“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 Sassuolo hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Marked 8.05 — 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.
Something was said to Samuele Mulattieri and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Laurs Skjellerup had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Bari were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Gioele Zacchi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sassuolo the goodbyes have quietly begun.
36 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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Sassuolo heard it as anything else.
8.80. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Marked 8.08 — 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.
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.
In brief
SquadA muscle injury and 15 days out for Gioele Venuti
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sassuolo can pretend not to have heard.
3 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Inter have kept their man, and Sassuolo go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
8.11. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Federico Casolari 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.
In brief
Player ratingsA defender's afternoon for Ismaël Koné
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sassuolo can pretend not to have heard.
The deal that would have taken Jurgen Ekkelenkamp to Potenza has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Sassuolo with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Napoli have kept their man, and Sassuolo go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
9 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Sassuolo, and 2 appearances in 11 say he has earned the hearing.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Sassuolo know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Training is not playing and everybody in the game knows it. Darryl Bakola has gone out on loan to a club that wants him in the side rather than around it, and he will come back either a better player or an answered question.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Sassuolo can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
“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 Sassuolo, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Sassuolo is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Sassuolo can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Position 19 and 28 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sassuolo can pretend not to have heard.
Two goals and a mark of 9.10 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Andrea Ghion will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sassuolo the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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 Sassuolo hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Franco Armani is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
“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 Sassuolo, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Sassuolo heard it as anything else.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sassuolo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Edon Zhegrova 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.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
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.
Edon Zhegrova 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.
Successful dribbles: 21. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Samuele Mulattieri was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Nobody at Sassuolo will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
A 1‑0 win over Frosinone, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Player ratings20 Dec 2027
Patrick Nuamah, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.67
A mark of 7.67 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Samuele Mulattieri was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Patrick Nuamah 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.
Jean-Daniel Akpa Akpro 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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Sassuolo is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“I watch every Sassuolo game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Monopoli runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Successful dribbles: 18. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Jean-Daniel Akpa Akpro 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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Sassuolo, and both men came out saying it was fine.
In brief
The terracesEverybody has an opinion about Stefano Turati
SquadWords at Sassuolo training over how hard people work
“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 Sassuolo hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Words at Sassuolo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Samuele Mulattieri 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.
Nemanja Matić 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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Words at Sassuolo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Samuele Mulattieri 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.
Nemanja Matić 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.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Sassuolo can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Sassuolo know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nobody at Sassuolo will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Sassuolo have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Agustín Álvarez wants continental football; whether Sassuolo can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Achille Dalla Valle on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Sassuolo is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Words at Sassuolo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Samuele Mulattieri 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Sassuolo told Samuele Mulattieri something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“I watch every Sassuolo game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Monopoli runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Sassuolo, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Sassuolo know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sassuolo can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Edon Zhegrova 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.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Words at Sassuolo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Samuele Mulattieri 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.
Marked 8.15 — 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.
“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 Sassuolo, and it is not being withdrawn.
Edon Zhegrova 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.
8.08. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
8.02. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
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.
Jean-Daniel Akpa Akpro 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Sassuolo know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“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 Sassuolo, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Edoardo Pieragnolo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sassuolo the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Words at Sassuolo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Samuele Mulattieri 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Sassuolo have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Samuele Mulattieri and Sassuolo agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Words at Sassuolo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Samuele Mulattieri 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nemanja Matić, and the manager let it.
Player ratings4 Oct 2027
Ismaël Koné was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.02. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Achille Dalla Valle after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Samuele Mulattieri was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Sassuolo asked and Inter said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Sassuolo, and 2 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sassuolo can pretend not to have heard.
“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.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 13 signed and 39 gone
That is the business done at Sassuolo until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Sassuolo heard it as anything else.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: AC Milan keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
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.
Sassuolo asked and AC Milan said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sassuolo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The offer went to VfB Stuttgart 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.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Josh Doig had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Sassuolo have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Samuele Mulattieri provided it, and the 8.86 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sassuolo can pretend not to have heard.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Sassuolo have lost him in all but the paperwork.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sassuolo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Sassuolo asked and AC Milan said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
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.
Sassuolo asked and Juventus said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Cesare Ferri is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Francesco Rocca has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
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.
$61.5M on the table at Stade de Reims. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Hellas Verona asked and Stade de Reims said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 90 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
Two goals and a mark of 9.24 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Hellas Verona and Ravenna have settled on $190.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Hellas Verona can pretend not to have heard.
“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.
“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 Sassuolo, and it is not being withdrawn.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Sassuolo have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“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.
37 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.
Sassuolo asked and Napoli said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
After 20 games, Hellas Verona finally taste it again
The first defeat in 20 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Modena; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
26 games and 2 goals away from here, and a man the manager did not have last summer. The loan did what loans are supposed to do and almost never do.
The dugout31 May 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 Michele Caprioli left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Dailon Livramento is on it.
20 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.
87 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hellas Verona this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout24 May 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Michele Caprioli was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Hellas Verona dressing room was either.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 37 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
4 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.
12 goals in 36 games at Sampdoria — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Sassuolo updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Hellas Verona they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Alan 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.
Three points for Hellas Verona, 2‑1 the final word against Arezzo in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Match15 May 2027
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for Hellas Verona. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Player ratings17 May 2027
Antoine Bernede was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.29. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Michele Caprioli on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Vasilije Adžić, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.72
A mark of 7.72 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Ismaël Koné wants continental football; whether Sassuolo can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Sassuolo has been clear about where Filippo Romagna stands, which is more than many ever get.
In brief
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Janis Antiste’s exile
Player ratingsDaniel Boloca beats them one at a time
4 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hellas Verona this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Hellas Verona will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 10 actions, 7.24, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
17 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Hellas Verona they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Three points for Hellas Verona, 2‑0 the final word against Avellino in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings19 Apr 2027
Antoine Bernede was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.08. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
14 goals in 30 games at Spezia — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Sassuolo updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
A point taken on 86 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
Giovanni Chiricallo 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.
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.
A defender's mistake gets tidied up by somebody else; a goalkeeper's ends up in the net. He knew before the ball crossed the line, and so did everybody in the ground.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Sassuolo pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Sassuolo has been clear about where Cristian Volpato stands, which is more than many ever get.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Hellas Verona they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Marked 8.00 — 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.
Successful dribbles: 17. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
7.88, 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sassuolo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Kieron Bowie 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.
13 goals in 29 games at Spezia — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Sassuolo updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Level with 87 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Sassuolo had all but put away. Parma will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
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.
16 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Gabriele Zappa 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
Successful dribbles: 19. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
8.02. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Samuele Mulattieri had Hellas Verona level again within 1 minutes, and Cremonese never got to play with a lead at all.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Sebastiano Esposito 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.
17 goals in 29 games at Hellas Verona — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Sassuolo updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
28 appearances at Audace Cerignola and the goals have stopped going in. Sassuolo lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 90. Udinese had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
Vicenza will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Hellas Verona were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Hellas Verona can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Marked 7.94. There is a kind of forward whose value only shows up when you count what he was involved in rather than what he finished, and this is the day that argument makes itself.
3 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sassuolo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Sassuolo can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Sassuolo can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
14 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
“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 Hellas Verona hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Hellas Verona know it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hellas Verona this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I watch every Hellas Verona game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Torino runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 85th, and Ascoli spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
13 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Hellas Verona they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Sassuolo have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
12 clean sheets from 23 appearances at Audace Cerignola. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Sergio Zangari after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Two goals and a mark of 8.86 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Hellas Verona they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Gabriele Zappa 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.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.00, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Michele Caprioli, on a 3‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Sassuolo is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Sebastiano Esposito 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.
Sassuolo asked and AC Milan said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
22 appearances at Audace Cerignola and the goals have stopped going in. Sassuolo lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Sassuolo, and 6 appearances in 24 say he has earned the hearing.
8 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.
Position 18 and 19 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.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Josh Doig reports back to Sassuolo with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
22 appearances away from home and 11 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
The dugout8 Feb 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 1‑2 Sergio Zangari left the room before anybody could ask which.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Crotone waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Sassuolo is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Sassuolo can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Juventus is saying, and nobody at Sassuolo is enjoying the guessing.
Sassuolo 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.
Position 14, 17 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
7 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.
There were 87 minutes on the clock and Südtirol had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Hellas Verona did not stop to explain themselves.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Andrias Edmundsson will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Hellas Verona the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Hellas Verona can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Samuele Mulattieri. 2‑1 against Südtirol, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
“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 Sassuolo hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
8.22. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
11 goals in 13 games at Hellas Verona — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Sassuolo updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Sergio Zangari could afford to be generous.
Successful dribbles: 40. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“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.
“I watch every Hellas Verona game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Avellino runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
7.84, 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.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Hellas Verona can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
8.18. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
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.
In brief
Player ratingsTomáš Suslov beats them one at a time
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.
“I watch every Sassuolo game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Hellas Verona runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
7 clean sheets from 11 appearances at Audace Cerignola. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Hellas Verona can pretend not to have heard.
3 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.
Arijanet Murić 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.
7.84, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Hellas Verona had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Michele Caprioli kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Fali Candé 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.
Successful dribbles: 13. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“I watch every Sassuolo game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Pescara runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Successful dribbles: 15. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Duje Ćaleta-Car trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
In brief
The dugoutWoyo Coulibaly has become a man the manager trusts
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Ismaël Koné wants continental football; whether Sassuolo can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Kieron Bowie 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.
8 goals in 9 games at Hellas Verona — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Sassuolo updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Sassuolo, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Frosinone next, and one man in the Sassuolo dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Sassuolo. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.