Marked for Ibourahima Baldé
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match20 Sep 2028
Cup progress for Monza
A 2‑0 win over Livorno, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Squad25 Sep 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match23 Sep 2028
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Monza scored in the 91th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Match23 Sep 2028
Monza make it 3 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Monza have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Tempers go at Monza
Matteo Pessina 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.
Player ratings25 Sep 2028
Involvement in 2 goals, from a player who spent the ninety minutes doing the thing a manager actually wants: being where the ball was going to end up. 7.81 beside his name.
Player ratings25 Sep 2028
Defensive actions: 21. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Player ratings25 Sep 2028
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match23 Sep 2028
Catanzaro made Monza work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market12 Jun 2028
$4.7M is a serious amount of money and it does not play centre-forward. Everybody in the dressing room knows who used to be looked at when it went wrong.
The terraces12 Jun 2028
Supporters turn on the $4.7M sale of Tobías Zárate
He is going to Charleroi, the club has $4.7M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Squad12 Jun 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Giugliano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market12 Jun 2028
Monza paid $450.0K and Giugliano took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Words at Giugliano training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giuliano Laezza 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.
Boardroom12 Jun 2028
Still nobody in the Giugliano dugout
11 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.
Squad12 Jun 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Erol Çolak, and the manager let it.
Squad12 Jun 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Lorenzo Santarelli commits to Giugliano for another 3 years.
Market12 Jun 2028
The name of Luciano Peluso keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Giugliano say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market12 Jun 2028
Monza say no — this time
The offer from Gaziantep for Semuel Pizzignacco 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.
Squad12 Jun 2028
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.
Squad12 Jun 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Gustavo Varela and Monza agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Market12 Jun 2028
The paperwork is done: Ibourahima Baldé joins from Giugliano in a deal worth $450.0K. Now comes the harder part.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Tempers go at Monza
Matteo Pessina 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.
Squad12 Jun 2028
The one award nobody else on the pitch can win goes to Semuel Pizzignacco, on 24 clean sheets across the season. Keepers wait a career for a season like it.
In brief
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Boardroom
Monza bank $1.2M from an old deal
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Market
The Patrick Ciurria story refuses to die
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Boardroom
Monza keep producing them
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Boardroom
Monza board back the manager
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces29 May 2028
Anger at Giugliano spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Boardroom29 May 2028
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Giugliano
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market29 May 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Giugliano is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market29 May 2028
“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.
Squad29 May 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Giugliano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad29 May 2028
Words at Giugliano training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giuliano Laezza 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces1 May 2028
Anger at Giugliano spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Boardroom1 May 2028
Pressure builds in the Giugliano boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market1 May 2028
Only the photograph left for Jack Holmes
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jack Holmes will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Giugliano the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market1 May 2028
“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.
Squad1 May 2028
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad1 May 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Giugliano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 May 2028
Words at Giugliano training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giuliano Laezza 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 terraces1 May 2028
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Nicolò Profeta 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.
Match29 Apr 2028
Three points for Giugliano, 1‑0 the final word against Potenza in a contest settled by the finer margins.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market20 Mar 2028
“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 Giugliano, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad20 Mar 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Giugliano may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings20 Mar 2028
Defensive actions: 23, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Squad20 Mar 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Giugliano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings20 Mar 2028
21 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Words at Giugliano training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giuliano Laezza 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.
Player ratings20 Mar 2028
Marked 7.74. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Match18 Mar 2028
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Cavese came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match12 Feb 2028
11 matches without a win for Giugliano
The run now stands at 11, and the questions being asked around Giugliano are no longer polite ones.
Market14 Feb 2028
“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 Giugliano, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match14 Feb 2028
Every point is an argument now for Giugliano
Position 17 and 20 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Marco Caldore 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.
Squad14 Feb 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Salvatore La Vardera and Giugliano agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Giuliano Laezza 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.
Match12 Feb 2028
0‑2 to Cosenza, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad14 Feb 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ukko Happonen, and the manager let it.
Player ratings14 Feb 2028
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market9 Aug 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Giugliano can pretend not to have heard.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Ibourahima Baldé: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Giugliano have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Luciano Peluso is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Marco Caldore 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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Giuliano Laezza 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.
Market9 Aug 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Pedro Justiniano signs something — a contract at Giugliano or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market12 Jul 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 Giugliano, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Luciano Peluso 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 Jul 2027
Marco Caldore 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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Giuliano Laezza 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.
Boardroom12 Jul 2027
Giugliano still without a manager
11 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.
Squad12 Jul 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Luciano Peluso, and the manager let it.