Marked for Daniele Montevago
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match20 Jan 2027
Modena march on in the cup
Inter are out and Modena go through, 1‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Match23 Jan 2027
Still nobody has beaten Modena
The unbeaten run reaches 9. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
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 Modena this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
22 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
The terraces25 Jan 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Antonio Imputato 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.
Market25 Jan 2027
Add another name to the list: Aalborg have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Daniele Montevago. The answer from Modena has not changed — yet.
Match23 Jan 2027
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Yanis Massolin had Modena level again within 3 minutes, and Monza never got to play with a lead at all.
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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Davide Adorni 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad18 Jan 2027
Antonio Imputato: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Modena have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market18 Jan 2027
Modena say no — this time
The offer from Crotone for Fabrizio Bagheria was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Match16 Jan 2027
Still nobody has beaten Modena
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.
Squad18 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 Modena this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Getting past Leandro Chichizola has become the hardest job in the division
13 clean sheets and counting. Forwards used to back themselves here; now they shoot early, shoot wide, and look for somebody to blame.
Match16 Jan 2027
It finished 1‑0, and it was Manuel De Luca’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Modena.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
17 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Joaquín's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
In brief
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Market
AVS are about to pick up the phone
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Player ratings
A defender's afternoon for Simone Santoro
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Player ratings
A day to forget for Joaquín
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad4 Jan 2027
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market4 Jan 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 Modena, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Up for the corner, and Joaquín delivers — 7.71
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Joaquín scored, was marked 7.71, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Market4 Jan 2027
Modena say no — this time
The offer from Vizela for Daniele Montevago was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Match2 Jan 2027
Modena cannot stop winning
3 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.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
24 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Tempers go at Modena
Manuel De Luca 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.
Market4 Jan 2027
The name of Gady Beyuku has come up in conversations Modena were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The terraces4 Jan 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Giuseppe Ambrosino has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Dec 2026
Pietro Boer decides it from twelve yards
4 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Match9 Dec 2026
Modena march on in the cup
Hellas Verona are out and Modena go through, 0‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Match12 Dec 2026
6 matches without a win for Modena
The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around Modena are no longer polite ones.
Squad14 Dec 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 Modena this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Ninety minutes of Luca Zanimacchia at his very best
Marked 8.00. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Modena.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
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.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Defensive actions: 17, 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 ratings14 Dec 2026
Paulo Azzi misses from twelve yards
It was his to settle and he did not settle it. A long walk back to the halfway line, and a considerably longer week.
Squad14 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Grégoire Defrel
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
A brace, and Manuel De Luca takes the afternoon — 8.72
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Manuel De Luca provided it, and the 8.72 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Match5 Dec 2026
4 matches without a win for Modena
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Modena are no longer polite ones.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Tempers go at Modena
Manuel De Luca 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.
Match5 Dec 2026
2‑3 to Catanzaro, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Souza gets it from the manager
“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 ratings7 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad16 Nov 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 23 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad16 Nov 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 Modena this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
A hand in 2 of them from Manuel De Luca — 7.47
Marked 7.47. 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.
Match14 Nov 2026
6 unbeaten for Modena
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Modena did not have in the autumn.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad16 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Pedro Mendes, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Oct 2026
A fracture rules Luca Strizzolo out for 56 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Modena will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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 Modena this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 20 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Squad19 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Paulo Azzi
“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.
Squad19 Oct 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.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. 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
Uneasy
Squad21 Sep 2026
A fracture rules Luca Strizzolo out for 88 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Modena will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match19 Sep 2026
4 matches without a win for Modena
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Modena are no longer polite ones.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Tempers go at Modena
Alessandro Bianco 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
4 matches without a goal for Modena
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 19 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Fabio Gerli
“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 ratings21 Sep 2026
A defender's afternoon for Joaquín
Defensive actions: 16. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Squad21 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 Aug 2026
Luca Strizzolo breaks a bone — 121 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 121 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market24 Aug 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Modena can pretend not to have heard.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Modena
Paulo Azzi 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.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
Graduation day at Modena
1 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Market24 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Tommaso Vannucci has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
Modena turn down the training-ground plan
It is the quietest way a club tells you what its ambitions are. The money was asked for, the money was refused, and the people who work there every day now know exactly where they stand.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Fabio Gerli and Modena agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad10 Aug 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 Modena this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Fabio Gerli
“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.
Market10 Aug 2026
Still no offer on the table, and Francesco Zampano’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Simone Santoro knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Simone Santoro trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.