Marked for Oumar Solet
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 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 Udinese this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Udinese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thomas Kristensen 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.
Market28 Dec 2026
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Jakub Piotrowski wants continental football; whether Udinese can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad28 Dec 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Maduka Okoye has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Udinese 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.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Nobody could get near Unai Gómez
Successful dribbles: 13. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match9 Dec 2026
Udinese out of the cup
Pisa ended it 0‑0. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Market14 Dec 2026
Penarol come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Udinese did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Maduka Okoye decides it from twelve yards
1 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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Thomas Kristensen 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 ratings14 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Oumar Solet 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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at Udinese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mërgim Vojvoda 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.
Match12 Dec 2026
A bad afternoon for Udinese against Inter
0‑1 to Inter, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
The kick that got away from Unai Gómez
Twelve yards, a goalkeeper guessing, and it still did not go in. He will take the next one, and every soul in the ground will hold their breath.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match4 Nov 2026
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Giovanni Di Franco obliged against Carpi. 1‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Udinese.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 1 on the scoresheet, 7.59 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.
Match9 Nov 2026
Udinese sink to position 19
8 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Nicolò Zaniolo 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Oumar Solet 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.
Match7 Nov 2026
1‑2 to Sassuolo, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The terraces9 Nov 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 18-year-old it feels ownership of. Luigi Caputo 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Mërgim Vojvoda falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Ninety minutes of Nicolò Zaniolo at his very best
Marked 8.17. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Udinese.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match3 Oct 2026
The wait goes on for Udinese
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.
Squad5 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 Udinese this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Udinese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thomas Kristensen 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.
Match3 Oct 2026
3 matches without a goal for Udinese
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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Oumar Solet
“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.
Match3 Oct 2026
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad21 Sep 2026
Oumar Solet 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
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Ivo Mammini 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Sep 2026
Thomas Kristensen falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Ivo Mammini 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 ratings14 Sep 2026
Marked 7.60. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Match12 Sep 2026
It needed Unai Gómez to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against AC Milan, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Squad14 Sep 2026
The first one is the one every signing is asked about until it arrives. It has arrived, and he can stop being asked.
Squad14 Sep 2026
The plan did not have a place for Leonardo Buta
Nobody at Udinese is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad31 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 Udinese this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Oumar Solet, and the manager let it.
Match29 Aug 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Udinese training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivo Mammini 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.
Squad31 Aug 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.
Market31 Aug 2026
The Keinan Davis story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Keinan Davis signs something — a contract at Udinese or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Nicolò Zaniolo 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.
Market17 Aug 2026
Nobody at the club will say out loud who this signing is for, which is how you know exactly who it is for. Ivo Mammini has been brought in to take a shirt somebody is still wearing.
In brief
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Squad
Words at Udinese training over how hard people work
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Squad
Ivo Mammini banks a contract that will last him
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Squad
Oumar Solet has seen what the next man earns
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Udinese have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Oumar Solet and Udinese agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Oumar Solet 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.