Marked for Jay Idzes
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market7 Sep 2026
“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 The request is on a desk at Sassuolo, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Sassuolo asked and Lazio said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market7 Sep 2026
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Crotone waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Sassuolo is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market7 Sep 2026
The Parma deal is off
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Jay Idzes reports back to Sassuolo with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 3 in, 7 out at Sassuolo
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 3 arrived, 7 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Market7 Sep 2026
Tasos Douvikas 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 Sassuolo hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
The paperwork begins on Djed Spence
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Sassuolo have done the hard part with Inter, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.20, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market31 Aug 2026
Sassuolo say no — this time
The offer from Lumezzane for Edoardo Pieragnolo 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Sassuolo
Kieron Bowie 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.
Market31 Aug 2026
Parma are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Sassuolo will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Inter have kept their man, and Sassuolo go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match29 Aug 2026
1‑2 to Hellas Verona, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
A performance of 8.09 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad31 Aug 2026
8 new faces, and Sassuolo are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Filippo Cecconi to a room that had heard them before.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 Aug 2026
Sassuolo say no — this time
The offer from Hellas Verona for Arijanet Murić 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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
$10.4M on the table at Udinese. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Market17 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. Sassuolo have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Pisa have kept their man, and Sassuolo go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
The offer went to Giugliano 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.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $881.2K — a club that wants Jérémie Broh enough to be asked twice.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Mouscron keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
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 Sassuolo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market17 Aug 2026
Jay Idzes is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Sassuolo has been clear about where Jay Idzes stands, which is more than many ever get.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Aug 2026
20 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Sassuolo lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Inter have kept their man, and Sassuolo go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market10 Aug 2026
Lazio come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Sassuolo did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market10 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. Sassuolo have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market10 Aug 2026
The shape has not worked since the summer and the reason was never a mystery. Tasos Douvikas comes in from Como to be the missing piece, which is a flattering description and a heavy one.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The offer went to Union Brescia 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
Arijanet Murić 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 Sassuolo hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $2.0M — a club that wants Stefano Gori enough to be asked twice.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The deal with Mouscron 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.