Marked for Amoako Minta
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad23 Aug 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market23 Aug 2027
“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.
Match21 Aug 2027
The wait goes on for Sassuolo
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Tarik Muharemović 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.
Market23 Aug 2027
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Giorgio Cecconi is a Sassuolo player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Market23 Aug 2027
As if he never left: Nicolò Rocca returns
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Nicolò Rocca is a Sassuolo player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Market23 Aug 2027
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Match21 Aug 2027
2‑3 to AC Milan, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad23 Aug 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Andrea Pinamonti, and the manager let it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad28 Jun 2027
Tempers go at Gubbio
Tom Negrel 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.
Squad28 Jun 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Giacomo Rosaia, and the manager let it.
Market28 Jun 2027
The Nicola Murru talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Gubbio know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market19 Apr 2027
Thiago Gigena 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 Gubbio can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings19 Apr 2027
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match17 Apr 2027
Whatever happens, Gubbio do not lose
6 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.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Tempers go at Gubbio
Giacomo Rosaia 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.
Player ratings19 Apr 2027
Marked 9.01 — 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 ratings19 Apr 2027
A performance of 8.84 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Match17 Apr 2027
It finished 2‑0, and it was Francesco Zallu’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Gubbio.
Squad19 Apr 2027
The manager makes an example of Tom Negrel
“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.
Squad19 Apr 2027
The medical room confirms 14 days on the sidelines for Sebastiano Armani, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market1 Mar 2027
“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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
He is 20, he is averaging 7.23, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Squad1 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 Gubbio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match27 Feb 2027
Forli made Gubbio work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings1 Mar 2027
Marked 8.43 — 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 ratings1 Mar 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.20, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad1 Mar 2027
The manager makes an example of Giacomo Rosaia
“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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Gubbio pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Player ratings1 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 10. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad18 Jan 2027
Tempers go at Gubbio
Andrea La Mantia 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.
Match16 Jan 2027
A 2‑1 win over Guidonia Montecelio, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
A performance of 8.75 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad18 Jan 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Tom Negrel, and the manager let it.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.41, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
A performance of 8.13 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Market18 Jan 2027
He is 19, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
The terraces18 Jan 2027
The spotlight tightens on Ivan Varone
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 12. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match23 Sep 2026
The small margins put Gubbio out
Out, 1‑1 to Sampdoria, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Titas Krapikas decides it from twelve yards
1 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Match26 Sep 2026
No end in sight to Gubbio's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Gubbio has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Tempers go at Gubbio
Andrea La Mantia 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Ivan Varone gets it from the manager
“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.
Match26 Sep 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
It was his to settle and he did not settle it. A long walk back to the halfway line, and a considerably longer week.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Marked 7.71 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Gubbio had the best player on the pitch.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 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 Gubbio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Defensive actions: 22. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Squad21 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nicola Bagnolini, and the manager let it.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
A defender's afternoon for Ivan Varone
Defensive actions: 19. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Marked 7.64 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Gubbio had the best player on the pitch.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.