Marked for Freddi Greco
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad25 Jan 2027
47 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
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 Monopoli this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
Defensive actions: 22, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
A defender's afternoon for Claudio Manzi
Defensive actions: 21. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
A performance of 8.87 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Match23 Jan 2027
Cosenza made Monopoli work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.05, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Boardroom25 Jan 2027
Wages eat 108% of everything Monopoli 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.
Squad25 Jan 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 29. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Defensive actions: 28, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
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
The award is a small thing with a heavy meaning: for four weeks nobody in this division did his job better. Monopoli have the trophy on a shelf and the player in the side.
Squad4 Jan 2027
The manager makes an example of Antony Angileri
“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.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
A mark of 4.25 tells the story without any need for embellishment. He will want the tape of this one quietly lost.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad21 Dec 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 25 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Squad21 Dec 2026
An average of 7.21 in a first team he is several years too young for. Monopoli have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Edoardo Piana 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 Dec 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.55, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match19 Dec 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Stefano Piccinini. 1‑0 against Crotone, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Marked 8.37 — 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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Davide Bove, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Dec 2026
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.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Defensive actions: 22, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 21 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.42, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match23 Sep 2026
Monopoli through in the cup
A 1‑0 win over Carpi, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad28 Sep 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.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 21 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Squad28 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Riccardo Calcagni, and the manager let it.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Marked 7.94 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Monopoli had the best player on the pitch.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Marked 7.59 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Monopoli had the best player on the pitch.
Match26 Sep 2026
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Picerno defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Squad28 Sep 2026
At 19 years old, Miran Karim became the latest name off the academy production line to be handed a senior shirt.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Cristian Battocchio and Monopoli agree another 2 years.
Squad3 Aug 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
49 months and counting on Freddi Greco
Still no offer on the table, and Freddi Greco’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
Market3 Aug 2026
Diego Ronco is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Monopoli has been clear about where Diego Ronco stands, which is more than many ever get.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Emanuele Scipioni trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market3 Aug 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.