Marked for Alisson Santos
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match25 Sep 2027
3‑0, and Jacob Ondrejka took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Parma tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings27 Sep 2027
Vasilije Adžić, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.03
A mark of 8.03 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Match25 Sep 2027
Nobody wants to play Parma right now
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Enrico Delprato 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.
Match25 Sep 2027
The run at home goes on for Parma
9 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Squad27 Sep 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 Parma this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Sep 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Enrico Delprato, and the manager let it.
The terraces27 Sep 2027
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Player ratings27 Sep 2027
Ninety minutes of Jacob Ondrejka at his very best
Marked 8.25. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Parma.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad20 Sep 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 12 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match18 Sep 2027
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Market20 Sep 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 Parma, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad20 Sep 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Parma may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
Vasilije Adžić, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.67
A mark of 7.67 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Christian Ordoñez is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Zion Suzuki in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Parma this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
A hand in 2 of them from Alisson Santos — 7.85
Marked 7.85. There is a kind of forward whose value only shows up when you count what he was involved in rather than what he finished, and this is the day that argument makes itself.
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
Defensive actions: 19. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market28 Jun 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.
Market28 Jun 2027
Parma 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.
Market28 Jun 2027
Business is business: Juan Jesus goes
Palermo paid $1.3M and Napoli took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Michele Barbella is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Market28 Jun 2027
The name of Francisco Baridó has come up in conversations Napoli were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad28 Jun 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Antonio Vergara and Napoli agree another 4 years.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad21 Jun 2027
Alisson Santos: 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.” Napoli have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market21 Jun 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market21 Jun 2027
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.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Francisco Baridó is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Market21 Jun 2027
The name of Alisson Santos has come up in conversations Napoli were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad21 Jun 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 Napoli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market7 Jun 2027
Napoli say no — this time
The offer from Blackburn Rovers for Leonardo Spinazzola 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 Jun 2027
Scott McTominay 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.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Words at Napoli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kevin De Bruyne 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.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Luca Lo Scalzo is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Market7 Jun 2027
The phone has started ringing about Sam Beukema again, and this time the name on the line is Pisa. Napoli are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad7 Jun 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 Napoli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match12 Apr 2027
Napoli up to position 3
62 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Market12 Apr 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Salvatore Pignarosa will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Napoli the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Tempers go at Napoli
Matteo Politano 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 Apr 2027
Getting past Alex Meret has become the hardest job in the division
14 clean sheets and counting. Forwards used to back themselves here; now they shoot early, shoot wide, and look for somebody to blame.
Market12 Apr 2027
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Alisson Santos wants continental football; whether Napoli can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Match10 Apr 2027
Udinese made Napoli work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings12 Apr 2027
A performance of 8.25 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Words at Napoli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amir Rrahmani 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.
Squad12 Apr 2027
When it matters, Alex Meret plays
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match8 Feb 2027
Napoli are in among the leaders
Position 3 and 44 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Squad8 Feb 2027
A one-man rearguard from Alex Meret
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market8 Feb 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market8 Feb 2027
“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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Giulio Anghileri has just signed for Napoli, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad8 Feb 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Giovanni Di Lorenzo commits to Napoli for another 2 years.
Squad8 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 Napoli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market8 Feb 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.
Match6 Feb 2027
A bad afternoon for Napoli against Torino
0‑1 to Torino, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Kevin De Bruyne, 35, rolls back the years — 8.28
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.28 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Market7 Dec 2026
David Neres 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.
Match5 Dec 2026
Still nobody has beaten Napoli
The unbeaten run reaches 7. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Match5 Dec 2026
Three points for Napoli, 2‑0 the final word against Parma in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad7 Dec 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 Napoli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Marked 8.30. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Napoli.
Market7 Dec 2026
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Alisson Santos wants continental football; whether Napoli can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Loan watch7 Dec 2026
“I did not go to Altamura to sit and watch. I want to come back to Napoli and fight for my place.” 5 appearances in 14 matches say the rest.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad5 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 Napoli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match3 Oct 2026
AC Milan left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Amir Rrahmani 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.
Market5 Oct 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Alex Meret's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Alex Meret lets one through his hands
A defender's mistake gets tidied up by somebody else; a goalkeeper's ends up in the net. He knew before the ball crossed the line, and so did everybody in the ground.
Loan watch5 Oct 2026
“I did not go to Altamura to sit and watch. I want to come back to Napoli and fight for my place.” 1 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.
Market5 Oct 2026
Alex Meret linked with a move away
The name of Alex Meret keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Napoli say nothing, which says plenty.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 9. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Aug 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Nikita Contini
49 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Napoli lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market10 Aug 2026
Napoli say no — this time
The offer from Bra for Vincenzo Fabozzi 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
“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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Scott McTominay commits to Napoli for another 5 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Kevin De Bruyne 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.
Squad10 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 Napoli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.