Marked for Daniel Maldini
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad8 Nov 2027
Giorgio Scalvini damages knee ligaments — 32 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 32 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Match6 Nov 2027
Atalanta make home a hard place to visit
21 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.
Squad8 Nov 2027
There were 12 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.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 27 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match3 Nov 2027
Atalanta march on in the cup
Gubbio are out and Atalanta go through, 1‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Match8 Nov 2027
Atalanta refuse to drop out of the race
Position 2, 27 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Match6 Nov 2027
Whatever happens, Atalanta do not lose
9 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.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Marten de Roon 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.
Match6 Nov 2027
Napoli made Atalanta 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
Upbeat
Squad13 Sep 2027
A fracture rules Marten de Roon out for 94 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Atalanta will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market13 Sep 2027
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad13 Sep 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 Atalanta this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Lyam Hodiamont is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad13 Sep 2027
At 28 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Match11 Sep 2027
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
Éderson never got going
2.72 on the card. Some afternoons a footballer looks like a man who has only just been introduced to the game, and this was one of them.
Loan watch13 Sep 2027
“I watch every Atalanta game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Bristol City runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Market13 Sep 2027
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Daniel Maldini has his answer from Atalanta; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Jun 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 62 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market7 Jun 2027
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Atalanta hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Market7 Jun 2027
AlbinoLeffe come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Atalanta did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
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 Atalanta this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Jegors Olijars is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Words at Atalanta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Charles De Ketelaere 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.
Market7 Jun 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Atalanta have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Boardroom7 Jun 2027
Atalanta release $4.5M for the manager
The board have put money on the table rather than an encouraging word. What happens to it now is somebody else's problem, and somebody else's job.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match14 Apr 2027
Lazio march on in the cup
Juventus are out and Lazio go through, 3‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Market19 Apr 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 Lazio, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings19 Apr 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.36, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Boulaye Dia 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 Lazio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces19 Apr 2027
Lazio supporters have found a favourite in Mexx Meerdink
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Mexx Meerdink 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.
Player ratings19 Apr 2027
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings19 Apr 2027
A performance of 8.49 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings19 Apr 2027
Ninety minutes of Alessio Romagnoli at his very best
Marked 8.08. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Lazio.
Match17 Apr 2027
Honours even between Lazio and Udinese
2‑2, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match3 Apr 2027
The longest week starts now for Lazio
Beaten 0‑1 by AS Roma in the one fixture that is never just a fixture. Work, school, the corner shop — there will be no getting away from this one.
Squad5 Apr 2027
9 appearances across 8 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Honest Ahanor is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Tempers go at Lazio
Mattia Zaccagni 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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Adam Marušić commits to Lazio for another 2 years.
Match3 Apr 2027
The goals have deserted Lazio
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Lazio can tell you which week it ends in.
Player ratings5 Apr 2027
Successful dribbles: 14. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market5 Apr 2027
The name of Mexx Meerdink keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Lazio say nothing, which says plenty.
Boardroom5 Apr 2027
Lazio pull $1.6M back off the table
The money that was there in the summer is not there now. Nobody upstairs calls this a change of ambition, and everybody downstairs reads it as one.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match3 Mar 2027
Lazio through in the cup
A 3‑0 win over Torino, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Boardroom8 Mar 2027
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Gerardo Ricci has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Match6 Mar 2027
Lazio throw away a 2-goal lead
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Inter the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Lazio will enjoy reviewing.
Player ratings8 Mar 2027
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.
Squad8 Mar 2027
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.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Tempers go at Lazio
Mattia Zaccagni 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 ratings8 Mar 2027
Marked 8.93 — 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 ratings8 Mar 2027
Marked 8.58 — 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 ratings8 Mar 2027
Marked 8.57 — 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom1 Mar 2027
The scrutiny sharpens at Lazio
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Lazio is running low.
Squad1 Mar 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Lazio may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad1 Mar 2027
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.
Match27 Feb 2027
No end in sight to Lazio's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Lazio has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad1 Mar 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 Lazio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match27 Feb 2027
3 matches without a goal for Lazio
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad1 Mar 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.
Match27 Feb 2027
A bad afternoon for Lazio against AC Milan
0‑2 to AC Milan, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings1 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market22 Feb 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 Lazio, and it is not being withdrawn.
The terraces22 Feb 2027
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 6 of the 30 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
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.
Market22 Feb 2027
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Tempers go at Lazio
Mattia Zaccagni 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.
Squad22 Feb 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.
Match20 Feb 2027
A bad afternoon for Lazio against Napoli
0‑1 to Napoli, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
Ten men and a goalkeeper behind him, and it still finished in the net. He knew before anybody told him, and nobody at Lazio needed to.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad8 Feb 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Adam Marušić commits to Lazio for another 1 years.
Squad8 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 Lazio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad8 Feb 2027
The manager makes an example of Daniel Maldini
“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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
A smaller club would suit Stefano Turati now
He has had enough of the noise. Whether Lazio can be a quieter place for him, or whether the only cure is a move somewhere the phone-ins are gentler, is a question for the next few months.
Match6 Feb 2027
It needed Mexx Meerdink to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Hellas Verona, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Market8 Feb 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Alessio Romagnoli signs something — a contract at Lazio or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Loan watch8 Feb 2027
The goals keep arriving from Gabriele Artistico’s exile
7 goals in 21 games at Spezia — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Lazio updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Boardroom8 Feb 2027
Lazio pull $1.6M back off the table
The money that was there in the summer is not there now. Nobody upstairs calls this a change of ambition, and everybody downstairs reads it as one.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market11 Jan 2027
The paperwork is done: Stefano Turati joins from Sassuolo in a deal worth $4.2M. Now comes the harder part.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Honest Ahanor is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 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.
Squad11 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 Lazio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market11 Jan 2027
Add another name to the list: Pisa have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Petar Ratkov. The answer from Lazio has not changed — yet.
Squad11 Jan 2027
At 25 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Ninety minutes of Mattia Zaccagni at his very best
Marked 8.12. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Lazio.
Squad11 Jan 2027
The manager makes an example of Daniel Maldini
“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.
Market11 Jan 2027
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Lazio will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match9 Dec 2026
Cup progress for Lazio
A 1‑0 win over Crotone, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Match9 Dec 2026
Adrian Przyborek wins it after the whistle should have gone
99 minutes played. Adrian Przyborek found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Crotone went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Adrian Przyborek, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 7.61
A mark of 7.61 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Defensive actions: 25. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Tempers go at Lazio
Mattia Zaccagni 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 Dec 2026
Cristo is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
Market14 Dec 2026
Kenneth Taylor wants to know where this is going
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Lazio hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Defensive actions: 22. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Match12 Dec 2026
Parma take the points off Lazio
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match21 Nov 2026
Derby day misery for Lazio
Losing 0‑1 is one thing; losing to AS Roma in a derby is a wound that takes months to close.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Tempers go at Lazio
Nicolò Rovella 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.
Squad23 Nov 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.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Squad23 Nov 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.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
An afternoon Mexx Meerdink will want back
Marked 5.41. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
5.72 on the card. Some afternoons a footballer looks like a man who has only just been introduced to the game, and this was one of them.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
A mark of 5.71 tells the story without any need for embellishment. He will want the tape of this one quietly lost.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Tempers go at Lazio
Mattia Zaccagni 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.
Match14 Nov 2026
A bad afternoon for Lazio against Bologna
0‑1 to Bologna, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad16 Nov 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Alfonso Pedraza 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
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.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Marked 5.66, and generously at that. Nothing came off, and by the end the crowd had stopped expecting it to.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Marked 5.73. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
Market16 Nov 2026
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Lazio know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Sep 2026
A fracture rules Adam Marušić out for 77 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Lazio will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The terraces14 Sep 2026
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 7 of the 32 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
7.85, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Match12 Sep 2026
Atalanta left with the points after a 3‑5 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Tempers go at Lazio
Luca Lezzerini 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 Sep 2026
Real improvement from Cristo at Lazio
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Cristo is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Market14 Sep 2026
Kenneth Taylor wants to know where this is going
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Lazio hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Match12 Sep 2026
Alessio Romagnoli among the goals in a wild afternoon
8 goals in one match, Alessio Romagnoli on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Lazio and Atalanta.
Player ratings14 Sep 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Sep 2026
Adam Marušić breaks a bone — 85 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 85 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
A brace, and Alessio Romagnoli takes the afternoon — 8.38
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Alessio Romagnoli provided it, and the 8.38 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market7 Sep 2026
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Tempers go at Lazio
Mattia Zaccagni 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Edoardo Motta is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Match5 Sep 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Alessio Romagnoli. 3‑1 against Cagliari, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The terraces7 Sep 2026
Lazio supporters have found a favourite in Mexx Meerdink
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Mexx Meerdink 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.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.65, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
A performance of 8.10 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
0 appearances across 8 seasons in these colours. Careers like that are not built any more, and Lazio know what they have.
Market3 Aug 2026
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Alessio Romagnoli and Lazio agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Lazio
Mattia Zaccagni 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
Mattia Zaccagni is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Lazio has been clear about where Mattia Zaccagni stands, which is more than many ever get.
Market3 Aug 2026
The name of Reda Belahyane has come up in conversations Lazio were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.