Marked for Luigi Caputo
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Luigi Caputo: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Udinese have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market26 Oct 2026
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Udinese can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Manuel De Marco 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 ratings26 Oct 2026
15 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.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Pietro Gamberini chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Match24 Oct 2026
Point won or two lost for Udinese?
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Cagliari? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Market26 Oct 2026
Unai Gómez linked with a move away
The name of Unai Gómez keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Udinese say nothing, which says plenty.
Looking ahead26 Oct 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Atalanta in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Udinese and Empoli have settled on $6.4M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Squad31 Aug 2026
A one-man rearguard from Maduka Okoye
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.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Udinese asked and Empoli said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad31 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Udinese
Nicolò Zaniolo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Maduka Okoye, and the manager let it.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad31 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Lennon Miller commits to Udinese for another 5 years.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Pietro Gamberini after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Porto wanted more than $33.6M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Udinese have gone to Sassuolo with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad24 Aug 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 Udinese this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout24 Aug 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.
Match22 Aug 2026
A bad afternoon for Udinese against Bologna
0‑1 to Bologna, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Pietro Gamberini left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
The form table has caught Luigi Caputo
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
In brief
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Boardroom
Udinese say no to the training-ground money
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Looking ahead
A test against the best for Udinese
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The dugout
No place in the plan for Maduka Okoye
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Aug 2026
Napoli come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Udinese did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Udinese have gone to Parma with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Market10 Aug 2026
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and HNK Gorica waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Udinese is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market10 Aug 2026
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Pontedera had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Mërgim Vojvoda and Udinese agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad10 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Udinese
Nicolò Zaniolo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Gianluca Graziani has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The dugout10 Aug 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.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
Mërgim Vojvoda knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mërgim Vojvoda trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.