Marked for Liel
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 30. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market1 Feb 2027
“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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Liel keeps the receipts
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Modena may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match30 Jan 2027
No end in sight to Modena's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Modena has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad1 Feb 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Modena this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match30 Jan 2027
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
A performance of 8.17 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad1 Feb 2027
The manager makes an example of Daniel Tonoli
“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.
Loan watch1 Feb 2027
“I watch every Modena game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Wolfsberger AC runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad25 Jan 2027
Ousmane Niang: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Modena have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market25 Jan 2027
Andorra come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Modena did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market25 Jan 2027
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Modena they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Tempers go at Modena
Fabio Gerli 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.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
Marked 8.64 — 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.
Match23 Jan 2027
Modena and Monza take a point apiece
It finished 2‑2, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Squad25 Jan 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Bryant Nieling, and the manager let it.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Manuel De Luca 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 Modena, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Oct 2026
Tempers go at Modena
Fabio Gerli 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.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
A performance of 9.14 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Match17 Oct 2026
It finished 2‑1, and it was Giuseppe Ambrosino’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Modena.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Marked 8.35 — 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.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
A performance of 8.32 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Liel gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad19 Oct 2026
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Modena have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
Squad19 Oct 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 Modena, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Sep 2026
The medical room confirms 76 days on the sidelines for Francesco Zampano, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Market7 Sep 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Modena can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings7 Sep 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.
Squad7 Sep 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 Modena this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
268% of the income goes out in wages at Modena
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.
Match5 Sep 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad7 Sep 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Alessandro Sersanti trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
A mark of 4.84 tells the story without any need for embellishment. He will want the tape of this one quietly lost.