Marked for Simone Marsi
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market8 Dec 2031
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Modena can pretend not to have heard.
Squad8 Dec 2031
17 goals and a season average of 7.53. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad8 Dec 2031
Fabio Gerli: 11 seasons and counting
512 appearances across 11 seasons in one shirt. Careers like that are not built on purpose any more, and Modena know exactly what they have.
Player ratings8 Dec 2031
At 34 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.10, and nobody on the pitch better.
Match6 Dec 2031
Still nobody has beaten Modena
The unbeaten run reaches 9. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
The dugout8 Dec 2031
Simone Marsi: 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.” Modena have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad8 Dec 2031
Tempers go at Modena
Oliver Christensen 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.
Squad8 Dec 2031
Words at Modena training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alessandro Sersanti 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.
Match6 Dec 2031
Modena make home a hard place to visit
9 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces28 Jul 2031
Supporters organise against the Modena board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
The dugout28 Jul 2031
Davide Lamesta: 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.” Modena have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market28 Jul 2031
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Modena people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market28 Jul 2031
The bid was some way short and Modena did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad28 Jul 2031
Tempers go at Modena
Fabio Gerli 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 Jul 2031
Simone Marsi is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.
Market28 Jul 2031
Silvio Merkaj is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Modena has been clear about where Silvio Merkaj stands, which is more than many ever get.
The dugout28 Jul 2031
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Fabio Gerli, and the manager let it.
Squad28 Jul 2031
At 25 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces30 Jun 2031
Supporters organise against the Modena board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Market30 Jun 2031
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Modena have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market30 Jun 2031
Add another name to the list: Arezzo have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Silvio Merkaj. The answer from Modena has not changed — yet.
Market30 Jun 2031
“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.
Squad30 Jun 2031
Tempers go at Modena
Oliver Christensen 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.
The dugout30 Jun 2031
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
The dugout30 Jun 2031
Silvio Merkaj asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Squad30 Jun 2031
Words at Modena training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mateo Aimar 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.
The dugout30 Jun 2031
“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
Crisis
Squad23 Sep 2030
7 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Match21 Sep 2030
The wait goes on for Modena
6 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.
The dugout23 Sep 2030
“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.
Market23 Sep 2030
Daniel Molina 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 Modena can pretend not to have heard.
Match21 Sep 2030
Modena leaking at the back
6 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Squad23 Sep 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Modena this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match21 Sep 2030
Palermo left with the points after a 3‑5 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Match21 Sep 2030
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 8 goals between Modena and Palermo, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad23 Sep 2030
Words at Modena training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alessandro Sersanti 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.
In brief
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The dugout
The manager makes an example of Davide Lamesta
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
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Squad
5 new faces, and Modena are still learning each other
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings2 Sep 2030
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.65, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Transfer targets2 Sep 2030
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Inter is saying, and nobody at Modena is enjoying the guessing.
Squad2 Sep 2030
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The dugout2 Sep 2030
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Modena may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market2 Sep 2030
The name of Nikola Vlašić has come up in conversations Modena were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Boardroom2 Sep 2030
Deadline passes with 20 signed and 18 gone
That is the business done at Modena until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Boardroom2 Sep 2030
Modena told to sell
The instruction came from the boardroom and the dugout did not agree with it. Somebody will go, the fee will be called good business, and the manager will spend the season rebuilding around the space.
Market2 Sep 2030
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Modena heard it as anything else.
Squad2 Sep 2030
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Daniele Montevago and Modena agree another 5 years.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market24 Jun 2030
Napoli come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Modena did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market24 Jun 2030
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Modena people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Transfer targets24 Jun 2030
Modena and Torino have settled on $1.8M. 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.
Squad24 Jun 2030
A falling-out at Modena
Oliver Christensen and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 Jun 2030
Samuele Ricci 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.
Squad24 Jun 2030
“The easiest signature of my career.” Alejo Fernández and Modena agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout24 Jun 2030
The manager makes an example of Alejo Fernández
“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.
Market24 Jun 2030
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Oliver Christensen signs something — a contract at Modena or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout24 Jun 2030
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Bautista Mandagarán is on it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market21 Jan 2030
The fee is $9.7M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Napoli drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Transfer targets21 Jan 2030
Modena and Frosinone have settled on $1.5M. 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.
Transfer targets21 Jan 2030
Everything agreed with Fiorentina, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Transfer targets21 Jan 2030
Torino wanted more than $3.6M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Market21 Jan 2030
Manuel Villa has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Modena they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Boardroom21 Jan 2030
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Manuel Villa has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Squad21 Jan 2030
Words exchanged at Modena
Oliver Christensen and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad21 Jan 2030
Words at Modena training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Samuele Ricci 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.
Transfer targets21 Jan 2030
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.