Marked for Rasmus Højlund
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match17 Oct 2026
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against AC Milan, and it could have been more.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Kevin De Bruyne, 35, rolls back the years — 8.27
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.27 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Match17 Oct 2026
Napoli make it 4 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Napoli have 4 straight wins of it.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Vincenzo Fabozzi is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 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.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Ninety minutes of Scott McTominay at his very best
Marked 8.30. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Napoli.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Ninety minutes of Stanislav Lobotka at his very best
Marked 8.17. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Napoli.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Ninety minutes of David Neres at his very best
Marked 8.00. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Napoli.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at Napoli
David Spinelli 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.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
In brief
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The dugout
Matteo Politano knocks on the manager's door
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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The terraces
Everybody has an opinion about Josep Martínez
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match26 Sep 2026
No mercy from Napoli
Venezia will want this one forgotten quickly: 6‑3, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Napoli were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Squad28 Sep 2026
The match ball belongs to Mateo Retegui, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Kevin De Bruyne, 35, rolls back the years — 7.99
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.99 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Market28 Sep 2026
Milton Pereyra has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Napoli they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Tempers go at Napoli
Rasmus Højlund 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
Napoli may not be able to give David Neres what he wants
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. David Neres wants continental football; whether Napoli can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Match26 Sep 2026
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 9 goals between Napoli and Venezia, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Marked 9.69 — 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.39 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad21 Sep 2026
At 18 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Match19 Sep 2026
A 3‑1 win over Sassuolo, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.07, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at Napoli
David Spinelli 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
A smaller club would suit Josep Martínez now
He has had enough of the noise. Whether Napoli can be a quieter place for him, or whether the only cure is a move somewhere the phone-ins are gentler, is a question for the next few months.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 3‑1, already talking about the next one.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
No thanks: Joan García rejects the move
Napoli had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Barcelona, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Napoli have done the hard part with Lazio, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 10 signed and 7 gone
That is the business done at Napoli until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Market7 Sep 2026
Mateo Retegui 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 Napoli hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Market7 Sep 2026
The phone has started ringing about Milton Pereyra again, and this time the name on the line is AlbinoLeffe. Napoli are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for David Neres
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. David Neres has come out of that comparison in the side, and Napoli have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Squad7 Sep 2026
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
Market7 Sep 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Napoli, another week without a signature from Antonio Vergara.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Napoli than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
An offer of $65.8M for Joan García
Napoli have gone to Barcelona with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Market31 Aug 2026
Napoli spend $14.5M to raise the standard
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $14.5M has been paid because Josep Martínez is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
Squad31 Aug 2026
A move Josep Martínez 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. Josep Martínez is living that version at Napoli, and it tends to show in the first month.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Amir Rrahmani goes up and wins it — 7.60
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.60 for the rest of it.
Squad31 Aug 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 Napoli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match29 Aug 2026
Three points for Napoli, 3‑1 the final word against Cagliari in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Napoli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Josep Martínez 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
International break empties Napoli
7 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Marked 8.36 — 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
Triumph
Market24 Aug 2026
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Napoli have done the hard part with Inter, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Match22 Aug 2026
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Napoli scored in the 93th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Market24 Aug 2026
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Napoli have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market24 Aug 2026
The bid was some way short and Napoli did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A move Andrea Cunegatti 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. Andrea Cunegatti is living that version at Napoli, and it tends to show in the first month.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
4 academy graduates step up at Napoli
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
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.
Match22 Aug 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Rasmus Højlund. 2‑1 against Fiorentina, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 Aug 2026
Napoli spend $41.2M to raise the standard
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $41.2M has been paid because Mateo Retegui is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Napoli asked and Aston Villa said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market17 Aug 2026
Manchester United pay $19.0M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A move Mateo Retegui 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. Mateo Retegui is living that version at Napoli, and it tends to show in the first month.
Market17 Aug 2026
Napoli say no — this time
The offer from Stade Rennais for Alessandro Buongiorno 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.
Squad17 Aug 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 Napoli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to FC Bacău: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Vicenza 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
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Como have kept their man, and Napoli go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Atalanta wanted more than $9.1M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Market10 Aug 2026
Scott McTominay 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 Napoli hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Market10 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Scott McTominay commits to Napoli for another 5 years.
Squad10 Aug 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 Napoli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market10 Aug 2026
The phone has started ringing about Milton Pereyra again, and this time the name on the line is Campobasso. Napoli are listening politely and promising nothing.
Market10 Aug 2026
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Alisson Santos wants continental football; whether Napoli can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Rafa Marín, and the manager let it.