Marked for Eric Lanini
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
A defender's goal wins it for Novara — 7.84
1 for Riccardo Collodel, marked 7.84, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Squad19 Oct 2026
At 21 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at Novara
Eric Lanini 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.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Riccardo Collodel 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.
Match17 Oct 2026
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
Roberto Ranieri 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.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The dugout19 Oct 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 33. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Elia Boseggia is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
A falling-out at Novara
Eric Lanini and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Oct 2026
100 goals in these colours now, every one of them somebody’s memory. There is a supporter in the stand who can tell you where he was for most of them.
Match10 Oct 2026
Novara get the job done against Lecco
A 2‑1 win over Lecco, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Market12 Oct 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Giuseppe Rocca is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market12 Oct 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Nicola Milani has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Marco Da Graca 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.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Marco Da Graca was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.13. 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match3 Oct 2026
The wait goes on for Novara
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 ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Eric Lanini 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 Novara this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Eyob Zambataro 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.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Wages swallow 97% of the Novara income
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
Match3 Oct 2026
A 1‑1 draw with Pro Patria leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Rahul Sharma, and the manager let it.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Leandro Giordano chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
Looking ahead5 Oct 2026
A test against the best for Novara
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Lecco.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match23 Sep 2026
Novara bow out of the cup
Livorno go through and Novara go home, 2‑4 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Match23 Sep 2026
A 2-goal lead gone for Novara
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Livorno kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Novara will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.88, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 29. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Tempers go at Novara
Eric Lanini 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.
The terraces28 Sep 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Raffaele Sibilio has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Match26 Sep 2026
Triestina left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad28 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Novara
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Riccardo Collodel was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout28 Sep 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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Leandro Giordano to a room that had heard them before.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at Novara
Eric Lanini 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
A bad afternoon for Novara against Renate
0‑1 to Renate, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout21 Sep 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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Leandro Giordano to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“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.
Market21 Sep 2026
Novara have made Christian Donadio available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
Looking ahead21 Sep 2026
Triestina next, and one man in the Novara dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
The chances came and went for Eric Lanini
7 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Shots: 8, not one of them in. A centre forward is paid for one thing, and on this evidence he has forgotten which thing it is.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market31 Aug 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 Novara, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Novara
Eric Lanini 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 targets31 Aug 2026
Novara asked and Austria Wien said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match29 Aug 2026
It finished 2‑1, and it was Marco Nichetti’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Novara.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Nicolò Ledonne has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
A performance of 8.29 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad31 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Alessandro Citi commits to Novara for another 4 years.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.02, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market24 Aug 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Novara can pretend not to have heard.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Novara
Eric Lanini 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Novara
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Eyob Zambataro was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Sassuolo 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.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Novara have made the call to Anderlecht. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Squad24 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Enrico Milani and Novara agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
Novara say no to the training-ground money
The plan went upstairs and came back down. Nothing about that will make a headline anywhere else, and everybody who works at the training ground will remember it for years.
Market24 Aug 2026
Novara have made Sylvester Lartey available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
The deal with Venezia 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Novara
Eric Lanini and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets17 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Riccardo Collodel 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.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Godoy Cruz 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.
Market17 Aug 2026
Novara have made João Vitor available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Novara
Eric Lanini 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Andrea Valdesi and Novara agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Transfer targets10 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Giuseppe Benedetti is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Teodoro Amato is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Gregorio Tombesi is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Mirko Miceli commits to Novara for another 2 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Eric Lanini 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 Novara this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Novara
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Eyob Zambataro was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Tours have kept their man, and Novara go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market3 Aug 2026
Nobody at Novara has picked up the phone to Eric Lanini
24 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan move for Bruno Miño is in the works
Novara have made the call to Almirante Brown. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Athletic Bilbao 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Novara are still strangers to each other
6 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.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
Andrea Valdesi 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 Andrea Valdesi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.