From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces24 May 2032
Anger at Vicenza spills outside the ground
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.
Boardroom24 May 2032
Pressure builds in the Vicenza boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market24 May 2032
Lorenzo Milani has one foot out of the door
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.
Market24 May 2032
“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 The request is on a desk at Vicenza, and it is not being withdrawn.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 dugout24 May 2032
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad24 May 2032
Words exchanged at Vicenza
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.
Market24 May 2032
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Simone Gianfanti has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Vicenza.
Squad24 May 2032
Words at Vicenza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Amine Chakir 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.
Squad24 May 2032
“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 Vicenza know it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match15 May 2032
The wait goes on for Vicenza
18 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.
Market17 May 2032
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market17 May 2032
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Maximiliano Antúnez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Vicenza the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match15 May 2032
6 matches without a goal for Vicenza
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 6 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad17 May 2032
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.
Squad17 May 2032
Words at Vicenza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrea Papetti 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.
Match15 May 2032
Vicenza leaking at the back
4 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Match15 May 2032
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad17 May 2032
200 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match8 May 2032
The wait goes on for Vicenza
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.
Market10 May 2032
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.
Match8 May 2032
5 matches without a goal for Vicenza
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 5 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad10 May 2032
A falling-out at Vicenza
Davide Franzini and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad10 May 2032
Andrea Papetti 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.
Match8 May 2032
Lumezzane left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout10 May 2032
“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.
Squad10 May 2032
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Vicenza can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Market10 May 2032
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match1 May 2032
No end in sight to Vicenza's wait for a win
16 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Vicenza has to find a result from somewhere.
Boardroom3 May 2032
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Market3 May 2032
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.
Market3 May 2032
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market3 May 2032
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Vicenza heard it as anything else.
Boardroom3 May 2032
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Match1 May 2032
Vicenza cannot find the net
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.
Squad3 May 2032
Giuseppe Cuomo 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.
Market3 May 2032
Christian Vaccaro comes back from a loan that worked
30 appearances and 8 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match24 Apr 2032
15 matches without a win for Vicenza
The run now stands at 15, and the questions being asked around Vicenza are no longer polite ones.
Boardroom26 Apr 2032
The scrutiny sharpens at Vicenza
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Vicenza is running low.
The terraces26 Apr 2032
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.
Match24 Apr 2032
0‑6 to Lecco, 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.
Market26 Apr 2032
Lorenzo Milani has one foot out of the door
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.
Market26 Apr 2032
Ntando Chai hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Vicenza can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout26 Apr 2032
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Match24 Apr 2032
Nobody could stop scoring
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Vicenza and Lecco in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad26 Apr 2032
Words at Vicenza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrea Papetti is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match17 Apr 2032
14 matches without a win for Vicenza
The run now stands at 14, and the questions being asked around Vicenza are no longer polite ones.
Market19 Apr 2032
“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.
Squad19 Apr 2032
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Vicenza can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Boardroom19 Apr 2032
Wages eat 141% of everything Vicenza earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
The dugout19 Apr 2032
“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 Apr 2032
A row about effort at Vicenza
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Enea Pitti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings19 Apr 2032
Successful dribbles: 17. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Player ratings19 Apr 2032
Marked 7.64. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
The dugout19 Apr 2032
Half-satisfied: Interim Coach 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match10 Apr 2032
The wait goes on for Vicenza
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.
Market12 Apr 2032
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.
Market12 Apr 2032
“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.
Squad12 Apr 2032
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.
Match10 Apr 2032
Triestina left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad12 Apr 2032
Words at Vicenza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Enea Pitti 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 dugout12 Apr 2032
The manager makes an example of Santiago Marcel
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout12 Apr 2032
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Interim Coach left the room before anybody could ask which.
Boardroom12 Apr 2032
Vicenza can only buy what they sell
Nobody has barred the club from spending; it simply has nothing to spend that it has not first raised. Every incoming name comes with an outgoing one attached.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match3 Apr 2032
No end in sight to Vicenza's wait for a win
12 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Vicenza has to find a result from somewhere.
Boardroom5 Apr 2032
Interim Coach has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Vicenza can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Market5 Apr 2032
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.
Market5 Apr 2032
Matěj Hybš hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Vicenza can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout5 Apr 2032
“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.
Boardroom5 Apr 2032
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Davide Franzini 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.
Squad5 Apr 2032
Words at Vicenza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrea Papetti 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.
Match3 Apr 2032
A bad afternoon for Vicenza against Renate
1‑3 to Renate, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout5 Apr 2032
Ntando Chai 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match27 Mar 2032
No end in sight to Vicenza's wait for a win
11 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Vicenza has to find a result from somewhere.
Boardroom29 Mar 2032
The scrutiny sharpens at Vicenza
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Vicenza is running low.
The terraces29 Mar 2032
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.
Market29 Mar 2032
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad29 Mar 2032
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.
The dugout29 Mar 2032
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad29 Mar 2032
Words exchanged at Vicenza
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.
Squad29 Mar 2032
Words at Vicenza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrea Papetti is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match20 Mar 2032
No end in sight to Vicenza's wait for a win
10 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Vicenza has to find a result from somewhere.
Market22 Mar 2032
“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.
The dugout22 Mar 2032
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad22 Mar 2032
A falling-out at Vicenza
Giuseppe Cuomo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom22 Mar 2032
Belts tighten at Vicenza
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
Boardroom22 Mar 2032
143% of the income goes out in wages at Vicenza
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.
Squad22 Mar 2032
A row about effort at Vicenza
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Enea Pitti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad22 Mar 2032
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Vicenza can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout22 Mar 2032
A promise honoured at Vicenza
Something was said to Ferdinando Pecci and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match13 Mar 2032
The wait goes on for Vicenza
9 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Market15 Mar 2032
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Match13 Mar 2032
No clean sheets in sight for Vicenza
7 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
The dugout15 Mar 2032
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Boardroom15 Mar 2032
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Alessandro Ciardi has agreed terms with Lazio for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad15 Mar 2032
Andrea Papetti 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.
Match13 Mar 2032
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout15 Mar 2032
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout15 Mar 2032
The team sheet said everything about Davide Franzini
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Davide Franzini.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom8 Mar 2032
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Market8 Mar 2032
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alessandro Ciardi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Vicenza the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market8 Mar 2032
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad8 Mar 2032
A row about effort at Vicenza
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrea Papetti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad8 Mar 2032
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Vicenza can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout8 Mar 2032
The manager's exit leaves Mattia Valoti exposed
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Mattia Valoti is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
Market8 Mar 2032
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
The dugout8 Mar 2032
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Alessandro Ciardi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout8 Mar 2032
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom1 Mar 2032
Pressure builds in the Vicenza boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
The terraces1 Mar 2032
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.
Match28 Feb 2032
8 matches without a win for Vicenza
The run now stands at 8, and the questions being asked around Vicenza are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings1 Mar 2032
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.76, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
The dugout1 Mar 2032
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Match28 Feb 2032
Vicenza are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 6 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Match28 Feb 2032
A bad afternoon for Vicenza against Novara
2‑3 to Novara, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad1 Mar 2032
Enea Pitti falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The dugout1 Mar 2032
The manager makes an example of Andrea Nesci
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match21 Feb 2032
Chastening afternoon for Vicenza
A 0‑5 beating by Cittadella was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Match21 Feb 2032
7 matches without a win for Vicenza
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Vicenza are no longer polite ones.
Squad23 Feb 2032
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Match21 Feb 2032
No clean sheets in sight for Vicenza
5 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Boardroom23 Feb 2032
Belts tighten at Vicenza
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
Squad23 Feb 2032
A row about effort at Vicenza
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrea Papetti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match21 Feb 2032
3 matches without a goal for Vicenza
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.
Squad23 Feb 2032
Words exchanged at Vicenza
Maximiliano Antúnez 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.
Boardroom23 Feb 2032
Wages swallow 145% of the Vicenza income
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market16 Feb 2032
“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.
Match14 Feb 2032
The wait goes on for Vicenza
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.
Squad16 Feb 2032
A row about effort at Vicenza
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrea Papetti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets16 Feb 2032
Vicenza asked and Famalicao said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match14 Feb 2032
Vicenza are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Match14 Feb 2032
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout16 Feb 2032
The manager makes an example of Davide Franzini
“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.
Market16 Feb 2032
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
The dugout16 Feb 2032
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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market9 Feb 2032
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.
Market9 Feb 2032
“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.
Match7 Feb 2032
The wait goes on for Vicenza
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.
The dugout9 Feb 2032
Orazio Verdi: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Vicenza have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad9 Feb 2032
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.
Player ratings9 Feb 2032
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Transfer targets9 Feb 2032
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.
Match7 Feb 2032
Pro Vercelli left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout9 Feb 2032
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom2 Feb 2032
Pressure builds in the Vicenza boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Boardroom2 Feb 2032
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Match31 Jan 2032
Mohamed Amine Chakir had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Trento were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
Player ratings2 Feb 2032
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.71, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market2 Feb 2032
Fiorentina come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Vicenza did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market2 Feb 2032
The Crotone deal is off
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Samuele Spalluto reports back to Vicenza with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
The dugout2 Feb 2032
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Boardroom2 Feb 2032
Vicenza close the window on a squad of their own making
2 in and 4 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Market2 Feb 2032
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Vicenza heard it as anything else.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market26 Jan 2032
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
The dugout26 Jan 2032
Hacene Zaanane: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Vicenza have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Boardroom26 Jan 2032
Belts tighten at Vicenza
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
Squad26 Jan 2032
A row about effort at Vicenza
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrea Papetti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match24 Jan 2032
Vicenza cannot find the net
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.
Transfer targets26 Jan 2032
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.
Match24 Jan 2032
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Boardroom26 Jan 2032
Wages swallow 134% of the Vicenza income
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
The dugout26 Jan 2032
The manager makes an example of Alen Zahirović
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market19 Jan 2032
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Genoa waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Vicenza is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Squad19 Jan 2032
A fracture rules Lorenzo Milani out for 16 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Vicenza will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market19 Jan 2032
“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 dugout19 Jan 2032
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Vicenza may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Transfer targets19 Jan 2032
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Palermo have kept their man, and Vicenza go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match17 Jan 2032
Alcione Milano left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad19 Jan 2032
Words at Vicenza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Olivér Tamás is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The dugout19 Jan 2032
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Pietro Braccioforte, and the manager let it.
Player ratings19 Jan 2032
Successful dribbles: 16. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad12 Jan 2032
A fracture rules Lorenzo Milani out for 23 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Vicenza will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market12 Jan 2032
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad12 Jan 2032
Words at Vicenza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrea Papetti 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 targets12 Jan 2032
Vicenza asked and Venezia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match10 Jan 2032
Arzignano left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout12 Jan 2032
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Davide Franzini, and the manager let it.
Squad12 Jan 2032
“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 Vicenza know it.
Match12 Jan 2032
The half-term report on Vicenza
Position 13, 23 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.
Market12 Jan 2032
“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 Davide Franzini.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad5 Jan 2032
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 30 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Boardroom5 Jan 2032
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Boardroom5 Jan 2032
Pressure builds in the Vicenza boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market5 Jan 2032
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Union Brescia waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Vicenza is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Match3 Jan 2032
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 86th, and Union Brescia spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
Market5 Jan 2032
Olivér Tamás hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Vicenza can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout5 Jan 2032
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
The dugout5 Jan 2032
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Transfer targets5 Jan 2032
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Vicenza have done the hard part with Lecco, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad29 Dec 2031
37 days out for Lorenzo Milani after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Vicenza will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The dugout29 Dec 2031
Simone Gianfanti: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Vicenza have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market29 Dec 2031
“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.
Boardroom29 Dec 2031
Belts tighten at Vicenza
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
Match27 Dec 2031
The wait goes on for Vicenza
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.
Squad29 Dec 2031
Words exchanged at Vicenza
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.
Match27 Dec 2031
1‑2 to Lumezzane, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Boardroom29 Dec 2031
135% of the income goes out in wages at Vicenza
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.
Squad29 Dec 2031
A row about effort at Vicenza
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrea Nesci was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad22 Dec 2031
44 days out for Lorenzo Milani after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Vicenza will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market22 Dec 2031
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alessandro Ciardi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Vicenza the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad22 Dec 2031
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 dugout22 Dec 2031
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Vicenza may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match20 Dec 2031
No end in sight to Vicenza's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Vicenza has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad22 Dec 2031
27 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad22 Dec 2031
Words exchanged at Vicenza
Davide Franzini 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 Dec 2031
“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.
Match20 Dec 2031
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad15 Dec 2031
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 51 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The dugout15 Dec 2031
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Match13 Dec 2031
4 matches without a win for Vicenza
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Vicenza are no longer polite ones.
Squad15 Dec 2031
A falling-out at Vicenza
Davide Franzini and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad15 Dec 2031
Words at Vicenza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrea Papetti 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.
Match13 Dec 2031
Vicenza are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
The dugout15 Dec 2031
The manager makes an example of Andrea Nesci
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout15 Dec 2031
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Interim Coach left the room before anybody could ask which.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad8 Dec 2031
A fracture rules Lorenzo Milani out for 58 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Vicenza will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad8 Dec 2031
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.
The dugout8 Dec 2031
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Match6 Dec 2031
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout8 Dec 2031
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Samuele Spalluto, and the manager let it.
Squad8 Dec 2031
Andrea Nesci 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.
Squad8 Dec 2031
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.
Market8 Dec 2031
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
The dugout8 Dec 2031
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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad1 Dec 2031
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 65 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match29 Nov 2031
Nowhere to hide for Vicenza
1‑4 against Triestina, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Boardroom1 Dec 2031
The numbers do not look good at Vicenza
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Squad1 Dec 2031
Andrea Papetti falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The dugout1 Dec 2031
“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 Dec 2031
Hacene Zaanane 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.
Boardroom1 Dec 2031
Wages eat 112% of everything Vicenza earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Squad1 Dec 2031
The medical room confirms 27 days on the sidelines for Sergio Sanna, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Boardroom1 Dec 2031
Nobody left the Vicenza 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 Nov 2031
72 days out for Lorenzo Milani after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Vicenza will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market24 Nov 2031
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alessandro Ciardi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Vicenza the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The dugout24 Nov 2031
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Vicenza may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad24 Nov 2031
55 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad24 Nov 2031
A row about effort at Vicenza
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrea Papetti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match22 Nov 2031
Renate left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad24 Nov 2031
A falling-out at Vicenza
Enea Pitti and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout24 Nov 2031
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout24 Nov 2031
“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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad17 Nov 2031
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 79 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The dugout17 Nov 2031
Alen Zahirović: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Vicenza have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market17 Nov 2031
David Montoya hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Vicenza can pretend not to have heard.
Match15 Nov 2031
Nobody wants to play Vicenza right now
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Player ratings17 Nov 2031
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match15 Nov 2031
Virtus Verona made Vicenza work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad17 Nov 2031
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.
Player ratings17 Nov 2031
Ninety minutes of Alessandro Ciardi at his very best
Marked 8.15. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Vicenza.
Squad17 Nov 2031
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad10 Nov 2031
86 days out for Lorenzo Milani after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Vicenza will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The dugout10 Nov 2031
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad10 Nov 2031
A row about effort at Vicenza
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrea Papetti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market10 Nov 2031
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Simone Gianfanti has his answer from Vicenza; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Match8 Nov 2031
A 1‑0 win over Pergolettese, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings10 Nov 2031
A performance of 8.06 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout10 Nov 2031
The manager makes an example of Alen Zahirović
“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.
Squad10 Nov 2031
Filip Micyk 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 dugout10 Nov 2031
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Interim Coach could afford to be generous.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 Nov 2031
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 93 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match29 Oct 2031
The small margins put Vicenza out
Out, 1‑2 to Bologna, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Market3 Nov 2031
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Vicenza heard it as anything else.
Squad3 Nov 2031
Davide Franzini 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.
Boardroom3 Nov 2031
Vicenza counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Vicenza now.
Match1 Nov 2031
At last: Vicenza win one
6 matches without a win, and then this, against Dolomiti Bellunesi. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Squad3 Nov 2031
A row about effort at Vicenza
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrea Papetti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match1 Nov 2031
A 2‑0 win over Dolomiti Bellunesi, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings3 Nov 2031
Marked 8.55 — 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market27 Oct 2031
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alessandro Ciardi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Vicenza the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad27 Oct 2031
Giuseppe Cuomo 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 dugout27 Oct 2031
“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.
Squad27 Oct 2031
A row about effort at Vicenza
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrea Nesci was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market27 Oct 2031
Max Pajonk is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Vicenza has been clear about where Max Pajonk stands, which is more than many ever get.
Market27 Oct 2031
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
The dugout27 Oct 2031
Noah Dybvik gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Noah Dybvik is on it.
The dugout27 Oct 2031
Lorenzo Milani asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market27 Oct 2031
The clock does Luke Bolton’s negotiating for him
3 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Vicenza could ask drops and the wages Luke Bolton can ask rise.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market20 Oct 2031
“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.
Match18 Oct 2031
The wait goes on for Vicenza
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.
Squad20 Oct 2031
A row about effort at Vicenza
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrea Papetti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad20 Oct 2031
Noah Dybvik 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 Vicenza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout20 Oct 2031
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Maximiliano Antúnez, and the manager let it.
Market20 Oct 2031
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Alen Zahirović has his answer from Vicenza; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Match18 Oct 2031
Vicenza caught on 89 minutes
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Novara scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
Match18 Oct 2031
It needed Samuele Spalluto to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Novara, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout20 Oct 2031
Luke Bolton asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad13 Oct 2031
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 11 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Match11 Oct 2031
1‑4 to Cittadella, 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.
The dugout13 Oct 2031
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Match11 Oct 2031
The wait goes on for Vicenza
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.
Squad13 Oct 2031
A row about effort at Vicenza
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrea Papetti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match11 Oct 2031
Vicenza leaking at the back
4 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Market13 Oct 2031
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Samuele Spalluto has his answer from Vicenza; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout13 Oct 2031
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Davide Franzini, and the manager let it.
Squad13 Oct 2031
A last season at home is what Matěj Hybš is after
It is sentimental, it is completely genuine, and it is the beginning of a departure nobody has announced. The club can be gracious about it or it can pretend not to have heard.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad6 Oct 2031
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad6 Oct 2031
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Andrea Papetti commits to Vicenza for another 4 years.
Boardroom6 Oct 2031
The numbers do not look good at Vicenza
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Match4 Oct 2031
Ospitaletto left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad6 Oct 2031
“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 Vicenza know it.
Squad6 Oct 2031
Andrea Nesci 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.
Market6 Oct 2031
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Andrea Nesci has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Vicenza.
The dugout6 Oct 2031
“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.
Boardroom6 Oct 2031
Wages swallow 102% of the Vicenza income
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad29 Sep 2031
2 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
Match27 Sep 2031
Cup progress for Vicenza
A 1‑5 win over Pro Vercelli, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Match24 Sep 2031
Vicenza through in the cup
A 3‑3 win over Pro Vercelli, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Player ratings29 Sep 2031
Two goals and a mark of 9.12 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market29 Sep 2031
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.
The terraces29 Sep 2031
A cup hiding at Pro Vercelli leaves Vicenza explaining themselves
1-5, and long before the end the away end had switched from encouragement to something considerably more pointed. Nobody rings a phone-in about losing narrowly.
Squad29 Sep 2031
Andrea Papetti 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.
Squad29 Sep 2031
Maximiliano Antúnez 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 terraces29 Sep 2031
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout22 Sep 2031
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Match20 Sep 2031
Vicenza make it 3 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Vicenza have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad22 Sep 2031
Andrea Papetti falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Transfer targets22 Sep 2031
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Cagliari have kept their man, and Vicenza go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad22 Sep 2031
A falling-out at Vicenza
Pietro Braccioforte and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match20 Sep 2031
Trento made Vicenza work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad22 Sep 2031
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Vicenza can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Player ratings22 Sep 2031
Marked 8.01. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Vicenza.
Squad22 Sep 2031
A last season at home is what David Montoya is after
It is sentimental, it is completely genuine, and it is the beginning of a departure nobody has announced. The club can be gracious about it or it can pretend not to have heard.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout15 Sep 2031
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
The dugout15 Sep 2031
Tiziano Ditanto: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Vicenza have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad15 Sep 2031
A falling-out at Vicenza
Giuseppe Cuomo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets15 Sep 2031
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ravenna have kept their man, and Vicenza go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match13 Sep 2031
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Samuele Spalluto. 2‑1 against Giana Erminio, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings15 Sep 2031
Samuele Spalluto was on a different afternoon to everybody else
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.
Player ratings15 Sep 2031
Mohamed Amine Chakir was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.31. 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.
Squad15 Sep 2031
Andrea Nesci 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.
Market15 Sep 2031
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market8 Sep 2031
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Noah Dybvik had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Squad8 Sep 2031
Davide Franzini 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.
Boardroom8 Sep 2031
Vicenza counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Vicenza now.
Match6 Sep 2031
The drought breaks for Vicenza
6 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Alcione Milano were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Squad8 Sep 2031
Words at Vicenza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrea Papetti 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 targets8 Sep 2031
Vicenza asked and Avellino said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match6 Sep 2031
Alcione Milano made Vicenza work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
The dugout8 Sep 2031
“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.
Squad8 Sep 2031
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Vicenza know which stage they are at.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market1 Sep 2031
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.
Match30 Aug 2031
No end in sight to Vicenza's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Vicenza has to find a result from somewhere.
Boardroom1 Sep 2031
Deadline passes with 27 signed and 24 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.
Squad1 Sep 2031
Andrea Papetti falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Transfer targets1 Sep 2031
Vicenza asked and Ascoli said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match30 Aug 2031
No clean sheets in sight for Vicenza
4 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Squad1 Sep 2031
Maximiliano Antúnez 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.
Match30 Aug 2031
0‑2 to Arzignano, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout1 Sep 2031
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market25 Aug 2031
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Trapani waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Vicenza is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market25 Aug 2031
“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 dugout25 Aug 2031
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Boardroom25 Aug 2031
6 academy graduates step up at Vicenza
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Transfer targets25 Aug 2031
Vicenza asked and Bari said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market25 Aug 2031
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Valerio Rizzi 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.
Market25 Aug 2031
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Sergio Sanna 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.
Squad25 Aug 2031
Enea Pitti 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 dugout25 Aug 2031
Enea Pitti 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom18 Aug 2031
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Vicenza
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market18 Aug 2031
Andrea Nesci hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Vicenza can pretend not to have heard.
Market18 Aug 2031
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
The dugout18 Aug 2031
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Squad18 Aug 2031
At 31 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 4 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.
Squad18 Aug 2031
Words at Vicenza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrea Papetti 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 targets18 Aug 2031
Vicenza asked and Modena said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market18 Aug 2031
Olivér Tamás is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Vicenza has been clear about where Olivér Tamás stands, which is more than many ever get.
Squad18 Aug 2031
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market11 Aug 2031
“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.
Market11 Aug 2031
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Transfer targets11 Aug 2031
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Torino is saying, and nobody at Vicenza is enjoying the guessing.
Boardroom11 Aug 2031
Vicenza counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Vicenza now.
Squad11 Aug 2031
At 29 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 4 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.
Transfer targets11 Aug 2031
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Como have kept their man, and Vicenza go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad11 Aug 2031
Words exchanged at Vicenza
Maximiliano Antúnez 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.
Squad11 Aug 2031
Mohamed Amine Chakir 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.
Boardroom11 Aug 2031
Wages swallow 97% of the Vicenza income
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
In brief
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Squad
10 new faces, and Vicenza are still learning each other
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The dugout
No hiding place for Hacene Zaanane
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The dugout
Luke Bolton asks for a word with the manager
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market4 Aug 2031
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Monza waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Vicenza is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Boardroom4 Aug 2031
Interim Coach has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Vicenza can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Boardroom4 Aug 2031
Emergency meeting at Vicenza
The whole football department in one room on a weekday morning. Nothing was announced afterwards, which is what a board announces when it has run out of patience.
Market4 Aug 2031
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market4 Aug 2031
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Casertana had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Market4 Aug 2031
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Transfer targets4 Aug 2031
Everything agreed with Palermo, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad4 Aug 2031
Giuseppe Cuomo 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.
Squad4 Aug 2031
The step up is real for Tom Perry
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad28 Jul 2031
15 days out for Andrea Papetti after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Vicenza will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market28 Jul 2031
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Udinese waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Vicenza is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market28 Jul 2031
Max Pajonk hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Vicenza can pretend not to have heard.
Squad28 Jul 2031
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.
Squad28 Jul 2031
Max Pajonk is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad28 Jul 2031
Filip Micyk 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. Filip Micyk has, at Vicenza, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Transfer targets28 Jul 2031
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The dugout28 Jul 2031
The manager makes an example of Santiago Marcel
“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.
Transfer targets28 Jul 2031
Palermo have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad21 Jul 2031
22 days out for Andrea Papetti after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Vicenza will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Boardroom21 Jul 2031
Pressure builds in the Vicenza boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market21 Jul 2031
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.
Market21 Jul 2031
Andrea Nesci hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Vicenza can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout21 Jul 2031
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
The dugout21 Jul 2031
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Market21 Jul 2031
Add another name to the list: Udinese have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Alessandro Ciardi. The answer from Vicenza has not changed — yet.
Squad21 Jul 2031
A falling-out at Vicenza
Giuseppe Cuomo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad21 Jul 2031
Luke Bolton has improved at 31, 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Jul 2031
A fracture rules Andrea Papetti out for 29 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Vicenza will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market14 Jul 2031
“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.
Boardroom14 Jul 2031
Vicenza counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Vicenza now.
Squad14 Jul 2031
At 29 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 3 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.
Squad14 Jul 2031
A row about effort at Vicenza
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alessandro Ciardi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets14 Jul 2031
Vicenza asked and Modena said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad14 Jul 2031
Words exchanged at Vicenza
Noah Dybvik 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 dugout14 Jul 2031
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Pietro Braccioforte, and the manager let it.
Boardroom14 Jul 2031
Wages eat 93% of everything Vicenza earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad7 Jul 2031
A fracture rules Andrea Papetti out for 36 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Vicenza will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Boardroom7 Jul 2031
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Market7 Jul 2031
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
The dugout7 Jul 2031
Alen Zahirović: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Vicenza have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market7 Jul 2031
Trapani come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Vicenza did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad7 Jul 2031
A row about effort at Vicenza
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alessandro Ciardi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets7 Jul 2031
Vicenza asked and Cosenza 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 dugout7 Jul 2031
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Samuele Spalluto, and the manager let it.
Market7 Jul 2031
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad30 Jun 2031
43 days out for Andrea Papetti after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Vicenza will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The dugout30 Jun 2031
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Vicenza may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market30 Jun 2031
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.
Squad30 Jun 2031
A falling-out at Vicenza
Giuseppe Cuomo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets30 Jun 2031
Vicenza asked and Volos NPS said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad30 Jun 2031
Words at Vicenza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Amine Chakir 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.
Squad30 Jun 2031
Alfonso Canali pulls a muscle — 14 days out
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Transfer targets30 Jun 2031
Volos NPS have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Market30 Jun 2031
Vicenza have made Alessandro Ciardi available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad23 Jun 2031
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 50 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Boardroom23 Jun 2031
Pressure builds in the Vicenza boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market23 Jun 2031
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Casertana had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The dugout23 Jun 2031
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Squad23 Jun 2031
A move Enea Pitti would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Enea Pitti is living that version at Vicenza, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad23 Jun 2031
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Maximiliano Antúnez and Vicenza agree another 1 years.
Squad23 Jun 2031
Words at Vicenza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alessandro Ciardi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Transfer targets23 Jun 2031
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.
Market23 Jun 2031
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Claudio Giordano is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market16 Jun 2031
“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.
Market16 Jun 2031
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Transfer targets16 Jun 2031
Everything agreed with Pontedera, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad16 Jun 2031
Giuseppe Cuomo 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.
Boardroom16 Jun 2031
The numbers do not look good at Vicenza
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Market16 Jun 2031
The phone has started ringing about Noah Dybvik again, and this time the name on the line is Casertana. Vicenza are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad16 Jun 2031
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Santiago Marcel commits to Vicenza for another 3 years.
Squad16 Jun 2031
A row about effort at Vicenza
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alessandro Ciardi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets16 Jun 2031
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.
In brief
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The dugout
No hiding place for Alen Zahirović
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Market
Renate are about to pick up the phone
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Boardroom
98% of the income goes out in wages at Vicenza
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market9 Jun 2031
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad9 Jun 2031
“The easiest signature of my career.” Giuseppe Cuomo and Vicenza agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad9 Jun 2031
Andrea Papetti 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.
Squad9 Jun 2031
Words exchanged at Vicenza
Maximiliano Antúnez 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.
Market9 Jun 2031
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
The dugout9 Jun 2031
“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.
Market9 Jun 2031
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Andrea Cunegatti has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Vicenza.
Market9 Jun 2031
The name of Alessandro Ciardi keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Vicenza say nothing, which says plenty.
Squad9 Jun 2031
A wage question at Vicenza
Luke Bolton 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom2 Jun 2031
Interim Coach has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Vicenza can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Market2 Jun 2031
“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.
Squad2 Jun 2031
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Giuseppe Cuomo commits to Vicenza for another 2 years.
Market2 Jun 2031
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.
Squad2 Jun 2031
A muscle injury sidelines Simon Harrasser for 14 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Vicenza will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad2 Jun 2031
A row about effort at Vicenza
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrea Papetti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad2 Jun 2031
A falling-out at Vicenza
Maximiliano Antúnez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout2 Jun 2031
The manager's exit leaves Mattia Valoti exposed
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Mattia Valoti is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
The dugout2 Jun 2031
The manager makes an example of Noah Dybvik
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom26 May 2031
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Vicenza
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
The dugout26 May 2031
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
The dugout26 May 2031
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad26 May 2031
Alessandro Ciardi falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad26 May 2031
A falling-out at Vicenza
Christian Vaccaro and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout26 May 2031
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Max Pajonk, and the manager let it.
The dugout26 May 2031
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Simon Harrasser is on it.
Market26 May 2031
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Vicenza know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Market26 May 2031
The shop window has Noah Dybvik in it
Vicenza have let the market know Noah Dybvik can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad19 May 2031
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match17 May 2031
The wait goes on for Vicenza
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.
Boardroom19 May 2031
Vicenza counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Vicenza now.
Squad19 May 2031
Andrea Papetti 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.
Match17 May 2031
Union Brescia left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings19 May 2031
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.01, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Boardroom19 May 2031
Wages swallow 115% of the Vicenza income
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
Squad19 May 2031
Noah Dybvik 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 dugout19 May 2031
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Pietro Braccioforte, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match10 May 2031
Beaten 0‑5 by Lumezzane, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Market12 May 2031
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad12 May 2031
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match10 May 2031
The wait goes on for Vicenza
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.
Squad12 May 2031
A row about effort at Vicenza
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrea Papetti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout12 May 2031
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Eduard Ihnatov, and the manager let it.
Squad12 May 2031
Words exchanged at Vicenza
Noah Dybvik 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.
Boardroom12 May 2031
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
Player ratings12 May 2031
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom5 May 2031
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Market5 May 2031
“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.
Squad5 May 2031
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Squad5 May 2031
A season average of 7.24 with 21 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Market5 May 2031
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Vicenza heard it as anything else.
Market5 May 2031
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.
Match3 May 2031
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Vicenza and AlbinoLeffe, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad5 May 2031
Alessandro Ciardi falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom28 Apr 2031
Pressure builds in the Vicenza boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
The dugout28 Apr 2031
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
The dugout28 Apr 2031
Orazio Verdi: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Vicenza have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad28 Apr 2031
Andrea Papetti falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad28 Apr 2031
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Maximiliano Antúnez commits to Vicenza for another 1 years.
Squad28 Apr 2031
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.
Match26 Apr 2031
A bad afternoon for Vicenza against Lecco
0‑1 to Lecco, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout28 Apr 2031
Andrea Nesci 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.
The dugout28 Apr 2031
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Interim Coach left the room before anybody could ask which.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad21 Apr 2031
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Squad21 Apr 2031
A falling-out at Vicenza
Matteo Farronato and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom21 Apr 2031
Vicenza counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Vicenza now.
Squad21 Apr 2031
A row about effort at Vicenza
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrea Papetti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad21 Apr 2031
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Maximiliano Antúnez and Vicenza agree another 1 years.
Match19 Apr 2031
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Boardroom21 Apr 2031
Wages swallow 116% of the Vicenza income
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
The dugout21 Apr 2031
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Santiago Marcel, and the manager let it.
The dugout21 Apr 2031
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings14 Apr 2031
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.94, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market14 Apr 2031
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad14 Apr 2031
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Squad14 Apr 2031
A season average of 7.24 with 20 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad14 Apr 2031
Words exchanged at Vicenza
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.
Squad14 Apr 2031
Alessandro Ciardi 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.
Match12 Apr 2031
Three points for Vicenza, 2‑1 the final word against Triestina in a contest settled by the finer margins.
The dugout14 Apr 2031
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout14 Apr 2031
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Interim Coach could afford to be generous.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom7 Apr 2031
Interim Coach has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Vicenza can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Market7 Apr 2031
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad7 Apr 2031
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
The dugout7 Apr 2031
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Vicenza may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market7 Apr 2031
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.
Squad7 Apr 2031
Andrea Papetti 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.
Match5 Apr 2031
Renate left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Market7 Apr 2031
Mattia Valoti is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Vicenza has been clear about where Mattia Valoti stands, which is more than many ever get.
Squad7 Apr 2031
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.
In brief
-
The dugout
The view from the dugout
-
Squad
Simon Harrasser is no longer first choice
-
The dugout
Mattia Valoti loses the manager who believed in him
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom31 Mar 2031
The scrutiny sharpens at Vicenza
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Vicenza is running low.
The dugout31 Mar 2031
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
The dugout31 Mar 2031
Tom Perry: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Vicenza have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad31 Mar 2031
18 goals and a season average of 7.21. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Match29 Mar 2031
Beaten 2‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad31 Mar 2031
A row about effort at Vicenza
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrea Papetti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings31 Mar 2031
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.04, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad31 Mar 2031
A falling-out at Vicenza
Christian Vaccaro and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout31 Mar 2031
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Andrea Nesci, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 Mar 2031
Giuseppe Cuomo was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Boardroom24 Mar 2031
Belts tighten at Vicenza
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
Squad24 Mar 2031
Words at Vicenza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alessandro Ciardi 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.
Match22 Mar 2031
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mohamed Amine Chakir. 1‑0 against Pergolettese, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Boardroom24 Mar 2031
Wages swallow 102% of the Vicenza income
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
Player ratings24 Mar 2031
Marked 7.88 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Vicenza had the best player on the pitch.
Squad24 Mar 2031
Too much change too quickly at Vicenza
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.
The dugout24 Mar 2031
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.” Interim Coach kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The dugout24 Mar 2031
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Vicenza, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad17 Mar 2031
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.
Match15 Mar 2031
4 matches without a win for Vicenza
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Vicenza are no longer polite ones.
Squad17 Mar 2031
Andrea Papetti 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 ratings17 Mar 2031
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout17 Mar 2031
“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.
Match15 Mar 2031
Late, late show earns Vicenza a point
Minute 94, against Dolomiti Bellunesi, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
Match15 Mar 2031
A 2‑2 draw with Dolomiti Bellunesi leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Squad17 Mar 2031
Elia Marchetti was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The dugout17 Mar 2031
Half-satisfied: Interim Coach on the draw
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 2‑2, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market10 Mar 2031
“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.
Boardroom10 Mar 2031
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Andrea Cunegatti has agreed terms with Venezia for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Market10 Mar 2031
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Andrea Cunegatti will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Vicenza the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad10 Mar 2031
Matteo Farronato 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.
Squad10 Mar 2031
A row about effort at Vicenza
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrea Papetti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout10 Mar 2031
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 dugout10 Mar 2031
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Hacene Zaanane, and the manager let it.
Market10 Mar 2031
“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 Olivér Tamás.
The dugout10 Mar 2031
Luke Bolton asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom3 Mar 2031
Pressure builds in the Vicenza boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
The dugout3 Mar 2031
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad3 Mar 2031
Words exchanged at Vicenza
Matteo Farronato and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Match1 Mar 2031
3 matches without a goal for Vicenza
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.
Squad3 Mar 2031
Words at Vicenza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alessandro Ciardi 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 dugout3 Mar 2031
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Eduard Ihnatov, and the manager let it.
Market3 Mar 2031
“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 Luke Bolton.
Player ratings3 Mar 2031
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad3 Mar 2031
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Vicenza know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market24 Feb 2031
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad24 Feb 2031
A falling-out at Vicenza
Matteo Farronato and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom24 Feb 2031
The numbers do not look good at Vicenza
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Squad24 Feb 2031
Words at Vicenza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrea Papetti 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.
Match22 Feb 2031
0‑1 to Cittadella, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout24 Feb 2031
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Boardroom24 Feb 2031
Wages eat 91% of everything Vicenza earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Squad24 Feb 2031
“The easiest signature of my career.” Maximiliano Antúnez and Vicenza agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad24 Feb 2031
6 new faces, and Vicenza 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match15 Feb 2031
Chastening afternoon for Vicenza
A 0‑3 beating by Ospitaletto was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Squad17 Feb 2031
A season average of 7.20 with 16 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad17 Feb 2031
Santiago Marcel 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. Santiago Marcel has, at Vicenza, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad17 Feb 2031
Andrea Papetti 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.
Squad17 Feb 2031
Pietro Braccioforte was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The dugout17 Feb 2031
“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.
Match15 Feb 2031
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 4 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Boardroom17 Feb 2031
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
The dugout17 Feb 2031
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑3 Interim Coach left the room before anybody could ask which.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market10 Feb 2031
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Kolos had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Market10 Feb 2031
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Match8 Feb 2031
Nobody wants to play Vicenza right now
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Squad10 Feb 2031
A falling-out at Vicenza
Giuseppe Cuomo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad10 Feb 2031
A move Luke Bolton would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Luke Bolton is living that version at Vicenza, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad10 Feb 2031
Words at Vicenza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alessandro Ciardi 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.
Match8 Feb 2031
Pro Vercelli made Vicenza work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings10 Feb 2031
Ninety minutes of Samuele Spalluto at his very best
Marked 8.14. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Vicenza.
Market10 Feb 2031
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
In brief
-
The dugout
The view from the dugout
-
The dugout
Simon Harrasser has become a man the manager trusts
-
The dugout
The manager makes an example of Tom Perry
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad3 Feb 2031
The match ball belongs to Silvio Merkaj, whose 5 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Market3 Feb 2031
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Silvio Merkaj had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Match1 Feb 2031
5‑2, and Silvio Merkaj took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Vicenza tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings3 Feb 2031
Age has not caught Silvio Merkaj yet — 9.76
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.76 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Boardroom3 Feb 2031
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Vicenza
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
The dugout3 Feb 2031
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Boardroom3 Feb 2031
Deadline passes with 1 signed and 5 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.
Market3 Feb 2031
Andrea Papetti wants to know where this is going
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Vicenza hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Match1 Feb 2031
Nobody wants to play Vicenza right now
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings27 Jan 2031
At 33 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.42, and nobody on the pitch better.
Market27 Jan 2031
“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.
The dugout27 Jan 2031
Cristian Aragona: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Vicenza have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad27 Jan 2031
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.
Boardroom27 Jan 2031
The numbers do not look good at Vicenza
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Squad27 Jan 2031
Andrea Papetti 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.
Match25 Jan 2031
It finished 2‑1, and it was Alessandro Ciardi’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Vicenza.
The dugout27 Jan 2031
“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.
Boardroom27 Jan 2031
87% of the income goes out in wages at Vicenza
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match18 Jan 2031
Alcione Milano will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Vicenza were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings20 Jan 2031
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mohamed Amine Chakir provided it, and the 8.81 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market20 Jan 2031
“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.
Squad20 Jan 2031
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Squad20 Jan 2031
A falling-out at Vicenza
Silvio Merkaj and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad20 Jan 2031
A season average of 7.23 with 16 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Match18 Jan 2031
The drought breaks for Vicenza
6 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Alcione Milano were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Squad20 Jan 2031
Words at Vicenza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alessandro Ciardi 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.
Market20 Jan 2031
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Silvio Merkaj has his answer from Vicenza; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market13 Jan 2031
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.
Market13 Jan 2031
“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.
Squad13 Jan 2031
7 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Match11 Jan 2031
No end in sight to Vicenza's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Vicenza has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad13 Jan 2031
Matteo Farronato 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.
Squad13 Jan 2031
Words at Vicenza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrea Papetti 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 terraces13 Jan 2031
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Matteo Farronato 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 dugout13 Jan 2031
“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.
Match13 Jan 2031
Halfway: Vicenza sit in position 14
15 points at the turn. The first half of a season is a promise; the second is a bill, and the town is about to find out which of the two this one was.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market6 Jan 2031
“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.
Market6 Jan 2031
Frosinone come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Vicenza did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Match4 Jan 2031
No end in sight to Vicenza's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Vicenza has to find a result from somewhere.
Transfer targets6 Jan 2031
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Vicenza have done the hard part with Ravenna, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Match4 Jan 2031
No clean sheets in sight for Vicenza
5 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Squad6 Jan 2031
A falling-out at Vicenza
Sebastiano Araboni and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad6 Jan 2031
Words at Vicenza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrea Papetti 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.
Match4 Jan 2031
1‑3 to Union Brescia, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout6 Jan 2031
The manager makes an example of Andrea Nesci
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market30 Dec 2030
“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.
Player ratings30 Dec 2030
Silvio Merkaj, 33, rolls back the years — 7.89
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.89 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Match28 Dec 2030
No end in sight to Vicenza's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Vicenza has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad30 Dec 2030
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.
Boardroom30 Dec 2030
Belts tighten at Vicenza
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
Match28 Dec 2030
Beaten 2‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad30 Dec 2030
A row about effort at Vicenza
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Giuseppe Cuomo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match28 Dec 2030
No clean sheets in sight for Vicenza
4 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Player ratings30 Dec 2030
Marked 8.10 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
In brief
-
The dugout
The manager makes an example of Samuele Spalluto
-
The dugout
The manager’s verdict
-
Boardroom
94% of the income goes out in wages at Vicenza
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market23 Dec 2030
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Deportivo La Guaira had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Market23 Dec 2030
“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.
Squad23 Dec 2030
Words at Vicenza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrea Papetti is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad23 Dec 2030
“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.
Match21 Dec 2030
AlbinoLeffe left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad23 Dec 2030
Senzo Hlophe 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 dugout23 Dec 2030
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Interim Coach left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout23 Dec 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Simon Harrasser, and the manager let it.
The dugout23 Dec 2030
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match14 Dec 2030
Beaten 1‑4 by Lecco, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Market16 Dec 2030
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market16 Dec 2030
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Vicenza have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad16 Dec 2030
Words exchanged at Vicenza
Silvio Merkaj and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad16 Dec 2030
The medical room confirms 15 days on the sidelines for Rayan Amari, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad16 Dec 2030
A season average of 7.22 with 14 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad16 Dec 2030
Andrea Papetti 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 dugout16 Dec 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Giuseppe Cuomo, and the manager let it.
Boardroom16 Dec 2030
Doors closed at Vicenza
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market9 Dec 2030
“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.
Player ratings9 Dec 2030
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.60, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad9 Dec 2030
Silvio Merkaj 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.
Match7 Dec 2030
2‑3 to Pro Patria, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad9 Dec 2030
Words at Vicenza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giuseppe Cuomo 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.
Squad9 Dec 2030
13 goals and a season average of 7.20. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
The dugout9 Dec 2030
“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.
Squad9 Dec 2030
“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.
The dugout9 Dec 2030
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 2‑3 defeat, delivered by Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings2 Dec 2030
Two goals and a mark of 8.79 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad2 Dec 2030
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.
Boardroom2 Dec 2030
The numbers do not look good at Vicenza
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Squad2 Dec 2030
Words at Vicenza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrea Papetti 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.
Match30 Nov 2030
Triestina made Vicenza work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Boardroom2 Dec 2030
Wages swallow 92% of the Vicenza income
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
Squad2 Dec 2030
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout2 Dec 2030
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.” Interim Coach kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The dugout2 Dec 2030
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Vicenza told Hacene Zaanane something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad25 Nov 2030
There were 11 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market25 Nov 2030
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Match23 Nov 2030
Alessandro Ciardi among the goals in a wild afternoon
6 goals in one match, Alessandro Ciardi on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Vicenza and Renate.
Match23 Nov 2030
Alessandro Ciardi scored, and precious little else went right: 2‑4 to Renate, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad25 Nov 2030
Andrea Papetti 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 dugout25 Nov 2030
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout25 Nov 2030
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 2‑4, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Player ratings25 Nov 2030
1 error, one goal, and a night in front of the same three seconds. He will see it tonight, tomorrow and probably in February, and everybody who has played knows exactly which frame he keeps stopping on.
The dugout25 Nov 2030
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market18 Nov 2030
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad18 Nov 2030
Giuseppe Cuomo 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.
Squad18 Nov 2030
100 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
Squad18 Nov 2030
Senzo Hlophe 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 Vicenza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings18 Nov 2030
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout18 Nov 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Max Pajonk, and the manager let it.
The dugout18 Nov 2030
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Interim Coach chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The dugout18 Nov 2030
Eduard Ihnatov 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 Eduard Ihnatov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Player ratings18 Nov 2030
Shots: 9. 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match9 Nov 2030
3‑0, and Mohamed Amine Chakir took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Vicenza tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Market11 Nov 2030
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings11 Nov 2030
Two goals and a mark of 9.21 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad11 Nov 2030
Silvio Merkaj 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.
Squad11 Nov 2030
A row about effort at Vicenza
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrea Papetti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings11 Nov 2030
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.58, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad11 Nov 2030
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Hacene Zaanane commits to Vicenza for another 4 years.
The dugout11 Nov 2030
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout11 Nov 2030
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 3‑0, already talking about the next one.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match30 Oct 2030
The cup run ends for Vicenza
0‑1 against Atalanta, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Market4 Nov 2030
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Vicenza heard it as anything else.
Match2 Nov 2030
No end in sight to Vicenza's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Vicenza has to find a result from somewhere.
Boardroom4 Nov 2030
The numbers do not look good at Vicenza
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Squad4 Nov 2030
A row about effort at Vicenza
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrea Papetti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad4 Nov 2030
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Andrea Nesci commits to Vicenza for another 3 years.
Player ratings4 Nov 2030
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
Squad4 Nov 2030
Words exchanged at Vicenza
Senzo Hlophe 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 dugout4 Nov 2030
The manager makes an example of Rayan Amari
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market28 Oct 2030
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.
Market28 Oct 2030
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
The dugout28 Oct 2030
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Vicenza may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad28 Oct 2030
A falling-out at Vicenza
Silvio Merkaj and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Oct 2030
Words at Vicenza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giuseppe Cuomo 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 dugout28 Oct 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Cristian Aragona, and the manager let it.
Market28 Oct 2030
2 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Vicenza money.
The dugout28 Oct 2030
Samuele Spalluto asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market28 Oct 2030
The name of Alessandro Ciardi keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Vicenza say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market21 Oct 2030
Senzo Hlophe hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Vicenza can pretend not to have heard.
Squad21 Oct 2030
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Squad21 Oct 2030
A falling-out at Vicenza
Silvio Merkaj and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad21 Oct 2030
Words at Vicenza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrea Papetti 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.
Match19 Oct 2030
Novara left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad21 Oct 2030
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Alen Zahirović and Vicenza agree another 3 years.
Match19 Oct 2030
Vicenza hit back inside 2 minutes
Novara held the lead for 2 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Vicenza answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
The dugout21 Oct 2030
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout21 Oct 2030
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Oct 2030
12 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Match12 Oct 2030
0‑3 to Cittadella, 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.
Market14 Oct 2030
“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.
Squad14 Oct 2030
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.
Squad14 Oct 2030
Words at Vicenza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrea Papetti is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad14 Oct 2030
“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 Vicenza know it.
The dugout14 Oct 2030
“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.
Boardroom14 Oct 2030
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
The dugout14 Oct 2030
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Interim Coach after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Oct 2030
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market7 Oct 2030
“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.
Player ratings7 Oct 2030
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.81, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Boardroom7 Oct 2030
The numbers do not look good at Vicenza
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Squad7 Oct 2030
A row about effort at Vicenza
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Giuseppe Cuomo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match5 Oct 2030
A 2‑1 win over Ospitaletto, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Loan watch7 Oct 2030
“I did not go to Südtirol to sit and watch. I want to come back to Vicenza and fight for my place.” 5 appearances in 14 matches say the rest.
Squad7 Oct 2030
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
Squad7 Oct 2030
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match25 Sep 2030
Vicenza march on in the cup
Trapani are out and Vicenza go through, 1‑1 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Market30 Sep 2030
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.
Market30 Sep 2030
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad30 Sep 2030
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Simon Harrasser: 1 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Player ratings30 Sep 2030
A debut Diego Castelli will not forget — 7.50
There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 0 on the scoresheet, 7.50 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.
Squad30 Sep 2030
Words at Vicenza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrea Papetti 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.
Match28 Sep 2030
Pro Vercelli left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings30 Sep 2030
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
Squad30 Sep 2030
“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 Vicenza know it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom23 Sep 2030
The club looked outside for a month, found nothing it preferred, and handed the job to the man who had been doing it anyway. He knows the building; now he has to prove he knows the rest.
Market23 Sep 2030
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Match21 Sep 2030
Andrea Papetti wins it after the whistle should have gone
95 minutes played. Andrea Papetti found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Trento went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Match21 Sep 2030
It had gone 11 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.
Boardroom23 Sep 2030
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Sebastiano Araboni has agreed terms with Frosinone for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad23 Sep 2030
A falling-out at Vicenza
Silvio Merkaj and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match21 Sep 2030
A 3‑2 win over Trento, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad23 Sep 2030
Andrea Papetti 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.
Match21 Sep 2030
Vicenza are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match14 Sep 2030
11 matches without a win for Vicenza
The run now stands at 11, and the questions being asked around Vicenza are no longer polite ones.
Market16 Sep 2030
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad16 Sep 2030
At 23 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad16 Sep 2030
A row about effort at Vicenza
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Giuseppe Cuomo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad16 Sep 2030
At 27 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 3 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.
Squad16 Sep 2030
51 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Player ratings16 Sep 2030
Successful dribbles: 17. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The dugout16 Sep 2030
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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match7 Sep 2030
No end in sight to Vicenza's wait for a win
10 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Vicenza has to find a result from somewhere.
Market9 Sep 2030
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad9 Sep 2030
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Sebastiano Araboni is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad9 Sep 2030
Silvio Merkaj 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.
Boardroom9 Sep 2030
Vicenza counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Vicenza now.
Squad9 Sep 2030
Andrea Papetti 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.
Match7 Sep 2030
Alcione Milano left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad9 Sep 2030
7 new faces, and Vicenza 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.
Loan watch9 Sep 2030
“I watch every Vicenza game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Südtirol runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match31 Aug 2030
No end in sight to Vicenza's wait for a win
9 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Vicenza has to find a result from somewhere.
Market2 Sep 2030
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Sebastiano Araboni will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Vicenza the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market2 Sep 2030
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Boardroom2 Sep 2030
Vicenza close the window on a squad of their own making
19 in and 21 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Squad2 Sep 2030
Words exchanged at Vicenza
Silvio Merkaj 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.
Squad2 Sep 2030
Ciprian Mihaila is a better footballer than he was
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.
Match31 Aug 2030
Beaten 2‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad2 Sep 2030
Andrea Papetti 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.
Squad2 Sep 2030
At 24 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom26 Aug 2030
The end came on a Tuesday, as these things usually do: a short meeting, a shorter statement, and Valentino Fabbri clearing his office by noon. Football’s cruellest ritual, performed to schedule.
Boardroom26 Aug 2030
An empty coaching office at Vicenza
There is nobody left to promote and nobody left to run a session. The board have brought in a name the supporters do not know, and the question of how a club gets here will outlast whoever answers it.
Boardroom26 Aug 2030
“I am not thinking past Saturday, and I would advise nobody else to.” The caretaker’s first rule is to pretend the job is small; Interim Coach recited it perfectly.
The dugout26 Aug 2030
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Vicenza may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad26 Aug 2030
A falling-out at Vicenza
Silvio Merkaj and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Aug 2030
Tom Perry is a better footballer than he was
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.
Boardroom26 Aug 2030
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Vicenza
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.
Squad26 Aug 2030
Alessandro Ciardi falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Transfer targets26 Aug 2030
Vicenza asked and Cremonese said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market19 Aug 2030
Vicenza say no — this time
The offer from Sampdoria for Silvio Merkaj 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.
Market19 Aug 2030
“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.
Market19 Aug 2030
The Empoli deal is off
Everything was agreed until it was not, and José Luís Sanabria reports back to Vicenza with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Squad19 Aug 2030
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.
Squad19 Aug 2030
Luca Stradiotto is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Transfer targets19 Aug 2030
Vicenza offered $10.0K; Union Brescia 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.
Squad19 Aug 2030
Andrea Papetti 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.
Squad19 Aug 2030
At 27 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 3 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.
Transfer targets19 Aug 2030
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market12 Aug 2030
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.
Squad12 Aug 2030
14 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Vicenza lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market12 Aug 2030
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market12 Aug 2030
The bid was some way short and Vicenza did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad12 Aug 2030
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Sebastiano Araboni is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Transfer targets12 Aug 2030
$10.0K on the table at Union Brescia. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Boardroom12 Aug 2030
Vicenza counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Vicenza now.
Squad12 Aug 2030
A row about effort at Vicenza
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrea Papetti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets12 Aug 2030
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Virtus Entella have kept their man, and Vicenza go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad5 Aug 2030
21 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Vicenza lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Boardroom5 Aug 2030
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Valentino Fabbri has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Market5 Aug 2030
Bologna come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Vicenza did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market5 Aug 2030
“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.
Market5 Aug 2030
Linus Ween has one foot out of the door
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.
Market5 Aug 2030
Andrea Papetti wants to know where this is going
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Vicenza hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Boardroom5 Aug 2030
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Linus Ween 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.
Squad5 Aug 2030
Words exchanged at Vicenza
Silvio Merkaj and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad5 Aug 2030
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Cristian Aragona is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad29 Jul 2030
Nicolò Cristofari damages knee ligaments — 28 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 28 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.
Boardroom29 Jul 2030
Pressure builds in the Vicenza boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market29 Jul 2030
Senzo Hlophe hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Vicenza can pretend not to have heard.
Squad29 Jul 2030
At 28 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 3 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.
Transfer targets29 Jul 2030
Vicenza offered $40.0K; Union Brescia 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.
The dugout29 Jul 2030
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad29 Jul 2030
Andrea Papetti falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Transfer targets29 Jul 2030
Vicenza asked and Juve Stabia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad29 Jul 2030
Senzo Hlophe was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad22 Jul 2030
A knee injury of the worst kind for Nicolò Cristofari
35 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Vicenza lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market22 Jul 2030
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.
Market22 Jul 2030
“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.
The dugout22 Jul 2030
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Boardroom22 Jul 2030
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Transfer targets22 Jul 2030
Vicenza have gone to Union Brescia with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Squad22 Jul 2030
Words at Vicenza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrea Papetti 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 targets22 Jul 2030
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Cremonese have kept their man, and Vicenza go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad22 Jul 2030
Words exchanged at Vicenza
Senzo Hlophe and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad15 Jul 2030
Nicolò Cristofari damages knee ligaments — 42 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 42 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.
Market15 Jul 2030
“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.
Market15 Jul 2030
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.
Squad15 Jul 2030
Silvio Merkaj 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.
Market15 Jul 2030
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Andrea Cunegatti is a Vicenza player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Squad15 Jul 2030
A row about effort at Vicenza
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alessandro Bellemo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets15 Jul 2030
Vicenza asked and Parma said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market15 Jul 2030
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Edoardo Piccini is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Squad15 Jul 2030
Vicenza are still strangers to each other
5 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.
In brief
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Boardroom
The numbers do not look good at Vicenza
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The dugout
A promise honoured at Vicenza
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The terraces
Supporters make their feelings known about Eduard Ihnatov
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad8 Jul 2030
Nicolò Cristofari damages knee ligaments — 49 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 49 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.
Market8 Jul 2030
Vicenza say no — this time
The offer from Benevento for Sebastiano Araboni 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.
Market8 Jul 2030
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Transfer targets8 Jul 2030
Vicenza and Arezzo have settled on $14.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
The dugout8 Jul 2030
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Vicenza may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad8 Jul 2030
The medical room confirms 16 days on the sidelines for Silvio Merkaj, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad8 Jul 2030
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mattia Valoti and Vicenza agree another 2 years.
Squad8 Jul 2030
Words exchanged at Vicenza
Silvio Merkaj and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Transfer targets8 Jul 2030
Spezia wanted more than $490.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad1 Jul 2030
56 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Vicenza lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market1 Jul 2030
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Silvio Merkaj had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Market1 Jul 2030
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Vicenza have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market1 Jul 2030
Fiorentina come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Vicenza did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Boardroom1 Jul 2030
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Vicenza
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market1 Jul 2030
“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.
Transfer targets1 Jul 2030
$490.0K settles it between the clubs for Edoardo Zanchi
Spezia have accepted the money. What Vicenza do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Squad1 Jul 2030
At 23 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad1 Jul 2030
A falling-out at Vicenza
Silvio Merkaj and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.