Marked for Gianmarco Basso
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Jan 2028
“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.
The dugout10 Jan 2028
“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.
Market10 Jan 2028
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Novara they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Transfer targets10 Jan 2028
The offer went to Sorrento this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Words at Novara training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Antonio Di Nardo 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.
Transfer targets10 Jan 2028
Novara asked and Bologna said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad10 Jan 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 Novara this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market10 Jan 2028
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Novara have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
The dugout10 Jan 2028
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad27 Dec 2027
The match ball belongs to Andrea Silipo, whose 4 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Match25 Dec 2027
5‑1, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
The dugout27 Dec 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Novara may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Words exchanged at Novara
Andrea Silipo 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.
Match25 Dec 2027
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Novara and Pergolettese, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Player ratings27 Dec 2027
Marked 9.78 — 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 ratings27 Dec 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.27, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad27 Dec 2027
A row about effort at Novara
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Federico Pirruccio was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom27 Dec 2027
Wages eat 118% of everything Novara earn
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout20 Dec 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Novara may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings20 Dec 2027
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Words at Novara training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Antonio Di Nardo 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 dugout20 Dec 2027
“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.
The dugout20 Dec 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.” Pietro Graziani chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The dugout20 Dec 2027
No place in the plan for Eric Lanini
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Match18 Dec 2027
Point won or two lost for Novara?
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Dolomiti Bellunesi? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Market20 Dec 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Novara know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Andrea Moretti wants to know why he earns less
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Novara have no good answer.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad1 Nov 2027
Words exchanged at Novara
Andrea Silipo 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.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Words at Novara training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Antonio Di Nardo 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.
Match30 Oct 2027
Alcione Milano left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout1 Nov 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.
Boardroom1 Nov 2027
Wages swallow 103% 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.
The dugout1 Nov 2027
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Market1 Nov 2027
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Gianmarco Basso has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Novara.
The dugout1 Nov 2027
A promise honoured at Novara
Something was said to Leonardo D'Alessio and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Player ratings1 Nov 2027
Successful dribbles: 13. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market13 Sep 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 Novara, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
At 33 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 7.91, and nobody on the pitch better.
Market13 Sep 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Novara is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Transfer targets13 Sep 2027
Novara had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Sampdoria, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad13 Sep 2027
A falling-out at Novara
Marco Da Graca and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Transfer targets13 Sep 2027
Novara asked and Catanzaro said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match11 Sep 2027
It finished 2‑1, and it was Marco Da Graca’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Novara.
The terraces13 Sep 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Andrea Valdesi 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market7 Jun 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Novara is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market7 Jun 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.
The dugout7 Jun 2027
This is not rotation. Christian Donadio has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Novara is pretending otherwise.
Transfer targets7 Jun 2027
Everything agreed with Monza, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad7 Jun 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 Novara this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout7 Jun 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.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Novara than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Novara will explain it as a decision about the team, and it may well be one. A dressing room has never once read it that way.
Boardroom7 Jun 2027
Open for business: Novara enter the window
The registration window is open and the phone has started. Between now and the deadline this club will be linked with forty players and sign three, which is the usual ratio.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 May 2027
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Novara will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Squad3 May 2027
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.
Squad3 May 2027
Marco Romano named in the team of the month
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Marco Romano is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout3 May 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Gianmarco Basso, and the manager let it.
Market3 May 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Marco Da Graca’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Squad3 May 2027
Marco Romano moves up the pecking order
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Novara than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market19 Apr 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.
Match19 Apr 2027
Full time on the season at Novara
Position 11 on 36 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
Market19 Apr 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mattia Malaspina will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Novara the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Words exchanged at Novara
Omar Khailoti 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.
Squad19 Apr 2027
A row about effort at Novara
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marco Da Graca was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Elia Boseggia, and the manager let it.
Match17 Apr 2027
0‑1 to Dolomiti Bellunesi, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings19 Apr 2027
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Pietro Graziani left the room before anybody could ask which.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad25 Jan 2027
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Novara will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market25 Jan 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.
Match23 Jan 2027
Nobody wants to play Novara right now
5 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
Gianmarco Basso: 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.” Novara have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market25 Jan 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mattia Malaspina will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Novara the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
Everything agreed with Empoli, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Match23 Jan 2027
Three points for Novara, 1‑0 the final word against Ospitaletto in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
Marked 8.29 — 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.
Squad25 Jan 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 Novara this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market21 Dec 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.
Match19 Dec 2026
5 matches without a win for Novara
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Novara are no longer polite ones.
Match19 Dec 2026
0‑2 to AlbinoLeffe, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad21 Dec 2026
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.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Pietro Graziani after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Gianmarco Basso
“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.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
Elia Boseggia knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Novara, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Squad21 Dec 2026
One booking too many, and Nicolò Ledonne sits out. Novara lose him for the sort of avoidable reason that makes a manager's week longer.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad5 Oct 2026
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.
Match3 Oct 2026
The wait goes on for Novara
6 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.
Match3 Oct 2026
5 matches without a goal for Novara
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 5 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Market5 Oct 2026
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mattia Malaspina will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Novara the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at Novara
Omar Khailoti 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.
Match3 Oct 2026
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Wages swallow 117% 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.
The dugout5 Oct 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.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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.
Market24 Aug 2026
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Guidonia Montecelio waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Novara is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Boca Juniors is saying, and nobody at Novara is enjoying the guessing.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Novara asked and Cremonese said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
A loan move for Kacper Potulski is in the works
Novara have made the call to Schalke 04. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Paris Saint-Germain 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.