Marked for Raffaele Sibilio
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout17 May 2027
This is not rotation. Christian Donadio has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Novara is pretending otherwise.
Squad17 May 2027
Marco Da Graca 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.
The dugout17 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.
Market17 May 2027
The Eric Lanini story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Eric Lanini signs something — a contract at Novara or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout17 May 2027
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.
Market17 May 2027
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Christian Donadio may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 May 2027
The medical room confirms 16 days on the sidelines for Raffaele Sibilio, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
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 promise honoured at Novara
Something was said to Davide Dell'Erba and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout10 May 2027
Marco Romano has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Novara will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The dugout10 May 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Adrian Cannavaro trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market10 May 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Andrea Valdesi’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings12 Apr 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.66, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Match10 Apr 2027
Still nobody has beaten Novara
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.
Squad12 Apr 2027
A falling-out at Novara
Omar Khailoti and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Marco Da Graca 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.
Match10 Apr 2027
A 2‑1 win over AlbinoLeffe, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The terraces12 Apr 2027
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Player ratings12 Apr 2027
Marked 6.87 on 10 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Squad12 Apr 2027
47 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Player ratings12 Apr 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.04, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout15 Mar 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Novara may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words at Novara training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marco Da Graca 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.
Squad15 Mar 2027
100 times in these colours, in all weathers and under four or five different managers. That kind of service is quietly disappearing from the game.
Squad15 Mar 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 Novara this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad15 Mar 2027
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Novara know it.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Novara told Roberto Ranieri something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Match13 Mar 2027
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Riccardo Arboscello, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match31 Oct 2026
Three points for Novara, 2‑0 the final word against Arzignano in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Ninety minutes of Christian Donadio at his very best
Marked 8.41. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Novara.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
85% of the income goes out in wages at Novara
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.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Paolo Farina kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
Andrea Moretti 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.
Market2 Nov 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Novara, another week without a signature from Alessandro Citi.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
Raffaele Sibilio has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Novara will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match23 Sep 2026
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Raffaele Sibilio obliged against Sorrento. 2‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Novara.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
No sign of nerves from Raffaele Sibilio at 20 — 7.64
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Raffaele Sibilio did not need any: 7.64, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad28 Sep 2026
A falling-out at Novara
Omar Khailoti and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The terraces28 Sep 2026
Novara supporters have found a favourite in Marco Romano
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Marco Romano 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.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
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.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Andrea Moretti
“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.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Marked 7.67. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Squad28 Sep 2026
5 new faces, and Novara 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.
Match26 Sep 2026
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.