From our football correspondent
Steady
Match27 Feb 2027
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 15 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Defences have started doubling up on Kevin Martins
19 goals and a season average of 7.54 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Market1 Mar 2027
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.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad1 Mar 2027
“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.
Match27 Feb 2027
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Looking ahead1 Mar 2027
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tomas Lepri was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad22 Feb 2027
Defences have started doubling up on Lorenzo Sgarbi
31 goals and a season average of 7.76 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Match20 Feb 2027
The unbeaten run reaches 15. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
Alessandro Zoboletti, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.63
A mark of 7.63 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad22 Feb 2027
He is 21, he is averaging 7.01, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Squad22 Feb 2027
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 terraces22 Feb 2027
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.
Match20 Feb 2027
Three points for Sambenedettese, 2‑0 the final word against Livorno in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.74, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
A performance of 8.57 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad15 Feb 2027
30 goals and a season average of 7.73. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Match13 Feb 2027
Torres will want this one forgotten quickly: 6‑3, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Sambenedettese were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Squad15 Feb 2027
4 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Match13 Feb 2027
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 14 matches without defeat is a foundation Sambenedettese did not have in the autumn.
Match13 Feb 2027
Going 2 down does something to a side, and what it usually does is finish them. Not here. Sambenedettese rebuilt the afternoon goal by goal, and Torres had no answer to any of it.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
A brace, and Kevin Martins takes the afternoon — 10.00
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Kevin Martins provided it, and the 10.00 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Ninety minutes of Lorenzo Sgarbi at his very best
Marked 9.99. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Sambenedettese.
Transfer targets15 Feb 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sassuolo have kept their man, and Sambenedettese go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad8 Feb 2027
Defences have started doubling up on Lorenzo Sgarbi
26 goals and a season average of 7.67 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Match6 Feb 2027
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 13 matches without defeat is a foundation Sambenedettese did not have in the autumn.
Match8 Feb 2027
First, on 54 points. The table is a fact and a fact is allowed to be enjoyed, which is as far as anybody at the club is prepared to go in public.
Boardroom8 Feb 2027
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.
Transfer targets8 Feb 2027
Sambenedettese asked and Cagliari said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market8 Feb 2027
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Flavio Dalla Valle has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market8 Feb 2027
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Romano Zenoni is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to José Luís Sanabria, and the manager let it.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad1 Feb 2027
Defences have started doubling up on Lorenzo Sgarbi
25 goals and a season average of 7.66 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Market1 Feb 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sambenedettese can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout1 Feb 2027
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Sambenedettese have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.00, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Match30 Jan 2027
The unbeaten run reaches 12. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Market1 Feb 2027
Simone Paolini 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.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Sambenedettese close the window on a squad of their own making
2 in and 0 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.
Match30 Jan 2027
After 9 games, Sambenedettese finally taste it again
The first defeat in 9 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Ascoli; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Christian Zawieschitzky 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match23 Jan 2027
9 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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
23 goals and a season average of 7.62. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Market25 Jan 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
Alessandro Zoboletti, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.75
A mark of 7.75 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Christian Zawieschitzky was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
Sambenedettese asked and AS Roma said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The terraces25 Jan 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Kevin Martins 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.
Match23 Jan 2027
It finished 1‑0, and it was Lorenzo Sgarbi’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Sambenedettese.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
Defensive actions: 18, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match16 Jan 2027
Nobody wants to play Sambenedettese right now
8 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Defences have started doubling up on Lorenzo Sgarbi
22 goals and a season average of 7.61 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad18 Jan 2027
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Alessandro Zoboletti, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.91
A mark of 7.91 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Olympiacos keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Match16 Jan 2027
5 away wins in a row. Travelling support is the truest kind, and this season it is being repaid in the only currency that counts.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Lorenzo Sgarbi was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.68. 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Vincenzo Alfieri and Sambenedettese agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match9 Jan 2027
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Sambenedettese have 7 straight wins of it.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.22, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Match11 Jan 2027
46 points and nobody above them. The word is not being said around the ground yet, and it is being thought in every seat.
Market11 Jan 2027
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Sambenedettese, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Alessandro Zoboletti did not need any: 7.61, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
Everything agreed with Olympiacos, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
Sambenedettese asked and Torreense said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match9 Jan 2027
It finished 2‑0, and it was Kevin Martins’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Sambenedettese.
Market11 Jan 2027
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Andrea Corsini 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
Triumph
Market4 Jan 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Match2 Jan 2027
6 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.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Kevin Martins, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.10
A mark of 8.10 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Sambenedettese may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad4 Jan 2027
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Sambenedettese will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Squad4 Jan 2027
At 21, Kevin Martins is already the best thing here
An average of 7.36 in a first team he is several years too young for. Sambenedettese have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Tommaso Orsini is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad4 Jan 2027
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Sambenedettese know it.
Match2 Jan 2027
Another one collected away from home
4 on the bounce on the road for Sambenedettese. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match26 Dec 2026
4‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Kevin Martins, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 10.00
A mark of 10.00 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad28 Dec 2026
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Squad28 Dec 2026
A season average of 7.54 with 19 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Match28 Dec 2026
Position 3 and 40 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Match26 Dec 2026
5 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
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 terraces28 Dec 2026
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Marked 8.46 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
In brief
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Squad
Tomas Lepri falls out with a teammate over standards
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
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The dugout
The manager makes an example of Vittorio Parigini
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match19 Dec 2026
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
A brace, and Kevin Martins takes the afternoon — 9.30
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Kevin Martins provided it, and the 9.30 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad21 Dec 2026
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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
A season average of 7.51 with 18 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Match19 Dec 2026
Nobody wants to play Sambenedettese right now
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
The terraces21 Dec 2026
At 19 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Match19 Dec 2026
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for Sambenedettese. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Marked 8.67 — 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.
Match19 Dec 2026
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Pontedera tried to reorganise, Sambenedettese did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
No sign of nerves from Kevin Martins at 21 — 7.90
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Kevin Martins did not need any: 7.90, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad14 Dec 2026
17 goals and a season average of 7.46. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Match12 Dec 2026
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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Christian Zawieschitzky and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match12 Dec 2026
Three points for Sambenedettese, 3‑1 the final word against Ternana in a contest settled by the finer margins.
The terraces14 Dec 2026
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Market14 Dec 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Bruno Bonetti has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market14 Dec 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Armando Zenoni has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Dec 2026
A fracture rules Umberto Eusepi out for 16 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.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Two goals and a mark of 9.06 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad7 Dec 2026
A season average of 7.45 with 16 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad7 Dec 2026
He is 21, he is averaging 7.13, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Christian Zawieschitzky 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.
Match5 Dec 2026
It finished 3‑1, and it was Lorenzo Sgarbi’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Sambenedettese.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
The one goal a footballer does not get to celebrate and does not get to forget either. His name is in the wrong column and nothing about it was meant.
Boardroom7 Dec 2026
Wages swallow 87% 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad30 Nov 2026
23 days out for Umberto Eusepi 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.
Match28 Nov 2026
5‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Squad30 Nov 2026
The match ball belongs to Lorenzo Sgarbi, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Kevin Martins, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 9.23
A mark of 9.23 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
A defender's goal wins it for Sambenedettese — 7.86
1 for Pepín Machín, marked 7.86, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Squad30 Nov 2026
14 goals and a season average of 7.38. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Match28 Nov 2026
7 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Bra were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Ninety minutes of Lorenzo Sgarbi at his very best
Marked 9.84. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Sambenedettese.
The terraces30 Nov 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Kevin Martins 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad23 Nov 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 31 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match21 Nov 2026
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.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Raffaele Marchioro, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.71
A mark of 7.71 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Match21 Nov 2026
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Raffaele Marchioro had Sambenedettese level again within 3 minutes, and Pianese never got to play with a lead at all.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Moussa Touré in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sambenedettese this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad23 Nov 2026
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.
Match21 Nov 2026
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
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
Uneasy
Squad16 Nov 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 38 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match14 Nov 2026
The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around Sambenedettese are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
11 goals and a season average of 7.30. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad16 Nov 2026
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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Sambenedettese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tomas Lepri is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“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.
Match14 Nov 2026
A goal on 86 minutes turned three points into one and a good afternoon into an argument about game management that will run until Saturday.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad9 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Mattia Pellegrino
17 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 46 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match4 Nov 2026
1‑4 against AC Milan, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Squad9 Nov 2026
There were 8 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.
The terraces9 Nov 2026
1-4. 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.
Match7 Nov 2026
No end in sight to Sambenedettese's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Sambenedettese has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad9 Nov 2026
A season average of 7.05 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Sambenedettese know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Match7 Nov 2026
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Market9 Nov 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Giorgio Landi has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad2 Nov 2026
25 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Sambenedettese lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad2 Nov 2026
A fracture rules Umberto Eusepi out for 53 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
10 goals and a season average of 7.31. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Simone Magnaghi, and the manager let it.
Squad2 Nov 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Moussa Touré and Sambenedettese agree another 4 years.
Match31 Oct 2026
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 93. Arezzo had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
Match31 Oct 2026
2‑2, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 2‑2 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Looking ahead2 Nov 2026
Perugia top the table and they are coming into view. Nothing to lose, which is what every manager says before losing.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad26 Oct 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 60 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sambenedettese this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Oct 2026
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.
Market26 Oct 2026
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Tommaso Orsini has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Sambenedettese.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Too much change too quickly at Sambenedettese
13 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
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.” Alfonso Zanetti chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad19 Oct 2026
68 days out for Umberto Eusepi 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.
Match17 Oct 2026
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 Torres; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Christian Zawieschitzky and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match17 Oct 2026
Torres left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Giuseppe Ciocci 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Kevin Candellori falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Leonardo Pezzola, and the manager let it.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
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
Triumph
Squad12 Oct 2026
76 days out for Umberto Eusepi 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.
Match10 Oct 2026
Nobody wants to play Sambenedettese right now
8 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Two goals and a mark of 9.15 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Kevin Martins, 21, steals the show — 8.98
Marked 8.98 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Sambenedettese may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad12 Oct 2026
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad12 Oct 2026
At 21, Kevin Martins is already the best thing here
An average of 7.10 in a first team he is several years too young for. Sambenedettese have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
The terraces12 Oct 2026
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad5 Oct 2026
A fracture rules Umberto Eusepi out for 83 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.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.49, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Match3 Oct 2026
Nobody wants to play Sambenedettese right now
7 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Match3 Oct 2026
Three points for Sambenedettese, 3‑1 the final word against Ascoli in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Marked 8.96 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Simone Magnaghi, and the manager let it.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Tomas Lepri falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Kevin Martins is the month’s best young player
At 21 he was better than everybody his age in the division for four weeks running, which is harder than one good afternoon. Sambenedettese will try not to make too much of it.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Moussa Touré 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad28 Sep 2026
90 days out for Umberto Eusepi 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.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 37. 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 10 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Match23 Sep 2026
A 3‑1 win over Vicenza, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.12, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
A brace, and Lorenzo Sgarbi takes the afternoon — 8.89
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Lorenzo Sgarbi provided it, and the 8.89 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Match26 Sep 2026
Nobody wants to play Sambenedettese right now
6 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Tommaso Orsini and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Match26 Sep 2026
4 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad21 Sep 2026
97 days out for Umberto Eusepi 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.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.81 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Match19 Sep 2026
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Sambenedettese have 4 straight wins of it.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Tommaso Orsini was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
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.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
17 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Squad21 Sep 2026
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.
In brief
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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Squad
The weekend belonged to Kevin Martins
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The dugout
The plan did not have a place for Tommaso Orsini
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad14 Sep 2026
105 days out for Umberto Eusepi 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.
Market14 Sep 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sambenedettese can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.20, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Match12 Sep 2026
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.
Match12 Sep 2026
A 3‑1 win over Carpi, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.89, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The terraces14 Sep 2026
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Market14 Sep 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Jacopo Bellini has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to José Luís Sanabria, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad7 Sep 2026
Umberto Eusepi breaks a bone — 113 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 113 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market7 Sep 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 22 signed and 0 gone
That is the business done at Sambenedettese until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Le Havre AC is saying, and nobody at Sambenedettese is enjoying the guessing.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Christian Zawieschitzky 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.
Match5 Sep 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Simone Magnaghi’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Sambenedettese.
Squad7 Sep 2026
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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
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.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.87 on the card, and the Sambenedettese support went home talking about one name.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad31 Aug 2026
A fracture rules Umberto Eusepi out for 121 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.
Match29 Aug 2026
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 5‑2 against Forli, and it could have been more.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.08, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad31 Aug 2026
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Market31 Aug 2026
Alessio Zini 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 targets31 Aug 2026
The deal with Le Havre AC 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.
Match29 Aug 2026
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Sambenedettese and Forli, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Ninety minutes of Lorenzo Sgarbi at his very best
Marked 9.72. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Sambenedettese.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market24 Aug 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sambenedettese can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
The deal with Tours is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Kevin Candellori falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Mirko Chelli 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.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
Sambenedettese say no to the training-ground money
The plan went upstairs and came back down. Nothing about that will make a headline anywhere else, and everybody who works at the training ground will remember it for years.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Sambenedettese would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Sambenedettese asked and Austria Wien said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market17 Aug 2026
He signed expecting a bigger stage than the one he found. It has not taken long, and it has not taken the dressing room long to notice either.
Squad17 Aug 2026
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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Francesco Scafetta and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad17 Aug 2026
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Sambenedettese have made the call to Red Bull Salzburg. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Venezia 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Sambenedettese know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Market17 Aug 2026
Sambenedettese have let the market know Simone Paolini can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Aug 2026
Tommaso Orsini and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Edoardo Marchetti is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Gianmarco Pagani has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Luca Lombardi is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Armando Ferri 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Sambenedettese will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Squad10 Aug 2026
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 targets10 Aug 2026
Sambenedettese have made the call to Guidonia Montecelio. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
A loan move for Lorenzo Befani 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Pepín Machín and Sambenedettese agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Tommaso Orsini and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Livorno have kept their man, and Sambenedettese go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad3 Aug 2026
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.
Market3 Aug 2026
49 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Parma 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.