Marked for Maguette Fall
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad29 Mar 2027
There were 10 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.
Boardroom29 Mar 2027
Pressure builds in the Monopoli boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Player ratings29 Mar 2027
A defender's afternoon for Freddi Greco
Defensive actions: 21. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Davide Bove in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Monopoli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad29 Mar 2027
13 shut-outs and counting. Goalkeepers are only noticed when they fail, and Edoardo Piana has given nobody the chance.
The terraces29 Mar 2027
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Match27 Mar 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: David Muller. 1‑0 against Foggia, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings29 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad29 Mar 2027
No place for Maguette Fall on the big day
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Monopoli pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad1 Feb 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Maguette Fall
14 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Monopoli lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The terraces1 Feb 2027
The mood at Monopoli has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Pressure builds in the Monopoli boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market1 Feb 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 Monopoli can pretend not to have heard.
Match30 Jan 2027
5 matches without a win for Monopoli
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Monopoli are no longer polite ones.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Davide Bove 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.
Squad1 Feb 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 Monopoli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad1 Feb 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Livio Milts, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad25 Jan 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Maguette Fall
21 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Monopoli lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
Salvatore Longo ran the middle of the pitch — 6.58
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 20 combined actions and a mark of 6.58, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Squad25 Jan 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.
Match23 Jan 2027
4 matches without a win for Monopoli
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Monopoli are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Davide Bove 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad18 Jan 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Maguette Fall
28 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Monopoli lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match16 Jan 2027
Still nobody has beaten Monopoli
The unbeaten run reaches 7. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Alessandro Vinciguerra 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Davide Bove 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.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.71 on the card, and the Monopoli support went home talking about one name.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad11 Jan 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Maguette Fall
35 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Monopoli lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Edoardo Piana is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match9 Jan 2027
Whatever happens, Monopoli do not lose
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Davide Bove 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Monopoli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bruno Valenti 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
Uneasy
Squad4 Jan 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Maguette Fall
42 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Monopoli lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The terraces4 Jan 2027
The mood at Monopoli has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Squad4 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 Monopoli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Alessandro Vinciguerra is the division's best young player this month
At 21 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Monopoli will try very hard not to make too much of it.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad4 Jan 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Livio Milts, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad19 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Edoardo Piana is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Match17 Oct 2026
4 matches without a win for Monopoli
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Monopoli are no longer polite ones.
Squad19 Oct 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Monopoli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match17 Oct 2026
The goals have deserted Monopoli
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Monopoli can tell you which week it ends in.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad19 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Sep 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Edoardo Piana is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Cristian Battocchio 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 ratings21 Sep 2026
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.
The terraces21 Sep 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Emanuele Scipioni 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: David Muller. 2‑0 against Altamura, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Defensive actions: 20, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Sep 2026
There were 8 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.
Match12 Sep 2026
Monopoli cannot find the net
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The terraces14 Sep 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Edoardo Piana 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Maguette Fall, and the manager let it.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Davide Bove 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
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.
Match12 Sep 2026
Point won or two lost for Monopoli?
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Cosenza? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
12 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.