From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad21 Sep 2026
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Match19 Sep 2026
Monza make it 4 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Monza have 4 straight wins of it.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Tempers go at Monza
Cyril Ngonge was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Match19 Sep 2026
It finished 5‑3, and it was Patrick Cutrone’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Monza.
Match19 Sep 2026
8 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Monza and Empoli in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Marked 9.36 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Patrick Cutrone was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.29. 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.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Marked 8.21 — 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.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match12 Sep 2026
Monza cannot stop winning
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Cyril Ngonge in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Monza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Monza
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matteo Pessina was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match12 Sep 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Patrick Cutrone. 1‑0 against Modena, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.89 on the card, and the Monza support went home talking about one name.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Gabriele Vignali on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Monza, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Looking ahead14 Sep 2026
Empoli next, and one man in the Monza dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 31. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
A brace, and Cyril Ngonge takes the afternoon — 8.72
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Cyril Ngonge provided it, and the 8.72 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Up for the corner, and Michael Folorunsho delivers — 7.81
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Michael Folorunsho scored, was marked 7.81, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 5 signed and 9 gone
That is the business done at Monza 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A falling-out at Monza
Cyril Ngonge and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match5 Sep 2026
Padova made Monza work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑1, Gabriele Vignali could afford to be generous.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Monza will explain it as a decision about the team, and it may well be one. A dressing room has never once read it that way.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Idrissa Touré has moved up it.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match29 Aug 2026
No mercy from Monza
Reggiana will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Monza were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Market31 Aug 2026
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Wadi Degla had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Matteo Pessina pops up at the right end — 7.99
7.99, 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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
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.
Market31 Aug 2026
Como paid $2.0M and Monza took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Monza
Cyril Ngonge 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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Michael Folorunsho was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.05. 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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.07, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad31 Aug 2026
8 new faces, and Monza 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market24 Aug 2026
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Como waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Monza is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market24 Aug 2026
Andrea Colpani has left for Atalanta in a $15.4M deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
Monza sell a favourite for $15.4M
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Andrea Colpani was one of the reasons people came, and $15.4M does not replace that by itself.
Market24 Aug 2026
The bid was some way short and Monza did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Monza
Cyril Ngonge was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
1 academy players handed senior numbers at Monza
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Monza
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matteo Pessina was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market24 Aug 2026
The phone has started ringing about Aljaž Strajnar again, and this time the name on the line is Wadi Degla. Monza are listening politely and promising nothing.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
Monza say no to the training-ground money
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market17 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Monza have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Cyril Ngonge in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Monza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market17 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Matteo Ricci has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market17 Aug 2026
One of our own: Luigi Toscano joins the Monza first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Luigi Toscano is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Questions about Christian Fogliaro on the training pitch
The standards have slipped, and in a building where everybody watches everybody it has not gone unremarked. This is how a player loses a place before he loses one.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Aug 2026
Empoli come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Monza did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market10 Aug 2026
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Carrarese waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Monza is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market10 Aug 2026
So close: Dany Mota’s move dies late
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Gil Vicente moved on, Dany Mota reports back to Monza, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Monza
Cyril Ngonge 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.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Patrick Cutrone
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Market10 Aug 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
Andrea Carboni knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Andrea Carboni trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Where he used to play does most of his talking for him at Monza. The room defers to it, the kids study it, and the only thing that can puncture it is a bad month.
Squad10 Aug 2026
A wage question at Monza
Patrick Cutrone has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 Aug 2026
Monza say no — this time
The offer from AGF for Gustavo Varela 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Andrea Colpani and Monza agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Monza
Cyril Ngonge and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market3 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Monza have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Monza
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matteo Pessina was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market3 Aug 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.