Marked for Giuseppe Positano
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad30 Aug 2027
A fracture rules Raffaele Pucino out for 109 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Monopoli will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The dugout30 Aug 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Monopoli may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match28 Aug 2027
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Transfer targets30 Aug 2027
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.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Simone Calvano 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.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Words at Monopoli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ylber Ramadani 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.
Market30 Aug 2027
Campobasso are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Monopoli will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
The dugout30 Aug 2027
The manager makes an example of Ylber Ramadani
“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 ratings30 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 16. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market5 Jul 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.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Bruno Valenti 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.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
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.
Squad5 Jul 2027
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Monopoli know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Squad5 Jul 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Giuseppe Positano and Monopoli agree another 4 years.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
A loan enquiry to Frosinone: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
A loan move for Adam Žulevič is in the works
Monopoli have made the call to Genoa. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Boardroom5 Jul 2027
Intake day at the Monopoli academy
4 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
The dugout5 Jul 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Antony Angileri trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match19 Apr 2027
Monopoli finish in position 9
35 points, and the season has a number on it. Whatever it felt like from the inside, this is what it will look like in a book.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
Mattia Gagliano: 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.” Monopoli have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad19 Apr 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 Monopoli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
This is not rotation. Sulaiman Oyewale has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Monopoli is pretending otherwise.
Match17 Apr 2027
Catania left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings19 Apr 2027
Freddi Greco was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.30. 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.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
The manager makes an example of Niccolò Bagatti
“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 Apr 2027
Marked 4.64, and generously at that. Nothing came off, and by the end the crowd had stopped expecting it to.