Spezia U18

Italian Serie B U18
24 Oct 2026
Saturday
Process
12 Edition

The Spezia Gazette

19 Oct 2026
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

Tommaso Vannucci damages knee ligaments — 32 days out

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.

Player ratings

No sign of nerves from Assane Diao at 21 — 7.90

The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Assane Diao did not need any: 7.90, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.

Squad

The step up is real for Christian Comotto

At 18 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.

Squad

A falling-out at Spezia

Assane Diao and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Market

Only the photograph left for Giuseppe Ciocci

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Giuseppe Ciocci will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Spezia the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

A row about effort at Spezia

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Giuseppe Di Serio was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Match

Reggiana take the points off Spezia

Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.

The dugout

No hiding place for Leandro Chichizola

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Leandro Chichizola, and the manager let it.

Boardroom

Nobody left the Spezia dressing room in a hurry

The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.

In brief

Back issues
11 Edition

The Spezia Gazette

12 Oct 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Player ratings

Both of them Assane Diao's — 9.25

2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.25, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.

Squad

Words exchanged at Spezia

Assane Diao 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.

Match

Whatever happens, Spezia do not lose

7 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.

Squad

Assane Diao is the real thing at 21

A season average of 7.07 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Spezia know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.

Match

Assane Diao sends Spezia past Avellino

It finished 2‑0, and it was Assane Diao’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Spezia.

Squad

Alexis Coman signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Alexis Coman and Spezia agree another 4 years.

The dugout

No hiding place for Mauro Coppolaro

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mauro Coppolaro, and the manager let it.

The dugout

A satisfied Luca Canali

“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Luca Canali could afford to be generous.

Squad

A row about effort at Spezia

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Szymon Żurkowski was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

In brief

10 Edition

The Spezia Gazette

5 Oct 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Diego Tortorella

15 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Spezia lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Player ratings

Both of them Assane Diao's — 9.25

2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.25, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.

Squad

Tempers go at Spezia

Assane Diao 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.

Match

Whatever happens, Spezia do not lose

6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.

Squad

A row about effort at Spezia

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Petko Hristov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Loan watch

Mouhamadou Sarr counts the days

“I watch every Spezia game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Burgos runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.

The terraces

The crowd has taken to Assane Diao

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.

The dugout

No hiding place for Boris Radunović

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Boris Radunović, and the manager let it.

Match

Assane Diao sends Spezia past Palermo

It finished 2‑0, and it was Assane Diao’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Spezia.

In brief

9 Edition

The Spezia Gazette

28 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Diego Tortorella

22 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Spezia lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Player ratings

Assane Diao was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 32. 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.

Match

No end in sight to Spezia's wait for a win

4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Spezia has to find a result from somewhere.

Squad

Tempers go at Spezia

Petko Hristov 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.

Squad

Words at Spezia training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giuseppe Di Serio 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 dugout

Aleš Matějů gets it from the manager

“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.

Match

Spezia rescue it on 85 minutes

Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 85. Mantova had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.

The dugout

The manager has not finished forgetting Aleš Matějů'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.

Squad

16 new faces, and Spezia 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

8 Edition

The Spezia Gazette

21 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Diego Tortorella

30 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Spezia lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Player ratings

No sign of nerves from Assane Diao at 21 — 7.84

The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Assane Diao did not need any: 7.84, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.

Market

Giuseppe Ciocci has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Spezia they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

Words exchanged at Spezia

Petko Hristov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Player ratings

Christian Comotto runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Match

Two points walk out of the ground

Level with 89 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Spezia had all but put away. Virtus Entella will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.

Loan watch

Diego Mascardi counts the days

“I watch every Spezia game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at SC Freiburg runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.

Player ratings

Wrong net for Salvatore Amato

A touch he did not mean and a goal that goes in the book with his name against it. Spezia will not blame him tonight and he will not need them to.

Match

Assane Diao rescues a point for Spezia

It needed Assane Diao to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Virtus Entella, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.

In brief

  • Squad A row about effort at Spezia
  • The dugout Boris Radunović knocks on the manager’s door
  • The dugout The view from the dugout
7 Edition

The Spezia Gazette

14 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Sergio Kalaj’s move to Udinese falls through

The deal that would have taken Sergio Kalaj to Udinese has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Spezia with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.

Squad

Petko Hristov falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

Player ratings

Giuseppe Di Serio was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 14. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.

The dugout

Half-satisfied: Luca Canali on the draw

“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.

Squad

Claudio Saieva is a square peg at Spezia

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.

The dugout

Somebody else is better right now than Gabriel Bravo

The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.

Market

Juan Cruz Careaga brings the grey hairs Spezia lacked

At 33, he has seen every situation this season can produce, twice. The legs will be managed; the head is the purchase.

Match

Point won or two lost for Spezia?

Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Carrarese? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.

Player ratings

The one thing Assane Diao could not do

Shots: 9, enough of them from close enough that a striker in form scores two. He is not a striker in form.

In brief

6 Edition

The Spezia Gazette

7 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Spezia turn down Sassuolo for Aleš Matějů

The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.

Boardroom

Deadline passes with 18 signed and 5 gone

That is the business done at Spezia 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.

Squad

Petko Hristov 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 Spezia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Player ratings

Assane Diao was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 22. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.

Squad

Giuseppe Di Serio 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.

Squad

Jérémy Oyono reaches 100 appearances

100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.

Squad

Christian Comotto slips down the pecking order

The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Christian Comotto is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.

Market

Udinese are about to pick up the phone

A conversation is coming this week. Spezia will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.

Boardroom

Spezia counting the cost

The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Spezia now.

In brief

5 Edition

The Spezia Gazette

31 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Triumph

Market

Spezia turn down Juventus for Petko Hristov

The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.

Player ratings

Assane Diao, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.20

A mark of 8.20 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.

Squad

Tempers go at Spezia

Petko Hristov 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.

Match

Assane Diao sends Spezia past Juve Stabia

It finished 2‑1, and it was Assane Diao’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Spezia.

The terraces

Spezia supporters have found a favourite in Kaleb Jimenez

There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Kaleb Jimenez has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.

Player ratings

Giuseppe Di Serio beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 16. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Squad

13 new faces, and Spezia 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.

The dugout

The manager’s verdict

“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Luca Canali kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.

The dugout

Somebody else is better right now than Salvatore Amato

The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.

In brief

4 Edition

The Spezia Gazette

24 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Spezia get their man

The chase for Mauro Coppolaro ended with $1.4M changing hands and Arezzo out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.

Squad

Mauro Coppolaro arrives at the club he grew up with

Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Mauro Coppolaro has, at Spezia, and the first month will show what that does to a man.

Market

Spezia say no — this time

The offer from Forli for Giuseppe Felici was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.

Market

Spezia get their man

The chase for Giovanni Giunti ended with $670.0K changing hands and Padova out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.

Market

Giuseppe Ciocci is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Spezia is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Squad

A falling-out at Spezia

Boris Radunović and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

A row about effort at Spezia

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Petko Hristov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Mathías Olivera

Spezia asked and Napoli said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

Squad

A muscle injury and 15 days out for Giuseppe Ciocci

The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Spezia will quote 15 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.

In brief

3 Edition

The Spezia Gazette

17 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Transfer targets

Spezia baulk at the price for Nico Paz

Como wanted more than $13.4M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.

Market

Spezia sign Assane Diao, one for the future

Assane Diao is 20, and Spezia have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.

Transfer targets

Spezia make their move for Mauro Coppolaro

$1.4M on the table at Arezzo. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.

Squad

A falling-out at Spezia

Petko Hristov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Words at Spezia training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giuseppe Di Serio is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

Transfer targets

Sassuolo tell Spezia: Daniel Boloca is not for sale

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.

Squad

This league is too small for Assane Diao

He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Spezia will not keep him by pretending otherwise.

Squad

A wage question at Spezia

Aleš Matějů has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.

Market

Diego Mascardi goes out on loan to play

The hardest part of developing a footballer is admitting he needs to be somewhere else for a while. Diego Mascardi leaves on loan to get the football he was not going to get here, which is the point of the exercise and not an admission of anything.

In brief

2 Edition

The Spezia Gazette

10 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Transfer targets

Spezia bid $18.0M for Assane Diao

The offer went to Como this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.

Market

Terms done: Giuseppe Ciocci is going

Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Pianese waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Spezia is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.

Squad

Petko Hristov signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Petko Hristov commits to Spezia for another 4 years.

Squad

Tempers go at Spezia

Petko Hristov 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 targets

Spezia rebuffed over Mauro Coppolaro

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Arezzo have kept their man, and Spezia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Market

Gennaro Schiavone steps up from the Spezia academy

There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Gennaro Schiavone 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.

Market

Spezia promote Luca Conti from within

The academy exists for exactly this morning. Luca Conti 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.

Market

Spezia promote Gregorio Colombo from within

The academy exists for exactly this morning. Gregorio Colombo 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.

Squad

Spezia count the cost of losing Mattia Marchini

26 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.

In brief

1 Edition

The Spezia Gazette

3 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Transfer targets

Spezia rebuffed over Liel Abada

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Charlotte Football Club have kept their man, and Spezia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Squad

Aleš Matějů signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Aleš Matějů and Spezia agree another 3 years.

Squad

Tempers go at Spezia

Boris Radunović 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.

Market

Eyes on Diego Mascardi again

The phone has started ringing about Diego Mascardi again, and this time the name on the line is Orlando City. Spezia are listening politely and promising nothing.

Squad

A row about effort at Spezia

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Petko Hristov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Market

36 months and counting on Aleš Matějů

Still no offer on the table, and Aleš Matějů’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.

Squad

8 new faces, and Spezia 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.

Transfer targets

Spezia ask about Alfredo Lopez

A loan enquiry to La Equidad: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.

The dugout

Petko Hristov knocks on the manager’s door

“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Petko Hristov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.

In brief