53 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Cyril Ngonge 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matteo Pessina was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 0 arrived, 2 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Monza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The phone has started ringing about Patrick Ciurria again, and this time the name on the line is Vaduz. Monza are listening politely and promising nothing.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Luca Ravanelli, and the manager let it.
The dugout1 Feb 2027
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.” Giuseppe Zangari chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matteo Pessina was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Giuseppe Zangari after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Mattia Attinasi has agreed terms with Cittadella for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Cyril Ngonge 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matteo Pessina 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 offer from Lecce for Dany Mota 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.
Cyril Ngonge 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.
Add another name to the list: Lokomotiva Zagreb have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Aljaž Strajnar. The answer from Monza has not changed — yet.
The first defeat in 19 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Spezia; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
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 Monza have had the benefit of it.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matteo Pessina was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Chances created: 14. The column nobody reads carried the whole story of the match, and his name was at the top of it.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Noel Törnqvist's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
A defender's mistake gets tidied up by somebody else; a goalkeeper's ends up in the net. He knew before the ball crossed the line, and so did everybody in the ground.
Cyril Ngonge 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 8 goals between Monza and Mantova, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Successful dribbles: 29. 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.
Cyril Ngonge 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 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.
A 2‑0 win over Virtus Entella, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Monza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
8 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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Cyril Ngonge is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout7 Dec 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.” Giuseppe Zangari chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matteo Porta 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.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Two goals and a mark of 9.60 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
A brace, and Cyril Ngonge takes the afternoon — 9.57
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Cyril Ngonge provided it, and the 9.57 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Cyril Ngonge 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matteo Pessina was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Something was said to Ebenezer Akinsanmiro and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Cyril Ngonge 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Exequiel Zeballos. 4‑3 against Avellino, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
7 goals in one match, Exequiel Zeballos on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Monza and Avellino.
Marked 9.48 — 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matteo Pessina 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.
In brief
Player ratingsExequiel Zeballos was on a different afternoon to everybody else
Two goals and a mark of 9.23 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Filippo Calvo 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 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.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Cyril Ngonge 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matteo Pessina 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.
Match24 Oct 2026
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for Monza. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Patrick Cutrone. 1‑0 against Venezia, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 7.78 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Monza had the best player on the pitch.
Squad26 Oct 2026
8 new faces, and Monza 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matteo Pessina 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.
Every club in football 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 somebody has tried it.
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.
Four weeks in which nobody in the division did his job better. The award goes on a shelf and the player goes back into the side, which is the order Monza prefer.
The hardest thing about being 17 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Rosindo Zanni did not need any: 8.03, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Cyril Ngonge 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.
He is 17 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.
Cyril Ngonge 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.
Marked 8.13. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Monza.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
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.” Giuseppe Zangari kept it short after the 3‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Cyril Ngonge was the best thing in any of them.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Andrea Carboni trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
In brief
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Luca Ravanelli
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Monza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Cyril Ngonge was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.59. 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matteo Pessina was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
11 combined actions and 7.44. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 86. Modena had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Zbrojovka Brno had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Successful dribbles: 25. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Monza close the window on a squad of their own making
9 in and 8 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
It needed Patrick Cutrone to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Padova, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout7 Sep 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.” Giuseppe Zangari chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Monza, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Monza have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Cyril Ngonge 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.
A performance of 8.24 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 Monza 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 one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Heracles waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Monza is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Cyril Ngonge 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Patrick Cutrone 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Monza, and both men came out saying it was fine.
48 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
Where he used to play does most of his talking for him at Monza. The room defers to it, the kids study it, and the only thing that can puncture it is a bad month.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matteo Pessina was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
49 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.