The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Monza keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 65 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
The fee is $12.2M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Juventus drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Bologna paid $13.0M and Modena took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Two goals and a mark of 8.18 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Modena 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.
Alessandro Sersanti has gone, the accounts have $13.0M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
Modena have gone to Mantova with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
The clubs have shaken hands with Monza; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
6 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 is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Modena can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
$310.0K on the table at Carrarese. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Fabio Gerli 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.
5 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.
Fabio Gerli 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.
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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Nicolò Mariani could afford to be generous.
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.
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 Ronald Koeman is on it.
Francesco Zampano 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.
At 20 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ronald Koeman will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Modena 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 Modena hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Kleis Bozhanaj. 1‑0 against Catanzaro, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Laurenţiu Popescu will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Modena the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Laurenţiu Popescu trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
In brief
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Giuseppe Caso
“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.
8.38. 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.” Nicolò Mariani on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Leonardo Consiglio is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
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.
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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Modena can tell you which week it ends in.
Marked 6.74 on 9 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Modena are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
In brief
The dugoutPaulo Azzi has become a man the manager trusts
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Modena is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Modena can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Something was said to Edoardo Corvi and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“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 Modena, and 0 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Modena is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Fabio Gerli 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.
500 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
“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 Modena know it.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
In brief
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Giuseppe Caso
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Pisa the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Modena will enjoy reviewing.
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.
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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Modena heard it as anything else.
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.
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Pisa.
Something was said to Andrea Cagnano and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Randal Kolo Muani has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
Nobody at Modena 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Alessandro Sersanti signs something — a contract at Modena or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
15 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Modena lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Modena is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“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.
Francesco Zampano 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.
6 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.
24 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Modena lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Randal Kolo Muani will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Modena escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Modena is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Fabio Gerli 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Modena told Randal Kolo Muani something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“I watch every Modena game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Vicenza runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Two goals and a mark of 8.91 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Randal Kolo Muani 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.
Carrarese held the lead for 3 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Modena answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Alessandro Sersanti is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Nicolò Mariani could afford to be generous.
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Randal Kolo Muani was the best thing in any of them.
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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Juan Marinelli is living that version at Modena, and it tends to show in the first month.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Pedro Mendes. 2‑0 against Cosenza, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Juan Marinelli is 20, and Modena have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
The dugout28 Feb 2028
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.” Nicolò Mariani kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
“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.
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.
“I did not go to Esbjerg to sit and watch. I want to come back to Modena and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
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 Nicolò Mariani left the room before anybody could ask which.
He has had enough of the noise. Whether Modena can be a quieter place for him, or whether the only cure is a move somewhere the phone-ins are gentler, is a question for the next few months.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ronald Koeman will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Modena 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 Modena hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Ronald Koeman has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Modena can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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.
Modena asked and Spezia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Deadline passes with 6 signed and 6 gone
That is the business done at Modena 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 win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Modena hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Fabio Gerli 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.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Modena are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
6 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Modena have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“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.
The offer from Altamura for Paulo Azzi 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.
Francesco Zampano 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-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.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Modena will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Santos is saying, and nobody at Modena is enjoying the guessing.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ascoli have kept their man, and Modena go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Position 7, 31 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.
“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.
The fee is $5.1M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Parma drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Modena had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Estudiantes, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
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.
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.
Modena and Parma have settled on $5.1M. 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.
The offer from Lausanne-Sport 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.
“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.
Fabio Gerli 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.
The name of Leonardo Consiglio has come up in conversations Modena were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Modena are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager’s verdict
Transfer targetsA loan move for Ezequiel Naya is in the works
“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.
“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.
Add another name to the list: Red Star have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Luca Franco. The answer from Modena has not changed — yet.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Atalanta have kept their man, and Modena go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“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.
The dugout3 Jan 2028
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 Nicolò Mariani left the room before anybody could ask which.
Position 2, 28 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
“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 Modena hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
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.
Marked 8.23. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Modena.
Player ratings27 Dec 2027
Giuseppe Caso was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.03. 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑1, Nicolò Mariani could afford to be generous.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Leonardo Consiglio will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Modena 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 Modena hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Luca Franco 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.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
In brief
The dugoutRonald Koeman has become a man the manager trusts
“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.
Francesco Zampano 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.
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Laurenţiu Popescu knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
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.
The dugout13 Dec 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑3 defeat, delivered by Nicolò Mariani to a room that had heard them before.
The offer from Talleres for Luca Franco 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.
Fabio Gerli 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.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Giuseppe Leone has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Laurenţiu Popescu is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout6 Dec 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.” Nicolò Mariani, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
“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.
Fabio Gerli 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.
A 1‑1 draw with Sampdoria leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Nicolò Mariani was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Modena dressing room was either.
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Parma.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Leonardo Consiglio will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Modena the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Pedro Mendes. 2‑0 against Arezzo, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Nicolò Mariani could afford to be generous.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
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.
Francisco Cuzzani 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.
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 Paulo Azzi is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Pedro Mendes signs something — a contract at Modena or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Arezzo in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Francisco Cuzzani trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Modena would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Giuseppe Leone has written the date down.
1 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
Successful dribbles: 24. 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.
Fabio Gerli 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.
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.
“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.
“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.
Fabio Gerli 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.
“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 Modena is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Nobody at Modena 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.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Giuseppe Leone has written the date down.
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.
He is 23 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.
8.17. 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.
100 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Nicolò Mariani on a 3‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Fabio Gerli 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Inas Kukavica has just signed for Modena, and for once the answer mattered.
“I watch every Modena game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Pianese runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Inas Kukavica is 19, and Modena have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Modena are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Nobody at Modena 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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Kleis Bozhanaj’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Modena needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Fabio Gerli 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.
“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 Modena know it.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Edoardo Olivieri is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Orazio Pannitteri, and the manager let it.
The dugout4 Oct 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Nicolò Mariani was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Modena dressing room was either.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Modena told Tobias Slotsager something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Cosenza? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Modena scored in the 93th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Modena is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Francisco Cuzzani 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ronald Koeman, and the manager let it.
The dugout27 Sep 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.” Nicolò Mariani, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Modena will try again when the window opens; Inter may not be selling by then.
1 for Alessandro Bianco, marked 7.70, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Modena heard it as anything else.
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.
“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 Modena know it.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Modena have done the hard part with Inter, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The offer from Reggiana for Giuseppe Leone 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.
“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 Modena hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Luca Franco and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad13 Sep 2027
10 new faces, and Modena are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
“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.
Modena have gone to Inter with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 10 arrived, 17 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Modena had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Dinamo Zagreb, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Fabio Gerli 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.
Modena asked and Cagliari 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 manager has re-ordered his thinking and Ronald Koeman has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Laurenţiu Popescu's mistake
2 behind and going nowhere, until Pedro Mendes decided otherwise. Venezia had done the hard part and then watched it come apart, and the noise at the final whistle was the sort a ground keeps.
“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.
Player ratings30 Aug 2027
A brace, and Pedro Mendes takes the afternoon — 8.62
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Pedro Mendes provided it, and the 8.62 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Luca Franco had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Modena 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Modena is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Modena are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
$450.0K was the most the club would pay and Pescara were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
“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.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $495.0K — a club that wants Gastón Brugman enough to be asked twice.
The offer went to Pescara 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.
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.
5 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.
The offer went to Juventus 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.
Add another name to the list: Giana Erminio have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Stênio. The answer from Modena has not changed — yet.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Stênio was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
10 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
“I watch every Modena game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Pianese runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
16 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Modena lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Everything was agreed with Juventus and then the doctor spoke. Modena have walked away from a signing on the advice of somebody who never saw him play, which is how it is supposed to work.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” IF Gnistan had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
“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 clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Dinamo Zagreb keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
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.
In brief
SquadStênio falls out with a teammate over standards
24 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Modena lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Transfer targets2 Aug 2027
$18.4M settles it between the clubs for Pierre Kalulu
Juventus have accepted the money. What Modena do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Francisco Cuzzani is living that version at Modena, and it tends to show in the first month.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Modena heard it as anything else.
Modena had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Olympiacos, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Modena asked and Dinamo Zagreb 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 words a physio says slowly. 33 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Estudiantes have kept their man, and Modena go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Stênio was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Luca Franco 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.
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.
Dinamo Zagreb have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
The words a physio says slowly. 40 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Modena have gone to Juventus with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Leonardo Consiglio will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Modena the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Add another name to the list: Giana Erminio have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Stênio. The answer from Modena has not changed — yet.
Fabio Gerli 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.
Modena asked and Estudiantes 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 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.
47 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Modena lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Pergolettese moved on, Steven Nador reports back to Modena, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Fabio Gerli 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.
8 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.
Modena have made the call to Estudiantes. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
54 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Modena lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. River Plate have kept their man, and Modena go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
14 appearances and 3 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
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 demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Giuseppe Leone is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Modena, another week without a signature from Ronald Koeman.
The words a physio says slowly. 62 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Modena have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The offer from Frosinone for Stênio 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Matteo Cotali will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Modena the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Words at Modena training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giuseppe Ambrosino 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Aldosivi have kept their man, and Modena go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
14 games, 3 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at Modena now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 70 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Modena have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Leonardo Consiglio will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Modena the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The deal with Venezia is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Modena asked and Genoa said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Sergio Olano 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.
78 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Modena lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Modena have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Modena heard it as anything else.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Atalanta is saying, and nobody at Modena is enjoying the guessing.
$880.0K was the most the club would pay and Sorrento were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Fabio Gerli 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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Words at Modena training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giuseppe Ambrosino 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.
Modena asked and Fiorentina said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
86 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Modena lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Position 9 on 53 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
Player ratings7 Jun 2027
A brace, and Pedro Mendes takes the afternoon — 8.76
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Pedro Mendes provided it, and the 8.76 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Modena people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Modena have gone to Sorrento with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Add another name to the list: Neuchâtel Xamax have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Paulo Azzi. The answer from Modena has not changed — yet.
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 words a physio says slowly. 94 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
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.
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.
Nobody at Modena 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.
The dugout31 May 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Nicolò Mariani was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Modena dressing room was either.
102 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Modena lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.89 for the rest of it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Modena is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Fabio Gerli 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.
Squad24 May 2027
Djed Spence 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Giuseppe Ambrosino. 2‑1 against Mantova, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Niklas Pyyhtiä 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.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 109 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Modena is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Manuel De Luca was the best thing in any of them.
The words a physio says slowly. 116 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Modena is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad10 May 2027
Djed Spence 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.
Marked 8.27 — 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.
123 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Modena lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Djed Spence was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
17 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
The dugout3 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 1‑2 Nicolò Mariani left the room before anybody could ask which.
Nobody at Modena 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Manuel De Luca trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The words a physio says slowly. 132 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Successful dribbles: 29. 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Modena is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Nicolò Mariani after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
In brief
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Fabio Gerli
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Modena is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Fabio Gerli 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Djed Spence was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Fabio Gerli.
The dugout19 Apr 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.” Nicolò Mariani, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
“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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Abdullah Laidani will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Modena the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Francesco Zampano 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Djed Spence was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 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.
Francesco Zampano 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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Words at Modena training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giuseppe Ambrosino 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.
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout5 Apr 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 Nicolò Mariani left the room before anybody could ask which.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Luca Zanimacchia has come out of that comparison in the side, and Modena have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Modena they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Djed Spence was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Modena, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Modena know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Giovanni Catanese has written the date down.
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words at Modena training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Djed Spence 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.
8.00. 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Modena told Djed Spence something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Nicolò Mariani after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Modena is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words at Modena training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giuseppe Ambrosino 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.
He is 23 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.
The phone has started ringing about Abdullah Laidani again, and this time the name on the line is SJK. Modena are listening politely and promising nothing.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Giuseppe Ambrosino. 1‑0 against Pisa, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Modena are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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.
“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.
Francesco Zampano 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 Mar 2027
Words at Modena training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Djed Spence 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.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Modena are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Nobody at Modena 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 defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.65 for the rest of it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Leonardo Consiglio will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Modena the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Djed Spence was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Modena know it.
A brace, and Pedro Mendes takes the afternoon — 8.86
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Pedro Mendes provided it, and the 8.86 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Modena is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
8.20. 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.
“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.
The dugout22 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.” Nicolò Mariani, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Somebody watched every match in the division at the weekend and decided he was the best thing in any of them. A small honour, and most careers end without one.
“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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Modena is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Francesco Zampano 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Djed Spence 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.
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.
“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.
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.
19 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Modena lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Djed Spence 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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Pedro Mendes is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
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 Luca Zanimacchia is on it.
26 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Modena lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Dolomiti Bellunesi waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Modena is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The phone has started ringing about Laurenţiu Popescu again, and this time the name on the line is Milton Keynes Dons. Modena are listening politely and promising nothing.
Successful dribbles: 25. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 2 signed and 2 gone
That is the business done at Modena 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.
The offer from Forli for Matteo Cotali 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Giuseppe Ambrosino was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Racing Club have kept their man, and Modena go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Alcione Milano waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Modena is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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 Modena know it.
Fabio Gerli 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.
Two of the goals had his name somewhere on them, which is the afternoon a manager wants from anybody asked to both create and finish. 7.82, and 2 involvements.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Corinthians have kept their man, and Modena go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Add another name to the list: Forli have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Matteo Cotali. The answer from Modena has not changed — yet.
2‑5 against Hellas Verona, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Two goals and a mark of 8.52 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Francesco Zampano 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Modena and Hellas Verona, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at Modena training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giuseppe Ambrosino 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sport Recife have kept their man, and Modena go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.71 for the rest of it.
7.63, 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Sergio Olano has just signed for Modena, and for once the answer mattered.
Modena had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Juventus, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Pedro Mendes. 3‑2 against Mantova, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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 offer from Vaduz for Paulo Azzi 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.
7.93, 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 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.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Lorenzo Meazzi has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Modena have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Modena has been clear about where Daniel Tonoli stands, which is more than many ever get.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Modena are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Position 18 and 14 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.
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 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.
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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Taha Zidouh is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Modena training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giuseppe Ambrosino 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.
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.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
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 0‑2 Nicolò Mariani left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The terraces14 Dec 2026
Modena are taken apart by Genoa — and the town wants answers
It finished 1-6. A cup exit is a disappointment; this was a public dismantling, and the difference between the two is the number of people who will still be talking about it in August.
9 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Empoli were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Modena and Genoa in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Successful dribbles: 21. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Modena training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giuseppe Ambrosino 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.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Ascoli scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
Fabio Gerli 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Giuseppe Ambrosino was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.24 — 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.
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Laurenţiu Popescu knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
6 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.
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.
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 is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
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.
“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.
“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.
Francesco Zampano 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Giuseppe Ambrosino was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Alessandro Bianco signs something — a contract at Modena or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
3 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.85 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
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.
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.
13 combined actions and 7.31. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Modena, another week without a signature from Ronald Koeman.
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Squad2 Nov 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Pedro Mendes
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Pedro Mendes has come out of that comparison in the side, and Modena have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ronald Koeman trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Palermo in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Giuseppe Ambrosino was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
15 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Nicolò Mariani after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“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.
At 20 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Modena training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giuseppe Ambrosino 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.
Ousmane Niang 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: 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.
1 error, one goal, and a night in front of the same three seconds. He will see it tonight, tomorrow and probably in February, and everybody who has played knows exactly which frame he keeps stopping on.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Simone Santoro'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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Modena can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Fabio Gerli 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.
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Ronald Koeman has written the date down.
The 2-goal deficit was real and so was the recovery. Pedro Mendes was at the centre of it, Catanzaro were at the end of it, and everybody who left early will hear about this one for years.
Fabio Gerli 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.
A 3‑2 win over Catanzaro, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Modena training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giuseppe Ambrosino 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 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 Modena know it.
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.
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.
Francesco Zampano 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.
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Laurenţiu Popescu, and the manager let it.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Modena training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giuseppe Ambrosino 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.
15 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.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Nicolò Mariani to a room that had heard them before.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.91 for the rest of it.
Francesco Zampano 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Cortulua have kept their man, and Modena go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
He is 23 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.
It needed Alessandro Bianco to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Juve Stabia, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
“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.
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.
7.73, 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.
Successful dribbles: 25. 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.
Modena asked and Lanús said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Giuseppe Ambrosino was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A touch he did not want, a bounce he could not have read, and his name in the wrong column. There is no consoling a man after one of these, and Modena will not try tonight.
“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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Modena close the window on a squad of their own making
11 in and 1 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: AS Roma 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Modena, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Simone Santoro scored, was marked 7.93, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Successful dribbles: 16. 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
14 new faces, and Modena are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Ousmane Niang 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.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
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.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Flamengo have kept their man, and Modena go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Michele Neri 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Marco Ferraro 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Giuseppe Ferraro is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Giuseppe Ambrosino was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The plan went upstairs and came back down. Nothing about that will make a headline anywhere else, and everybody who works at the training ground will remember it for years.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Frosinone keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Fabio Gerli 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.
Tobias Slotsager is 20, and Modena have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Modena, another week without a signature from Laurenţiu Popescu.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
$7.3M on the table at Frosinone. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Laurenţiu Popescu has just signed for Modena, and for once the answer mattered.
Modena have gone to Hellas Verona with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Benfica is saying, and nobody at Modena is enjoying the guessing.
Francesco Zampano 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.
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.
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.
Add another name to the list: Vaduz have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Daniele Montevago. The answer from Modena has not changed — yet.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Modena training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giuseppe Ambrosino 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.
10 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.