Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sorrento they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sorrento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 8.53. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Sorrento.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Words at Sorrento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Denis Portanova 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.
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Sorrento, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sorrento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Antonio Amato is living that version at Sorrento, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad4 Sep 2028
Federico Ricci has improved at 34, 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.
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.
“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 The request is on a desk at Sorrento, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sorrento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Eugenio D'Ursi has improved at 33, 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.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Words at Sorrento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Denis Portanova 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Antonio Potenza is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Ludovico Del Sorbo was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
At 32 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Giorgio D'Amico 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Teodoro Valentini 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Carlo Bertolini has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Riccardo D'Agostino is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sorrento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Felipe Álvarez is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Christian Kabasele and Sorrento agree another 2 years.
Ludovico Del Sorbo was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sorrento can pretend not to have heard.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Mario Vilardi is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Ludovico Del Sorbo was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Words at Sorrento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniele Solcia is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Leonardo Capezzi was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Nobody at Sorrento 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ludovico Del Sorbo is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Ludovico Del Sorbo was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Ludovico Del Sorbo reports back to Sorrento with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sorrento can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Sorrento have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sorrento they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sorrento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
In brief
SquadDaniele Solcia falls out with a teammate over standards
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Sorrento have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Ludovico Del Sorbo 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.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Young Boys will make the call about Ludovico Del Sorbo this week. Sorrento have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Words at Sorrento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniele Solcia is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sorrento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sorrento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Words at Sorrento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniele Solcia 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.
“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 Sorrento, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sorrento they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sorrento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“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 Sorrento know it.
Nobody at Sorrento 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Sorrento have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Sorrento is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sorrento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Sorrento have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sorrento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Ludovico Del Sorbo 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.
Squad15 May 2028
Words at Sorrento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniele Solcia 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.
“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 Sorrento, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sorrento they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sorrento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Ludovico Del Sorbo 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ian Campbell will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sorrento the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Ludovico Del Sorbo 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.
Marked 8.24 — 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.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
It needed Simone Cangianiello to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Siracusa, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sorrento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“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; Sorrento are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
17 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sorrento lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The terraces17 Apr 2028
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 8 of the 31 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
Ludovico Del Sorbo was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
8.08. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
“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; Sorrento are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Nobody's fault and entirely his: a goal that goes into the book with his name against it and nothing about it intended. Sorrento deserved better, and so did he.
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Sorrento have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Zachary Scerri will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sorrento the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The words a physio says slowly. 32 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sorrento they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sorrento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Sorrento did not have in the autumn.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Words at Sorrento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniele Solcia 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Sorrento know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The words a physio says slowly. 39 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Sorrento have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sorrento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
47 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sorrento lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Sorrento, and it is not being withdrawn.
Ludovico Del Sorbo 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 Sorrento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniele Solcia 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.
Marked 8.95 — 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.
54 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sorrento lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sorrento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
61 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sorrento lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ian Campbell will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sorrento the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Ludovico Del Sorbo was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
At 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.
68 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sorrento lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.42 at 37, and nobody on the pitch was better.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sorrento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
12 combined actions and 6.65. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
18 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
75 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sorrento lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sorrento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Words at Sorrento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniele Solcia 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.
84 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sorrento lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 85th, and Picerno spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
Two goals and a mark of 8.24 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Ian Campbell has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sorrento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 Sorrento know it.
91 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sorrento lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Sorrento have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ian Campbell will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sorrento the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Ludovico Del Sorbo 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 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.
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.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 19 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sorrento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Marked 5.27. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
“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 Sorrento, and it is not being withdrawn.
Ludovico Del Sorbo 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 music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Saer Diop 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.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sorrento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
8.78. 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.
Ludovico Del Sorbo 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.
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Christian Kabasele from Udinese for $310.0K, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Words at Sorrento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniele Solcia 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.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Simone Cangianiello had Sorrento level again within 1 minutes, and Catania never got to play with a lead at all.
“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.
Squad10 Jan 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Vincenzo Plescia's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
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 Sorrento have had the benefit of it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sorrento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Sorrento and Latina in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Eugenio D'Ursi signs something — a contract at Sorrento or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sorrento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“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 Sorrento, and it is not being withdrawn.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Ludovico Del Sorbo 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 Dec 2027
Words at Sorrento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniele Solcia is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Simone Cangianiello 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sorrento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Words at Sorrento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Saer Diop is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ludovico Del Sorbo is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Ludovico Del Sorbo was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Words at Sorrento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniele Solcia is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I watch every Sorrento game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Monopoli runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Shots: 10. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sorrento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
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.
Ludovico Del Sorbo 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.
“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.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Saer Diop 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.
“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 Sorrento, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Leonardo Capezzi was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Player ratings15 Nov 2027
Denis Portanova was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.57. 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Sorrento, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
Ludovico Del Sorbo 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.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Words at Sorrento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniele Solcia is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Eugenio D'Ursi signs something — a contract at Sorrento or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sorrento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Words at Sorrento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Saer Diop 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.
11 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Sorrento know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Ludovico Del Sorbo 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.
9 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Words at Sorrento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniele Solcia is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
8.77. 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 words a physio says slowly. 16 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.37 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sorrento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Sorrento and Casarano, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Ludovico Del Sorbo has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
The words a physio says slowly. 23 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Simone Cangianiello will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Sorrento escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Ludovico Del Sorbo 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.
“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; Sorrento are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
It needed Simone Cangianiello to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against Monopoli, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The words a physio says slowly. 32 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sorrento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I watch every Sorrento game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Monopoli runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The words a physio says slowly. 39 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.
Audace Cerignola go through and Sorrento go home, 1‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Ludovico Del Sorbo: 1 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Ludovico Del Sorbo 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.
47 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sorrento lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sorrento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
54 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sorrento lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
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.
Ludovico Del Sorbo was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Simone Cangianiello 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.
8.49. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
The words a physio says slowly. 62 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.
14 appearances across 8 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Riccardo D'Agostino is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Luca Crecco was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Sorrento has been clear about where Claudio Santini stands, which is more than many ever get.
The words a physio says slowly. 69 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The terraces30 Aug 2027
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 6 of the 28 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Mario Vilardi is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sorrento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Daniele Solcia signs something — a contract at Sorrento or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The words a physio says slowly. 76 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Simone Cangianiello is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Luca Crecco was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
At 29 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.
Boardroom23 Aug 2027
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Sorrento
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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Giovanni Longo 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Gennaro Bianchi 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Ciro Zorzi 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Nicolò Alessi is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
84 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sorrento lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ludovico Del Sorbo is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sorrento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
91 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sorrento lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Sorrento, and it is not being withdrawn.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Mher Kankanyan is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Luca Crecco was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
8 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Sorrento know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
98 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sorrento lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The fee is $190.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Giugliano drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sorrento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces2 Aug 2027
Sorrento spend $190.0K on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $190.0K for Luca Bolletta, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
“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; Sorrento are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
In brief
SquadWords at Sorrento training over how hard people work
The words a physio says slowly. 106 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.
He is going to Cesena, the club has $740.0K it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Luca Crecco 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.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Words at Sorrento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Saer Diop is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The words a physio says slowly. 113 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sorrento can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sorrento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Saer Diop 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 words a physio says slowly. 120 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.
Vincenzo Plescia 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 name of Mattia Esposito has come up in conversations Sorrento were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
6 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Nobody at Sorrento will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Sorrento know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The deal that would have taken Andrea D'Aniello to Novara has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Sorrento with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sorrento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 26 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
“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; Sorrento are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
None of them will be seen by anybody outside the training ground for three years, most of them will never play a senior match, and one of them might change the club. That is the whole proposition, and it is why academies exist.
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.
Luca Crecco was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Alexandros Salvanos is living that version at Sorrento, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Words at Sorrento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mher Kankanyan is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Not 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.
Daniele Solcia 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 Jun 2027
Luca Crecco 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.
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.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Novara will make the call about Andrea D'Aniello this week. Sorrento have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Matteo Ruggiero has his answer from Sorrento; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ludovico Del Sorbo is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sorrento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Words at Sorrento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luca Crecco is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The phone has started ringing about Andrea D'Aniello again, and this time the name on the line is Potenza. Sorrento are listening politely and promising nothing.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Sorrento know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sorrento they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sorrento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Ian Campbell has just signed for Sorrento, and for once the answer mattered.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Sorrento has been clear about where Andrea D'Aniello stands, which is more than many ever get.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sorrento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 May 2027
Words at Sorrento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luca Crecco 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.
Marco Cuccurullo was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad24 May 2027
Luca Crecco 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.
Luca Crecco was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Bassidy Sanogo 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.
19 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Andrea D'Aniello will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sorrento the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Ludovico Del Sorbo 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 unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad10 May 2027
Luca Crecco falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Mher Kankanyan is living that version at Sorrento, and it tends to show in the first month.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sorrento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 May 2027
Words at Sorrento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luca Crecco 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.
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.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 20 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
19 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sorrento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Getting past Ludovico Del Sorbo has become the hardest job in the division
15 clean sheets and counting. Forwards used to back themselves here; now they shoot early, shoot wide, and look for somebody to blame.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at Sorrento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniele Solcia is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Simone Cangianiello 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.
8.25. 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 hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Gaël Lafont did not need any: 8.19, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Marco Cuccurullo 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.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Luca Crecco falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Gaël Lafont has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Sorrento is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sorrento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Words at Sorrento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luca Crecco is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sorrento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A 3‑2 win over Foggia, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Words at Sorrento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniele Solcia 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.
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Foggia spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Bassidy Sanogo has come out of that comparison in the side, and Sorrento have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Simon Harrasser is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Getting past Ludovico Del Sorbo has become the hardest job in the division
15 clean sheets and counting. Forwards used to back themselves here; now they shoot early, shoot wide, and look for somebody to blame.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 21 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at Sorrento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luca Crecco is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sorrento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Ludovico Del Sorbo 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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Getting past Ludovico Del Sorbo has become the hardest job in the division
14 clean sheets and counting. Forwards used to back themselves here; now they shoot early, shoot wide, and look for somebody to blame.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Luca Crecco 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ludovico Del Sorbo is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Andrea D'Aniello will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sorrento the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Luca Crecco was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
At 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.
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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.21 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Marco Cuccurullo 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.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Luca Crecco falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 18-year-old it feels ownership of. Bassidy Sanogo 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.
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.
Luca Crecco was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Nobody at Sorrento will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sorrento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Andrea D'Aniello will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sorrento the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sorrento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at Sorrento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luca Crecco is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
A defender's mistake gets tidied up by somebody else; a goalkeeper's ends up in the net. He knew before the ball crossed the line, and so did everybody in the ground.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Leonardo Capezzi signs something — a contract at Sorrento or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sorrento can pretend not to have heard.
Every paper's favourite story and every manager's least. What happened is being dealt with internally, which is the phrase clubs use when they would rather nobody asked again.
Federico Ricci 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.
Position 3, 35 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Sorrento, and it is not being withdrawn.
He will be fined, he will apologise, and he will play on Saturday. The order of those three tells you everything about what a football club actually values.
25 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sorrento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The name of Andrea D'Aniello has come up in conversations Sorrento were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Daniele Solcia was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Luca Crecco 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.
“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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Leonardo Capezzi's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 6 of the 30 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
Luca Crecco was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Leonardo Capezzi signs something — a contract at Sorrento or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ludovico Del Sorbo is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sorrento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Sorrento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniele Solcia 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.
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 Sorrento have had the benefit of it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sorrento can pretend not to have heard.
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.
One scored and one made, which is a different afternoon from scoring twice and an easier one to overlook. Marked 7.94, and involved in 2 of his side's goals.
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.
Alex Amadio, 18, plays like he has been here for years — 7.99
A mark of 7.99 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 18-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sorrento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 Dec 2026
Getting past Ludovico Del Sorbo has become the hardest job in the division
11 clean sheets and counting. Forwards used to back themselves here; now they shoot early, shoot wide, and look for somebody to blame.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sorrento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
8.97. 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.
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.
Marked 8.17 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Ludovico Del Sorbo 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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Luca Crecco 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.
Luca Crecco was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 18-year-old it feels ownership of. Alex Amadio has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Alex Amadio. 1‑0 against Potenza, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
19 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Nobody at Sorrento will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sorrento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Sorrento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniele Solcia 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
BoardroomWages eat 126% of everything Sorrento earn
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sorrento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Sorrento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luca Crecco is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sorrento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Ludovico Del Sorbo has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
The 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.
12 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Leonardo Capezzi 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.
“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; Sorrento are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Nobody at Sorrento 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.
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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Luca Crecco 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.
Federico Ricci was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
8.36. 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.
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.
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 6 of the 30 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
Luca Crecco was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
8.23. 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
7 new faces, and Sorrento are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
In brief
SquadWords at Sorrento training over how hard people work
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sorrento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.