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.
“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 dugout26 Nov 2029
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Angelo Tagliabue to a room that had heard them before.
Monopoli next, and one man in the Potenza dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
Claud Adjapong 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.
At 21 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jérémy Moray was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Angelo Tagliabue on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
In brief
Player ratingsHalf an hour was enough for Tiago Machado
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.89 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
6 goals in one match, Bilal Erradi on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Potenza and Cosenza.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jérémy Moray was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Bilal Erradi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
1‑4 against Salernitana, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Francesco Gelli 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.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 89th, and Benevento spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
A mark of 7.82 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.
Francesco Gelli 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.
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.
Squad29 Oct 2029
Jérémy Moray 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.
“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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Angelo Tagliabue could afford to be generous.
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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Potenza and Catania, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Successful dribbles: 21. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad22 Oct 2029
Words at Potenza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jérémy Moray 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.
Beaten 6 times, with 4 saves for company. Goalkeepers carry these scorelines on their record whoever actually caused them, which is the quiet injustice of the job.
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 dugout22 Oct 2029
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑6 defeat, delivered by Angelo Tagliabue to a room that had heard them before.
The 86th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Cristian De Angelis decided nobody was going anywhere. Latina had no time left to answer.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.14 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Claud Adjapong 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.
At 21 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Alfonso Andreoli is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Gennaro Guidi 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Cristian De Angelis will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Potenza the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jérémy Moray was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings8 Oct 2029
Bilal Erradi was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.01. 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.
A point taken on 85 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
16 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jérémy Moray was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout1 Oct 2029
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 1‑2 Angelo Tagliabue left the room before anybody could ask which.
At 21 he is being measured against the rest of the division's kids and coming out in front. The senior version of this award is where the club would like this to lead.
The words a physio says slowly. 23 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.
Potenza interviewed the field and appointed the corridor: Angelo Tagliabue keeps the job he had been doing in all but title. Sometimes the safest pair of hands is the one already holding the wheel.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
A mark of 7.76 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
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.
Match19 Sep 2029
Nobody could stop scoring
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Potenza and Monza in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
30 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.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Frosinone have kept their man, and Potenza go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Casarano tried to reorganise, Potenza did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
Marked 8.31 — 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.
37 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Cristian De Angelis will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Potenza the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Francesco Gelli 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.
Potenza asked and Cesena said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad10 Sep 2029
Jérémy Moray 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.
“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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Potenza has been clear about where Tiago Machado stands, which is more than many ever get.
The words a physio says slowly. 44 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.
Successful dribbles: 25. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Boardroom3 Sep 2029
Deadline passes with 10 signed and 11 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.
The instruction came from the boardroom and the dugout did not agree with it. Somebody will go, the fee will be called good business, and the manager will spend the season rebuilding around the space.
Francesco Gelli 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.
14 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.
Potenza asked and Lecco said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
52 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Pescara waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Potenza is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I am not thinking past Saturday, and I would advise nobody else to.” The caretaker’s first rule is to pretend the job is small; Angelo Tagliabue recited it perfectly.
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.
Boardroom27 Aug 2029
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Potenza
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Potenza asked and Torres 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Adriano Baraldi has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Gregorio Brambilla is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
59 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 name of Cristian De Angelis has come up in conversations Potenza were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Giuseppe Gabriele is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jérémy Moray was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The words a physio says slowly. 67 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 clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Frosinone keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Massimo Cipriani is 16, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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.
At 26 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
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.
75 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Potenza have done the hard part with Salernitana, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Francesco Gelli 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 phone has started ringing about Thiago Verardi again, and this time the name on the line is Union Brescia. Potenza are listening politely and promising nothing.
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 Thiago Verardi is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Nicolas Trabucchi signs something — a contract at Potenza or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
82 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.
“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.
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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.
“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.
The words a physio says slowly. 90 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 offer from Union Brescia for Thiago Verardi 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.
At 32 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.
$97.0K was the most the club would pay and Sampdoria were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Potenza asked and Livorno said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
“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.
“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.
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.
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.
Francesco Gelli 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 offer went to Sampdoria 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.
Potenza asked and Crotone said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jérémy Moray was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
104 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.
“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.
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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Sampdoria is saying, and nobody at Potenza is enjoying the guessing.
A season average of 7.03 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Potenza know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Frosinone have kept their man, and Potenza go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Bilal Erradi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
111 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.
“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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Cristian De Angelis is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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.
7 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
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 Tiago Machado is on it.
In brief
The terracesSupporters make their feelings known about Nicolas Trabucchi
19 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.
Claud Adjapong 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.
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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Simon Ergül has just signed for Potenza, and for once the answer mattered.
Potenza asked and Sampdoria said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Torres will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Lenny O'Sullivan has pre-agreed a move to Potenza, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 28 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 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.
Francesco Gelli 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.
Potenza asked and Cesena said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad18 Jun 2029
Words at Potenza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicolas Trabucchi 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.
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.
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.
21 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 last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Potenza have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Potenza and Trento have settled on $390.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
“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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Sampdoria is saying, and nobody at Potenza is enjoying the guessing.
A season average of 7.03 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Potenza know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Francesco Gelli 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Lecco have kept their man, and Potenza go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
In brief
SquadWords at Potenza training over how hard people work
43 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.
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 easiest signature of my career.” Cristian Riggio and Potenza agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad4 Jun 2029
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.
The phone has started ringing about Tiago Machado again, and this time the name on the line is Grimsby Town. Potenza are listening politely and promising nothing.
“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.
Francesco Gelli 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 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Bilal Erradi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
A new face in his position, and Niko Kirwan suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. Potenza have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.
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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Potenza told Nicolas Trabucchi something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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.
What was a back-page link has become a chant, and the chant is not friendly. Potenza would rather it were settled quietly, and it has stopped being quiet.
Sassuolo watched Cristian De Angelis again at the weekend, and this time they did not bother hiding it. Clubs only stop hiding when they want the price to start moving.
In brief
BoardroomThe Potenza production line keeps running
Two goals and a mark of 8.25 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
A season average of 7.03 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Potenza know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Potenza and Trapani in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Bilal Erradi. 4‑2 against Trapani, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings14 May 2029
Claud Adjapong was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.49. 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.
Marked 8.17 — 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.
Squad14 May 2029
Words at Potenza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicolas Trabucchi 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.
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.
A mark of 7.82 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
“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.
He will be fined, he will apologise, and he will play on Saturday. The order of those three tells you everything about what a football club actually values.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Minute 87, against Casertana, 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.
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.
“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.
“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.
Francesco Gelli 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.
Three points for Potenza, 1‑0 the final word against Giugliano in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings30 Apr 2029
Francesco Gelli 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.
The dugout30 Apr 2029
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.” Matteo Sartori kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad23 Apr 2029
Words at Potenza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicolas Trabucchi 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.
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.
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 Bilal Erradi is on it.
Successful dribbles: 27. 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.
He is 20, he is averaging 7.03, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
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.
Squad16 Apr 2029
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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Matteo Sartori after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Sorrento defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Gianluca D'Auria provided it, and the 8.90 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.19 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“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.
Francesco Gelli 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Potenza and Monopoli, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad9 Apr 2029
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.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.25, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout9 Apr 2029
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 3‑4 Matteo Sartori left the room before anybody could ask which.
In brief
The dugoutBilal Erradi knocks on the manager's door
“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.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.85 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“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.
Francesco Gelli 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.
“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.
Squad2 Apr 2029
Words at Potenza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicolas Trabucchi 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.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Potenza will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
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.
A brace, and Bilal Erradi takes the afternoon — 8.22
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Bilal Erradi provided it, and the 8.22 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Successful dribbles: 22. 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.
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.
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.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
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.
A season average of 7.06 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Potenza know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
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.
Successful dribbles: 21. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad19 Mar 2029
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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Matteo Sartori after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Mykola Havrysh 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.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Nicolas Trabucchi will call it something else in private.
“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.
Francesco Gelli 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nicolas Trabucchi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout12 Mar 2029
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 Matteo Sartori left the room before anybody could ask which.
“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.
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.
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.
“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.
Francesco Gelli 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.
19 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad5 Mar 2029
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.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 95. Benevento had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Francesco Gelli provided it, and the 8.20 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
2‑3 to Catania, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad26 Feb 2029
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.
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 dugout26 Feb 2029
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 2‑3 Matteo Sartori left the room before anybody could ask which.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Potenza scored in the 90th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
“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.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
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.
Match17 Feb 2029
Another one collected away from home
4 on the bounce on the road for Potenza. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Potenza asked and Torres said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
At 23 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Alessandro Torri. 1‑0 against Latina, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Francesco Gelli 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 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.
Squad12 Feb 2029
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.
3 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
Potenza ran out of time with Foggia. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.08 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“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.
Boardroom5 Feb 2029
Deadline passes with 2 signed and 2 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.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Sampdoria keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
The deal with Millonarios 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luca Petrungaro was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 20. 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.
Potenza asked and Lecco said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Marked 6.72 on 9 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 dugout29 Jan 2029
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Matteo Sartori to a room that had heard them before.
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.
“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.
A season average of 7.10 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Potenza know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
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.
Squad22 Jan 2029
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Torres have kept their man, and Potenza go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Cristian De Angelis 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.
Potenza had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Renate, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Potenza have done the hard part with Casertana, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Francesco Gelli 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luca Petrungaro was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Cristian De Angelis did not need any: 7.67, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“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.
Potenza had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Sampdoria, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Francesco Gelli 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Francesco Nunziata has just signed for Potenza, and for once the answer mattered.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sambenedettese have kept their man, and Potenza go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad8 Jan 2029
Words at Potenza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luca Petrungaro 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 hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Cristian De Angelis did not need any: 7.69, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“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 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Lucas Felippe, and the manager let it.
The dugout1 Jan 2029
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.” Matteo Sartori kept it short after the 3‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
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 Bilal Erradi is on it.
“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.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
He is 20, he is averaging 7.00, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
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 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Cristian De Angelis. 2‑0 against Casertana, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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 ratings25 Dec 2028
Luca Petrungaro was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.08. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Luca Mazzeo at his very best
Two goals and a mark of 8.35 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Cristian De Angelis did not need any: 8.42, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Potenza and Giugliano in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-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.
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.
“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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.16 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.94 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Bilal Erradi. 2‑0 against Cavese, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Sorrento scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Nicolas Trabucchi is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Aidan Golding 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.
Successful dribbles: 23. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nicolas Trabucchi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Matteo Sartori after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nicolas Trabucchi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
In brief
The dugoutBilal Erradi has become a man the manager trusts
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.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Cristian De Angelis did not need any: 8.47, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Francesco Gelli 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 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.
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.
22 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.
“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.
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.
Francesco Gelli 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Francesco Gelli. 1‑0 against Altamura, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
30 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.
11 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nicolas Trabucchi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The young player of the month award goes to a 20-year-old at Potenza who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
“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.
“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.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
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.
Successful dribbles: 22. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad30 Oct 2028
Words at Potenza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicolas Trabucchi 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Cristian De Angelis. 1‑0 against Salernitana, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“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.
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.
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
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 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Matteo Sartori could afford to be generous.
In brief
The dugoutBilal Erradi has become a man the manager trusts
SquadA Potenza teenager takes the young player award
“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 hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Cristian De Angelis did not need any: 8.39, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Francesco Gelli 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 Oct 2028
Words at Potenza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicolas Trabucchi 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Cristian De Angelis. 2‑0 against Catania, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.46 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
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.
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.
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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Antonino De Marco is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Siracusa kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Potenza will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
A mark of 7.83 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Francesco Gelli 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.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Words at Potenza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicolas Trabucchi 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.
8 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Francesco Gelli 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 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.
At 19 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.
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.
Potenza ran out of time with Juve Stabia. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Mykola Havrysh 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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Matteo Ghisolfi has his answer from Potenza; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
“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.
“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.
Boardroom4 Sep 2028
Potenza close the window on a squad of their own making
17 in and 13 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.
Boardroom4 Sep 2028
An order from above at Potenza: somebody has to go
Balance sheets do not care about form or about who the manager was planning to build around. The board have decided a sale is required, and the only question left is which name ends up carrying it.
Everything agreed with Juve Stabia, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Empoli is saying, and nobody at Potenza is enjoying the guessing.
At 28 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nicolas Trabucchi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.80 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
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.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Ravenna keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Francesco Gelli 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.
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Matteo Ghisolfi had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Add another name to the list: Ilves have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Antonino De Marco. The answer from Potenza has not changed — yet.
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Potenza have done the hard part with Alcione Milano, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Francesco Gelli was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
In brief
Boardroom4 academy players handed senior numbers at Potenza
SquadCristian Riggio has improved at 32, which nobody expected
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Cavese waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Potenza is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Potenza and Trapani have settled on $71.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Antonino De Marco is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
The offer from Hapoel Acre for Alessandro Torri 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.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sambenedettese have kept their man, and Potenza go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nicolas Trabucchi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“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.
Potenza and Sampdoria have settled on $86.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
The offer from Campobasso for Rodrigo Meccia 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.
At 28 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nicolas Trabucchi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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.
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.
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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Antonino Caggiano is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Cristian De Angelis and Potenza agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Francesco Gelli 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.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Claud Adjapong has improved at 30, 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dolomiti Bellunesi have kept their man, and Potenza go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
In brief
BoardroomWages eat 104% of everything Potenza earn
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Altamura waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Potenza is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Napoli is saying, and nobody at Potenza is enjoying the guessing.
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.
Potenza asked and Empoli said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Words at Potenza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicolas Trabucchi 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.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Esteghlal Ahvaz had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Rodrigo Meccia will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Potenza the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
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.
Potenza asked and Sambenedettese 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 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.
Potenza have made the call to Alcione Milano. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
“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.
Add another name to the list: Esteghlal Ahvaz have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Antonino De Marco. The answer from Potenza has not changed — yet.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Nicolas Trabucchi is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Potenza have done the hard part with Empoli, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
$150.0K was the most the club would pay and Sambenedettese were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Parma have kept their man, and Potenza go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Words at Potenza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicolas Trabucchi 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Gennaro Tarantino is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Potenza have lost him in all but the paperwork.
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.
Francesco Gelli 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.
Potenza have gone to Sambenedettese 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Emanuele Spalletta is living that version at Potenza, and it tends to show in the first month.
$7.0K was the most the club would pay and Pro Patria were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
The offer from Saburtalo for Antonino De Marco was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The deal with Crotone 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Napoli is saying, and nobody at Potenza is enjoying the guessing.
Francesco Gelli 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 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.
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 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.
The offer went to Modena 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.
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.
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.
Potenza asked and Bari said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Cornelius Staver and Potenza agree another 3 years.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Words at Potenza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jérémy Moray 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.
“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 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.
Bologna have accepted the money. What Potenza do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
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.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Raul Alessandro Bura has agreed terms with Virtus Entella for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Potenza asked and Modena said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nicolas Trabucchi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Temperley have kept their man, and Potenza go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Words at Potenza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicolas Trabucchi 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.
Nicolò Bruschi 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.
“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.
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.
“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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
“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.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Potenza will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
“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.
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.
Francesco Gelli and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad15 May 2028
Niko Kirwan 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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Matteo Sartori after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
“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 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.
Francesco Gelli 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 May 2028
Words at Potenza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Niko Kirwan 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 young player of the month award goes to a 19-year-old at Potenza who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
Successful dribbles: 17. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“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.
Francesco Gelli 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.
31 appearances and 8 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
It needed Cristian De Angelis to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Giugliano, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Marco Balzano will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Potenza the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
Successful dribbles: 22. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Words at Potenza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Niko Kirwan 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.
“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 dugout24 Apr 2028
Somebody else is better right now than Jérémy Moray
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.
Successful dribbles: 26. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Niko Kirwan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is 19 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
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.
In brief
The dugoutThe view from the dugout
The dugoutJérémy Moray dropped after a run of poor form
The dugoutSimone Parise knocks on the manager’s door
The words a physio says slowly. 15 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.
“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 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.
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.
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.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 85. Monopoli had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
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 dugout10 Apr 2028
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.” Matteo Sartori chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
22 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.
“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.
Francesco Gelli 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 Apr 2028
Niko Kirwan 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.
At 19 he was better than everybody his age in the division for four weeks running, which is harder than one good afternoon. Potenza will try not to make too much of it.
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout3 Apr 2028
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.” Matteo Sartori chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
“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.
A mark of 7.73 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
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.
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.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Niko Kirwan 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.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 93. Altamura had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
“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.
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.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Cristian De Angelis did not need any: 7.70, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Successful dribbles: 19. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“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.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Giuseppe Loiacono.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Andrea Franzolini will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Potenza the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Francesco Gelli 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Niko Kirwan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 19 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.
“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.
Francesco Gelli 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 Mar 2028
Niko Kirwan 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.
A point taken on 88 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
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.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
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.
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.
“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.
“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.
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Niko Kirwan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A mark of 7.61, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
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.” Matteo Sartori chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
In brief
Looking aheadPotenza take on the side everybody is chasing
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Luca Mazzeo’s exile
A mark of 7.63 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Andrea Franzolini will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Potenza the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Pergolettese moved on, Rodrigo Meccia reports back to Potenza, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Francesco Gelli 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.
Beaten 2‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Words at Potenza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Niko Kirwan 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.
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.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Potenza close the window on a squad of their own making
2 in and 2 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.
Francesco Gelli 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.
“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.
“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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Marco Balzano will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Potenza the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
Claud Adjapong 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Niko Kirwan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Claud Adjapong was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Niko Kirwan 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.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Potenza asked and Arezzo said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Potenza will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
“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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Giugliano waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Potenza is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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.
The fee is $2.6M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Frosinone drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Potenza offered $2.3M; Cagliari said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
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.
Francesco Gelli was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $2.6M. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Cesena have kept their man, and Potenza go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Potenza and Frosinone have settled on $2.6M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
A mark of 7.77 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Grimsby Town keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Words at Potenza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Niko Kirwan 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.
Potenza asked and Chelsea said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
He is 19 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
“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.
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.
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.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Words at Potenza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Niko Kirwan 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.
Potenza asked and Catania said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Vincenzo Pellegrini and Potenza agree another 3 years.