Marked for Daniel Tumminelli
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom19 Feb 2029
The club looked outside for a month, found nothing it preferred, and handed the job to the man who had been doing it anyway. He knows the building; now he has to prove he knows the rest.
Market19 Feb 2029
“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.
Match17 Feb 2029
5 matches without a win for Sassuolo
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Sassuolo are no longer polite ones.
Squad19 Feb 2029
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.
Squad19 Feb 2029
9 goals and a season average of 7.45 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad19 Feb 2029
“The easiest signature of my career.” Edoardo Pieragnolo and Sassuolo agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Player ratings19 Feb 2029
Marked 8.79 — 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.
Squad19 Feb 2029
The manager makes an example of Gioele Zacchi
“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 ratings19 Feb 2029
A performance of 8.67 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings15 Jan 2029
A defender's afternoon for Ismaël Koné
Defensive actions: 31. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Player ratings15 Jan 2029
Successful dribbles: 27. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market15 Jan 2029
Ferencvaros come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Sassuolo did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Player ratings15 Jan 2029
Defensive actions: 27. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Market15 Jan 2029
“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 Sassuolo, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market15 Jan 2029
Alex Rolfini has left for Frosinone in a $1.7M deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Squad15 Jan 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sassuolo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom15 Jan 2029
Still no name above the door at Sassuolo
Day 14 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.
Loan watch15 Jan 2029
20 appearances away from home and 15 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match13 Dec 2028
The small margins put Sassuolo out
Out, 2‑3 to Torino, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Squad18 Dec 2028
There were 7 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.
Market18 Dec 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 Sassuolo, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings18 Dec 2028
Successful dribbles: 25. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings18 Dec 2028
Shots: 16, enough of them from close enough that a striker in form scores two. He is not a striker in form.
Squad18 Dec 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 Sassuolo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match16 Dec 2028
Fiorentina left with the points after a 2‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad18 Dec 2028
“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.
Player ratings18 Dec 2028
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.96, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market20 Nov 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.
Squad20 Nov 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 Sassuolo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings20 Nov 2028
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.83, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings20 Nov 2028
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.37, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings20 Nov 2028
A performance of 8.17 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings20 Nov 2028
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Loan watch20 Nov 2028
“I did not go to Venezia to sit and watch. I want to come back to Sassuolo and fight for my place.” 1 appearances in 13 matches say the rest.
Match18 Nov 2028
It finished 2‑2, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Squad20 Nov 2028
Amin Sarr 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad6 Nov 2028
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Filip Stanković: 2 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Match1 Nov 2028
Venezia march on in the cup
Empoli are out and Venezia go through, 1‑1 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Boardroom6 Nov 2028
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Venezia
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Squad6 Nov 2028
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Venezia have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad6 Nov 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Gaetano Oristanio and Venezia agree another 4 years.
Squad6 Nov 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 Venezia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match4 Nov 2028
It finished 3‑2, and it was Armel Bella-Kotchap’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Venezia.
Player ratings6 Nov 2028
Marked 8.88 — 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 ratings6 Nov 2028
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.60, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad23 Oct 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad23 Oct 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Sassuolo may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match21 Oct 2028
4 matches without a win for Sassuolo
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Sassuolo are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings23 Oct 2028
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad23 Oct 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 Sassuolo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match21 Oct 2028
1‑3 to Bologna, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad23 Oct 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Gioele Zacchi, and the manager let it.
Player ratings23 Oct 2028
Marked 8.37 — 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 ratings23 Oct 2028
Shots: 14. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad25 Sep 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market25 Sep 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.
Squad25 Sep 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 Sassuolo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match23 Sep 2028
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Andrea Pinamonti. 4‑3 against Lecce, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings25 Sep 2028
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.79, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings25 Sep 2028
A performance of 8.68 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings25 Sep 2028
Marked 8.37 — 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.
Loan watch25 Sep 2028
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Sassuolo, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
Player ratings25 Sep 2028
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.