Lucchese are latest in a long line of crisis-hit Tuscan clubs (Siena, Livorno, Grosseto, Pistoiese, etc). At some point, all these clubs have been passed to a mysterious owner who fails to stump up running costs (or simply disappears). Tuscany has 8 senior teams (Serie A to C). That's far too few.

Serie C: 25 for 2025 Last December, on Twitter, I published my 24 under-21 lower league players to watch in 2024. Some, like Cristian Shpendi, have enjoyed a wonderful 12 months. Others, like Marios Chrysovergis, have literally gone AWOL.

You can tell a man's significance to a city when his life (and death) spawns a literary genre. Iacovone's death has already served as the backdrop to Cosimo Argentino's Cuore di Cuoio, by my reckoning one of the greatest novels of post-Tangentopoli Italy.

Italian Coastal League 2024/25 Imagine an Italy without electricity, gas or petrol (or steam?) ...where the only viable way to get 11 players from one city to another was by boat. Well here's your top flight.

If Dundee were Akragas: An alternate football universe What if Serie A's clubs had sprung up not in Italy, but in Scotland? Here's a slow thread on how Italian calcio might be understood within a Caledonian context. This thread could be a bombscare...

Messina was originally called "Zancle" (Siculian for "sickle"), so named by colonising pirates due to the shape of its harbour. It was later re-christened "Messene" by Anaxilaus, tyrant of Reggio, who hailed from the Greek region of Messenia (adding an extra edge to the Messina-Reggina derby 😉).

The word Avellino comes from the proto-Indo-European word for "apple" (abel). In Roman times, it was called Abellinum - but it was 4km away from its current location. Conversely, the nearby town of "Avella" is believed to come from the Latin for "hazelnut" (as in the Spanish "avellana").

The city of Benevento used to be called "Maleventum" until the Romans realised the name probably didn't bode well for the town. The Romans had misconceived the town's original name of "Maloenton" (probably indicating sheep-farming activity) as meaning "malum eventum" (ill-occurrence).