Marked for Kevin Giménez
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad31 Jul 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Manuel Gasparini
78 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Empoli lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Omari Forson breaks a bone — 26 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 26 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad31 Jul 2028
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market31 Jul 2028
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market31 Jul 2028
“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 Jul 2028
Mikkel Bro Hansen is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market3 Jul 2028
“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.
Market3 Jul 2028
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Market3 Jul 2028
Empoli say no — this time
The offer from Monopoli for Emiliano Filippis 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.
Squad3 Jul 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Empoli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Jul 2028
Words at Empoli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Joël Veltman 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.
Squad3 Jul 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Michel Ndary Adopo, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match13 May 2028
1‑4 to Pisa, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Squad15 May 2028
A fracture rules Edoardo Saporiti out for 45 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Empoli will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market15 May 2028
“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 Empoli, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad15 May 2028
Tempers go at Empoli
Vasilije Adžić 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.
Squad15 May 2028
Words at Empoli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Faustino Anjorin 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 May 2028
The manager makes an example of Joël Veltman
“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 ratings15 May 2028
Marked 8.60 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Player ratings15 May 2028
Vasilije Adžić was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.06. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Boardroom15 May 2028
Doors closed at Empoli
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad28 Feb 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 135 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings28 Feb 2028
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.53, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market28 Feb 2028
Kevin Giménez hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Empoli can pretend not to have heard.
Match26 Feb 2028
Empoli cannot stop winning
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Squad28 Feb 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Empoli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market28 Feb 2028
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Emiliano Filippis will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Empoli the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market28 Feb 2028
Add another name to the list: IFK Norrkoping have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Ismaël Konaté. The answer from Empoli has not changed — yet.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Words at Empoli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Joël Veltman 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.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Jota is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.40 with 10 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings25 Oct 2027
No sign of nerves from Vasilije Adžić at 21 — 8.46
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Vasilije Adžić did not need any: 8.46, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Tempers go at Empoli
Vasilije Adžić 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.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Words at Empoli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Faustino Anjorin 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 ratings25 Oct 2027
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Loan watch25 Oct 2027
“I watch every Empoli game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Sorrento runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad25 Oct 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 Empoli know it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom2 Aug 2027
The scrutiny sharpens at Empoli
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Empoli is running low.
Boardroom2 Aug 2027
Diego Ferri has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Empoli can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Market2 Aug 2027
Kevin Giménez hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Empoli can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom2 Aug 2027
The Empoli board want somebody sold
The instruction has come from upstairs rather than from the dugout, which is the version of this conversation no manager enjoys. Somebody in that squad is now available whether the man who picks the team thinks so or not.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Words at Empoli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Faustino Anjorin 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.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Luca Magnino 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 Empoli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Loan watch2 Aug 2027
“I did not go to Sorrento to sit and watch. I want to come back to Empoli and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.
Squad2 Aug 2027
The manager makes an example of Joseph Ceesay
“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.
Market2 Aug 2027
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Empoli will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market14 Jun 2027
Ravenna come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Empoli did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market14 Jun 2027
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Cesena moved on, Samuele Perisan reports back to Empoli, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Maj Blažič is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad14 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 Empoli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Words at Empoli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrea Fulignati 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad22 Mar 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 88 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad22 Mar 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Empoli may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
25 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Tempers go at Empoli
Gabriel Silva 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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Andrea Fulignati 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.
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
Marked 7.87. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
Defensive actions: 13. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Match20 Mar 2027
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Spezia will be the happier side with the point.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad15 Feb 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 127 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad15 Feb 2027
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Empoli have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 25. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market15 Feb 2027
Only the photograph left for Maj Blažič
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Maj Blažič will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Empoli the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match13 Feb 2027
No end in sight to Empoli's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Empoli has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad15 Feb 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 Empoli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Feb 2027
A move Kevin Giménez 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. Kevin Giménez is living that version at Empoli, and it tends to show in the first month.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.00, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
A performance of 8.29 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market1 Feb 2027
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Adrián Marín 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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Wilder Cartagena 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.
Market1 Feb 2027
It is the least glamorous business a club does and the reason seasons do not collapse in February. Kevin Giménez is here for the weeks when three men are injured and somebody still has to play.
Squad1 Feb 2027
A new face in his position, and David Brekalo suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. Orlando City have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.