Marked for Alessandro Spinelli
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad25 Oct 2027
Maksim Minkov damages knee ligaments — 73 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 73 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.
Squad25 Oct 2027
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.
Player ratings25 Oct 2027
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.96 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad25 Oct 2027
A row about effort at Forli
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Diego Rossi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match23 Oct 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Gabriel Serrano. 1‑0 against Pianese, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
“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.
Squad25 Oct 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 Forli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Valentino Ruggiero on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Looking ahead25 Oct 2027
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Latina in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match16 Aug 2027
Forli sink to position 16
25 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market16 Aug 2027
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.
Transfer targets16 Aug 2027
$160.0K settles it between the clubs for Atanas Kehayov
Cagliari have accepted the money. What Forli do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Market16 Aug 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Michele Trombetta will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Forli the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad16 Aug 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 Forli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets16 Aug 2027
Forli asked and Cavese said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Transfer targets16 Aug 2027
Giana Erminio 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.
The dugout16 Aug 2027
“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.
Squad16 Aug 2027
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Forli would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market9 Aug 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Forli have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
Forli asked and Virtus Entella said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad9 Aug 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Filippo Ercolani and Forli agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
Forli have made the call to Cavese. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Market9 Aug 2027
The Diego Rossi talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Forli know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Squad9 Aug 2027
The table has started to be checked before the results are in, and that is always the tell. Nobody at Forli says the word out loud, and everybody in the building is thinking it.
The dugout9 Aug 2027
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Forli. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Market9 Aug 2027
24 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
Market9 Aug 2027
Forli have made Andrea Riva available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match23 Jan 2027
Chastening afternoon for Forli
A 0‑5 beating by Spezia was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Squad25 Jan 2027
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 dugout25 Jan 2027
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Forli have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market25 Jan 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Cremonese have kept their man, and Forli go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Boardroom25 Jan 2027
Inquest at Forli
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 dugout25 Jan 2027
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑5, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
A loan enquiry to Modena: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Boardroom25 Jan 2027
Wages swallow 86% of the Forli income
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Diego Ripani is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad12 Oct 2026
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.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alessandro Spinelli, and the manager let it.
Market12 Oct 2026
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Giulio Veliaj has his answer from Forli; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.