Marked for Vitinha
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market8 Feb 2027
Genoa say no — this time
The offer from Dolomiti Bellunesi for Francesco Bellone 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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Tempers go at Genoa
Cyril Ngonge 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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Vitinha and Genoa agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Match6 Feb 2027
AS Roma left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at Genoa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Patrizio Masini 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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Genoa told Patrizio Masini something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Market8 Feb 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Justin Bijlow’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 10. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market8 Feb 2027
A season-long audition: Newcastle United still own him, but the shirt and the minutes are Genoa's to give. A loan is a bet both clubs believe they are winning.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market1 Feb 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market1 Feb 2027
Genoa say no — this time
The offer from Cesena for Adam Žulevič 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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Cyril Ngonge 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 Genoa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces1 Feb 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Tommaso Baldanzi 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.
Market1 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.
Match30 Jan 2027
Genoa get the job done against Bologna
A 1‑0 win over Bologna, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Patrizio Masini 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 ratings1 Feb 2027
Marked 7.83. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Squad1 Feb 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alessandro Marcandalli, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad18 Jan 2027
Tempers go at Genoa
Morten Frendrup 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.
Match16 Jan 2027
It finished 2‑0, and it was Vitinha’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Genoa.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Patrizio Masini 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.
Market18 Jan 2027
Add another name to the list: Perugia have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Francesco Bellone. The answer from Genoa has not changed — yet.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Ninety minutes of Vitinha 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 Genoa.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Marked 8.15. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Genoa.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market18 Jan 2027
Padova are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Genoa will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Squad18 Jan 2027
The manager makes an example of Adam Žulevič
“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
Steady
Market11 Jan 2027
AC Milan come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Genoa did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad11 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.
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 Genoa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match9 Jan 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mikael Egill Ellertsson. 1‑0 against Inter, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Genoa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Patrizio Masini 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.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Marked 8.16 — 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Caleb Ekuban, and the manager let it.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Vitinha runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 8. 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
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Alan Matturro signs something — a contract at Genoa or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match4 Jan 2027
Every point is an argument now for Genoa
Position 20 and 12 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.
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 Genoa, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market4 Jan 2027
Napoli come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Genoa did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Match2 Jan 2027
The wait goes on for Genoa
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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Tempers go at Genoa
Morten Frendrup 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 ratings4 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad4 Jan 2027
The manager makes an example of Aarón
“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
Vitinha stands above it all
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.29 on the card, and the Genoa support went home talking about one name.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Alex Amorim named in the team of the month
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Alex Amorim is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad23 Nov 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 16 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Tempers go at Genoa
Morten Frendrup 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
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market24 Aug 2026
The bid was some way short and Genoa did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad24 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 Genoa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
Graduation day at Genoa
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.
Match22 Aug 2026
A bad afternoon for Genoa against Lazio
1‑2 to Lazio, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Market24 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Manuel Palmieri is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Genoa training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Patrizio Masini 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Maxwel Cornet pulls a muscle — 14 days out
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
A performance of 8.08 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
Genoa are making the ground bigger
Work is signed off on a capacity of 43250. It is the sort of decision a club is judged on twenty years later, by people who were not there when it was taken.