Marked for Aster Vranckx
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad12 Jul 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mohamed Amoura and VfL Wolfsburg agree another 5 years.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Mohamed Amoura 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
César Gelabert falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
VfL Wolfsburg asked and Olympique Lyonnais 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 dugout12 Jul 2027
“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.
Market12 Jul 2027
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Elba Rashani has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at VfL Wolfsburg.
Squad12 Jul 2027
VfL Wolfsburg are still strangers to each other
6 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 dugout12 Jul 2027
Mohamed Amoura knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at VfL Wolfsburg, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market12 Jul 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Timon Wellenreuther signs something — a contract at VfL Wolfsburg or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market28 Jun 2027
Josh Doig puts it in writing
“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 The request is on a desk at Sassuolo, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market28 Jun 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Virtus Entella waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Sassuolo is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Loan watch28 Jun 2027
The goals keep arriving from Janis Antiste’s exile
18 goals in 28 games at Gornik Zabrze — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Sassuolo updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Words exchanged at Sassuolo
Ignace Van Der Brempt 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.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Matteo Cingolani is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Domenico Berardi falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
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.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Aster Vranckx has improved at 24, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
The dugout28 Jun 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market28 Jun 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around VfL Wolfsburg people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market28 Jun 2027
“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 VfL Wolfsburg, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market28 Jun 2027
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Jarell Quansah 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.
Squad28 Jun 2027
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Álvaro Aguado has improved at 31, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Squad28 Jun 2027
César Gelabert 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.
Market28 Jun 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. VfL Wolfsburg know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout28 Jun 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Niklas Lomb, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom17 May 2027
Sassuolo interviewed the field and appointed the corridor: Pietro Benedetti keeps the job he had been doing in all but title. Sometimes the safest pair of hands is the one already holding the wheel.
Squad17 May 2027
The words a physio says slowly. 22 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.
Squad17 May 2027
Words exchanged at Sassuolo
Rafa Marín 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.
Squad17 May 2027
Words at Sassuolo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Domenico Berardi 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 dugout17 May 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Federico Bonazzoli, and the manager let it.
Loan watch17 May 2027
35 appearances away from home and 10 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
Loan watch17 May 2027
The goals keep arriving from Agustín Álvarez’s exile
7 goals in 14 games at Talleres — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Sassuolo updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Market17 May 2027
The name of Arijanet Murić keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Sassuolo say nothing, which says plenty.
Loan watch17 May 2027
32 starts now, an average of 6.66, and the team sheet at Empoli has stopped being a question. Exactly what everybody signed up for.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom17 May 2027
“I have watched this squad. There is more in it than the table says.” First press conference, first promise — Paul Evans made the one every new manager makes, and now comes the part where it gets checked.
Squad17 May 2027
Jarell Quansah and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad17 May 2027
César Gelabert 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 dugout17 May 2027
César Gelabert is playing like a man with something to prove
The oldest phenomenon in the sport: a new voice in the dressing room and suddenly everybody is available for everything. César Gelabert is training as though the last team sheet never existed, because as far as he is concerned it does not.
The dugout17 May 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Maximilian Arnold trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout17 May 2027
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at VfL Wolfsburg. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Market17 May 2027
The name of Kento Shiogai keeps appearing in other people's back pages. VfL Wolfsburg say nothing, which says plenty.
Market17 May 2027
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Cleiton may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Squad17 May 2027
Nobody writes a headline about a tutor. Nobody has to be told, either, what happens to a signing who spends two years being the man nobody can talk to at lunch.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match10 Oct 2026
The wait goes on for Sassuolo
8 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad12 Oct 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sassuolo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Domenico Berardi falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.13, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad12 Oct 2026
4 Sassuolo players away with their countries
The training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 4 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“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.
Match10 Oct 2026
A 1‑1 draw with Como leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Loan watch12 Oct 2026
The goals keep arriving from Janis Antiste’s exile
8 goals in 11 games at Gornik Zabrze — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Sassuolo updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Juve Stabia have kept their man, and Sassuolo go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
At 38 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 7.88, and nobody on the pitch better.
Market31 Aug 2026
Avellino come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Sassuolo did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Sassuolo
Ignace Van Der Brempt 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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad31 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Sassuolo
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Domenico Berardi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Jay Idzes
“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.
Market31 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: Bari have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Edoardo Pieragnolo. The answer from Sassuolo has not changed — yet.
Squad31 Aug 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets17 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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
$13.2M on the table at Cremonese. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Market17 Aug 2026
Pescara pay $10.6M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Market17 Aug 2026
Juventus pay $8.4M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
Supporters turn on the $10.6M sale of Daniel Boloca
He is going to Pescara, the club has $10.6M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Squad17 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sassuolo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Sassuolo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Domenico Berardi 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.
Market17 Aug 2026
The phone has started ringing about Simone Cinquegrano again, and this time the name on the line is Avellino. Sassuolo are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad17 Aug 2026
No place for Reda Belahyane in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Sassuolo are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.