134 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ravenna lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad29 Oct 2029
Words at Ravenna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leonardo Mendicino 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ravenna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at Ravenna will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The dugout29 Oct 2029
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Interim Coach was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Ravenna dressing room was either.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Romeo Giovannini trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Sampdoria? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Ravenna, another week without a signature from Esteban Rueda.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Ravenna have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
He is 22 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.
Giuliano Barbagallo 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Interim Coach could afford to be generous.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Giuliano Barbagallo’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Ravenna needing him to play as if none of it matters.
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.
In brief
The dugoutBenjamín Godoy asks for a word with the manager
Godswill Ekpolo 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Ravenna are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Forli next, and one man in the Ravenna dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Still no offer on the table, and Esteban Rueda’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Ravenna they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Leonardo Mendicino was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Ravenna can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout8 Oct 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.” Interim Coach kept it short after the 3‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Alessandro Pezzi has, at Ravenna, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ravenna 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 Leonardo Mendicino was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Ravenna 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.
Ravenna interviewed the field and appointed the corridor: Interim Coach keeps the job he had been doing in all but title. Sometimes the safest pair of hands is the one already holding the wheel.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Ravenna scored in the 119th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
7.77, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Riccardo Paonessa 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.
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.
In brief
SquadDerly Da Silva falls out with a teammate over standards
Godswill Ekpolo 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 Derly Da Silva was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Ravenna will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Successful dribbles: 15. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Interim Coach after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Ravenna have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Ravenna is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Lazio is saying, and nobody at Ravenna is enjoying the guessing.
$240.0K was the most the club would pay and Benevento 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ravenna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Ravenna know which stage they are at.
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.
Dinamo Zagreb arrived with $4.5M and left with the best player in the building. The board will call it business; the queue at the ticket office will use other words.
“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 Ravenna, and it is not being withdrawn.
He arrived for a fee and leaves for a fraction of it. $114.9K of what Ravenna paid for Lorenzo Abati is money the club will not see again, and the boardroom will be asked about it for two seasons.
Simone Rabbi has gone, the accounts have $4.5M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
Ravenna and Lazio have settled on $81.0K. 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.
Boardroom3 Sep 2029
Ravenna close the window on a squad of their own making
14 in and 12 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.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Ryan Teleku has agreed terms with Vicenza for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
$240.0K on the table at Benevento. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
In brief
Transfer targetsNo deal for Matteo Piazza at that price
The coaching staff has emptied out entirely and there was nobody internal to promote, so the club has appointed a name almost none of its supporters will recognise. Clubs recover from this; none of them enjoy explaining it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Ravenna they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“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; Interim Coach recited it perfectly.
“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 Ravenna, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Ravenna will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Boardroom27 Aug 2029
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Ravenna
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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Campobasso waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Ravenna is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Cremonese keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, and a scan that said otherwise. He goes back to Lecce; Ravenna go back to the market; and both will insist there is no story here.
The offer went to Cremonese 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ravenna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ravenna asked and Picerno said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad20 Aug 2029
Words at Ravenna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Benedek Murka 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 name of Lorenzo Abati has come up in conversations Ravenna were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad13 Aug 2029
Words at Ravenna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Derly Da Silva 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Ravenna, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Ravenna know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
What was a back-page link has become a chant, and the chant is not friendly. Ravenna would rather it were settled quietly, and it has stopped being quiet.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Ravenna have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Ravenna and Cremonese have settled on $770.0K. 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Lorenzo Abati will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ravenna the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Simone Rabbi 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.
$280.0K was the most the club would pay and Catanzaro 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.
“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; Ravenna are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Ravenna is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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 offer went to Catanzaro 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.
Ravenna asked and Monza said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Godswill Ekpolo 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.
Squad30 Jul 2029
Words at Ravenna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Benedek Murka 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.
Union Brescia have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
In brief
The dugoutAlan Luque asks for a word with the manager
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Esteban Rueda
The terracesSupporters make their feelings known about Simone Rabbi
Ravenna and Sampdoria have settled on $140.0K. 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Cremonese is saying, and nobody at Ravenna is enjoying the guessing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ravenna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ravenna asked and Cremonese 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 Derly Da Silva 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.
In brief
The dugoutAlan Luque asks for a word with the manager
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Sampdoria waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Ravenna is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Ravenna had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Carrarese, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
$250.0K on the table at Monza. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Frosinone have kept their man, and Ravenna go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The name of Lorenzo Abati has come up in conversations Ravenna were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Words at Ravenna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Derly Da Silva 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ravenna 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 Paolo Rrapaj is on it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Luca Falbo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ravenna the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Add another name to the list: Sampdoria have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Riccardo Paonessa. The answer from Ravenna has not changed — yet.
$1.3M on the table at Carrarese. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
$530.0K was the most the club would pay and Union Brescia 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ravenna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ravenna asked and Lazio said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Squad9 Jul 2029
Benedek Murka 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.
$1.9M is a serious amount of money and it does not play centre-forward. Everybody in the dressing room knows who used to be looked at when it went wrong.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ravenna can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Ravenna they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
He is going to Modena, the club has $1.9M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
The offer from Novara for Lorenzo Abati 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.
$530.0K on the table at Union Brescia. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Gabriel Leiva has, at Ravenna, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Ravenna offered $74.0K; Lazio 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.
The offer from Spezia for Riccardo Paonessa 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.
Ravenna offered $1.3M; Palermo 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.
Riccardo Paonessa 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 Derly Da Silva 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 Luca Falbo 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.
Padova have accepted the money. What Ravenna do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The offer from Pisa for Ramiro Rúmbolo 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.
Simone Rabbi 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.
Ravenna have gone to Lazio 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.
$110.0K was the most the club would pay and Carrarese 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.
Ravenna asked and Estrela da Amadora said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Ravenna has been clear about where Alan Luque stands, which is more than many ever get.
The name of Lorenzo Abati has come up in conversations Ravenna were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Ravenna people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Ravenna is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ravenna can pretend not to have heard.
The deal with Pacos de Ferreira 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 AS Roma is saying, and nobody at Ravenna is enjoying the guessing.
The offer went to Carrarese 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Lazio have kept their man, and Ravenna go back to a list with one name crossed off 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 Ravenna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Ravenna they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Ravenna can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Hellas Verona have kept their man, and Ravenna 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 Derly Da Silva was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ravenna have made the call to Pacos de Ferreira. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Benjamín Godoy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Ravenna 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Ravenna know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Ravenna is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Riccardo Paonessa 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.
18 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad21 May 2029
Words at Ravenna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Benjamín Godoy 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 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 Paolo Rrapaj is on it.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Ravenna they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
The 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.
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 Luca Sermenghi is on it.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Ravenna have no good answer.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Ravenna. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alan Luque will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ravenna 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 Ravenna 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 Benjamín Godoy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Riccardo Paonessa is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Ravenna, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Luca Falbo has moved up it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Bautista Godoy signs something — a contract at Ravenna or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Simone Rabbi 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.
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 Ravenna 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Ravenna know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Lorenzo Abati will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ravenna the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Simone D'Aversa 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.
Squad23 Apr 2029
Words at Ravenna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Derly Da Silva 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.
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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Ravenna. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Position 10 on 39 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
“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 Ravenna, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Ravenna is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Ravenna have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alan Luque will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ravenna the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Ravenna can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ravenna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Apr 2029
Words at Ravenna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Benjamín Godoy 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 watch every Ravenna game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Gubbio runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Derly Da Silva was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Ravenna, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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 Ramiro Rúmbolo is on it.
The 89th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Simone Rabbi decided nobody was going anywhere. Livorno had no time left to answer.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Ravenna 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 Ravenna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 22 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.
It finished 1‑0, and it was Simone Rabbi’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Ravenna.
Squad26 Mar 2029
Words at Ravenna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Benjamín Godoy 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 dugout26 Mar 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.” Francesco Valentini kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
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.
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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.18 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Ravenna is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Benjamín Godoy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Ravenna told Alan Luque something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ravenna can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Ravenna they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Alan Luque has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get 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 Ravenna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 Francesco Valentini left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Two goals and a mark of 8.21 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Benjamín Godoy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ramiro Rúmbolo, and the manager let it.
The dugout5 Mar 2029
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.” Francesco Valentini chose the glass-half-full version of 2‑2; the supporters left with the other one.
Every touch weighed, every quote parsed, every mistake replayed. Some players grow into that; some are quietly finished by it; nobody knows which until afterwards.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ravenna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Bautista Godoy 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.
Marked 8.46 — 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Derly Da Silva was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑0, Francesco Valentini could afford to be generous.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Ravenna told Pierluca Luciani something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Giuliano Barbagallo 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.
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 dugout19 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 0‑2 Francesco Valentini left the room before anybody could ask which.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Derly Da Silva was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
0‑5 to Reggiana, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
“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 Ravenna, and it is not being withdrawn.
Ravenna 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Ravenna is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Virtus Entella have kept their man, and Ravenna go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Sampdoria have accepted the money. What Ravenna do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Boardroom5 Feb 2029
Deadline passes with 4 signed and 4 gone
That is the business done at Ravenna 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Giuliano Barbagallo has, at Ravenna, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Simone Rabbi 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.
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.
“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 Ravenna, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Catanzaro have kept their man, and Ravenna go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
0‑1 to Torres, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
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 Francesco Valentini to a room that had heard them before.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Benjamín Godoy, and the manager let it.
The dugout29 Jan 2029
The manager has not finished forgetting Ignacio Giacinti's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Simone D'Aversa 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.
In brief
SquadWords at Ravenna training over how hard people work
The words a physio says slowly. 18 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ravenna 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 Ravenna people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Squad22 Jan 2029
Cheikh Niasse 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.
Riccardo Paonessa 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.
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.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 25 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 deal that would have taken Riccardo Paonessa to Picerno has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Ravenna with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Cheikh Niasse 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 was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Ravenna has been clear about where Bautista Godoy stands, which is more than many ever get.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ravenna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Ravenna, another week without a signature from Godswill Ekpolo.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Francesco Valentini after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
In brief
The dugoutRaúl Navarro dropped after a run of poor form
32 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Ravenna 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 Ravenna can pretend not to have heard.
1 for Cheikh Niasse, marked 7.99, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Ravenna have done the hard part with Catanzaro, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Simone Rabbi 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.
39 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ravenna lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a 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 Ravenna, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ravenna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A 2‑1 win over Guidonia Montecelio, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Simone Rabbi has his answer from Ravenna; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Bautista Godoy 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.
46 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ravenna lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
Half the programme played, position 11, 18 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Squad25 Dec 2028
Words at Ravenna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tommaso Valenta 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ravenna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Something was said to Cristian Spini and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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.
Successful dribbles: 12. 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.
9 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
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 Ramiro Rúmbolo is on it.
Riccardo Paonessa and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout11 Dec 2028
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 Francesco Valentini to a room that had heard them before.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Ravenna know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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.
Marked 8.15 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Riccardo Paonessa 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 demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Riccardo Paonessa is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Alan Luque is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑1, Francesco Valentini could afford to be generous.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Ravenna told Pierluca Luciani something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Ravenna have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Riccardo Paonessa 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.
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.
Successful dribbles: 14. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout27 Nov 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Francesco Valentini was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Ravenna dressing room was either.
Squad27 Nov 2028
Words at Ravenna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tommaso Valenta 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 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ravenna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Ravenna. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“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 Ravenna will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
In brief
MarketThe clock does Mawouna Amevor’s negotiating for him
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Ravenna will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Simone Rabbi 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.
Everybody at Ravenna saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 36 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
The dugout13 Nov 2028
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 Francesco Valentini left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Raúl Navarro trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Ravenna know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 27 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Alan Luque scored, was marked 7.95, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
6 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Bautista Godoy has come out of that comparison in the side, and Ravenna have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Francesco Valentini could afford to be generous.
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Words at Ravenna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tommaso Valenta 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 34 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Raúl Navarro 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Bautista Godoy 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.
A 1‑0 win over Union Brescia, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
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.
7.71, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Ravenna had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout30 Oct 2028
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.” Francesco Valentini kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Ravenna told Riccardo Paonessa something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Ravenna will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ravenna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Pierluca Luciani has his answer from Ravenna; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
“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.
Squad23 Oct 2028
Words at Ravenna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tommaso Valenta 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.
In brief
Looking aheadRavenna take on the side everybody is chasing
Pierluca Luciani 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.
Squad16 Oct 2028
Words at Ravenna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tommaso Valenta 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.
Nobody at Ravenna 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Ravenna know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Ravenna. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Ravenna has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
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.
Riccardo Paonessa 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.
Forli held the lead for 1 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Ravenna answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
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 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.
7 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Riccardo Paonessa 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 was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Ravenna has been clear about where Alan Luque stands, which is more than many ever get.
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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Ravenna told Alan Luque something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Simone Rabbi 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.
Successful dribbles: 15. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Ravenna have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout18 Sep 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Francesco Valentini was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Ravenna dressing room was either.
Nobody at Ravenna 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Ravenna are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
20 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Ravenna lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Ravenna have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Ernesto Bakiu has just signed for Ravenna, and for once the answer mattered.
Novara will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Halil Eray Aktaş has pre-agreed a move to Ravenna, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Ravenna asked and Catanzaro said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Godswill Ekpolo 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.
8 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Tommaso Valenta is 20, and Ravenna have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
27 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ravenna lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a 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 Ravenna, and it is not being withdrawn.
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Boardroom4 Sep 2028
Ravenna close the window on a squad of their own making
16 in and 16 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.
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.
Riccardo Paonessa 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.
34 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ravenna lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a 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 Ravenna, and it is not being withdrawn.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Ravenna asked and Pescara said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Successful dribbles: 15. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“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.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Alan Luque
41 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ravenna lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Everything agreed with another club, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Virtus Entella pay $1.0M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Ravenna offered $320.0K; Padova 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.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Juve Stabia have kept their man, and Ravenna go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Ignazio Bernardi 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. Teodoro Trevisan is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Cesare Lombardi is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
48 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ravenna lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Ravenna and Union Brescia have settled on $53.0K. 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.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 38 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Riccardo Paonessa 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Matteo Motti trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Ravenna know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
The words a physio says slowly. 55 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.
Torres have accepted the money. What Ravenna do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Abdel Rachid Zagré reports back to Ravenna with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
The offer went to Alcione Milano 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ravenna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad7 Aug 2028
5 new faces, and Ravenna are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Ravenna, another week without a signature from Alan Luque.
In brief
The dugoutMatteo Motti asks for a word with the manager
62 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Ravenna lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Ascoli waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Ravenna is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
$320.0K on the table at Padova. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Ravenna offered $160.0K; Alcione Milano 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Pescara have kept their man, and Ravenna go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The phone has started ringing about Mauro Plastino again, and this time the name on the line is Gubbio. Ravenna are listening politely and promising nothing.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bautista Godoy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
69 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Ravenna lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Abdel Rachid Zagré had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
“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 Ravenna, and it is not being withdrawn.
$160.0K on the table at Alcione Milano. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Ravenna offered $330.0K; Padova 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 Ravenna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Words at Ravenna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bautista Godoy 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 words a physio says slowly. 76 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 went to Padova 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.
Ravenna asked and Venezia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Riccardo Paonessa 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.
Ravenna have made the call to Hellas Verona. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
“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.
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 Matteo Solini is on it.
The words a physio says slowly. 83 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mauro Plastino will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ravenna the goodbyes have quietly begun.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Mauro Plastino has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Palermo have kept their man, and Ravenna go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Andrea Sergio Mazza 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.
A loan enquiry to Hellas Verona: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Squad10 Jul 2028
6 new faces, and Ravenna are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Lorenzo Lonardi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
90 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Ravenna 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 Ravenna, and it is not being withdrawn.
Ravenna and AS Roma have settled on $530.0K. 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 now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Juve Stabia have kept their man, and Ravenna go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The phone has started ringing about Mauro Plastino again, and this time the name on the line is Picerno. Ravenna are listening politely and promising nothing.
4 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.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Leonel Ramírez 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 97 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.
“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 Ravenna, and it is not being withdrawn.
Ravenna and Lazio have settled on $330.0K. 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.
$62.0K was the most the club would pay and Altamura 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. Latina have kept their man, and Ravenna go back to a list with one name crossed off 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 Ravenna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ravenna have made the call to Hellas Verona. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Matteo Motti trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
104 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ravenna lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
$2.1M was the most the club would pay and Juve Stabia 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Ravenna have done the hard part with Fiorentina, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Ravenna asked and Avellino 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 Davide Riccardi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugoutMatteo Motti knocks on the manager’s door
98Edition
The Ravenna Post
12 Jun 2028
From our football correspondentUneasy
Squad12 Jun 2028
Raúl Navarro damages knee ligaments — 111 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 111 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
$2.1M on the table at Juve Stabia. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
“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 Ravenna, and it is not being withdrawn.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $40.0K — a club that wants Jake Waters enough to be asked twice.
$62.0K on the table at Altamura. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Ravenna offered $37.0K; Campobasso 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.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Matteo Solini has his answer from Ravenna; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
118 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ravenna lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a 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 Ravenna, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer went to Juventus 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.
$30.0K on the table at Campobasso. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Maximilian Larionesi and Ravenna agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
In brief
SquadLeonel Ramírez falls out with a teammate over standards
125 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ravenna lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Ravenna can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad29 May 2028
Words at Ravenna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leonel Ramírez 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ravenna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at Ravenna 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.
132 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Ravenna lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad22 May 2028
Jordan Longhi 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 36, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Riccardo Paonessa 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Lorenzo Lonardi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Ramiro Rúmbolo is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Simone Rabbi signs something — a contract at Ravenna or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Raúl Navarro damages knee ligaments — 140 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 140 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jordan Longhi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Ravenna, and both men came out saying it was fine.
147 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ravenna 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.” Ravenna have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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; Ravenna are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
It is sentimental, it is completely genuine, and it is the beginning of a departure nobody has announced. The club can be gracious about it or it can pretend not to have heard.
The dugoutAlan Luque asks for a word with the manager
92Edition
The Ravenna Post
1 May 2028
From our football correspondentUneasy
Squad1 May 2028
Raúl Navarro damages knee ligaments — 154 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 154 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ravenna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 May 2028
Jordan Longhi 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.
20 appearances and 6 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Matteo Motti 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.
Words at Ravenna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jordan Longhi 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.
Nobody at Ravenna 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Simone Rabbi signs something — a contract at Ravenna or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Ravenna that is a harder question to answer.
3 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Ravenna could ask drops and the wages Matteo Solini can ask rise.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 39 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ravenna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Nobody at Ravenna 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.
Nobody at Ravenna is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
7 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Jordan Longhi 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.
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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Ravenna pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
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 brace, and Jordan Longhi takes the afternoon — 8.74
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Jordan Longhi provided it, and the 8.74 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Three points for Ravenna, 3‑2 the final word against Forli in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Jordan Longhi 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 particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Jordan Longhi has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Matteo Solini is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
The dugout3 Apr 2028
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.” Francesco Valentini kept it short after the 3‑2 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Ravenna, another week without a signature from Alan Luque.
In brief
The dugoutRaúl Navarro dropped after a run of poor form
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ravenna 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.
Nobody at Ravenna 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.
Forli next, and one man in the Ravenna dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Simone Rabbi signs something — a contract at Ravenna or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Ravenna will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
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.
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Words at Ravenna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stefano Okaka 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.
“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 dugout20 Mar 2028
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 Francesco Valentini to a room that had heard them before.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Ravenna will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Words at Ravenna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stefano Okaka 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.
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Nobody at Ravenna 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Ravenna will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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.
Something was said to Raúl Navarro and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Ravenna, another week without a signature from Matteo Solini.
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 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.
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 bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Ravenna will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 5.37 for the rest of it.
7 goals in one match, Giovanni Zaro on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Ravenna and Pianese.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Stefano Okaka 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 Ravenna can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Ravenna will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Successful dribbles: 21. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Words at Ravenna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stefano Okaka 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.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Matteo Solini will call it something else in private.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Nobody at Ravenna 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Ravenna will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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.
1 for Luca Falbo, marked 7.98, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Francesco Valentini after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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 Corrie Ndaba is on it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Ravenna will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings7 Feb 2028
A brace, and Simone Rabbi takes the afternoon — 8.24
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Simone Rabbi provided it, and the 8.24 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Deadline passes with 3 signed and 4 gone
That is the business done at Ravenna 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.
Ravenna offered $120.0K; Virtus Entella 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Stefano Okaka was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Ravenna will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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 Ravenna, and it is not being withdrawn.
Two goals and a mark of 8.21 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Ravenna have gone to Virtus Entella 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ravenna 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. FC Copenhagen have kept their man, and Ravenna go back to a list with one name crossed off 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 Ravenna, and it is not being withdrawn.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 73 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Giacomo Poluzzi 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.
Ravenna asked and Cremonese said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Successful dribbles: 16. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
A mark of 7.49, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout24 Jan 2028
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.” Francesco Valentini kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
In brief
The dugoutMatteo Solini has become a man the manager trusts
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Ravenna will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Ravenna and Catanzaro have settled on $420.0K. 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.
Matteo Motti 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.
0‑1 to Sambenedettese, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Stefano Okaka falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The dugout17 Jan 2028
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 Francesco Valentini to a room that had heard them before.
Nobody at Ravenna 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 88 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Jordan Longhi 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Jordan Longhi 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.
Pineto made Ravenna work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Words at Ravenna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stefano Okaka 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 was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Ravenna has been clear about where Luca Falbo stands, which is more than many ever get.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 96 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ravenna can pretend not to have heard.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 5 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Jordan Longhi 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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Lorenzo Lonardi has his answer from Ravenna; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 103 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
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.
“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.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Words at Ravenna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stefano Okaka 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.
Position 9, 21 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
The dugout27 Dec 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Francesco Valentini chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The dugout27 Dec 2027
Somebody else is better right now than Raúl Navarro
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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Ravenna will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
“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.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Words at Ravenna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stefano Okaka 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Ravenna will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about 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 Ravenna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 37, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Francesco Valentini after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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 bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Ravenna will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about 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 Ravenna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 22 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.
Torres made Ravenna work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Words at Ravenna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stefano Okaka 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 tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Ravenna can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.