Marked for Ivan Provedel
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad15 Nov 2027
18 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Inter lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market15 Nov 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 The request is on a desk at Inter, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad15 Nov 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Inter this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Words at Inter training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luís Henrique 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.
Market15 Nov 2027
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Inter has been clear about where Henrikh Mkhitaryan stands, which is more than many ever get.
Market15 Nov 2027
Inter may not be able to give Alisson Santos what he wants
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Alisson Santos wants continental football; whether Inter can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Looking ahead15 Nov 2027
Derby week at Inter
AC Milan next, which means a week that starts on Monday. Everything else on this page will be forgotten by Saturday; this fixture will not be forgotten for a year.
Market15 Nov 2027
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Inter, another week without a signature from Ivan Provedel.
Squad15 Nov 2027
31 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match2 Oct 2027
No mercy from Inter
Sassuolo will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Inter were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Match29 Sep 2027
A European lesson for Inter
0‑1 against Olympique de Marseille. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.
Market4 Oct 2027
Luís Henrique 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 Inter can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings4 Oct 2027
A brace, and David Neres takes the afternoon — 8.48
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. David Neres provided it, and the 8.48 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad4 Oct 2027
13 Inter players away with their countries
The training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 13 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
Player ratings4 Oct 2027
Up for the corner, and Jacobo Ramón delivers — 7.98
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Jacobo Ramón scored, was marked 7.98, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Market4 Oct 2027
Ivan Provedel 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 Inter hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad4 Oct 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Inter this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout4 Oct 2027
The manager makes an example of Ivan Provedel
“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
Upbeat
Market2 Aug 2027
Hellas Verona pay $5.0M, 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.
Market2 Aug 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad2 Aug 2027
A falling-out at Inter
Alessandro Bastoni and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad2 Aug 2027
A row about effort at Inter
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luís Henrique was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout2 Aug 2027
Federico Dimarco has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Inter will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Market2 Aug 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Marcus Thuram’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout2 Aug 2027
Carlos Augusto asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout2 Aug 2027
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Market2 Aug 2027
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Inter, another week without a signature from Vanja Milinković-Savić.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
The clubs have shaken hands with Napoli; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Market5 Jul 2027
Petar Sučić 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 Inter can pretend not to have heard.
Market5 Jul 2027
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Aleksandar Stanković had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The dugout5 Jul 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.
Market5 Jul 2027
Ivan Provedel 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 Inter hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Tempers go at Inter
Nicolò Barella 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.
Squad5 Jul 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Francesco Pio Esposito commits to Inter for another 5 years.
Squad5 Jul 2027
A row about effort at Inter
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marcus Thuram was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market5 Jul 2027
The phone has started ringing about Dino Putsén again, and this time the name on the line is Ascoli. Inter are listening politely and promising nothing.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Boardroom31 May 2027
Silverware for Inter
They will talk about this season in this town for a long time. The trophy comes home with the squad, and the route is already agreed.
Match26 May 2027
Nobody wins at Inter
25 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Match26 May 2027
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Marcus Thuram obliged against Napoli. 2‑1 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Inter.
Match26 May 2027
Inter cannot stop winning
8 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Match26 May 2027
Inter win it in stoppage time
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 108th minute. Napoli will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Squad31 May 2027
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Inter have had the benefit of it.
Squad31 May 2027
19 goals and a season average of 7.27. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad31 May 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Inter this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 May 2027
18 clean sheets and the golden glove for Ivan Provedel
The one award on the pitch nobody else can win. 18 games in a season in which nobody scored past him, and a career that will be measured against this one.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad24 May 2027
Marcus Thuram is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.64 with 29 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Market24 May 2027
“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.
Squad24 May 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Match24 May 2027
The season ends: position 1 for Inter
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 95 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
Match22 May 2027
Inter cannot stop winning
7 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Squad24 May 2027
A falling-out at Inter
Hakan Çalhanoğlu and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 May 2027
34 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Match22 May 2027
Inter get the job done against Napoli
A 2‑1 win over Napoli, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Match22 May 2027
Inter keep winning on the road
3 away wins in a row. Travelling support is the truest kind, and this season it is being repaid in the only currency that counts.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market29 Mar 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 Inter, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
Looking ahead29 Mar 2027
The neighbours are next for Inter
Nothing about the week ahead is ordinary. AC Milan on Saturday, a town that has already started talking about it, and a dressing room that does not need telling what it means.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Ivan Provedel wants out of the spotlight
The ambition story running the other way, and the one nobody tells: a footballer asking for a smaller stage, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is very rarely reported as anything else.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
Marcus Thuram has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Inter will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Market29 Mar 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Marcus Thuram signs something — a contract at Inter or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Loan watch29 Mar 2027
The goals keep arriving from Kristjan Asllani’s exile
8 goals in 26 games at Al Jazira — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Inter updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Player of the week, judged against every other man in the division. A small award, and one most careers never collect.
Looking ahead29 Mar 2027
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against AC Milan in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad15 Mar 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Wellington Silva
16 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Inter lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad15 Mar 2027
24 goals and a season average of 7.61. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Match13 Mar 2027
2 behind and going nowhere, until Nicolò Barella decided otherwise. Monza had done the hard part and then watched it come apart, and the noise at the final whistle was the sort a ground keeps.
Match13 Mar 2027
13 unbeaten for Inter
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 13 matches without defeat is a foundation Inter did not have in the autumn.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
A brace, and Nicolò Barella takes the afternoon — 8.40
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Nicolò Barella provided it, and the 8.40 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad15 Mar 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Cristian Carrara and Inter agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad15 Mar 2027
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Inter can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Match13 Mar 2027
Monza made Inter work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑2 at the end and the table does not ask how.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
The manager makes an example of Ivan Provedel
“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
Steady
Squad8 Mar 2027
Wellington Silva damages knee ligaments — 25 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 25 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Match6 Mar 2027
The run at home goes on for Inter
19 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Match3 Mar 2027
Cup progress for Inter
A 2‑0 win over Torino, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Squad8 Mar 2027
20 days out for Davide Sorino after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Inter will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match6 Mar 2027
12 unbeaten for Inter
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 12 matches without defeat is a foundation Inter did not have in the autumn.
Market8 Mar 2027
Inter say no — this time
The offer from Öster for Cristian Carrara 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.
Player ratings8 Mar 2027
Two goals and a mark of 8.35 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Defences have started doubling up on Lautaro Martínez
22 goals and a season average of 7.37 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad8 Mar 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ivan Provedel and Inter agree another 2 years.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad15 Feb 2027
49 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Inter lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad15 Feb 2027
46 days out for Davide Sorino after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Inter will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match13 Feb 2027
Nobody wins at Inter
16 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Squad15 Feb 2027
A season average of 7.38 with 21 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Market15 Feb 2027
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Inter heard it as anything else.
Match13 Feb 2027
Still nobody has beaten Inter
The unbeaten run reaches 8. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad15 Feb 2027
A falling-out at Inter
John Stones and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
“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.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 18. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad16 Nov 2026
A falling-out at Inter
Alessandro Bastoni and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad16 Nov 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Yoan Bonny and Inter agree another 5 years.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Marcus Thuram gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Marcus Thuram is on it.
The dugout16 Nov 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.
Market16 Nov 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Lautaro Martínez’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Squad16 Nov 2026
The division's best last weekend was a Inter man
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Nicolò Barella was the best thing in any of them.
Loan watch16 Nov 2026
10 appearances at Lazio and the goals keep coming. Inter are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
Looking ahead16 Nov 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Lazio in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Loan watch16 Nov 2026
12 appearances at Racing Club and the goals keep coming. Inter are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market28 Sep 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 Inter can pretend not to have heard.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Tempers go at Inter
Lautaro Martínez 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
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Inter can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
A performance of 8.58 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Match26 Sep 2026
A point taken on 91 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
Match26 Sep 2026
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 4 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Match26 Sep 2026
A 3‑3 draw with Bologna leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Ivan Provedel has had enough of the noise
The ambition story running backwards, and the one nobody tells: a footballer who wants a smaller ground, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is rarely reported as anything else.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.53, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market14 Sep 2026
“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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Wellington Silva, 33, rolls back the years — 8.06
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.06 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Match12 Sep 2026
Inter cannot stop winning
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Match12 Sep 2026
It finished 3‑2, and it was Marcus Thuram’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Inter.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ivan Provedel, and the manager let it.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Tempers go at Inter
Mirko Franchi 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 dugout14 Sep 2026
John Stones gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say John Stones is on it.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Leandro Greco, on a 3‑2 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.