6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
“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 Feb 2027
Words at Vicenza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artūrs Karašausks 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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Vicenza, and 8 appearances in 24 say he has earned the hearing.
Matteo Vescovi and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Nicolò Fortunato was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Vicenza dressing room was either.
In brief
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Filippo Alessio’s exile
“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 The request is on a desk at Vicenza, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vicenza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Hellas Verona have kept their man, and Vicenza go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Artūrs Karašausks was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 9 combined actions and a mark of 6.69, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
In brief
Player ratingsFilippo Costa beats them one at a time
The dugoutThe manager’s verdict
The dugoutMaxime Leverbe asks for a word with the manager
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Nicolò Fortunato has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Vicenza can pretend not to have heard.
7.57, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Giuseppe Cuomo and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The 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.
SquadA place in the month's best eleven for Nicola Rauti
The dugoutMattia Valoti without the man who signed him
27Edition
The Vicenza Courier
1 Feb 2027
From our football correspondentCrisis
The terraces1 Feb 2027
The mood at Vicenza has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
“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 Vicenza, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Vicenza is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 0 signed and 0 gone
That is the business done at Vicenza 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.
Vicenza asked and Udinese said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Vicenza will try again when the window opens; Livorno may not be selling by then.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 15 combined actions and a mark of 6.86, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Hellas Verona have kept their man, and Vicenza go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Sampdoria left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at Vicenza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artūrs Karašausks 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.
Position 20, 12 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
In brief
Boardroom96% of the income goes out in wages at Vicenza
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Vicenza can pretend not to have heard.
Vicenza offered $2.1M; Novara said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Vicenza asked and Hellas Verona said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The 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 offer went to Novara 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Tommaso Corazza is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Vicenza have done the hard part with Torino, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Vicenza asked and Lecce said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Vicenza has been clear about where Maxime Leverbe stands, which is more than many ever get.
17 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.
The terraces4 Jan 2027
The mood at Vicenza has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Vicenza can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Vicenza they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“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; Vicenza are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
3 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.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 34 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Vicenza is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Vicenza can pretend not to have heard.
Filippo Costa 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 6.96 on 14 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
The 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 dugout28 Dec 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Andrea Papetti'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.
15 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.
0‑4 to Avellino, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Artūrs Karašausks was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Nicolò Fortunato after 0‑4, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Filippo Costa trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
14 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.
17 combined actions and 7.36. 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.
11 combined actions and 6.69. 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Artūrs Karašausks was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vicenza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
13 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 has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Vicenza they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Armand Rada commits to Vicenza for another 4 years.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Vicenza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lorenzo Caferri 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.
12 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.
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.
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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
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 will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
A goalkeeper’s error has no defender behind it to tidy it away. He knew before the ball crossed the line, the crowd knew a second later, and there is nothing anybody can say tonight.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Nicolò Fortunato after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The words a physio says slowly. 21 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.” Vicenza have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Padova in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
The words a physio says slowly. 29 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.
Lecce go through and Vicenza go home, 0‑3 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Vicenza is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
5 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.
Filippo Costa and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The 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.
“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 Vicenza, and it is not being withdrawn.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 15 actions, 6.83, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
“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; Vicenza are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Vicenza can tell you which week it ends in.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Artūrs Karašausks was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
12 combined actions and 6.21. 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.
Eric Melo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Vicenza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lorenzo Caferri 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.
13 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑4 defeat, delivered by Nicolò Fortunato to a room that had heard them before.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Artūrs Karašausks was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑3 defeat, delivered by Nicolò Fortunato to a room that had heard them before.
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.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Mattia Valoti’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Vicenza needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Vicenza they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 34 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Vicenza is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at Vicenza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artūrs Karašausks 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.
Matteo Vescovi 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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lorenzo Caferri was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Nobody at Vicenza is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
In brief
Player ratingsFilippo Costa beats them one at a time
Marked 6.84 on 11 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
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.
13 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.05 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Vicenza is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Inter have kept their man, and Vicenza go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lorenzo Caferri was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Vicenza are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Eric Melo 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 are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Vicenza can pretend not to have heard.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Artūrs Karašausks has just signed for Vicenza, and for once the answer mattered.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Livorno is saying, and nobody at Vicenza is enjoying the guessing.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 5 arrived, 5 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Filippo Costa 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Vicenza are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Vicenza people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The clubs have shaken hands with Livorno; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.74 for the rest of it.
The deal with Leicester City is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
The name of Filippo Alessio has come up in conversations Vicenza were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
9 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.
Vicenza had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at AS Roma, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Lazio have kept their man, and Vicenza go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lorenzo Caferri was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The plan went upstairs and came back down. Nothing about that will make a headline anywhere else, and everybody who works at the training ground will remember it for years.
Modena next, and one man in the Vicenza dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Spezia keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Armand Rada 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.
A loan enquiry to Lazio: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Vicenza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lorenzo Caferri 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 deal with Spezia is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Vicenza are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Giovanni Catanese is 33 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Vicenza, another week without a signature from Raul Talarico.
A new face in his position and a shirt he thought he owned suddenly up for discussion. Vicenza have promised nothing, which is what clubs promise at this stage.
Filippo Costa 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 interest is real enough to have reached print. Vicenza have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Vicenza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thomas Sandon 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.
49 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
In brief
Squad8 new faces, and Vicenza are still learning each other
The dugoutLoris Zonta asks for a word with the manager