Marked for Mateo Rivero
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings13 Dec 2032
Successful dribbles: 34. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market13 Dec 2032
Only the photograph left for Justin Kumi
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Justin Kumi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sassuolo the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match11 Dec 2032
No end in sight to Sassuolo's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Sassuolo has to find a result from somewhere.
Boardroom13 Dec 2032
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Squad13 Dec 2032
Jay Idzes 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.
Squad13 Dec 2032
A row about effort at Sassuolo
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Edoardo Pieragnolo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings13 Dec 2032
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.38, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout13 Dec 2032
The manager makes an example of Mateo Rivero
“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.
Match11 Dec 2032
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
In brief
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The dugout
The form table has caught Žan Karničnik
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
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Looking ahead
Sassuolo take on the side everybody is chasing
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings22 Nov 2032
Successful dribbles: 28. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market22 Nov 2032
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sassuolo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad22 Nov 2032
A falling-out at Sassuolo
Jay Idzes and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match20 Nov 2032
Whatever happens, Sassuolo do not lose
7 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad22 Nov 2032
Words at Sassuolo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Edoardo Pieragnolo 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.
Match20 Nov 2032
After 6 games, Sassuolo finally taste it again
The first defeat in 6 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Hellas Verona; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Squad22 Nov 2032
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Sassuolo can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout22 Nov 2032
The manager makes an example of Žan Karničnik
“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.
Boardroom22 Nov 2032
94% of the income goes out in wages at Sassuolo
Every club in football 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 somebody has tried it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings27 Sep 2032
Successful dribbles: 24. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Market27 Sep 2032
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Bautista Arricau will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sassuolo the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom27 Sep 2032
Still no name above the door at Sassuolo
Day 38 of the vacancy. Candidates have been priced, sounded out and quietly ruled out — and the caretaker’s win ratio is becoming an argument all by itself.
Squad27 Sep 2032
A falling-out at Sassuolo
Jay Idzes and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad27 Sep 2032
Federico Bonazzoli 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 2032
A bad afternoon for Sassuolo against Torino
0‑1 to Torino, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout27 Sep 2032
“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 dugout27 Sep 2032
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Interim Coach after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout27 Sep 2032
Žan Karničnik 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
Steady
Market20 Sep 2032
Justin Kumi has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sassuolo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad20 Sep 2032
Words exchanged at Sassuolo
Jay Idzes 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.
Squad20 Sep 2032
A move Mateo Rivero 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. Mateo Rivero is living that version at Sassuolo, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad20 Sep 2032
Words at Sassuolo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Edoardo Pieragnolo 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.
Boardroom20 Sep 2032
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Market20 Sep 2032
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Sassuolo heard it as anything else.
Player ratings20 Sep 2032
Successful dribbles: 17. 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.
Player ratings20 Sep 2032
Marked 7.82 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Sassuolo had the best player on the pitch.
Squad20 Sep 2032
“The easiest signature of my career.” Mateo Rivero and Sassuolo agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.