Marked for Roberto Ranieri
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match15 Sep 2029
Novara make home a hard place to visit
16 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Transfer targets17 Sep 2029
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Reggiana is saying, and nobody at Novara is enjoying the guessing.
Player ratings17 Sep 2029
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match15 Sep 2029
Novara 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.
Squad17 Sep 2029
Words exchanged at Novara
Francesco Ruocco 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.
Match15 Sep 2029
Virtus Verona made Novara work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings17 Sep 2029
Marked 8.15 — 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.
Player ratings17 Sep 2029
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.08, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout17 Sep 2029
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Paolo Calabrese kept it short after the 3‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match21 Apr 2029
27 unbeaten for Novara
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 27 matches without defeat is a foundation Novara did not have in the autumn.
Match21 Apr 2029
After 15 games, Novara finally taste it again
The first defeat in 15 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Ospitaletto; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Player ratings23 Apr 2029
Successful dribbles: 28. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Boardroom23 Apr 2029
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Squad23 Apr 2029
Words exchanged at Novara
Francesco Ruocco 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.
Squad23 Apr 2029
Defences have started doubling up on Marco Da Graca
14 goals and a season average of 7.32 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad23 Apr 2029
Raffaele Sibilio 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.
Looking ahead23 Apr 2029
The big one: Cittadella come into view
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Novara will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
The dugout23 Apr 2029
The manager makes an example of Roberto Ranieri
“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
Triumph
Squad27 Nov 2028
A season average of 7.38 with 17 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Match25 Nov 2028
7 unbeaten for Novara
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 7 matches without defeat is a foundation Novara did not have in the autumn.
Squad27 Nov 2028
Tempers go at Novara
Francesco Ruocco 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 terraces27 Nov 2028
He is 23 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.
Match25 Nov 2028
Three points for Novara, 1‑0 the final word against Trento in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings27 Nov 2028
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.01, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings27 Nov 2028
Marked 7.08 on 9 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Player ratings27 Nov 2028
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout27 Nov 2028
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Paolo Calabrese on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings27 Mar 2028
Up for the corner, and Roberto Ranieri delivers — 7.93
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Roberto Ranieri scored, was marked 7.93, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Tempers go at Novara
Francesco Ruocco 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.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Defences have started doubling up on Francesco Ruocco
16 goals and a season average of 7.22 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Match25 Mar 2028
Three points for Novara, 3‑1 the final word against Alcione Milano in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Words at Novara training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marco Da Graca 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.
Match25 Mar 2028
At last: Novara win one
5 matches without a win, and then this, against Alcione Milano. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Player ratings27 Mar 2028
Ninety minutes of Marco Da Graca at his very best
Marked 8.61. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Novara.
Player ratings27 Mar 2028
A performance of 8.56 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
“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.