Marked for Tom Carroll
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match27 Jan 2029
The wait goes on for Forli
49 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.
Match27 Jan 2029
The goals have deserted Forli
15 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Forli can tell you which week it ends in.
The terraces29 Jan 2029
The mood at Forli has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Match29 Jan 2029
Forli are in real trouble now
Position 16, 4 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.
Match27 Jan 2029
Chastening afternoon for Forli
A 0‑4 beating by Pescara was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Market29 Jan 2029
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad29 Jan 2029
Thomas Corigliano is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
Transfer targets29 Jan 2029
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Sassuolo is saying, and nobody at Forli is enjoying the guessing.
Squad29 Jan 2029
Words exchanged at Forli
Jacopo Scaccabarozzi 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match23 Dec 2028
No end in sight to Forli's wait for a win
44 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Forli has to find a result from somewhere.
Match23 Dec 2028
The goals have deserted Forli
10 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Forli can tell you which week it ends in.
Market25 Dec 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad25 Dec 2028
Tempers go at Forli
Jacopo Scaccabarozzi 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.
Squad25 Dec 2028
A row about effort at Forli
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Karamoko Kaba was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match23 Dec 2028
Forli come up short against Pineto
Pineto left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout25 Dec 2028
The manager makes an example of Carlo De Risio
“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.
Match25 Dec 2028
Halfway: Forli sit in position 16
3 points at the turn. The first half of a season is a promise; the second is a bill, and the town is about to find out which of the two this one was.
The dugout25 Dec 2028
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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Cesare Guerra to a room that had heard them before.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces17 Jul 2028
The mood at Forli has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Match17 Jul 2028
Every point is an argument now for Forli
Position 16 and 10 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.
Transfer targets17 Jul 2028
The clubs have shaken hands with Virtus Entella; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Tempers go at Forli
Jacopo Scaccabarozzi 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 targets17 Jul 2028
Torino wanted more than $170.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Words at Forli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jakub Michura 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 dugout17 Jul 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mattia Almaviva, and the manager let it.
The dugout17 Jul 2028
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.
Market17 Jul 2028
Forli have let the market know Christian Bos can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Transfer targets10 Jul 2028
Forli and Venezia have settled on $440.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Words exchanged at Forli
Jacopo Scaccabarozzi 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 targets10 Jul 2028
Forli asked and Monopoli 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 dugout10 Jul 2028
The manager makes an example of Luca Martelli
“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.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Words at Forli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mattia Almaviva 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 dugout10 Jul 2028
Nicola Farinelli is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Transfer targets10 Jul 2028
A loan move for David Spinelli is in the works
Forli have made the call to Napoli. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout10 Jul 2028
Christian Bos knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Forli, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad10 Jul 2028
The formation has left Tom Carroll behind
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Forli will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Transfer targets3 Jul 2028
Forli and Bologna have settled on $240.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Transfer targets3 Jul 2028
The deal with Sampdoria is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Transfer targets3 Jul 2028
Forli have gone to Torino 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.
Squad3 Jul 2028
“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 Forli know it.
Squad3 Jul 2028
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.
Squad3 Jul 2028
A row about effort at Forli
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jakub Michura was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom3 Jul 2028
Intake day at the Forli academy
4 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
Squad3 Jul 2028
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
The dugout3 Jul 2028
Christian Bos 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 Christian Bos trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad11 Oct 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Cameron Evans
35 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Newport County lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
Tom Carroll: 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.” Newport County have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad11 Oct 2027
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Newport County will quote 14 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad11 Oct 2027
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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Hazeem Bakre in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Newport County this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
Joel Tabiner gets it from the manager
“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.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
Aaron Nemane 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 Aaron Nemane trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
Lee Burge is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Looking ahead11 Oct 2027
Stevenage next, and one man in the Newport County dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match15 Sep 2027
0‑3 against Blackburn Rovers, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
The terraces20 Sep 2027
0-3, and long before the end the away end had switched from encouragement to something considerably more pointed. Nobody rings a phone-in about losing narrowly.
Squad20 Sep 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.
Market20 Sep 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 Newport County, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad20 Sep 2027
At 36, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fabio Di Michele Sánchez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Matt Smith and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The terraces20 Sep 2027
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.
Match18 Sep 2027
5 matches without a win, and then this, against Accrington Stanley. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad17 May 2027
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Newport County will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad17 May 2027
102 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Newport County lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market17 May 2027
Only the photograph left for Lewis Jamieson
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Lewis Jamieson will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Newport County the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The dugout17 May 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.
Squad17 May 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fabio Di Michele Sánchez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad17 May 2027
Chris Long 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.