Marked for Simone Cinquegrano
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad9 Nov 2026
24 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Forli lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market9 Nov 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.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 31. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad9 Nov 2026
A falling-out at Forli
Jacopo Scaccabarozzi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match7 Nov 2026
Forli 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.
Market9 Nov 2026
One of our own: Mariano Gatti joins the Forli first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Mariano Gatti is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Squad9 Nov 2026
200 times in these colours, in all weathers and under four or five different managers. That kind of service is quietly disappearing from the game.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“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.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad2 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Arturo Martini
31 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Forli lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Tempers go at Forli
Simone Cinquegrano 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.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
Wages swallow 146% of the Forli income
Every club 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 it has been tried.
Match31 Oct 2026
A bad afternoon for Forli against Gubbio
0‑2 to Gubbio, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout2 Nov 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 ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Market2 Nov 2026
Davide Macrì is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Forli has been clear about where Davide Macrì stands, which is more than many ever get.
Market2 Nov 2026
“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
Crisis
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.72 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Match3 Oct 2026
5 matches without a win for Forli
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Forli are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad5 Oct 2026
He will be fined, he will apologise, and he will play on Saturday. The order of those three tells you everything about what a football club actually values.
Match3 Oct 2026
A bad afternoon for Forli against Perugia
3‑5 to Perugia, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
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 Forli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match3 Oct 2026
8 goals in one match, Alessandro Seghetti on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Forli and Perugia.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Wages eat 201% of everything Forli earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
The terraces5 Oct 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Alessandro Seghetti 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Two of the goals had his name somewhere on them, which is the afternoon a manager wants from anybody asked to both create and finish. 7.88, and 2 involvements.
Transfer targets14 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.
Market14 Sep 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Gerardo Verdi has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market14 Sep 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Domenico Lombardo is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Squad14 Sep 2026
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Match12 Sep 2026
Forli rescue it on 92 minutes
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 92. Torres had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Nicola Mandrelli 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.
Match12 Sep 2026
Honours even between Forli and Torres
2‑2, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at Forli
Simone Cinquegrano 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
Crisis
Market31 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
A defender's goal wins it for Forli — 6.86
1 for Federico Valentini, marked 6.86, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Forli have done the hard part with Sassuolo, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Forli
Jacopo Scaccabarozzi 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Forli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marcos Godoy 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.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Monza have kept their man, and Forli go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match29 Aug 2026
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad31 Aug 2026
8 new faces, and Forli are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
The clubs have shaken hands with Cremonese; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Market17 Aug 2026
Toulouse FC paid $30.9M and Sassuolo took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Atalanta have kept their man, and Sassuolo go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Sassuolo will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market17 Aug 2026
Bari pay $14.3M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Sassuolo have gone to Guadalajara with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Market17 Aug 2026
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Sassuolo have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market17 Aug 2026
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
Armand Laurienté has gone, the accounts have $30.9M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets10 Aug 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Sassuolo people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market10 Aug 2026
Sassuolo say no — this time
The offer from Avellino for Kristian Thorstvedt 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 listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Edoardo Pieragnolo had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Arijanet Murić and Sassuolo agree another 4 years.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
$370.0K on the table at Como. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Sassuolo
Ignace Van Der Brempt 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.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Arijanet Murić
“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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The name of Simone Cinquegrano has come up in conversations Sassuolo were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.