.
Market9 Aug 2027
Potenza have made Gabriele Selleri available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
Market9 Aug 2027
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market2 Aug 2027
“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 Potenza, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout2 Aug 2027
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad2 Aug 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Potenza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market2 Aug 2027
Bari paid $69.0K and Potenza took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Transfer targets2 Aug 2027
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.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
Market2 Aug 2027
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Potenza, another week without a signature from Emanuele Schimmenti.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Too much change too quickly at Potenza
6 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.
The dugout2 Aug 2027
A promise honoured at Potenza
Something was said to Claud Adjapong and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Jul 2027
14 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Potenza lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market26 Jul 2027
“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 Potenza, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Genoa is saying, and nobody at Potenza is enjoying the guessing.
Market26 Jul 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Potenza is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad26 Jul 2027
A falling-out at Potenza
Emanuele Schimmenti and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
Potenza asked and Genoa said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Giuseppe Loiacono 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 dugout26 Jul 2027
“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.
Market26 Jul 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Emanuele Schimmenti signs something — a contract at Potenza or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Jul 2027
Leandro Chaparro damages knee ligaments — 21 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 21 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.
Market19 Jul 2027
“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.
The dugout19 Jul 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Potenza may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Potenza have done the hard part with Torres, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
The offer went to Genoa 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.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Words exchanged at Potenza
Emanuele Schimmenti 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.
Market19 Jul 2027
A stepping stone, not a home, for Luigi Caccavo
He is doing his job and he is not settling. Potenza were supposed to be a step up in his own reckoning, and his own reckoning has been adjusted since he arrived.
Squad19 Jul 2027
This league is too small for Nana Welbeck
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Potenza will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
The dugout19 Jul 2027
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Nicolò Bruschi is on it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Jul 2027
Leandro Chaparro damages knee ligaments — 29 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 29 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.
Market12 Jul 2027
“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.
Market12 Jul 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market12 Jul 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Pontedera waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Potenza is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market12 Jul 2027
The chase for Luigi Caccavo ended with $800.0K changing hands and Lumezzane out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
Potenza have gone to Genoa 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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Emanuele Schimmenti 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.
The terraces12 Jul 2027
Potenza spend $800.0K on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $800.0K for Luigi Caccavo, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
Potenza asked and Venezia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Jul 2027
36 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Potenza lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market5 Jul 2027
Cesena come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Potenza did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market5 Jul 2027
“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.
The dugout5 Jul 2027
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
Everything agreed with Livorno, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad5 Jul 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Potenza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market5 Jul 2027
Add another name to the list: Catania have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Antonino De Marco. The answer from Potenza has not changed — yet.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
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.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Too much change too quickly at Potenza
5 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Jun 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Leandro Chaparro
43 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Potenza lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market28 Jun 2027
“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.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Augusto Bando is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad28 Jun 2027
A falling-out at Potenza
Luca Petrungaro and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Edoardo Iannoni has improved at 26, 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.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Inter have kept their man, and Potenza go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
Potenza have made the call to Sassuolo. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
Potenza have made the call to Inter. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout28 Jun 2027
The manager makes an example of Cristian Riggio
“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
Squad21 Jun 2027
Leandro Chaparro damages knee ligaments — 50 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 50 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.
The dugout21 Jun 2027
“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.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Words exchanged at Potenza
Luca Petrungaro 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 targets21 Jun 2027
Casarano wanted more than $47.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Words at Potenza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yuri Rocchetti 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 targets21 Jun 2027
Door shut on Viery
Potenza asked and Fiorentina said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad21 Jun 2027
At 24 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 dugout21 Jun 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Agostino Camigliano, and the manager let it.
Market21 Jun 2027
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Potenza, another week without a signature from Gabriele Selleri.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Jun 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Leandro Chaparro
57 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Potenza lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market14 Jun 2027
Potenza say no — this time
The offer from Pisa for Niko Kirwan 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.
Market14 Jun 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Potenza can pretend not to have heard.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Luca Petrungaro 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 targets14 Jun 2027
$47.0K on the table at Casarano. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Yuri Rocchetti 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 targets14 Jun 2027
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 Jun 2027
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Leandro Chaparro has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Potenza.
The dugout14 Jun 2027
“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 Jun 2027
Leandro Chaparro damages knee ligaments — 66 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 66 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.
The dugout7 Jun 2027
Gabriele Selleri: 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.” Potenza have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market7 Jun 2027
“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 Potenza, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad7 Jun 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Potenza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout7 Jun 2027
The manager makes an example of Denis Franchi
“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 dugout7 Jun 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Tommaso Cucchietti trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad31 May 2027
Leandro Chaparro damages knee ligaments — 73 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 73 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.
Market31 May 2027
“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 Potenza, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout31 May 2027
Marco Balzano: 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.” Potenza have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad31 May 2027
A falling-out at Potenza
Emanuele Schimmenti and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad31 May 2027
Yuri Rocchetti 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 dugout31 May 2027
“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 dugout31 May 2027
Yuri Rocchetti has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Potenza will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The dugout31 May 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Agostino Camigliano trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market31 May 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Gianluca D'Auria signs something — a contract at Potenza or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 May 2027
Leandro Chaparro damages knee ligaments — 81 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 81 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.
Squad24 May 2027
Words exchanged at Potenza
Emanuele Schimmenti 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.
Squad24 May 2027
A row about effort at Potenza
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yuri Rocchetti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout24 May 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Cristian Riggio, and the manager let it.
The dugout24 May 2027
A promise honoured at Potenza
Something was said to Antonino De Marco and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout24 May 2027
Nicolò Bruschi has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Potenza will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Market24 May 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Emanuele Schimmenti’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout24 May 2027
Bilal Erradi 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.
Squad24 May 2027
Antonino De Marco makes the division’s eleven — 6.65
Marked 6.65, and picked in the team of the week for it. He was the best player on that pitch and the selectors saw the same match everybody else did.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 May 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Leandro Chaparro
88 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Potenza lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The dugout17 May 2027
“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.
Match15 May 2027
Whatever happens, Potenza 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.
Player ratings17 May 2027
Two of the goals had his name somewhere on them, which is the afternoon a manager wants from anybody asked to both create and finish. 7.94, and 2 involvements.
Squad17 May 2027
A falling-out at Potenza
Franco Flores and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout17 May 2027
“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.
Match15 May 2027
A goal on 87 minutes turned three points into one and a good afternoon into an argument about game management that will run until Saturday.
Player ratings17 May 2027
7.95, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Potenza had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
Match15 May 2027
It finished 2‑2, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 May 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Leandro Chaparro
97 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Potenza lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market10 May 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Potenza can pretend not to have heard.
Match8 May 2027
Whatever happens, Potenza 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.
Squad10 May 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Potenza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 May 2027
A row about effort at Potenza
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yuri Rocchetti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout10 May 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Player ratings10 May 2027
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout10 May 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Achille Cipriani was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Potenza dressing room was either.
The dugout10 May 2027
Franco Flores 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 Potenza, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings3 May 2027
Successful dribbles: 46. 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.
Squad3 May 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Leandro Chaparro
105 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Potenza lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market3 May 2027
“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 Potenza, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad3 May 2027
A falling-out at Potenza
Emanuele Schimmenti and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match1 May 2027
Whatever happens, Potenza 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.
Squad3 May 2027
Yuri Rocchetti 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 ratings3 May 2027
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.37 on the card, and the Potenza support went home talking about one name.
Squad3 May 2027
A place in the month's best eleven for Niko Kirwan
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Niko Kirwan has come out of that comparison in the side, and Potenza have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The dugout3 May 2027
“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
Upbeat
Squad26 Apr 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Leandro Chaparro
113 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Potenza lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Potenza may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words exchanged at Potenza
Luca Petrungaro 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.
Player ratings26 Apr 2027
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match24 Apr 2027
A 1‑0 win over Cavese, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings26 Apr 2027
Luca Petrungaro was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.19. 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.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
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.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
“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 dugout26 Apr 2027
“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
Upbeat
Squad19 Apr 2027
Leandro Chaparro damages knee ligaments — 120 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 120 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.
Match17 Apr 2027
Emanuele Schimmenti wins it after the whistle should have gone
92 minutes played. Emanuele Schimmenti found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Sorrento went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Player ratings19 Apr 2027
Two goals and a mark of 8.82 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
“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.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Jacopo Murano 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.
Squad19 Apr 2027
A row about effort at Potenza
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yuri Rocchetti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match17 Apr 2027
It finished 2‑1, and it was Emanuele Schimmenti’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Potenza.
The terraces19 Apr 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Yuri Rocchetti 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 dugout19 Apr 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Tommaso Cucchietti, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Apr 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Leandro Chaparro
127 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Potenza lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
Denis Franchi: 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.” Potenza have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings12 Apr 2027
Successful dribbles: 24. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad12 Apr 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Potenza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Yuri Rocchetti 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 dugout12 Apr 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jacopo Murano, and the manager let it.
Squad12 Apr 2027
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.
Player ratings12 Apr 2027
Niko Kirwan was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.28. 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.
Loan watch12 Apr 2027
“I watch every Potenza game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Al-Qadisiyah runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Apr 2027
135 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Potenza lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Player ratings5 Apr 2027
Two goals and a mark of 8.73 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market5 Apr 2027
“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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Franco Flores and Potenza agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad5 Apr 2027
A falling-out at Potenza
Jacopo Murano and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match3 Apr 2027
A 2‑0 win over Picerno, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad5 Apr 2027
At 24 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 dugout5 Apr 2027
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.” Achille Cipriani kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
Yuri Rocchetti has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Potenza will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad29 Mar 2027
Giuseppe Loiacono damages knee ligaments — 105 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 105 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.
Player ratings29 Mar 2027
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 7.55 for the rest of it.
Player ratings29 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 25. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad29 Mar 2027
A falling-out at Potenza
Franco Flores and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at Potenza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yuri Rocchetti 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.
Match27 Mar 2027
The drought breaks for Potenza
5 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Altamura were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Match27 Mar 2027
A 1‑0 win over Altamura, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
No place for Jacopo Murano on the big day
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Potenza pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
A promise honoured at Potenza
Something was said to Franco Flores and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad22 Mar 2027
Giuseppe Loiacono damages knee ligaments — 112 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 112 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.
Match20 Mar 2027
Nowhere to hide for Potenza
0‑3 against Cosenza, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Market22 Mar 2027
“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.
Match20 Mar 2027
No end in sight to Potenza's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Potenza has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 24. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words exchanged at Potenza
Luca Petrungaro 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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words at Potenza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yuri Rocchetti 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 dugout22 Mar 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
Leandro Chaparro did the work nobody counts — 6.56
10 combined actions and 6.56. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
In brief
-
Boardroom
Nobody left the Potenza dressing room in a hurry
-
The dugout
The manager’s verdict
-
Market
Giuseppe Loiacono is free to find somewhere else
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad15 Mar 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Giuseppe Loiacono
119 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Potenza lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 31. 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.
Market15 Mar 2027
“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 Potenza, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match13 Mar 2027
4 matches without a win for Potenza
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Potenza are no longer polite ones.
Squad15 Mar 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Potenza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Loan watch15 Mar 2027
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Potenza, and 1 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
Jacopo Murano 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.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
“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.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
The manager makes an example of Bilal Erradi
“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
Squad8 Mar 2027
127 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Potenza lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market8 Mar 2027
“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.
Squad8 Mar 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jacopo Murano and Potenza agree another 2 years.
Squad8 Mar 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Potenza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Yuri Rocchetti 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.
Match6 Mar 2027
Benevento left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings8 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Agostino Camigliano, and the manager let it.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
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 1‑3 Achille Cipriani left the room before anybody could ask which.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad1 Mar 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Giuseppe Loiacono
134 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Potenza lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings1 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 31. 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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Words exchanged at Potenza
Jacopo Murano 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 dugout1 Mar 2027
“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.
Match27 Feb 2027
A bad afternoon for Potenza against Catania
0‑1 to Catania, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
“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 dugout1 Mar 2027
Jacopo Murano 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.
Looking ahead1 Mar 2027
The leaders are next for Potenza
Benevento top the table and they are coming into view. Nothing to lose, which is what every manager says before losing.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market22 Feb 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Potenza can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Jacopo Murano 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 ratings22 Feb 2027
A performance of 8.29 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
“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 dugout22 Feb 2027
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.
Match20 Feb 2027
A 1‑1 draw with Latina leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
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.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
Jacopo Murano 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 Potenza, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 45. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Potenza may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad15 Feb 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Potenza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match13 Feb 2027
Three points for Potenza, 1‑0 the final word against Crotone in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Marked 7.82 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Potenza had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
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.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
Jacopo Murano 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.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Achille Cipriani on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Market15 Feb 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Emanuele Schimmenti signs something — a contract at Potenza or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 48. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market8 Feb 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Potenza can pretend not to have heard.
Match6 Feb 2027
4 matches without a win for Potenza
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Potenza are no longer polite ones.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words exchanged at Potenza
Franco Flores 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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Yuri Rocchetti 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.
Match6 Feb 2027
Siracusa left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
The manager makes an example of Edoardo Iannoni
“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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
“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; Potenza are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
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 Achille Cipriani left the room before anybody could ask which.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market1 Feb 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Trakai waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Potenza is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market1 Feb 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Potenza can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout1 Feb 2027
Nicolò Bruschi: 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.” Potenza have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 0 signed and 0 gone
That is the business done at Potenza 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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Luca Petrungaro 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 ratings1 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Yuri Rocchetti 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 targets1 Feb 2027
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 dugout1 Feb 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Franco Flores, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market25 Jan 2027
“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 Potenza, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market25 Jan 2027
The phone has started ringing about Gabriele Selleri again, and this time the name on the line is Trakai. Potenza are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Jacopo Murano 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 targets25 Jan 2027
Door shut on Viery
Potenza asked and Fiorentina said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match23 Jan 2027
Late, late show earns Potenza a point
Minute 86, against Casarano, 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.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
Sassuolo 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.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
A loan move for Noah Markmann is in the works
Potenza have made the call to FC Copenhagen. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
A loan enquiry to Bologna: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad18 Jan 2027
20 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Potenza lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
Marco Rossello: 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.” Potenza have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Potenza have done the hard part with KAA Gent, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad18 Jan 2027
A falling-out at Potenza
Luca Petrungaro and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad18 Jan 2027
A row about effort at Potenza
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yuri Rocchetti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
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 dugout18 Jan 2027
“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 dugout18 Jan 2027
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.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Yuri Rocchetti is on it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad11 Jan 2027
Cristian Riggio damages knee ligaments — 27 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 27 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.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Potenza may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
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.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, and a scan that said otherwise. He goes back to BK Hacken; Potenza go back to the market; and both will insist there is no story here.
Squad11 Jan 2027
A falling-out at Potenza
Jacopo Murano and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Thiago Verardi is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Yuri Rocchetti 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.
Match9 Jan 2027
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Claud Adjapong, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 40. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad4 Jan 2027
34 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Potenza lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match2 Jan 2027
3‑0, and Emanuele Schimmenti took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Potenza tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.08, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market4 Jan 2027
“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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words exchanged at Potenza
Jacopo Murano 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 targets4 Jan 2027
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.
Market4 Jan 2027
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Potenza has been clear about where Manuele Castorani stands, which is more than many ever get.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
A loan move for Kjell Peersman is in the works
Potenza have made the call to KAA Gent. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad28 Dec 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Cristian Riggio
42 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Potenza lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Jacopo Murano 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
A row about effort at Potenza
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yuri Rocchetti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match26 Dec 2026
1‑2 to Casertana, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Tommaso Cucchietti, and the manager let it.
Boardroom28 Dec 2026
Wages eat 114% of everything Potenza earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
“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.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Antonis Siatounis is on it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Dec 2026
49 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Potenza lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Franco Flores was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Franco Flores did the work nobody counts — 6.91
14 combined actions and 6.91. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
Squad21 Dec 2026
A row about effort at Potenza
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yuri Rocchetti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match19 Dec 2026
Potenza hit back inside 2 minutes
Giugliano held the lead for 2 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Potenza answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Gabriele Selleri, and the manager let it.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
A mark of 7.90, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
Jacopo Murano 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Dec 2026
Cristian Riggio damages knee ligaments — 57 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 57 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.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 35. 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.
Match12 Dec 2026
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Potenza scored in the 95th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Luca Mazzeo, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.69
A mark of 7.69 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad14 Dec 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 Potenza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Dec 2026
The medical room confirms 34 days on the sidelines for Gabriele Selleri, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Match12 Dec 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Manuele Castorani. 2‑1 against Cavese, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The terraces14 Dec 2026
Potenza supporters have found a favourite in Luca Mazzeo
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Luca Mazzeo 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 dugout14 Dec 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Dec 2026
Cristian Riggio damages knee ligaments — 64 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 64 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.
Market7 Dec 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Match5 Dec 2026
4 matches without a win for Potenza
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Potenza are no longer polite ones.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words exchanged at Potenza
Jacopo Murano 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Yuri Rocchetti 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 dugout7 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Luca Petrungaro
“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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Marco Rossello and Potenza agree another 3 years.
Match5 Dec 2026
A goal on 92 minutes turned three points into one and a good afternoon into an argument about game management that will run until Saturday.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
7.86, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Potenza had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad30 Nov 2026
72 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Potenza lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Potenza
Luca Petrungaro 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Yuri Rocchetti 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 ratings30 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Claud Adjapong, and the manager let it.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
Wages swallow 109% of the Potenza 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 dugout30 Nov 2026
Franco Flores 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.
Match28 Nov 2026
A 1‑1 draw with Monopoli leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Achille Cipriani after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad23 Nov 2026
Cristian Riggio damages knee ligaments — 80 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 80 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.
Squad23 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 Potenza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match21 Nov 2026
A bad afternoon for Potenza against Picerno
0‑2 to Picerno, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jacopo Murano, and the manager let it.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
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.
The dugout23 Nov 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 0‑2 Achille Cipriani left the room before anybody could ask which.
Player ratings23 Nov 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.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
Franco Flores 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.
Looking ahead23 Nov 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Gianluca D'Auria’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Potenza needing him to play as if none of it matters.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad16 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Cristian Riggio
87 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Potenza lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“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 ratings16 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad16 Nov 2026
A falling-out at Potenza
Jacopo Murano and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Potenza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yuri Rocchetti 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 dugout16 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Franco Flores
“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.
Match14 Nov 2026
0‑1 to Altamura, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout16 Nov 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 dugout16 Nov 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad9 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Cristian Riggio
96 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Potenza lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad9 Nov 2026
2 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.
Match4 Nov 2026
Potenza bow out of the cup
Cagliari go through and Potenza go home, 0‑0 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Potenza
Jacopo Murano 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Yuri Rocchetti 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 terraces9 Nov 2026
Potenza supporters have found a favourite in Luca Mazzeo
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Luca Mazzeo 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.
Match7 Nov 2026
The drought breaks for Potenza
5 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Cosenza were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Market9 Nov 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Gianmarco Medici 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.
Match7 Nov 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Luca Mazzeo. 1‑0 against Cosenza, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad2 Nov 2026
Cristian Riggio damages knee ligaments — 103 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 103 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.
Match31 Oct 2026
No end in sight to Potenza's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Potenza has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad2 Nov 2026
25 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Match31 Oct 2026
Potenza cannot find the net
4 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.
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 Potenza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 Nov 2026
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.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Claud Adjapong, and the manager let it.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
Wages swallow 109% of the Potenza 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.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad26 Oct 2026
Cristian Riggio damages knee ligaments — 111 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 111 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.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
A falling-out at Potenza
Luca Petrungaro and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Potenza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yuri Rocchetti 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.
Match24 Oct 2026
The goals have deserted Potenza
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Potenza can tell you which week it ends in.
The dugout26 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.
Match24 Oct 2026
Benevento left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Too much change too quickly at Potenza
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.
The dugout26 Oct 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 Achille Cipriani left the room before anybody could ask which.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad19 Oct 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Marco Martoccia
37 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Potenza lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match17 Oct 2026
Chastening afternoon for Potenza
A 0‑3 beating by Catania was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Squad19 Oct 2026
A falling-out at Potenza
Jacopo Murano and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Potenza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yuri Rocchetti 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
The manager makes an example of Franco Flores
“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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
At 24 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.
Boardroom19 Oct 2026
Nobody left the Potenza 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 dugout19 Oct 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Achille Cipriani after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
Gabriele Selleri 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Oct 2026
Luca Petrungaro 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
At 20 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.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Potenza can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
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.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Nicolò Bruschi
“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
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Achille Cipriani after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Match10 Oct 2026
Point won or two lost for Potenza?
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Latina? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Where he used to play does most of his talking for him at Potenza. The room defers to it, the kids study it, and the only thing that can puncture it is a bad month.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Oct 2026
Denis Franchi 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Jacopo Murano was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Potenza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yuri Rocchetti 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.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
139% of the income goes out in wages at Potenza
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.
Match3 Oct 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Luca Petrungaro’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Potenza.
The dugout5 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.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Marked 7.90. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Luca Mazzeo named in the team of the month
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Luca Mazzeo is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Achille Cipriani could afford to be generous.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 57. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match23 Sep 2026
Potenza through in the cup
A 1‑0 win over Sorrento, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Squad28 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Potenza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Potenza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yuri Rocchetti 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.
Match26 Sep 2026
0‑1 to Siracusa, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Marked 8.15 — 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.
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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
9 new faces, and Potenza 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 dugout28 Sep 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Achille Cipriani after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Sep 2026
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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
A falling-out at Potenza
Jacopo Murano and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Jacopo Murano
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 dugout21 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 dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Achille Cipriani was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Potenza dressing room was either.
Squad21 Sep 2026
A Potenza teenager takes the young player award
Luca Mazzeo is 20, and for one weekend he was the best of everybody his age in the division. Nobody should build a career on it and everybody quietly does.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Match19 Sep 2026
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Audace Cerignola came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.22, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 29. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Market14 Sep 2026
“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 Potenza, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad14 Sep 2026
A falling-out at Potenza
Franco Flores and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad14 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Potenza
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yuri Rocchetti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The terraces14 Sep 2026
The crowd has taken to Luca Mazzeo
At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Yuri Rocchetti, and the manager let it.
Match12 Sep 2026
Late, late show earns Potenza a point
Minute 86, against Casarano, 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
15 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Potenza close the window on a squad of their own making
12 in and 4 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at Potenza
Luca Petrungaro 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Potenza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yuri Rocchetti 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 targets7 Sep 2026
Potenza asked and Le Havre AC 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. Cornelius Staver is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Potenza would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Everything agreed with Pisa, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Foggia keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad31 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Potenza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Niko Kirwan 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
This league is too small for Franco Flores
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Potenza will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Squad31 Aug 2026
8 new faces, and Potenza 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market24 Aug 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Potenza can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
The deal with Foggia 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.
Squad24 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 Potenza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Yuri Rocchetti 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 targets24 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Braga have kept their man, and Potenza go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad24 Aug 2026
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Potenza know which stage they are at.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
Potenza turn down the training-ground plan
It is the quietest way a club tells you what its ambitions are. The money was asked for, the money was refused, and the people who work there every day now know exactly where they stand.
Market24 Aug 2026
At 35, he has seen every situation this season can produce, twice. The legs will be managed; the head is the purchase.
Looking ahead24 Aug 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Foggia in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Potenza
Jacopo Murano 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Potenza
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yuri Rocchetti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets17 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
49 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
A loan move for Jasper Hartog is in the works
Potenza have made the call to AZ. 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
A loan move for Paul Argney is in the works
Potenza have made the call to Le Havre AC. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Aug 2026
A muscle injury and 15 days out for Jacopo Murano
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Potenza will quote 15 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
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 Potenza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Cristiano Bruni 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. Gianluca Ranieri 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
One of our own: Marco Villa joins the Potenza first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Marco Villa 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. Alfonso Pasquali 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
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Niko Kirwan and Potenza agree another 3 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Jacopo Murano 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
A row about effort at Potenza
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yuri Rocchetti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market3 Aug 2026
36 months and counting on Niko Kirwan
Still no offer on the table, and Niko Kirwan’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan move for Jorthy Mokio is in the works
Potenza have made the call to Ajax. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Squad3 Aug 2026
5 new faces, and Potenza 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.