Marked for Ignace Van Der Brempt
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad2 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Ivan Da Silva
19 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sassuolo lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match31 Oct 2026
The wait goes on for Sassuolo
7 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.
Market2 Nov 2026
Domenico Berardi 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 Sassuolo hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Market2 Nov 2026
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sassuolo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Armand Laurienté was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.08. 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Sassuolo
Sonosi Daldum 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.
Match31 Oct 2026
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Sassuolo, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad2 Nov 2026
The captaincy has been taken off Jay Idzes. Sassuolo will call it a decision about the team; a dressing room reads it as a verdict on a man.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad26 Oct 2026
27 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Sassuolo lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match25 Oct 2026
6 matches without a win for Sassuolo
The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around Sassuolo are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match25 Oct 2026
A bad afternoon for Sassuolo against Como
0‑2 to Como, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad26 Oct 2026
8 new faces, and Sassuolo are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout26 Oct 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 0‑2 Luigi Fiorini left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“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.
Market26 Oct 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Jay Idzes’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Looking ahead26 Oct 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Bologna in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad19 Oct 2026
35 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Sassuolo lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match17 Oct 2026
No end in sight to Sassuolo's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Sassuolo has to find a result from somewhere.
Market19 Oct 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Sassuolo is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad19 Oct 2026
A muscle injury and 14 days out for Jay Idzes
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Sassuolo will quote 14 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Briajan Gjyla is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Match17 Oct 2026
Fiorentina left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Arijanet Murić, and the manager let it.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Luigi Fiorini after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad19 Oct 2026
A falling-out at Sassuolo
Simone Cinquegrano and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Aug 2026
Sassuolo say no — this time
The offer from Lazio for Arijanet Murić 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Sassuolo people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
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.
Market10 Aug 2026
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Trento had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Everything agreed with Cremonese, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Arijanet Murić and Sassuolo agree another 4 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Sassuolo
Arijanet Murić 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 targets10 Aug 2026
KAA Gent 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.