From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match29 Dec 2029
No end in sight to Sambenedettese's wait for a win
12 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Sambenedettese has to find a result from somewhere.
Match29 Dec 2029
7 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Sambenedettese can tell you which week it ends in.
The dugout31 Dec 2029
“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.
Squad31 Dec 2029
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.
Player ratings31 Dec 2029
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad31 Dec 2029
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vincenzo Alfieri was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout31 Dec 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Riccardo Brighenti, and the manager let it.
Boardroom31 Dec 2029
109% of the income goes out in wages at Sambenedettese
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Player ratings31 Dec 2029
A mark of 7.78, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match22 Dec 2029
11 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Player ratings24 Dec 2029
Successful dribbles: 32. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Market24 Dec 2029
“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 The request is on a desk at Sambenedettese, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match22 Dec 2029
6 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Sambenedettese can tell you which week it ends in.
The dugout24 Dec 2029
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad24 Dec 2029
Francesco Scafetta 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.
Match22 Dec 2029
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Match24 Dec 2029
Position 9, 24 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 dugout24 Dec 2029
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match15 Dec 2029
No end in sight to Sambenedettese's wait for a win
10 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Sambenedettese has to find a result from somewhere.
The dugout17 Dec 2029
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Match15 Dec 2029
5 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Sambenedettese can tell you which week it ends in.
The dugout17 Dec 2029
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad17 Dec 2029
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.
Player ratings17 Dec 2029
Successful dribbles: 20. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The dugout17 Dec 2029
The manager makes an example of Mirko Pfarherr
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings17 Dec 2029
A mark of 7.98, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout17 Dec 2029
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match8 Dec 2029
The run now stands at 9, and the questions being asked around Sambenedettese are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings10 Dec 2029
Successful dribbles: 25. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match8 Dec 2029
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.
Squad10 Dec 2029
Francesco Scafetta and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match8 Dec 2029
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout10 Dec 2029
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout10 Dec 2029
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout10 Dec 2029
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Player ratings10 Dec 2029
The afternoon ran through Gastón Pérez
Chances created: 7. Nothing on the scoresheet and everything in the match: the pass before the pass, over and over, until the defence stopped guessing right.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match1 Dec 2029
The run now stands at 8, and the questions being asked around Sambenedettese are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings3 Dec 2029
Successful dribbles: 29. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad3 Dec 2029
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.
Match1 Dec 2029
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Sambenedettese can tell you which week it ends in.
The dugout3 Dec 2029
“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.
Boardroom3 Dec 2029
103% of the income goes out in wages at Sambenedettese
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.
Squad3 Dec 2029
A place in the month's best eleven for Filippo Toscano
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Filippo Toscano has come out of that comparison in the side, and Sambenedettese have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The dugout3 Dec 2029
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout3 Dec 2029
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Enrico Colombo after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match24 Nov 2029
No end in sight to Sambenedettese's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Sambenedettese has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad26 Nov 2029
Francesco Scafetta 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.
Match24 Nov 2029
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout26 Nov 2029
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Enrico Colombo after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Player ratings26 Nov 2029
A touch he did not want, a bounce he could not have read, and his name in the wrong column. There is no consoling a man after one of these, and Sambenedettese will not try tonight.
Boardroom26 Nov 2029
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
The dugout26 Nov 2029
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout26 Nov 2029
The manager makes an example of Antonio Vetrò
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout26 Nov 2029
Mirko Pfarherr asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings19 Nov 2029
Successful dribbles: 34. 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.
Match17 Nov 2029
No end in sight to Sambenedettese's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Sambenedettese has to find a result from somewhere.
The dugout19 Nov 2029
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad19 Nov 2029
500 times in these colours, in all weathers and under four or five different managers. That kind of service is quietly disappearing from the game.
Squad19 Nov 2029
Alessandro Zoboletti 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.
Match17 Nov 2029
Guidonia Montecelio left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout19 Nov 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Filippo Toscano, and the manager let it.
The dugout19 Nov 2029
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Enrico Colombo after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout19 Nov 2029
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match12 Nov 2029
22 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Match10 Nov 2029
Sambenedettese make home a hard place to visit
13 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Player ratings12 Nov 2029
Marked 7.66 at 17, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Match10 Nov 2029
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.
Player ratings12 Nov 2029
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad12 Nov 2029
Alessandro Zoboletti 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 dugout12 Nov 2029
The manager makes an example of Mirko Pfarherr
“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.
Market12 Nov 2029
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Alessandro Maspero has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Sambenedettese.
Match10 Nov 2029
It needed Domenico Zanetti to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Perugia, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match31 Oct 2029
Out, 0‑2 to Fiorentina, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Match3 Nov 2029
No end in sight to Sambenedettese's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Sambenedettese has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad5 Nov 2029
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.
Squad5 Nov 2029
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Francesco De Stefano has, at Sambenedettese, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
The dugout5 Nov 2029
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings5 Nov 2029
Marked 8.19 — 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.
Market5 Nov 2029
Mirko Pfarherr is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Sambenedettese has been clear about where Mirko Pfarherr stands, which is more than many ever get.
Boardroom5 Nov 2029
Wages eat 103% 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.
The dugout5 Nov 2029
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
Upbeat
Match27 Oct 2029
Sambenedettese make home a hard place to visit
12 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Squad29 Oct 2029
Francesco Scafetta 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 dugout29 Oct 2029
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Player ratings29 Oct 2029
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.
Boardroom29 Oct 2029
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
The dugout29 Oct 2029
Nobody at Sambenedettese 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
“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.
Match27 Oct 2029
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Livorno defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Player ratings29 Oct 2029
Defensive actions: 12. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings22 Oct 2029
Successful dribbles: 25. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout22 Oct 2029
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Squad22 Oct 2029
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.
Match20 Oct 2029
1‑2 to Torres, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Match20 Oct 2029
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 5 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
The dugout22 Oct 2029
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Enrico Colombo after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout22 Oct 2029
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 Riccardo Brighenti is on it.
Market22 Oct 2029
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Giorgio De Marzi’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout22 Oct 2029
The plan did not have a place for Mirko Pfarherr
Nobody at Sambenedettese 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match13 Oct 2029
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Sambenedettese have 5 straight wins of it.
Match13 Oct 2029
11 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Squad15 Oct 2029
Francesco Scafetta and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match13 Oct 2029
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Giuseppe Guadagni. 1‑0 against Vis Pesaro, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings15 Oct 2029
Giuseppe Guadagni was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.33. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
The dugout15 Oct 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mirko Pfarherr, and the manager let it.
The dugout15 Oct 2029
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Enrico Colombo could afford to be generous.
Player ratings15 Oct 2029
Successful dribbles: 13. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout15 Oct 2029
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 Federico Chiatante is on it.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings8 Oct 2029
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.87 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Match6 Oct 2029
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Sambenedettese have 4 straight wins of it.
Squad8 Oct 2029
“The easiest signature of my career.” Pepín Machín and Sambenedettese agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Match6 Oct 2029
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Squad8 Oct 2029
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.
Match6 Oct 2029
Three points for Sambenedettese, 1‑0 the final word against Ascoli in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad8 Oct 2029
The young player of the month award goes to a 21-year-old at Sambenedettese who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
Boardroom8 Oct 2029
Wages eat 90% 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.
Squad8 Oct 2029
A place in the month's best eleven for Marco Piccoli
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Marco Piccoli has come out of that comparison in the side, and Sambenedettese have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings1 Oct 2029
Successful dribbles: 22. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad1 Oct 2029
Francesco Scafetta 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.
Match29 Sep 2029
A 1‑0 win over Pineto, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings1 Oct 2029
Marked 7.92. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Player ratings1 Oct 2029
Defensive actions: 16. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
The dugout1 Oct 2029
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 1‑0, already talking about the next one.
Boardroom1 Oct 2029
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
The dugout1 Oct 2029
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.
Looking ahead1 Oct 2029
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Ascoli in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match19 Sep 2029
A 2‑1 win over Monopoli, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Match22 Sep 2029
Whatever happens, Sambenedettese do not lose
13 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Player ratings24 Sep 2029
Both of them Luke Alker's — 8.94
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.94, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad24 Sep 2029
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Player ratings24 Sep 2029
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout24 Sep 2029
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Match22 Sep 2029
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Squad24 Sep 2029
Alessandro Zoboletti 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 terraces24 Sep 2029
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match15 Sep 2029
The unbeaten run reaches 11. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad17 Sep 2029
Francesco Scafetta and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets17 Sep 2029
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The dugout17 Sep 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mirko Pfarherr, and the manager let it.
Loan watch17 Sep 2029
“I watch every Sambenedettese game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Pineto runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad17 Sep 2029
“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; Sambenedettese are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Player ratings17 Sep 2029
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 dugout17 Sep 2029
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Enrico Colombo after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Match15 Sep 2029
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Carpi will be the happier side with the point.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match8 Sep 2029
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 86th, and Ravenna spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
Match8 Sep 2029
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Sambenedettese have 3 straight wins of it.
Boardroom10 Sep 2029
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Squad10 Sep 2029
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.
Transfer targets10 Sep 2029
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.
Match8 Sep 2029
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Santiago Krieger. 2‑1 against Ravenna, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Match8 Sep 2029
8 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Player ratings10 Sep 2029
Marked 8.25 — 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.
Squad10 Sep 2029
Words at Sambenedettese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vincenzo Alfieri 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings3 Sep 2029
Simone Magnaghi, 35, rolls back the years — 7.91
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.91 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Match1 Sep 2029
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 9 matches without defeat is a foundation Sambenedettese did not have in the autumn.
Boardroom3 Sep 2029
Window shuts: 10 in, 9 out at Sambenedettese
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 10 arrived, 9 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Market3 Sep 2029
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Player ratings3 Sep 2029
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad3 Sep 2029
Francesco Scafetta was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad3 Sep 2029
Pepín Machín 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 Sep 2029
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.
Match1 Sep 2029
Forli made Sambenedettese work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market27 Aug 2029
The offer from Neman for Luke Alker 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.
Boardroom27 Aug 2029
Sambenedettese moved before anybody else could: a new deal for Enrico Colombo, agreed quietly and announced loudly. Boards extend managers for many reasons; the good one is the one this looks like.
Transfer targets27 Aug 2029
The deal with Audace Cerignola 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.
The dugout27 Aug 2029
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad27 Aug 2029
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.
Squad27 Aug 2029
Domenico Zanetti is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 17 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.
Boardroom27 Aug 2029
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Sambenedettese
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.
Squad27 Aug 2029
Words at Sambenedettese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pepín Machín 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 targets27 Aug 2029
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad20 Aug 2029
Francesco Scafetta and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets20 Aug 2029
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Salernitana have kept their man, and Sambenedettese go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market20 Aug 2029
The phone has started ringing about Luke Alker again, and this time the name on the line is Neman. Sambenedettese are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad20 Aug 2029
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Luke Alker commits to Sambenedettese for another 4 years.
Transfer targets20 Aug 2029
A loan move for Filippo Grilli is in the works
Sambenedettese have made the call to Benevento. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout20 Aug 2029
“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 Aug 2029
Gabriele Gigante 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.
Squad20 Aug 2029
No place for Nicolò Motta in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Sambenedettese are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Market20 Aug 2029
The name of Gastón Pérez keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Sambenedettese say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad13 Aug 2029
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.
Squad13 Aug 2029
Nicolò Motta arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Nicolò Motta has, at Sambenedettese, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad13 Aug 2029
Pepín Machín 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 targets13 Aug 2029
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.
Squad13 Aug 2029
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Gabriele Gigante and Sambenedettese agree another 3 years.
Market13 Aug 2029
He is 20, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
The dugout13 Aug 2029
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Filippo Toscano trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout13 Aug 2029
Luke Alker gets picked when it counts
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 Luke Alker is on it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market6 Aug 2029
“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.
Market6 Aug 2029
Terms done: Luke Alker is going
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and AZAL waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Sambenedettese is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Transfer targets6 Aug 2029
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Sambenedettese have done the hard part with Lazio, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad6 Aug 2029
Ruggero Sanna is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 17 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.
Transfer targets6 Aug 2029
Sambenedettese asked and Audace Cerignola said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad6 Aug 2029
Alessandro Zoboletti and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market6 Aug 2029
Add another name to the list: Persik have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Antonio Vetrò. The answer from Sambenedettese has not changed — yet.
Squad6 Aug 2029
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Alessandro Maspero and Sambenedettese agree another 3 years.
The dugout6 Aug 2029
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout30 Jul 2029
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad30 Jul 2029
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Gastón Pérez and Sambenedettese agree another 3 years.
Squad30 Jul 2029
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.
Squad30 Jul 2029
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Transfer targets30 Jul 2029
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.
Squad30 Jul 2029
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Moussa Touré was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets30 Jul 2029
Sambenedettese have made the call to Audace Cerignola. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout30 Jul 2029
Something was said to Vincenzo Alfieri and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Market30 Jul 2029
AZAL are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Sambenedettese will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market23 Jul 2029
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Sambenedettese have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market23 Jul 2029
“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 Sambenedettese, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad23 Jul 2029
Filippo Toscano is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad23 Jul 2029
Francesco Scafetta and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets23 Jul 2029
Sambenedettese asked and Alcione Milano said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market23 Jul 2029
Add another name to the list: AZAL have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Luke Alker. The answer from Sambenedettese has not changed — yet.
Squad23 Jul 2029
Gabriele Gigante has improved at 24, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Squad23 Jul 2029
Words at Sambenedettese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Moussa Touré 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 targets23 Jul 2029
A loan move for Majkol Luka is in the works
Sambenedettese have made the call to Fiorentina. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market16 Jul 2029
“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 Sambenedettese, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Giorgio De Marzi is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad16 Jul 2029
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.
Squad16 Jul 2029
At 27 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Transfer targets16 Jul 2029
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Siracusa have kept their man, and Sambenedettese go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad16 Jul 2029
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Sambenedettese can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Market16 Jul 2029
A conversation is coming this week. Sambenedettese will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
The dugout16 Jul 2029
Luke Alker gets picked when it counts
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 Luke Alker is on it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market9 Jul 2029
“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.
Squad9 Jul 2029
Moussa Touré is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad9 Jul 2029
“The easiest signature of my career.” Simone Magnaghi and Sambenedettese agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad9 Jul 2029
Francesco Scafetta was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad9 Jul 2029
Francesco Scafetta has improved at 26, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Transfer targets9 Jul 2029
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ternana have kept their man, and Sambenedettese go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Transfer targets9 Jul 2029
Salernitana 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.
The dugout9 Jul 2029
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.
Market9 Jul 2029
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Gastón Pérez’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market2 Jul 2029
“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 Sambenedettese, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad2 Jul 2029
14 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
The dugout2 Jul 2029
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad2 Jul 2029
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Simone Magnaghi commits to Sambenedettese for another 2 years.
Squad2 Jul 2029
Matías Jorquera is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad2 Jul 2029
Giorgio De Marzi and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Transfer targets2 Jul 2029
Sambenedettese asked and Trento said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market2 Jul 2029
Add another name to the list: PSM have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Antonio Vetrò. The answer from Sambenedettese has not changed — yet.
Transfer targets2 Jul 2029
Lazio 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market25 Jun 2029
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Audace Cerignola waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Sambenedettese is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Transfer targets25 Jun 2029
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Sambenedettese have done the hard part with Trapani, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Transfer targets25 Jun 2029
Sambenedettese asked and Dolomiti Bellunesi said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad25 Jun 2029
Alessandro Zoboletti 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.
Boardroom25 Jun 2029
Wages swallow 91% 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.
Squad25 Jun 2029
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Riccardo Brighenti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout25 Jun 2029
Filippo Toscano asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market25 Jun 2029
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Sambenedettese know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Market25 Jun 2029
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Moussa Touré may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market18 Jun 2029
Moussa Touré 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.
Transfer targets18 Jun 2029
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Sambenedettese have done the hard part with Juventus, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Transfer targets18 Jun 2029
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Cesena have kept their man, and Sambenedettese go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad18 Jun 2029
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.
Squad18 Jun 2029
Words at Sambenedettese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Moussa Touré 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 dugout18 Jun 2029
Moussa Touré knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Sambenedettese, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout18 Jun 2029
Luke Alker has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Sambenedettese 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.
Market18 Jun 2029
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Filippo Toscano may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market11 Jun 2029
“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.
Market11 Jun 2029
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Sambenedettese people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Squad11 Jun 2029
Francesco Scafetta was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Transfer targets11 Jun 2029
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Napoli have kept their man, and Sambenedettese go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad11 Jun 2029
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Moussa Touré was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad11 Jun 2029
31 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
The dugout11 Jun 2029
Nobody at Sambenedettese 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 dugout11 Jun 2029
Moussa Touré knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Moussa Touré trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market11 Jun 2029
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Alessandro Zoboletti signs something — a contract at Sambenedettese or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market4 Jun 2029
“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.
The dugout4 Jun 2029
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad4 Jun 2029
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 targets4 Jun 2029
Sambenedettese asked and Renate said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market4 Jun 2029
The phone has started ringing about Ruggero Sanna again, and this time the name on the line is Picerno. Sambenedettese are listening politely and promising nothing.
Transfer targets4 Jun 2029
A loan enquiry to Fiorentina: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout4 Jun 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Francesco Simoncelli, and the manager let it.
The dugout4 Jun 2029
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.
Squad4 Jun 2029
Riccardo Brighenti 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout28 May 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Sambenedettese may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad28 May 2029
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.
Squad28 May 2029
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Moussa Touré was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom28 May 2029
Wages eat 99% 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.
Squad28 May 2029
Questions about Mirko Pfarherr on the training pitch
The standards have slipped, and in a building where everybody watches everybody it has not gone unremarked. This is how a player loses a place before he loses one.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market21 May 2029
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
The dugout21 May 2029
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad21 May 2029
Francesco Scafetta and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad21 May 2029
Moussa Touré 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.
Squad21 May 2029
“The easiest signature of my career.” Grigoris Georgiou and Sambenedettese agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout21 May 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Gabriele Gigante, and the manager let it.
Market21 May 2029
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Sambenedettese know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout21 May 2029
Luke Alker has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Sambenedettese 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 dugout21 May 2029
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Sambenedettese, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market14 May 2029
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
The dugout14 May 2029
“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.
Squad14 May 2029
Giorgio De Marzi 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.
Squad14 May 2029
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Sambenedettese can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad14 May 2029
Riccardo Brighenti 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 dugout14 May 2029
Nobody at Sambenedettese will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout7 May 2029
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Market7 May 2029
Ruggero Sanna has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sambenedettese they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad7 May 2029
Alessandro Zoboletti and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad7 May 2029
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Moussa Touré was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad7 May 2029
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Giorgio De Marzi is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout7 May 2029
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout7 May 2029
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.
Squad7 May 2029
Gastón Pérez moves up the pecking order
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Sambenedettese than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
Market7 May 2029
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Gastón Pérez’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad30 Apr 2029
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Sambenedettese have had the benefit of it.
Squad30 Apr 2029
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.
Squad30 Apr 2029
Moussa Touré 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.
Boardroom30 Apr 2029
Wages swallow 101% 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.
The dugout30 Apr 2029
Moussa Touré asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad23 Apr 2029
Francesco Scafetta and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad23 Apr 2029
Words at Sambenedettese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Riccardo Brighenti 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.
Squad23 Apr 2029
A Sambenedettese teenager takes the young player award
Alfonso Salvatore is 17, and for one weekend he was the best of everybody his age in the division. Nobody should build a career on it and everybody quietly does.
The dugout23 Apr 2029
“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.
Market23 Apr 2029
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Sambenedettese know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout23 Apr 2029
Moussa Touré asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout23 Apr 2029
Luke Alker gets picked when it counts
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 Luke Alker is on it.
Boardroom23 Apr 2029
The Sambenedettese production line keeps running
34 graduates out of an academy now rated 9 out of 20. Clubs this size survive on exactly that, and the town knows every name.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match16 Apr 2029
The season ends: position 9 for Sambenedettese
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 45 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
Market16 Apr 2029
“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.
The dugout16 Apr 2029
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Match14 Apr 2029
The unbeaten run reaches 8. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad16 Apr 2029
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.
Player ratings16 Apr 2029
Successful dribbles: 20. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Match14 Apr 2029
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Alfonso Salvatore. 1‑0 against Pontedera, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad16 Apr 2029
Words at Sambenedettese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Moussa Touré is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The dugout16 Apr 2029
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 1‑0, already talking about the next one.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market9 Apr 2029
Moussa Touré 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.
The dugout9 Apr 2029
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Market9 Apr 2029
Ruggero Sanna has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sambenedettese they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Match7 Apr 2029
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.
Squad9 Apr 2029
Francesco Scafetta was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad9 Apr 2029
Words at Sambenedettese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Moussa Touré 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.
Player ratings9 Apr 2029
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.
The dugout9 Apr 2029
The manager makes an example of Mirko Pfarherr
“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 dugout9 Apr 2029
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 Francesco Scafetta is on it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match31 Mar 2029
3‑0, and Gastón Pérez took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Sambenedettese tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Market2 Apr 2029
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings2 Apr 2029
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.16, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad2 Apr 2029
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.
Match31 Mar 2029
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.
Player ratings2 Apr 2029
Giuseppe Guadagni was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.50. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Squad2 Apr 2029
7 goals and a season average of 7.33. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Boardroom2 Apr 2029
97% of the income goes out in wages at Sambenedettese
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.
Squad2 Apr 2029
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings26 Mar 2029
Two goals and a mark of 8.84 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad26 Mar 2029
Giorgio De Marzi 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 ratings26 Mar 2029
Successful dribbles: 21. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad26 Mar 2029
100 goals for this club, and somewhere in the stand there is a person who can still tell you where they were for most of them.
Match24 Mar 2029
Bra made Sambenedettese work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
The terraces26 Mar 2029
At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Player ratings26 Mar 2029
A performance of 8.27 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad26 Mar 2029
Moussa Touré 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.
Squad26 Mar 2029
100 times in these colours, in all weathers and under four or five different managers. That kind of service is quietly disappearing from the game.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match17 Mar 2029
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Santiago Krieger will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Sambenedettese escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Market19 Mar 2029
“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 ratings19 Mar 2029
At 34 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 7.92, and nobody on the pitch better.
Squad19 Mar 2029
Alessandro Zoboletti 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 dugout19 Mar 2029
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings19 Mar 2029
Successful dribbles: 18. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad19 Mar 2029
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Moussa Touré was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match17 Mar 2029
It needed Santiago Krieger to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against Pianese, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Squad19 Mar 2029
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Sambenedettese can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings12 Mar 2029
Successful dribbles: 35. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Market12 Mar 2029
“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 Sambenedettese, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout12 Mar 2029
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Market12 Mar 2029
Ruggero Sanna has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sambenedettese they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad12 Mar 2029
Alessandro Zoboletti and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The terraces12 Mar 2029
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Alessandro Zoboletti 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.
Player ratings12 Mar 2029
Marked 7.53 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Sambenedettese had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout12 Mar 2029
Nobody at Sambenedettese 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 dugout12 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.” Enrico Colombo chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings5 Mar 2029
Successful dribbles: 39. 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.
Market5 Mar 2029
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad5 Mar 2029
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Pepín Machín commits to Sambenedettese for another 2 years.
Squad5 Mar 2029
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.
Squad5 Mar 2029
Words at Sambenedettese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Moussa Touré is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Boardroom5 Mar 2029
91% of the income goes out in wages at Sambenedettese
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.
Squad5 Mar 2029
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Giorgio De Marzi is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout5 Mar 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alessandro Maspero, and the manager let it.
The dugout5 Mar 2029
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market26 Feb 2029
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings26 Feb 2029
A brace, and Gastón Pérez takes the afternoon — 8.93
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Gastón Pérez provided it, and the 8.93 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad26 Feb 2029
Francesco Scafetta and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match24 Feb 2029
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Gastón Pérez. 2‑0 against Arezzo, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad26 Feb 2029
200 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
Player ratings26 Feb 2029
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.19, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad26 Feb 2029
Words at Sambenedettese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Moussa Touré 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.
Squad26 Feb 2029
A season average of 7.28 with 6 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
The dugout26 Feb 2029
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Enrico Colombo, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market19 Feb 2029
“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.
Squad19 Feb 2029
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.
Squad19 Feb 2029
A muscle injury and 18 days out for Simone Magnaghi
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Sambenedettese will quote 18 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Match17 Feb 2029
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.
Squad19 Feb 2029
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.
Match17 Feb 2029
Livorno left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout19 Feb 2029
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Enrico Colombo after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad19 Feb 2029
Words at Sambenedettese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Riccardo Brighenti 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.
Player ratings19 Feb 2029
Successful dribbles: 13. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market12 Feb 2029
Moussa Touré 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.
The dugout12 Feb 2029
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Market12 Feb 2029
Ruggero Sanna has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sambenedettese they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad12 Feb 2029
Francesco Scafetta 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 Feb 2029
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Anton Niwinski Persson has, at Sambenedettese, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Transfer targets12 Feb 2029
Sambenedettese asked and Trapani said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad12 Feb 2029
Words at Sambenedettese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Moussa Touré 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.
Market12 Feb 2029
He is 20, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings5 Feb 2029
Successful dribbles: 30. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Market5 Feb 2029
“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.
Boardroom5 Feb 2029
Sambenedettese close the window on a squad of their own making
2 in and 4 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Squad5 Feb 2029
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 targets5 Feb 2029
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Pergolettese have kept their man, and Sambenedettese go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match3 Feb 2029
Gastón Pérez scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Vis Pesaro, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad5 Feb 2029
Moussa Touré 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 Feb 2029
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout5 Feb 2029
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market29 Jan 2029
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market29 Jan 2029
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Sambenedettese people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Transfer targets29 Jan 2029
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.
Squad29 Jan 2029
Alessandro Zoboletti was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Match27 Jan 2029
1‑2 to Ascoli, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings29 Jan 2029
Ninety minutes of Giuseppe Guadagni at his very best
Marked 8.02. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Sambenedettese.
Squad29 Jan 2029
6 goals and a season average of 7.27. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
The dugout29 Jan 2029
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Enrico Colombo after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Transfer targets29 Jan 2029
Trapani 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market22 Jan 2029
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Sambenedettese have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market22 Jan 2029
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sambenedettese they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Transfer targets22 Jan 2029
The paperwork begins on Dino Delkić
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Sambenedettese have done the hard part with AC Milan, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Transfer targets22 Jan 2029
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.
Squad22 Jan 2029
Alessandro Zoboletti 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.
Match20 Jan 2029
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Francesco Scafetta. 2‑0 against Pineto, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings22 Jan 2029
Francesco Scafetta was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.35. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Player ratings22 Jan 2029
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.30, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad22 Jan 2029
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Moussa Touré was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market15 Jan 2029
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Sambenedettese have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The dugout15 Jan 2029
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Squad15 Jan 2029
Francesco Scafetta was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Transfer targets15 Jan 2029
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.
Match13 Jan 2029
1‑2 to Campobasso, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout15 Jan 2029
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Player ratings15 Jan 2029
A performance of 8.25 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Words at Sambenedettese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Moussa Touré 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.
Squad15 Jan 2029
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Matías Jorquera and Sambenedettese agree another 4 years.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market8 Jan 2029
Moussa Touré 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.
Market8 Jan 2029
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Union Brescia waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Sambenedettese is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Squad8 Jan 2029
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.
Squad8 Jan 2029
A move Jacopo Correnti would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Jacopo Correnti is living that version at Sambenedettese, and it tends to show in the first month.
Transfer targets8 Jan 2029
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.
Match6 Jan 2029
1‑2 to Carpi, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings8 Jan 2029
Successful dribbles: 17. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout8 Jan 2029
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Enrico Colombo after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad8 Jan 2029
A place in the month's best eleven for Giorgio De Marzi
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Giorgio De Marzi has come out of that comparison in the side, and Sambenedettese have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings1 Jan 2029
Successful dribbles: 27. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market1 Jan 2029
“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.
Market1 Jan 2029
Only the photograph left for Ruggero Sanna
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ruggero Sanna will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sambenedettese the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad1 Jan 2029
Francesco Scafetta and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match30 Dec 2028
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Simone Magnaghi. 2‑0 against Ravenna, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The dugout1 Jan 2029
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings1 Jan 2029
7.70, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Sambenedettese had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
Squad1 Jan 2029
Mirko Pfarherr 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 dugout1 Jan 2029
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Enrico Colombo could afford to be generous.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings25 Dec 2028
Successful dribbles: 34. 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.
Match23 Dec 2028
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Sambenedettese are no longer polite ones.
Squad25 Dec 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sambenedettese this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match23 Dec 2028
0‑2 to Forli, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad25 Dec 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Moussa Touré was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout25 Dec 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Moussa Touré, and the manager let it.
The dugout25 Dec 2028
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Player ratings25 Dec 2028
The one thing Gastón Pérez could not do
Shots: 8, enough of them from close enough that a striker in form scores two. He is not a striker in form.
The dugout25 Dec 2028
Nobody at Sambenedettese will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout18 Dec 2028
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad18 Dec 2028
Francesco Scafetta 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.
Match16 Dec 2028
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Sambenedettese did not have in the autumn.
The dugout18 Dec 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Giorgio De Marzi, and the manager let it.
Player ratings18 Dec 2028
Marked 8.41 — 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.
Match16 Dec 2028
A point taken on 90 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
Match18 Dec 2028
Half the programme played, position 9, 22 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
Squad18 Dec 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Luke Alker and Sambenedettese agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Match16 Dec 2028
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad11 Dec 2028
Pasquale Marranzino and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings11 Dec 2028
Giuseppe Guadagni was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.13. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Squad11 Dec 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Moussa Touré was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match9 Dec 2028
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 dugout11 Dec 2028
Nobody at Sambenedettese 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 dugout11 Dec 2028
“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.
The dugout11 Dec 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Riccardo Brighenti, and the manager let it.
Looking ahead11 Dec 2028
Pontedera next, and one man in the Sambenedettese dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
The dugout11 Dec 2028
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Sambenedettese, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market4 Dec 2028
Ruggero Sanna has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sambenedettese they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad4 Dec 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Simone Magnaghi commits to Sambenedettese for another 2 years.
Squad4 Dec 2028
Pasquale Marranzino 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.
Squad4 Dec 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Moussa Touré was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad4 Dec 2028
A goalkeeper's career is counted in the games nobody scored in, and Giorgio De Marzi now has 26 of them across 41 appearances. Nothing about that number was luck.
Player ratings4 Dec 2028
Successful dribbles: 17. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout4 Dec 2028
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout4 Dec 2028
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Enrico Colombo after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Market4 Dec 2028
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Sambenedettese, another week without a signature from Moussa Touré.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match25 Nov 2028
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Bra, and it could have been more.
The dugout27 Nov 2028
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Match25 Nov 2028
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Squad27 Nov 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sambenedettese this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces27 Nov 2028
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Player ratings27 Nov 2028
Ninety minutes of Giuseppe Guadagni at his very best
Marked 8.48. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Sambenedettese.
Player ratings27 Nov 2028
Marked 8.39. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Sambenedettese.
Player ratings27 Nov 2028
Francesco Scafetta was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.07. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Player ratings27 Nov 2028
Alessandro Zoboletti was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.00. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings20 Nov 2028
A brace, and Simone Magnaghi takes the afternoon — 8.74
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Simone Magnaghi provided it, and the 8.74 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The dugout20 Nov 2028
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad20 Nov 2028
Francesco Scafetta 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.
Match18 Nov 2028
Pianese made Sambenedettese work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings20 Nov 2028
Marked 8.20 — 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.
Squad20 Nov 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Moussa Touré was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings20 Nov 2028
Successful dribbles: 17. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The dugout20 Nov 2028
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 2‑0, already talking about the next one.
Market20 Nov 2028
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match11 Nov 2028
10 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Guidonia Montecelio were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
The dugout13 Nov 2028
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Player ratings13 Nov 2028
Successful dribbles: 26. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad13 Nov 2028
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.
The terraces13 Nov 2028
At 17 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.
Match11 Nov 2028
It finished 1‑0, and it was Ruggero Sanna’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Sambenedettese.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Moussa Touré falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Player ratings13 Nov 2028
Marked 7.78 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Sambenedettese had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout13 Nov 2028
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Enrico Colombo could afford to be generous.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match4 Nov 2028
No end in sight to Sambenedettese's wait for a win
10 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Sambenedettese has to find a result from somewhere.
Market6 Nov 2028
Only the photograph left for Ruggero Sanna
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ruggero Sanna will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sambenedettese the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Francesco Scafetta and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings6 Nov 2028
Pasquale Marranzino was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.10. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
The dugout6 Nov 2028
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout6 Nov 2028
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑3, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Squad6 Nov 2028
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Giorgio De Marzi is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Player ratings6 Nov 2028
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match28 Oct 2028
9 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.
Squad30 Oct 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sambenedettese this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Oct 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Moussa Touré was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout30 Oct 2028
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Match28 Oct 2028
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 dugout30 Oct 2028
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Enrico Colombo after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The dugout30 Oct 2028
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout30 Oct 2028
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Squad30 Oct 2028
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match21 Oct 2028
8 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.
Match21 Oct 2028
7 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.
The dugout23 Oct 2028
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad23 Oct 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sambenedettese this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces23 Oct 2028
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Player ratings23 Oct 2028
Successful dribbles: 19. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad23 Oct 2028
Words at Sambenedettese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Moussa Touré 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.
Player ratings23 Oct 2028
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.58 on the card, and the Sambenedettese support went home talking about one name.
The dugout23 Oct 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mirko Pfarherr, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match14 Oct 2028
No end in sight to Sambenedettese's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Sambenedettese has to find a result from somewhere.
Match14 Oct 2028
6 matches without a goal for Sambenedettese
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 6 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad16 Oct 2028
Pasquale Marranzino and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match14 Oct 2028
Torres left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings16 Oct 2028
Successful dribbles: 16. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout16 Oct 2028
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout16 Oct 2028
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout16 Oct 2028
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 Francesco Scafetta is on it.
Squad16 Oct 2028
Words at Sambenedettese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Riccardo Brighenti 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings9 Oct 2028
Successful dribbles: 31. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match7 Oct 2028
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.
Match7 Oct 2028
5 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Sambenedettese can tell you which week it ends in.
Market9 Oct 2028
Only the photograph left for Ruggero Sanna
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ruggero Sanna will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sambenedettese the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad9 Oct 2028
Francesco Scafetta and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad9 Oct 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Moussa Touré was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout9 Oct 2028
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The dugout9 Oct 2028
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout9 Oct 2028
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
Crisis
Match30 Sep 2028
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Sambenedettese are no longer polite ones.
Match30 Sep 2028
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad2 Oct 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sambenedettese this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match30 Sep 2028
Ascoli left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad2 Oct 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Moussa Touré was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market2 Oct 2028
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Filippo Toscano has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Sambenedettese.
The dugout2 Oct 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Moussa Touré, and the manager let it.
The dugout2 Oct 2028
“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.
Squad2 Oct 2028
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match20 Sep 2028
Pro Patria go through and Sambenedettese go home, 0‑4 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
The terraces25 Sep 2028
0-4. Going out of a cup is one afternoon; going out like that is a week of phone-ins, and the manager will hear every one of them.
The dugout25 Sep 2028
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Match23 Sep 2028
No end in sight to Sambenedettese's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Sambenedettese has to find a result from somewhere.
The dugout25 Sep 2028
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad25 Sep 2028
Francesco Scafetta 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.
Match23 Sep 2028
3 matches without a goal for Sambenedettese
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.
The dugout25 Sep 2028
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Boardroom25 Sep 2028
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad18 Sep 2028
A fracture rules Santiago Krieger out for 14 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.
Match16 Sep 2028
The unbeaten run reaches 10. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Match16 Sep 2028
Sambenedettese make home a hard place to visit
11 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Squad18 Sep 2028
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.
The terraces18 Sep 2028
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.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Moussa Touré was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout18 Sep 2028
Nobody at Sambenedettese 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 dugout18 Sep 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Enrico Colombo was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Sambenedettese dressing room was either.
The dugout18 Sep 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Riccardo Brighenti, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad11 Sep 2028
21 days out for Santiago Krieger 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.
Match9 Sep 2028
The unbeaten run reaches 9. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Market11 Sep 2028
Only the photograph left for Ruggero Sanna
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ruggero Sanna will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sambenedettese the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad11 Sep 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Francesco Scafetta and Sambenedettese agree another 3 years.
Player ratings11 Sep 2028
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad11 Sep 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sambenedettese this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets11 Sep 2028
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The terraces11 Sep 2028
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Words at Sambenedettese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Moussa Touré 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad4 Sep 2028
A fracture rules Santiago Krieger out for 28 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.
Squad4 Sep 2028
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Boardroom4 Sep 2028
Sambenedettese close the window on a squad of their own making
10 in and 8 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.
Match2 Sep 2028
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 8 matches without defeat is a foundation Sambenedettese did not have in the autumn.
Transfer targets4 Sep 2028
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Guidonia Montecelio is saying, and nobody at Sambenedettese is enjoying the guessing.
Match2 Sep 2028
Sambenedettese make home a hard place to visit
10 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Squad4 Sep 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Filippo Toscano and Sambenedettese agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Boardroom4 Sep 2028
Campobasso will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Dario Di Domenico has pre-agreed a move to Sambenedettese, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Transfer targets4 Sep 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ternana have kept their man, and Sambenedettese go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Aug 2028
35 days out for Santiago Krieger 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.
Market28 Aug 2028
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Sambenedettese people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Player ratings28 Aug 2028
Successful dribbles: 26. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Moussa Touré is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Match26 Aug 2028
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.
Match26 Aug 2028
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.
Squad28 Aug 2028
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.
Squad28 Aug 2028
37 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Match26 Aug 2028
Sambenedettese make home a hard place to visit
9 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Aug 2028
A fracture rules Santiago Krieger out for 42 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.
Squad21 Aug 2028
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Francesco Scafetta 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 Aug 2028
Marco Piccoli has improved at 26, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 4 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Transfer targets21 Aug 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Bologna have kept their man, and Sambenedettese go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Boardroom21 Aug 2028
5 academy graduates step up at Sambenedettese
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.
Market21 Aug 2028
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Federico Graziani 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.
Market21 Aug 2028
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Silvio Marchetti is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market21 Aug 2028
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Jacopo Canali 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Aug 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 51 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Filippo Toscano is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad14 Aug 2028
At 26 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 5 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.
Squad14 Aug 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sambenedettese this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets14 Aug 2028
Sambenedettese asked and Trapani said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Transfer targets14 Aug 2028
A loan move for Lorenzo Gori is in the works
Sambenedettese have made the call to Frosinone. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout14 Aug 2028
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout14 Aug 2028
Moussa Touré asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market14 Aug 2028
The name of Moussa Touré keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Sambenedettese say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Aug 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 58 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Alberto Toscano damages knee ligaments — 18 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 18 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Market7 Aug 2028
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Sambenedettese people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The dugout7 Aug 2028
Mirko Pfarherr: 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.
Squad7 Aug 2028
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Transfer targets7 Aug 2028
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Sambenedettese have done the hard part with Empoli, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Francesco Scafetta and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout7 Aug 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Riccardo Brighenti, and the manager let it.
The dugout7 Aug 2028
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 Federico Chiatante is on it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad31 Jul 2028
65 days out for Santiago Krieger 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.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Alberto Toscano damages knee ligaments — 25 days out
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.
Squad31 Jul 2028
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad31 Jul 2028
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.
Transfer targets31 Jul 2028
Sambenedettese asked and Juventus said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market31 Jul 2028
The phone has started ringing about Ruggero Sanna again, and this time the name on the line is Siracusa. Sambenedettese are listening politely and promising nothing.
The dugout31 Jul 2028
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout31 Jul 2028
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 Francesco Scafetta is on it.
Market31 Jul 2028
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Sambenedettese, another week without a signature from Gabriele Gigante.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 Jul 2028
A fracture rules Santiago Krieger 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.
Squad24 Jul 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Alberto Toscano
32 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sambenedettese lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Giorgio De Marzi is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Transfer targets24 Jul 2028
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.
Transfer targets24 Jul 2028
No thanks: Majkol Luka rejects the move
Sambenedettese had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Fiorentina, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Francesco Scafetta was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Transfer targets24 Jul 2028
Sambenedettese asked and Napoli 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 dugout24 Jul 2028
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Transfer targets24 Jul 2028
A loan enquiry to Inter: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 Jul 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 80 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The dugout17 Jul 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Sambenedettese may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market17 Jul 2028
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Sambenedettese have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Squad17 Jul 2028
A muscle injury sidelines Pepín Machín for 14 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Sambenedettese will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Transfer targets17 Jul 2028
The deal with Mantova 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.
Squad17 Jul 2028
At 23 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Transfer targets17 Jul 2028
Sambenedettese asked and Trapani said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Pasquale Marranzino 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 dugout17 Jul 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Moussa Touré, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Jul 2028
87 days out for Santiago Krieger 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.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Luke Alker is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Francesco Scafetta and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Francesco Scafetta has improved at 25, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Transfer targets10 Jul 2028
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The dugout10 Jul 2028
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Transfer targets10 Jul 2028
Empoli 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.
Market10 Jul 2028
Alcione Milano are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Sambenedettese will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
The dugout10 Jul 2028
Nobody at Sambenedettese will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Jul 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 95 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The dugout3 Jul 2028
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Boardroom3 Jul 2028
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Lorenzo Colonnese has agreed terms with Pianese for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad3 Jul 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Francesco Scafetta was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets3 Jul 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Salernitana have kept their man, and Sambenedettese go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad3 Jul 2028
Pasquale Marranzino and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 Jul 2028
35 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Boardroom3 Jul 2028
Signed today, seen by nobody for years, and one of them may one day be the reason the club exists. That is the whole of the argument for an academy, and it is a good one.
The dugout3 Jul 2028
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 Francesco Scafetta is on it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Jun 2028
A fracture rules Santiago Krieger out for 102 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.
Transfer targets26 Jun 2028
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Pisa is saying, and nobody at Sambenedettese is enjoying the guessing.
Squad26 Jun 2028
The medical room confirms 36 days on the sidelines for Giuseppe Guadagni, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Transfer targets26 Jun 2028
Everything agreed with AS Roma, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Market26 Jun 2028
Only the photograph left for Ruggero Sanna
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ruggero Sanna will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sambenedettese the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Giorgio De Marzi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Francesco Scafetta 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 targets26 Jun 2028
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Transfer targets26 Jun 2028
Juventus 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Jun 2028
A fracture rules Santiago Krieger out for 109 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.
Transfer targets19 Jun 2028
The clubs have shaken hands with Sassuolo; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Squad19 Jun 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sambenedettese this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Words at Sambenedettese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kevin Candellori is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The dugout19 Jun 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Antonio Vetrò, and the manager let it.
The dugout19 Jun 2028
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Jun 2028
116 days out for Santiago Krieger 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.
Market12 Jun 2028
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Arzignano waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Sambenedettese is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Transfer targets12 Jun 2028
$430.0K settles it between the clubs for Michelangelo Conti
Frosinone have accepted the money. What Sambenedettese do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Giorgio De Marzi 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 Jun 2028
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Leonardo Pregnolato has just signed for Sambenedettese, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad12 Jun 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Vincenzo Alfieri commits to Sambenedettese for another 4 years.
Boardroom12 Jun 2028
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Andrey Krastev has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Sambenedettese have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
The dugout12 Jun 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Moussa Touré, and the manager let it.
The dugout12 Jun 2028
Nobody at Sambenedettese will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Jun 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 123 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market5 Jun 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sambenedettese can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets5 Jun 2028
The deal with Potenza 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.
Squad5 Jun 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sambenedettese this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Francesco Scafetta 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 Jun 2028
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Transfer targets5 Jun 2028
Alvarado 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.
The dugout5 Jun 2028
Nobody at Sambenedettese will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad29 May 2028
131 days out for Santiago Krieger 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.
Squad29 May 2028
The medical room confirms 64 days on the sidelines for Giuseppe Guadagni, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Market29 May 2028
Only the photograph left for Ruggero Sanna
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ruggero Sanna will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sambenedettese the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad29 May 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sambenedettese this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad29 May 2028
Words at Sambenedettese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kevin Candellori 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 dugout29 May 2028
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout29 May 2028
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout29 May 2028
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Sambenedettese, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout29 May 2028
The manager makes Antonio Vetrò a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Sambenedettese. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout22 May 2028
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad22 May 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Alessandro Zoboletti and Sambenedettese agree another 4 years.
Squad22 May 2028
Francesco Scafetta 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.
Squad22 May 2028
Pasquale Marranzino 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.
Market22 May 2028
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Kevin Candellori has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Sambenedettese.
The dugout22 May 2028
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout22 May 2028
Giorgio De Marzi has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Sambenedettese 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.
Market22 May 2028
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Giuseppe Guadagni’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout22 May 2028
Antonio Vetrò asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout15 May 2028
Moussa Touré: 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.
Squad15 May 2028
Words at Sambenedettese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Francesco Scafetta 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.
Squad15 May 2028
Pasquale Marranzino 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 dugout15 May 2028
Nobody at Sambenedettese 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 dugout15 May 2028
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Kevin Candellori trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad15 May 2028
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
Squad8 May 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Simone Magnaghi commits to Sambenedettese for another 2 years.
Squad8 May 2028
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.
Squad8 May 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kevin Candellori was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad8 May 2028
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Giuseppe Guadagni is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout8 May 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mirko Pfarherr, and the manager let it.
The dugout8 May 2028
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad1 May 2028
A season's verdict on Giorgio De Marzi: the best of his age
Sambenedettese have a 21-year-old the division has just voted its finest young footballer. The club's next problem is that everybody else now knows it too.
Squad1 May 2028
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Sambenedettese had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Market1 May 2028
Ruggero Sanna has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sambenedettese they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad1 May 2028
Francesco Scafetta was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad1 May 2028
Vincenzo Alfieri 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 dugout1 May 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Gastón Pérez, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 Apr 2028
Giorgio De Marzi and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Francesco Scafetta was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout24 Apr 2028
The manager makes an example of Antonio Vetrò
“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 dugout24 Apr 2028
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Sambenedettese told Filippo Toscano something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout24 Apr 2028
Giorgio De Marzi has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Sambenedettese 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 dugout24 Apr 2028
Gastón Pérez knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Sambenedettese, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match17 Apr 2028
The season ends: position 7 for Sambenedettese
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 56 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Sambenedettese may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings17 Apr 2028
Successful dribbles: 24. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad17 Apr 2028
13 goals and a season average of 7.34. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Francesco Scafetta and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match15 Apr 2028
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Sambenedettese did not have in the autumn.
Match15 Apr 2028
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Player ratings17 Apr 2028
A performance of 8.29 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad17 Apr 2028
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Apr 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sambenedettese this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Words at Sambenedettese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Francesco Scafetta 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 terraces10 Apr 2028
At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Squad10 Apr 2028
200 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
The dugout10 Apr 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Riccardo Brighenti, and the manager let it.
Player ratings10 Apr 2028
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout10 Apr 2028
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout10 Apr 2028
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The dugout10 Apr 2028
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings3 Apr 2028
A brace, and Giuseppe Guadagni takes the afternoon — 8.45
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Giuseppe Guadagni provided it, and the 8.45 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market3 Apr 2028
Only the photograph left for Ruggero Sanna
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ruggero Sanna will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sambenedettese the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Player ratings3 Apr 2028
Successful dribbles: 22. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Defences have started doubling up on Giuseppe Guadagni
12 goals and a season average of 7.32 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Francesco Scafetta was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad3 Apr 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sambenedettese this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout3 Apr 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Giorgio De Marzi, and the manager let it.
Match1 Apr 2028
8 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Player ratings3 Apr 2028
A performance of 8.28 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match25 Mar 2028
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 4‑0 against Bra, and it could have been more.
Player ratings27 Mar 2028
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.43, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings27 Mar 2028
At 34 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.47, and nobody on the pitch better.
Squad27 Mar 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sambenedettese this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings27 Mar 2028
Successful dribbles: 19. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Defences have started doubling up on Giuseppe Guadagni
10 goals and a season average of 7.29 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Words at Sambenedettese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kevin Candellori 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 dugout27 Mar 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Moussa Touré, and the manager let it.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Enrico Colombo, on a 4‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad20 Mar 2028
Giorgio De Marzi 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.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Words at Sambenedettese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Francesco Scafetta 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.
Squad20 Mar 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Matías Jorquera and Sambenedettese agree another 4 years.
Player ratings20 Mar 2028
A mark of 7.34, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout20 Mar 2028
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Francesco Simoncelli will call it something else in private.
The dugout20 Mar 2028
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 Giorgio De Marzi is on it.
The dugout20 Mar 2028
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Enrico Colombo chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Player ratings20 Mar 2028
Successful dribbles: 13. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match18 Mar 2028
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Pianese will be the happier side with the point.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings13 Mar 2028
At 34 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.08, and nobody on the pitch better.
Squad13 Mar 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sambenedettese this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Francesco Scafetta 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 terraces13 Mar 2028
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.
Match11 Mar 2028
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.
Player ratings13 Mar 2028
A performance of 8.22 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
The manager makes an example of Gastón Pérez
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
The 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.” Enrico Colombo kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
Nobody at Sambenedettese will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market6 Mar 2028
Only the photograph left for Ruggero Sanna
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ruggero Sanna will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sambenedettese the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match4 Mar 2028
After 8 games, Sambenedettese finally taste it again
The first defeat in 8 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Perugia; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Francesco Scafetta 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.
Match4 Mar 2028
Perugia left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad6 Mar 2028
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.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Defences have started doubling up on Giuseppe Guadagni
8 goals and a season average of 7.27 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
The dugout6 Mar 2028
“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.
Player ratings6 Mar 2028
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.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Pepín Machín named in the team of the month
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Pepín Machín is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match26 Feb 2028
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 8 matches without defeat is a foundation Sambenedettese did not have in the autumn.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Francesco Scafetta 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.
Squad28 Feb 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sambenedettese this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match26 Feb 2028
It finished 1‑0, and it was Pepín Machín’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Sambenedettese.
Player ratings28 Feb 2028
Successful dribbles: 18. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Player ratings28 Feb 2028
Pepín Machín was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.02. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
The dugout28 Feb 2028
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Enrico Colombo, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The dugout28 Feb 2028
Nobody at Sambenedettese 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.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Pepín Machín finally opens his account
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
Steady
Match19 Feb 2028
No end in sight to Sambenedettese's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Sambenedettese has to find a result from somewhere.
Match19 Feb 2028
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 7 matches without defeat is a foundation Sambenedettese did not have in the autumn.
Player ratings21 Feb 2028
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Giorgio De Marzi 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 Feb 2028
Words at Sambenedettese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Francesco Scafetta 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 dugout21 Feb 2028
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
“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.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
Somebody else is better right now than Moussa Touré
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Feb 2028
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.
Match12 Feb 2028
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.
Transfer targets14 Feb 2028
The clock did what Pescara would not, and ended it. Supporters who watched the countdown will spend the next window doing it again.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Words at Sambenedettese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kevin Candellori 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.
Squad14 Feb 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Federico Chiatante and Sambenedettese agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Match12 Feb 2028
Late, late show earns Sambenedettese a point
Minute 92, against Torres, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
The dugout14 Feb 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Riccardo Bongelli, and the manager let it.
Player ratings14 Feb 2028
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout14 Feb 2028
Something was said to Francesco Scafetta and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets7 Feb 2028
Sambenedettese and Pescara have settled on $220.0K. 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.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Sambenedettese close the window on a squad of their own making
1 in and 2 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Squad7 Feb 2028
The medical room confirms 26 days on the sidelines for Enrico Schiavone, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Market7 Feb 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Sambenedettese is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Player ratings7 Feb 2028
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Francesco Scafetta 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 targets7 Feb 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Colegiales have kept their man, and Sambenedettese go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad7 Feb 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sambenedettese this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Feb 2028
8 goals and a season average of 7.26. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.