Marked for Abdullah Laidani
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market7 Jun 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Fabrizio Bagheria will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Modena the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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 Modena this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Jun 2027
The medical room confirms 45 days on the sidelines for Abdullah Laidani, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Boardroom7 Jun 2027
Modena release $326.2K for the manager
The board have put money on the table rather than an encouraging word. What happens to it now is somebody else's problem, and somebody else's job.
Market7 Jun 2027
Pro Patria are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Modena will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Squad7 Jun 2027
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.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Manuel De Luca asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market7 Jun 2027
Modena have let the market know José Antonio Martínez can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
Market7 Jun 2027
The name of Grégoire Defrel keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Modena say nothing, which says plenty.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings3 May 2027
Successful dribbles: 31. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market3 May 2027
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Modena heard it as anything else.
Squad3 May 2027
Gady Beyuku 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
Words at Modena training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alex Lima 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.
Player ratings3 May 2027
Marked 7.32. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Squad3 May 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Matteo Cotali, and the manager let it.
Squad3 May 2027
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Match1 May 2027
Point won or two lost for Modena?
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Südtirol? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Market3 May 2027
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad25 Jan 2027
Leandro Chichizola damages knee ligaments — 63 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 63 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.
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.
Match23 Jan 2027
Modena cannot find the net
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
The terraces25 Jan 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Abdullah Laidani 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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at Modena training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. José Antonio Martínez 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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
The manager makes an example of Manuel De Luca
“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.
Market25 Jan 2027
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Modena will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Match23 Jan 2027
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Monza will be the happier side with the point.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 10. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad4 Jan 2027
87 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.
Match2 Jan 2027
The 85th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Luca Zanimacchia decided nobody was going anywhere. Venezia had no time left to answer.
Market4 Jan 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 Modena, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match2 Jan 2027
The run at home goes on for Modena
11 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Squad4 Jan 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Abdullah Laidani is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Market4 Jan 2027
The name of Leonardo Consiglio has come up in conversations Modena were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Match2 Jan 2027
Three points for Modena, 1‑0 the final word against Venezia in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad4 Jan 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market28 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 Modena heard it as anything else.
Squad28 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Abdullah Laidani is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad28 Sep 2026
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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
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.