From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad9 Nov 2026
Pepín Machín breaks a bone — 57 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 57 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match4 Nov 2026
Juventus ended it 0‑3. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
The terraces9 Nov 2026
Sambenedettese are taken apart by Juventus — and the town wants answers
It finished 0-3. A cup exit is a disappointment; this was a public dismantling, and the difference between the two is the number of people who will still be talking about it in August.
The terraces9 Nov 2026
The stands have turned
“Enough is enough. We have watched this for months.” 7 of the 29 senior players walked off to it, and the message was not aimed at any one of them.
Match7 Nov 2026
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Sambenedettese are no longer polite ones.
Squad9 Nov 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sambenedettese this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match7 Nov 2026
2‑3 to Perugia, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad9 Nov 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Vincenzo Alfieri commits to Sambenedettese for another 4 years.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Sambenedettese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lorenzo Sgarbi 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad2 Nov 2026
64 days out for Pepín Machín after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Sambenedettese will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market2 Nov 2026
Facundo Bailó hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sambenedettese can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Simone Magnaghi, 33, rolls back the years — 7.86
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.86 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Match31 Oct 2026
Whatever happens, Sambenedettese do not lose
7 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Lorenzo Sgarbi 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 dugout2 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Facundo Bailó
“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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Moussa Touré and Sambenedettese agree another 4 years.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
Wages eat 95% of everything Sambenedettese earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Squad2 Nov 2026
5 new faces, and Sambenedettese are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad26 Oct 2026
A fracture rules Pepín Machín out for 72 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Sambenedettese will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad26 Oct 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sambenedettese this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match24 Oct 2026
Whatever happens, Sambenedettese do not lose
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tomas Lepri was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Vincenzo Alfieri, and the manager let it.
Match24 Oct 2026
A goal on 90 minutes turned three points into one and a good afternoon into an argument about game management that will run until Saturday.
Match24 Oct 2026
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Alessio Orlando was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Sambenedettese dressing room was either.
Squad26 Oct 2026
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Sambenedettese have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Simone Magnaghi, 33, rolls back the years — 8.58
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.58 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Ezequiel Bustamante and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lorenzo Sgarbi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match17 Oct 2026
It finished 2‑0, and it was Lorenzo Sgarbi’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Sambenedettese.
Match17 Oct 2026
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for Sambenedettese. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Umberto Eusepi, and the manager let it.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
A performance of 8.17 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
18 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Umberto Eusepi: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Sambenedettese have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Marked 7.71 at 18, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Paolo Doneda is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Federico Freire was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Lorenzo Sgarbi 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.
Market12 Oct 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Dario Coppola 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.
Market12 Oct 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Alessio De Carli has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nicolás Luján, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Simone Magnaghi, 33, rolls back the years — 7.80
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.80 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Tommaso Orsini is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Federico Freire 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Tomas Lepri 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 dugout5 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Fernando Corica
“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.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Wages swallow 117% of the Sambenedettese income
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
Match3 Oct 2026
Level with 85 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Sambenedettese had all but put away. Ascoli will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Too much change too quickly at Sambenedettese
13 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.96, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.83 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Lorenzo Befani, 18, plays like he has been here for years — 7.62
A mark of 7.62 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 18-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Tommaso Orsini 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Sambenedettese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lorenzo Sgarbi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Match26 Sep 2026
Three points for Sambenedettese, 2‑1 the final word against Pineto in a contest settled by the finer margins.
The terraces28 Sep 2026
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Sep 2026
Tommaso Orsini 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lorenzo Sgarbi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ezequiel Bustamante, and the manager let it.
Match19 Sep 2026
Campobasso left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Federico Freire dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
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.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Squad21 Sep 2026
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Sambenedettese has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match12 Sep 2026
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tomas Lepri was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market14 Sep 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Mariano Monti is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market14 Sep 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Filippo Palumbo has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Paolo Doneda in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sambenedettese this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Alessio Orlando after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 22 signed and 0 gone
That is the business done at Sambenedettese 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Ezequiel Bustamante was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Lorenzo Sgarbi 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.
Market7 Sep 2026
He signed expecting a bigger stage than the one he found. It has not taken long, and it has not taken the dressing room long to notice either.
Match5 Sep 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Simone Magnaghi’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Sambenedettese.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Facundo Bailó has outgrown this division
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Sambenedettese know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Squad7 Sep 2026
13 new faces, and Sambenedettese are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
7.66, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Sambenedettese had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match29 Aug 2026
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 4‑1 against Forli, and it could have been more.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
A brace, and Elia Plicco takes the afternoon — 8.25
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Elia Plicco provided it, and the 8.25 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
What a way to start for Lorenzo Befani — 7.25
0 on the scoresheet on his first appearance and a mark of 7.25 beside it. Most debuts are got through; this one was enjoyed, by him and by everybody watching it.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
No sign of nerves from Kevin Martins at 21 — 8.12
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Kevin Martins did not need any: 8.12, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Market31 Aug 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad31 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sambenedettese this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Lorenzo Sgarbi falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Sambenedettese asked and AS Roma said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market24 Aug 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sambenedettese can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
No thanks: Ionut Stanciu rejects the move
Sambenedettese had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Astra, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad24 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sambenedettese this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Sambenedettese 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Kevin Candellori 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
The formation has left Lorenzo Befani behind
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Sambenedettese will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
A loan move for Paco Esteban is in the works
Sambenedettese have made the call to Lecce. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
AC Milan 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Davide Bertolini and Sambenedettese agree another 3 years.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Sambenedettese have done the hard part with Frosinone, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Juventus is saying, and nobody at Sambenedettese is enjoying the guessing.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Sambenedettese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lorenzo Sgarbi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Francesco Scafetta and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad17 Aug 2026
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Sambenedettese know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
AS Roma 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.
Market17 Aug 2026
Experience through the door at Sambenedettese
Federico Freire arrives at 36 with nothing left to prove and plenty left to pass on. Legs are a young man's currency; knowing where to stand never ages.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Sambenedettese would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: AC Milan keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Tommaso Orsini and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tomas Lepri was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Sambenedettese 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Davide Bertolini is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Luciano Villa is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Samuele Gentile 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Andrea Zanetti has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Pepín Machín and Sambenedettese agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Tommaso Orsini and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Tomas Lepri falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Sambenedettese asked and Elche said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market3 Aug 2026
49 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan move for Paolo Doneda is in the works
Sambenedettese have made the call to AC Milan. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Astra: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Sambenedettese are still strangers to each other
6 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Simone Paolini has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Sambenedettese.