From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Sep 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
4 matches without a win for Mantova
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Mantova are no longer polite ones.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Andrea Meroni 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 Sep 2026
Defensive actions: 21, 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 ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. 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
Nicolò Buso 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.
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From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Sep 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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
A performance of 8.77 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad14 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 Mantova this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match12 Sep 2026
A 1‑1 draw with Avellino leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Defensive actions: 34, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Squad7 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 Mantova this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
577% of the income goes out in wages at Mantova
Every club in football 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 somebody has tried it.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Defensive actions: 19, 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 Sep 2026
Defensive actions: 14, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad31 Aug 2026
Leonardo Mancuso 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Simone Trimboli
“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 ratings31 Aug 2026
Marked 8.80 — 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.
Player ratings31 Aug 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Mantova have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
From our football correspondent
Steady
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 Mantova this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market24 Aug 2026
He is 16, and nobody at Mantova signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Market24 Aug 2026
He is 16, and nobody at Mantova signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 Aug 2026
Mantova say no — this time
The offer from Cagliari for Tommaso Maggioni 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Leonardo Mancuso 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Ante Vuković keeps his manager's vote
The message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Ante Vuković plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Aug 2026
The fee is $1.1M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Carrarese drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Leonardo Mancuso 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The phone has started ringing about Tommaso Maggioni again, and this time the name on the line is Genoa. Mantova are listening politely and promising nothing.
Market10 Aug 2026
24 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
Market10 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
César Falletti has seen what the next man earns
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Mantova that is a harder question to answer.
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.” Simone Trimboli and Mantova agree another 4 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Andrea Meroni 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
Still no offer on the table, and Simone Trimboli’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.