Marked for Jan Moder
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match22 Sep 2032
Cup progress for Monza
A 3‑2 win over Potenza, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Market27 Sep 2032
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Monza is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Player ratings27 Sep 2032
A brace, and Tommaso Berti takes the afternoon — 8.31
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Tommaso Berti provided it, and the 8.31 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings27 Sep 2032
What a way to start for Angelo Ruggiero — 7.58
0 on the scoresheet on his first appearance and a mark of 7.58 beside it. Most debuts are got through; this one was enjoyed, by him and by everybody watching it.
Squad27 Sep 2032
Tempers go at Monza
Kevin Martins 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.
Squad27 Sep 2032
Matteo Pessina 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 terraces27 Sep 2032
The crowd has taken to Jan Moder
At 19 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
The dugout27 Sep 2032
“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.
Player ratings27 Sep 2032
Successful dribbles: 19. 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
Upbeat
Market26 Jul 2032
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad26 Jul 2032
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Monza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Jul 2032
A row about effort at Monza
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matteo Pessina was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2032
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Napoli have kept their man, and Monza go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2032
Napoli 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.
Market26 Jul 2032
The name of Kevin Martins keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Monza say nothing, which says plenty.
Squad26 Jul 2032
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Monza would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
The dugout26 Jul 2032
Jan Moder 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 Jan Moder trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Boardroom26 Jul 2032
The Monza production line keeps running
56 graduates out of an academy now rated 9 out of 20. Clubs this size survive on exactly that, and the town knows every name.
In brief
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Squad
Petro Marku starts on the language
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Match
Nothing left to play for but pride at Monza
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad24 Nov 2031
Nicolas Galazzi damages knee ligaments — 55 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 55 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.
Player ratings24 Nov 2031
Age has not caught Idrissa Touré yet — 7.90
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.90 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The dugout24 Nov 2031
Jan Moder: 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.” Monza have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings24 Nov 2031
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market24 Nov 2031
Kevin Martins 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 Monza hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad24 Nov 2031
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Monza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout24 Nov 2031
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alessandro Sorrentino, and the manager let it.
Squad24 Nov 2031
Words at Monza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Guillaume Le Roux 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad13 Oct 2031
A knee injury of the worst kind for Nicolas Galazzi
97 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Monza lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market13 Oct 2031
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad13 Oct 2031
Words exchanged at Monza
Kevin Martins 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.
Squad13 Oct 2031
“The easiest signature of my career.” Alessio Tuseddu and Monza agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad13 Oct 2031
A row about effort at Monza
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Guillaume Le Roux was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market13 Oct 2031
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Matteo Pessina’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout13 Oct 2031
The manager makes an example of Skander Tahiri
“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.
The dugout13 Oct 2031
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 Michele Tommasi is on it.
Market13 Oct 2031
Monza and Jan Moder are talking past each other
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
In brief
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Boardroom
The Monza production line keeps running
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Looking ahead
Home comforts ahead for Monza
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The dugout
The manager plants his flag on Nicolas Galazzi
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Jul 2031
A knee injury of the worst kind for Emmanuel Jonas
42 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Monza lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market14 Jul 2031
The phone has started ringing about Idrissa Touré again, and this time the name on the line is Padova. Monza are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad14 Jul 2031
A falling-out at Monza
Matteo Pessina and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom14 Jul 2031
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Transfer targets14 Jul 2031
Monza asked and Como said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The dugout14 Jul 2031
The manager makes an example of Emmanuel Jonas
“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.
Squad14 Jul 2031
Monza are still strangers to each other
10 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Transfer targets14 Jul 2031
A loan enquiry to Bologna: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets14 Jul 2031
Monza 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.