Marked for Alessandro Pentima
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Jul 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 78 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market12 Jul 2027
Vicenza come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Forli did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market12 Jul 2027
Diego Rossi 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 Forli can pretend not to have heard.
Market12 Jul 2027
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Forli have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market12 Jul 2027
Forli get their man
The chase for Richie Sagrado ended with $710.0K changing hands and Venezia out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Forli have done the hard part with Inter, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad12 Jul 2027
A falling-out at Forli
Jacopo Scaccabarozzi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Altamura have kept their man, and Forli go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad12 Jul 2027
A row about effort at Forli
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lorenzo Saporetti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
The clubs have shaken hands with Fiorentina; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Match5 Jul 2027
Nobody above Inter
First, on 86 points. The table is a fact and a fact is allowed to be enjoyed, which is as far as anybody at the club is prepared to go in public.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
Inter asked and Bayern Munich said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market5 Jul 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Inter people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Squad5 Jul 2027
A season average of 6.59 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Inter know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Market5 Jul 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Francesco Acerbi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Inter the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The dugout5 Jul 2027
“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.
Market5 Jul 2027
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Inter hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Market5 Jul 2027
Cosenza come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Inter did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad28 Jun 2027
34 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Guidonia Montecelio lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match28 Jun 2027
Position 17 and 22 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Market28 Jun 2027
“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 Guidonia Montecelio, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Guidonia Montecelio have done the hard part with AlbinoLeffe, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad28 Jun 2027
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.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Words at Guidonia Montecelio training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Paolo Frascatore 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 targets28 Jun 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Napoli have kept their man, and Guidonia Montecelio go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Daniel Sannipoli 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 targets28 Jun 2027
Inter have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Transfer targets14 Jun 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.
Market14 Jun 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Inter people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market14 Jun 2027
Add another name to the list: Arsenal have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Marcus Thuram. The answer from Inter has not changed — yet.
Squad14 Jun 2027
A move Sead Kolašinac would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Sead Kolašinac is living that version at Inter, and it tends to show in the first month.
Market14 Jun 2027
Marcus Thuram wants to know where this is going
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Inter hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad14 Jun 2027
A quiet fortnight at Inter
With 11 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like one.
Market14 Jun 2027
Inter say no — this time
The offer from Sassuolo for Aleksandar Stanković was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Squad14 Jun 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 Inter this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Jun 2027
A row about effort at Inter
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alessandro Bastoni was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The dugout22 Feb 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Guidonia Montecelio may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match20 Feb 2027
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Guidonia Montecelio has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match20 Feb 2027
5 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Andrea Tessiore 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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at Guidonia Montecelio training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Paolo Frascatore 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.
Match20 Feb 2027
Carpi left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jean Galindo, and the manager let it.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Sandro Di Stefano after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match6 Feb 2027
4‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Squad8 Feb 2027
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Squad8 Feb 2027
13 goals and a season average of 7.58. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad8 Feb 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Alessandro Bastoni and Inter agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Match6 Feb 2027
Another one collected away from home
5 on the bounce on the road for Inter. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Match6 Feb 2027
Inter make it 3 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Inter have 3 straight wins of it.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 23. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Market8 Feb 2027
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Inter hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Marked 10.00 — 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match26 Dec 2026
The run now stands at 11, and the questions being asked around Guidonia Montecelio are no longer polite ones.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Squad28 Dec 2026
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Guidonia Montecelio will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Guidonia Montecelio training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Paolo Frascatore 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.
Match26 Dec 2026
Ascoli left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Andrea Tessiore 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.
Boardroom28 Dec 2026
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
The dugout28 Dec 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 1‑2 Sandro Di Stefano left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alessandro Pentima, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad14 Dec 2026
The knee: Djed Spence out for 29 days
29 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Inter lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match9 Dec 2026
Inter through in the cup
A 2‑0 win over Carrarese, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.51 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Match12 Dec 2026
10 unbeaten for Inter
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 10 matches without defeat is a foundation Inter did not have in the autumn.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Mirko Franchi, 18, plays like he has been here for years — 7.93
A mark of 7.93 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 18-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Matteo Darmian, 37, rolls back the years — 8.01
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.01 at 37, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Curtis Jones pops up at the right end — 7.88
7.88, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Market14 Dec 2026
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Inter they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Match12 Dec 2026
The run at home goes on for Inter
11 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Matias Mancuso
23 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Inter lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market16 Nov 2026
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Inter they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Tempers go at Inter
Hakan Çalhanoğlu 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Inter training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alessandro Bastoni 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
9 Inter players away with their countries
The training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 9 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
Match14 Nov 2026
Nobody wins at Inter
8 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Loan watch16 Nov 2026
“I watch every Inter game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Guidonia Montecelio runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
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 Lautaro Martínez is on it.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Oct 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Alessandro Malomo
85 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Guidonia Montecelio lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Guidonia Montecelio may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match10 Oct 2026
7 matches without a win, and then this, against Forli. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Guidonia Montecelio know it.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Jean Galindo 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.
The terraces12 Oct 2026
He is 20 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Simone Tascone 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 ratings12 Oct 2026
Marked 7.85 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Guidonia Montecelio had the best player on the pitch.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Oct 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 Inter this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Oct 2026
A quiet fortnight at Inter
With 9 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like one.
Loan watch12 Oct 2026
“I did not go to Guidonia Montecelio to sit and watch. I want to come back to Inter and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 9 matches say the rest.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Yoan Bonny beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 17. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
A defender's afternoon for Curtis Jones
Defensive actions: 15. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Elia Raimondi was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Inter dressing room was either.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Piotr Zieliński has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Inter will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Looking ahead12 Oct 2026
Inter take on the side everybody is chasing
Napoli arrive as leaders. A side at the top is beaten roughly once a month, and the club that does it gets a week it remembers for a year.
Market12 Oct 2026
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Marcus Thuram signs something — a contract at Inter or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Both of them Yoan Bonny's — 8.70
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.70, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Inter training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alessandro Bastoni 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 terraces14 Sep 2026
Inter supporters have found a favourite in Yoan Bonny
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Yoan Bonny has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Match12 Sep 2026
Three points for Inter, 2‑0 the final word against Cagliari in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
A performance of 8.08 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Loan watch14 Sep 2026
“I did not go to Guidonia Montecelio to sit and watch. I want to come back to Inter and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Elia Raimondi on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
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 Piotr Zieliński is on it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad31 Aug 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Alessandro Malomo
128 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Guidonia Montecelio lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match29 Aug 2026
0‑3 against Ascoli, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Club Brugge keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Guidonia Montecelio asked and Feyenoord 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
Alessandro Pentima 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.
Boardroom31 Aug 2026
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑3 defeat, delivered by Sandro Di Stefano to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Sturm Graz have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 Aug 2026
Alessandro Malomo damages knee ligaments — 135 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 135 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Guidonia Montecelio have done the hard part with Club Brugge, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Guidonia Montecelio training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Paolo Frascatore 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A muscle injury sidelines Andrea Errico for 16 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Guidonia Montecelio will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Alessandro Pentima 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 targets24 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Ikorodu City: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
It is the quietest way a club tells you what its ambitions are. The money was asked for, the money was refused, and the people who work there every day now know exactly where they stand.
Looking ahead24 Aug 2026
Ascoli top the table and they are coming into view. Nothing to lose, which is what every manager says before losing.
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 Aug 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Alessandro Malomo
143 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Guidonia Montecelio lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Guidonia Montecelio have done the hard part with Bologna, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Paolo Frascatore 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Paolo Frascatore and Guidonia Montecelio agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Paolo Frascatore was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Stade Brestois have kept their man, and Guidonia Montecelio go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Alessandro Malomo 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.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Guidonia Montecelio have made the call to Inter. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Squad3 Aug 2026
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Guidonia Montecelio has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.