Marked for Bryant Nieling
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad10 May 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Francesco Zampano
52 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Modena lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market10 May 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Modena is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Player ratings10 May 2027
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad10 May 2027
Tempers go at Modena
Lucho Vega 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.
Squad10 May 2027
A row about effort at Modena
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Federico Mastropietro was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad10 May 2027
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Modena are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The dugout10 May 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.
The dugout10 May 2027
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Simone Santoro will call it something else in private.
Player ratings10 May 2027
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.50 on the card, and the Modena support went home talking about one name.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad3 May 2027
Francesco Zampano damages knee ligaments — 59 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 59 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.
Market3 May 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.
Squad3 May 2027
Fabio Gerli 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 Modena this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 May 2027
Giuseppe Ambrosino 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.
Squad3 May 2027
31 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Match1 May 2027
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout3 May 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Giuseppe Ambrosino'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.
The dugout3 May 2027
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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Cristiano Mariani to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout3 May 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout8 Mar 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Modena may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings8 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 26. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market8 Mar 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Michele Pezzolato will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Modena the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad8 Mar 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Francesco Zampano commits to Modena for another 2 years.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Tempers go at Modena
Francesco Zampano 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.
Squad8 Mar 2027
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Modena are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Loan watch8 Mar 2027
“I did not go to Trakai to sit and watch. I want to come back to Modena and fight for my place.” 1 appearances in 29 matches say the rest.
Player ratings8 Mar 2027
Nobody on the pitch touched Daniel Tonoli
7.49, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Modena had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
The manager makes an example of Bryant Nieling
“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.