Marked for David Neres
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match4 Nov 2026
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Dinis Rodrigues obliged against Carpi. 3‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Napoli.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.74, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market9 Nov 2026
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
The terraces9 Nov 2026
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.
Market9 Nov 2026
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.
Match7 Nov 2026
Napoli come up short against Genoa
Genoa left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad9 Nov 2026
A quiet fortnight at Napoli
With 7 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like one.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
A performance of 8.24 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Marked 8.13 — 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Napoli may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Adam Hasani breaks a bone — 16 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 16 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market2 Nov 2026
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Napoli heard it as anything else.
Match31 Oct 2026
Juventus left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
A promise honoured at Napoli
Something was said to Kevin De Bruyne and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Loan watch2 Nov 2026
“I did not go to Urartu to sit and watch. I want to come back to Napoli and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 9 matches say the rest.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Romano Caruso to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
Giovane 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Rasmus Højlund has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.62, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Adam Hasani breaks a bone — 24 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 24 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match24 Oct 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Rasmus Højlund. 2‑1 against Lecce, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The terraces26 Oct 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Rasmus Højlund 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.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Stanislav Lobotka ran the middle of the pitch — 7.50
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 7.50, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
The dugout26 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.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Chances created: 13. Not on the scoresheet and not remotely anonymous — a passing performance that pulled a defence apart without leaving a mark on the column that gets read.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Romano Caruso could afford to be generous.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Wellington Silva dropped after a run of poor form
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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. André-Franck Zambo Anguissa provided it, and the 8.43 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.00 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Match26 Sep 2026
Napoli cannot stop winning
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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Tempers go at Napoli
Rasmus Højlund 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.
Market28 Sep 2026
Napoli may not be able to give David Neres what he wants
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. David Neres wants continental football; whether Napoli can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Vincenzo Fabozzi is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
The terraces28 Sep 2026
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.
Match26 Sep 2026
3 goals inside twenty minutes with André-Franck Zambo Anguissa in the middle of it, and Venezia unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad14 Sep 2026
Pasquale Rosi damages knee ligaments — 17 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 17 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.
Market14 Sep 2026
“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 Napoli, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Napoli will try again when the window opens; Sassuolo may not be selling by then.
Market14 Sep 2026
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Market14 Sep 2026
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Napoli can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Match12 Sep 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Rasmus Højlund. 1‑0 against Atalanta, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Marked 7.36 on 11 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
David Neres beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 16. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Sep 2026
Pasquale Rosi damages knee ligaments — 25 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 25 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.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
The window shuts on the Arijanet Murić deal
Napoli ran out of time with Sassuolo. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Market7 Sep 2026
David Neres hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Napoli can pretend not to have heard.
Market7 Sep 2026
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Napoli have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Transfer targets7 Sep 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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 5 in, 5 out at Napoli
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 5 arrived, 5 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Market7 Sep 2026
Napoli say no — this time
The offer from Lokomotiv Sofia for Dinis Rodrigues 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.
Market7 Sep 2026
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Napoli heard it as anything else.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at Napoli
Michele Barbella 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 Aug 2026
45 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Napoli lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market24 Aug 2026
Máximo Perrone arrives at Napoli in a $30.7M statement of intent
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Napoli have paid $30.7M for Máximo Perrone, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
Market24 Aug 2026
Genoa come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Napoli did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Atalanta wanted more than $9.1M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Lazio have kept their man, and Napoli go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market24 Aug 2026
“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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Máximo Perrone arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Máximo Perrone has, at Napoli, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
3 academy graduates step up at Napoli
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Market24 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Napoli have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Arsenal have kept their man, and Napoli go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market3 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market3 Aug 2026
Kevin De Bruyne 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 Napoli hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A move Wellington Silva would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Wellington Silva is living that version at Napoli, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Kevin De Bruyne and Napoli agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Market3 Aug 2026
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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“124 caps was 124 more than the boy who started ever expected.” At 35 he has stepped away from the national side and has not stepped away from Napoli.
Market3 Aug 2026
The name of Vanja Milinković-Savić has come up in conversations Napoli were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Napoli
Michele Barbella 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.