Marked for Martin Frese
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market12 Apr 2027
Abdou Harroui has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Hellas Verona they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Boardroom12 Apr 2027
Still no name above the door at Hellas Verona
Day 42 of the vacancy. Candidates have been priced, sounded out and quietly ruled out — and the caretaker’s win ratio is becoming an argument all by itself.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Ali Al Musrati and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Kaique 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.
Match10 Apr 2027
Three points for Hellas Verona, 2‑0 the final word against Lecce in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad12 Apr 2027
200 times in these colours, in all weathers and under four or five different managers. That kind of service is quietly disappearing from the game.
Player ratings12 Apr 2027
Marked 7.76. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 2‑0, already talking about the next one.
Player ratings12 Apr 2027
Successful dribbles: 14. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match30 Jan 2027
No end in sight to Hellas Verona's wait for a win
10 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Hellas Verona has to find a result from somewhere.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Hellas Verona
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Match30 Jan 2027
0‑4 to Napoli, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Match1 Feb 2027
Position 19, 10 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Market1 Feb 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Hellas Verona people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market1 Feb 2027
Martin Frese 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 Hellas Verona can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout1 Feb 2027
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Hellas Verona have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Window shuts: 4 in, 1 out at Hellas Verona
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 4 arrived, 1 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Market1 Feb 2027
The offer from Crotone for Edoardo Iannoni 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Dec 2026
15 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Hellas Verona lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market21 Dec 2026
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Matteo Cancellieri wants continental football; whether Hellas Verona can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Match19 Dec 2026
4 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.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Nunzio Lella was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.00. 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.
Match19 Dec 2026
Level with 88 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Hellas Verona had all but put away. Cremonese will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
Match19 Dec 2026
A 1‑1 draw with Cremonese leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Dec 2026
24 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Hellas Verona lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Simone Perilli decides it from twelve yards
2 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Match9 Dec 2026
Pescara ended it 1‑1. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Hellas Verona may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Juan David Cabal and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match12 Dec 2026
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Lucho Vega was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.06. 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 dugout14 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Daniel Mosquera
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match26 Sep 2026
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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Lorenzo Torriani is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Gabriele Zappa 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.
Market28 Sep 2026
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Lorenzo Torriani, and the manager let it.
Match26 Sep 2026
Lazio left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Too much change too quickly at Hellas Verona
15 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Loan watch28 Sep 2026
“I did not go to Modena to sit and watch. I want to come back to Hellas Verona and fight for my place.” 2 appearances in 6 matches say the rest.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The offer went to Sassuolo this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Squad10 Aug 2026
21 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $8.5M — a club that wants Arijanet Murić enough to be asked twice.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Domagoj Bradarić commits to Hellas Verona for another 4 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Gabriele Zappa 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 targets10 Aug 2026
Hellas Verona asked and Spezia 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 targets10 Aug 2026
Hellas Verona have made the call to Manchester City. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Hellas Verona, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market10 Aug 2026
Simone Perilli is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Hellas Verona has been clear about where Simone Perilli stands, which is more than many ever get.