Vis Pesaro had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Venezia, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vis Pesaro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 8.22 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
$1.8M settles it between the clubs for John Yeboah
Venezia have accepted the money. What Vis Pesaro do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Vis Pesaro are no longer polite ones.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Deadline passes with 2 signed and 0 gone
That is the business done at Vis Pesaro 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.
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.
Federico Casolari 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.
Everything agreed with Dolomiti Bellunesi, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Francesco Nicastro and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Vis Pesaro can tell you which week it ends in.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Virtus Entella have kept their man, and Vis Pesaro go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Vis Pesaro can pretend not to have heard.
The offer went to Venezia this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Vis Pesaro have done the hard part with Cagliari, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vis Pesaro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
$15.0K on the table at Pro Vercelli. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Picerno have kept their man, and Vis Pesaro go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Venezia is saying, and nobody at Vis Pesaro is enjoying the guessing.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Vis Pesaro have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The deal with Napoli is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vis Pesaro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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; Vis Pesaro are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Vis Pesaro asked and Padova said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Vis Pesaro will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Transfer targets10 Jan 2028
$1.8M settles it between the clubs for John Yeboah
Venezia have accepted the money. What Vis Pesaro do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Two goals and a mark of 8.02 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The deal with Cavese is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Successful dribbles: 23. 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 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.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Words at Vis Pesaro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Federico Casolari is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
12 combined actions and 7.46. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Vis Pesaro will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Vis Pesaro had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
The offer from Água Santa for Kauã Rodrigo 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.
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.
Tomás Lezcano 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Leandro Bianco after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vis Pesaro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Gubbio left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Words at Vis Pesaro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tomás Lezcano 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Leandro Bianco after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The enquiry everybody at Vis Pesaro was hoping would not arrive has arrived. He has never pretended he did not want to go back, and now there is somewhere to go back to.
7.78, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Francesco Nicastro 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 one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Leandro Bianco could afford to be generous.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Danilo Petriccione was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Everybody at Vis Pesaro saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 36 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Francesco Dell'Aquila 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.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Leandro Bianco on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Vis Pesaro will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Federico Casolari 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 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.
Guidonia Montecelio left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout6 Dec 2027
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 Leandro Bianco left the room before anybody could ask which.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Kauã Rodrigo has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 22 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vis Pesaro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Vis Pesaro, and 3 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
“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.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Words at Vis Pesaro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Danilo Petriccione 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.
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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Vis Pesaro will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Federico Casolari was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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; Vis Pesaro are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vis Pesaro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
0‑1 to Vicenza, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Leandro Bianco to a room that had heard them before.
The words a physio says slowly. 15 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Vis Pesaro will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Vis Pesaro can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Words at Vis Pesaro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Federico Casolari is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Vis Pesaro told Francesco Nicastro something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Luca Paganini trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
22 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Vis Pesaro lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
It finished 0-5. A cup exit is a disappointment; this was a public dismantling, and the difference between the two is the number of people who will still be talking about it in August.
The terraces8 Nov 2027
The stands have turned
“Enough is enough. We have watched this for months.” 6 of the 29 senior players walked off to it, and the message was not aimed at any one of them.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Francesco Dell'Aquila has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Sulayman Jallow. 2‑0 against Livorno, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“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.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Tomás Lezcano 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.
29 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Vis Pesaro lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 15 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vis Pesaro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Words at Vis Pesaro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Federico Casolari 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.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vis Pesaro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match23 Oct 2027
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for Vis Pesaro. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Sulayman Jallow. 1‑0 against Sambenedettese, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Vis Pesaro can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Marked 7.41 on 9 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
8 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tomás Lezcano was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
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.” Leandro Bianco chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
Francesco Nicastro and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Tomás Lezcano falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Vis Pesaro, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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 Simone Ascione is on it.
Pineto next, and one man in the Vis Pesaro dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Vis Pesaro have no good answer.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Vis Pesaro. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
1 for Manuel Di Paola, marked 7.82, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Manuel Pucciarelli and Vis Pesaro agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Tomás Lezcano was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Vis Pesaro, and 1 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Wiktor Chudy obliged against Lumezzane. 2‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Vis Pesaro.
The unbeaten run reaches 12. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Player ratings27 Sep 2027
Wiktor Chudy, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.66
A mark of 7.66 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
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.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings27 Sep 2027
Massimo Forte was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.28. 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tomás Lezcano was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Vis Pesaro have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Francesco Nicastro 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
“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 Vis Pesaro know it.
“I watch every Vis Pesaro game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Campobasso runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.34 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Godoy Cruz keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
“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 Vis Pesaro know it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Federico Casolari was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Francesco Nicastro. 3‑1 against Forli, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Giugliano have kept their man, and Vis Pesaro go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Vis Pesaro close the window on a squad of their own making
19 in and 8 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.
Federico Casolari 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.
$44.0K on the table at Giugliano. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tomás Lezcano was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
11 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.
“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 Vis Pesaro know it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Vis Pesaro is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Vis Pesaro 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vis Pesaro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Tomás Lezcano 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.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Vis Pesaro know which stage they are at.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Juve Stabia is saying, and nobody at Vis Pesaro is enjoying the guessing.
Francesco Nicastro 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.
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Romano Rizzi is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Orazio Colombo is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Marcello Milani is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Alessio Pavone has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Vis Pesaro is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Vis Pesaro asked and Udinese said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The name of Alessandro Guarnone has come up in conversations Vis Pesaro were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tomás Lezcano was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Francesco Nicastro has written the date down.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Vis Pesaro will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
In brief
The dugoutThéo Collin asks for a word with the manager
“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 Vis Pesaro, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Vis Pesaro people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Vis Pesaro 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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Words at Vis Pesaro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tomás Lezcano is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
11 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Vis Pesaro can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Catania waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Vis Pesaro is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Venezia keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Vis Pesaro they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Francesco Nicastro 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Juventus have kept their man, and Vis Pesaro go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Vis Pesaro can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Michele Rigione has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
“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 Vis Pesaro, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have shaken hands with Juve Stabia; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Francesco Nicastro 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 phone has started ringing about Nicolò Lari again, and this time the name on the line is Cosenza. Vis Pesaro are listening politely and promising nothing.
“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.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Words at Vis Pesaro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tomás Lezcano is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Vis Pesaro told Sulayman Jallow something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Vis Pesaro asked and Udinese said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Vis Pesaro has been clear about where Romeo Giovannini stands, which is more than many ever get.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Words at Vis Pesaro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tomás Lezcano is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Vis Pesaro, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Tomás Lezcano 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Potenza waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Vis Pesaro is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Vis Pesaro can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Juve Stabia keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Vis Pesaro can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Vis Pesaro asked and Hellas Verona said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Tomás Lezcano 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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
11 new faces, and Vis Pesaro 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.
He is 18, and nobody at Vis Pesaro signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Vis Pesaro can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
The deal with Virtus Entella is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
$200.0K settles it between the clubs for Daouda Fofana
Pro Vercelli have accepted the money. What Vis Pesaro do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Everything was agreed with Virtus Entella and then the doctor spoke. Vis Pesaro have walked away from a signing on the advice of somebody who never saw him play, which is how it is supposed to work.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Vis Pesaro is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Francesco Nicastro was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. William Pedersen has, at Vis Pesaro, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Add another name to the list: Potenza have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Nicolò Lari. The answer from Vis Pesaro has not changed — yet.
“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 targets28 Jun 2027
$89.0K settles it between the clubs for Marco Festa
Cremonese have accepted the money. What Vis Pesaro do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Vis Pesaro asked and Juventus said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tomás Lezcano was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Vis Pesaro has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Vis Pesaro. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Daniel Fratti trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The clubs have shaken hands with Lecco; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Tomás Lezcano 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.
“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.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Words at Vis Pesaro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicolò Berengo is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I 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.
The dugout21 Jun 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Marcello Piras's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Vis Pesaro can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have shaken hands with Empoli; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Romeo Giovannini and Vis Pesaro agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vis Pesaro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Tomás Lezcano 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.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Romeo Giovannini has written the date down.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Vis Pesaro can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Amadou Konaté will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Vis Pesaro the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Francesco Nicastro 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tomás Lezcano was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Massimo Forte has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Francesco Nicastro 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.
21 games and 1 goals away from here, and a man the manager did not have last summer. The loan did what loans are supposed to do and almost never do.
Squad31 May 2027
Words at Vis Pesaro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicolò Berengo is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
A new face in his position and a shirt he thought he owned suddenly up for discussion. Vis Pesaro have promised nothing, which is what clubs promise at this stage.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Vis Pesaro would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Francesco Nicastro and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 May 2027
Tomás Lezcano falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Francesco Nicastro has written the date down.
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
The least glamorous thing a foreign signing ever does and the one that decides most of them. A player who can hear the shout behind him is a different footballer from one who cannot.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Vis Pesaro will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad17 May 2027
Words at Vis Pesaro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tomás Lezcano 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 28 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Vis Pesaro they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“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 Vis Pesaro know it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vis Pesaro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Giacomo Maucci
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Vis Pesaro will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Vis Pesaro can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Squad3 May 2027
Words at Vis Pesaro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tomás Lezcano 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.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Andrea Beghetto has come out of that comparison in the side, and Vis Pesaro have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Michele Rigione was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Sulayman Jallow trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 43 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The terraces26 Apr 2027
The mood at Vis Pesaro has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Vis Pesaro can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tomás Lezcano was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Vis Pesaro will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Position 8 on 37 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Edoardo Mariani did not need any: 8.13, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Manuel Pisano. 2‑0 against Gubbio, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Gianmarco Palmieri has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Daniele Bernardi 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Vis Pesaro will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.09 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Vis Pesaro is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
Francesco Nicastro 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 easiest signature of my career.” Romeo Giovannini and Vis Pesaro agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
It finished 1‑0, and it was Manuel Pucciarelli’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Vis Pesaro.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Tomás Lezcano 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 66 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.01 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Francesco Nicastro was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
At 21 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alessandro Ventre was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Leandro Bianco, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Nicolò Lari
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Nicolò Berengo
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 73 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
Tomás Lezcano 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.
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.
Next up on the road: Pianese, position 15. The supporters who go will talk about it all week and the ones who do not will check their phones at ten to five.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 80 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Vis Pesaro can pretend not to have heard.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Manuel Pucciarelli. 1‑0 against Guidonia Montecelio, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tomás Lezcano was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Leandro Bianco, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Vis Pesaro will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Vis Pesaro have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Amadou Konaté will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Vis Pesaro the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alessandro Ventre was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Vis Pesaro, another week without a signature from Denis Tonucci.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Leandro Bianco was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Vis Pesaro dressing room was either.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 95 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.02 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Francesco Nicastro was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Vis Pesaro can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 13 combined actions and a mark of 7.03, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Luca Paganini will call it something else in private.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Sulayman Jallow
The dugoutThe view from the dugout
The dugoutDenis Tonucci is still being punished for one mistake
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Vis Pesaro will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The terraces1 Mar 2027
The mood at Vis Pesaro 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.
Boardroom1 Mar 2027
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Vis Pesaro
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Vis Pesaro have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The offer from PK-35 for Manuel Pisano 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.
“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 Vis Pesaro know it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vis Pesaro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Vis Pesaro can pretend not to have heard.
“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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at Vis Pesaro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alessandro Ventre 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 dugout22 Feb 2027
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 Leandro Bianco left the room before anybody could ask which.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
In brief
The dugoutDenis Tonucci knocks on the manager's door
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Vis Pesaro is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Francesco Nicastro 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.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
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 dugout15 Feb 2027
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.” Leandro Bianco kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Vis Pesaro asked and Atalanta said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at Vis Pesaro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tomás Lezcano 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.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Edoardo Mariani has come out of that comparison in the side, and Vis Pesaro have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
Denis Tonucci is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
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.” Leandro Bianco chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
At 19 he is being measured against the rest of the division's kids and coming out in front. The senior version of this award is where the club would like this to lead.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Nicolò Berengo
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Francesco Nicastro provided it, and the 8.36 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Vis Pesaro
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Vis Pesaro have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 0 signed and 0 gone
That is the business done at Vis Pesaro 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Vis Pesaro have done the hard part with Bologna, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Vis Pesaro asked and Hellas Verona said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 10 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Vis Pesaro can pretend not to have heard.
6 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.
The deal with Venezia is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Casertana waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Vis Pesaro is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
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.
Francesco Nicastro 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tomás Lezcano was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Vis Pesaro have gone to Lecco 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.
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.
Francesco Nicastro was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I have 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 Vis Pesaro know it.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Vis Pesaro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alessandro Ventre is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Vis Pesaro can pretend not to have heard.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vis Pesaro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Vis Pesaro 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Vis Pesaro can pretend not to have heard.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alessio Pozzi, and the manager let it.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Tomás Lezcano 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 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.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
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 dugout21 Dec 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Michele Rigione's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Leandro Bianco was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Vis Pesaro dressing room was either.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Gubbio next, and one man in the Vis Pesaro dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Successful dribbles: 11. 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vis Pesaro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 8.39 — 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.
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
“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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Vis Pesaro, and both men came out saying it was fine.
There were 89 minutes on the clock and Guidonia Montecelio had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Vis Pesaro did not stop to explain themselves.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
A 1‑0 win over Guidonia Montecelio, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 11 combined actions and a mark of 6.76, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Tomás Lezcano 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Leandro Bianco on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
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.
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.
Goalkeepers do not get to make mistakes; they get to make goals. He made one, he knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑3, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Manuel Di Paola's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Vis Pesaro have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Francesco Nicastro 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Leandro Bianco after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Successful dribbles: 11. 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.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Vis Pesaro would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Michele Rigione 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 easiest signature of my career.” Tomás Lezcano and Vis Pesaro agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Vis Pesaro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tomás Lezcano is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Vis Pesaro will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Spezia in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Denis Tonucci trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vis Pesaro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
50 goals in these colours now, every one of them somebody’s memory. There is a supporter in the stand who can tell you where he was for most of them.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Vis Pesaro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alessandro Ventre 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.
Théo Collin is 20, and Vis Pesaro have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
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.” Leandro Bianco kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Leandro Bianco after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Denis Tonucci's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Marked 4.59. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.84 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
7 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Sambenedettese were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Three points for Vis Pesaro, 2‑1 the final word against Sambenedettese in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Vis Pesaro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alessandro Ventre 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.
“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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
12 new faces, and Vis Pesaro 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.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
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.” Leandro Bianco kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Alessandro Ventre is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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.
Successful dribbles: 14. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Nobody at Vis Pesaro is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
Sambenedettese next, and one man in the Vis Pesaro dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
In brief
The dugoutWiktor Chudy asks for a word with the manager
Player ratingsThe pass was always on for Luca Paganini
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vis Pesaro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Pineto in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Francesco Nicastro has written the date down.
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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.95 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Romeo Giovannini and Vis Pesaro agree another 3 years.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Vis Pesaro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alessandro Ventre is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Every club 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
In brief
The dugoutDenis Tonucci is still being punished for one mistake
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.
Francesco Nicastro 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.
At 20 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alessandro Ventre was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Francesco Nicastro 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 one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Manuel Pucciarelli’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Vis Pesaro needing him to play as if none of it matters.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Vis Pesaro can pretend not to have heard.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. CSKA Sofia have kept their man, and Vis Pesaro go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alessandro Ventre was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Leandro Bianco after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 10 arrived, 0 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alessandro Ventre was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Andrea Primasso has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Vis Pesaro asked and Godoy Cruz said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Torres held the lead for 3 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Vis Pesaro answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
12 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 dugout31 Aug 2026
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 Leandro Bianco left the room before anybody could ask which.
Gimnasia y Esgrima 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.
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 dugout31 Aug 2026
Denis Tonucci is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Vis Pesaro asked and Estrela da Amadora said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Vis Pesaro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alessandro Ventre 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Feyenoord is saying, and nobody at Vis Pesaro is enjoying the guessing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vis Pesaro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Francesco Nicastro 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.
Vis Pesaro asked and Spezia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Gabriele Sala is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Domenico Lombardo has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Giorgio De Carli is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Giovanni Pugliese 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.
Vis Pesaro have made the call to Feyenoord. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
In brief
The dugoutLuca Paganini knocks on the manager's door
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Michele Rigione and Vis Pesaro agree another 2 years.
Francesco Nicastro and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Vis Pesaro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Michele Rigione 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.
Still no offer on the table, and Alessio Pozzi’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
12 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.