The words a physio says slowly. 37 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.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Armand Laurienté had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Sassuolo 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 Sassuolo can pretend not to have heard.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Sassuolo have done the hard part with Parma, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Cas Odenthal 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 words a physio says slowly. 44 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.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sassuolo can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from Lumezzane for Filippo Romagna 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.
Add another name to the list: Trento have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Armand Laurienté. The answer from Sassuolo has not changed — yet.
Transfer targets26 Jun 2028
$80.0K settles it between the clubs for Ronald Koeman
Modena have accepted the money. What Sassuolo do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sassuolo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
In brief
Squad9 new faces, and Sassuolo are still learning each other
$85.9M on the table at Crystal Palace. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
72 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Sassuolo lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Bologna paid $22.2M and Sassuolo took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
The offer from Reggiana for Jay Idzes 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.
Sassuolo have gone to Cosenza 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 last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Sassuolo have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Sassuolo asked and West Ham United said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
79 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Sassuolo 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 Sassuolo can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Potenza waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Sassuolo is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The offer from Trento for Armand Laurienté 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.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Sassuolo have had the benefit of it.
Add another name to the list: Bologna have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Ismaël Koné. The answer from Sassuolo has not changed — yet.
42 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $1.3M — a club that wants Francisco Baridó enough to be asked twice.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Sassuolo have done the hard part with Como, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
86 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Sassuolo lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 Sassuolo, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer went to Napoli 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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Sassuolo 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 Sassuolo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Ismaël Koné has his answer from Sassuolo; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
In brief
SquadA muscle injury and 16 days out for Fallou Faye
The dugoutIsmaël Koné knocks on the manager’s door
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
94 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Sassuolo lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 36 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Yeferson Paz wants continental football; whether Sassuolo can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
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.
In brief
SquadWords at Sassuolo training over how hard people work
Armando Izzo damages knee ligaments — 101 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 101 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.
23 goals in 35 games at Südtirol — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Sassuolo updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Squad22 May 2028
Words at Sassuolo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Samuel Lino 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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Armand Laurienté has his answer from Sassuolo; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Marked 8.13 — 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sassuolo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
108 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sassuolo lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sassuolo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
14 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.
Armando Izzo 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.
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 watch every Sassuolo game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Renate runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The ambition story running the other way, and the one nobody tells: a footballer asking for a smaller stage, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is very rarely reported as anything else.
In brief
Player ratingsNobody on the pitch touched Dany Mota
Four paragraphs on the club website, none of them about football. The board thanked him, wished him well, and had the search under way before the page went up.
115 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Sassuolo lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 Sassuolo, and it is not being withdrawn.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
“Somebody picks the team on Saturday. This week it is me, and that is as far as I have thought.” No promises were made in either direction, which is how these usually begin.
21 goals in 33 games at Südtirol — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Sassuolo updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Sassuolo is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Matteo Merzi 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.
Dany Mota 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 bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
124 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sassuolo 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 Sassuolo can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings1 May 2028
A brace, and Ismaël Koné takes the afternoon — 8.20
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ismaël Koné provided it, and the 8.20 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Sassuolo have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Dany Mota 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.
Squad1 May 2028
Words at Sassuolo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Samuel Lino 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.
6 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Juventus were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
131 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sassuolo lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fallou Faye 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Sassuolo, and both men came out saying it was fine.
139 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Sassuolo lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Position 18 and 23 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.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alessandro Russo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sassuolo the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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 Samuel Lino was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Armando Izzo damages knee ligaments — 147 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 147 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 Sassuolo is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Samuel Lino was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Emanuele Bertolini 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. Claudio Chiari 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Emanuele Bernardi 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.
155 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Sassuolo lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Sassuolo can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Successful dribbles: 23. 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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Agustín Álvarez wants continental football; whether Sassuolo can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
163 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Sassuolo 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 Samuel Lino was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Raffaele Panariello and Sassuolo agree another 4 years.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sassuolo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Something was said to Samuel Lino and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Hellas Verona in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Successful dribbles: 32. 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sassuolo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sassuolo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Samuel Lino 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.
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 Albion Rrahmani.
The dugout20 Mar 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 1‑3 Alessandro Amato left the room before anybody could ask which.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sassuolo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Raffaele Panariello 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 did not go to Renate to sit and watch. I want to come back to Sassuolo and fight for my place.” 7 appearances in 34 matches say the rest.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Alessandro Amato to a room that had heard them before.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 11 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
“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.
The terraces6 Mar 2028
A cup hiding at Inter leaves Sassuolo explaining themselves
1-5, and long before the end the away end had switched from encouragement to something considerably more pointed. Nobody rings a phone-in about losing narrowly.
6 goals in one match, Justin Kumi on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Sassuolo and Inter.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Samuel Lino was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
200 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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Alessandro Amato after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
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.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Sassuolo know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Como in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
In brief
Player ratingsThe one thing Ismaël Koné could not do
Sassuolo interviewed the field and appointed the corridor: Alessandro Amato keeps the job he had been doing in all but title. Sometimes the safest pair of hands is the one already holding the wheel.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sassuolo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Alessandro Amato after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Sassuolo, another week without a signature from Zakaria Aboukhlal.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sassuolo can pretend not to have heard.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Sassuolo is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The bid was some way short and Sassuolo did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Samuel Lino 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.
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.
The mood at Sassuolo has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
“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 Sassuolo, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Crotone waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Sassuolo is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Armand Laurienté reports back to Sassuolo with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Luca D'Andrea had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Deadline passes with 3 signed and 7 gone
That is the business done at Sassuolo 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.
37 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.
16 goals in 21 games at Südtirol — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Sassuolo updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Words at Sassuolo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Samuel Lino 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Inter waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Sassuolo is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Sassuolo will quote 14 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
14 goals in 20 games at Südtirol — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Sassuolo updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
“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 Sassuolo, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sassuolo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Napoli have kept their man, and Sassuolo go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The phone has started ringing about Flavio Russo again, and this time the name on the line is Reggiana. Sassuolo are listening politely and promising nothing.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Fallou Faye 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.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Sassuolo can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Alessandro Russo had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
“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 Sassuolo, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Pescara for Flavio Russo 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.
Parma paid $1.9M and Sassuolo took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Both clubs in the mire, one fixture between them, and a ground that will be louder and more frightened than at any point in the season. Sassuolo know what is at stake and so does everybody in the away end.
Half the programme played, position 19, 11 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
“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 Sassuolo, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Forli waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Sassuolo is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
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.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Sassuolo can tell you which week it ends in.
9 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.
Four paragraphs on the club website, none of them about football. The board thanked him, wished him well, and had the search under way before the page went up.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sassuolo can pretend not to have heard.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
“Somebody has to pick the team on Saturday, and this week that is me.” An interim appointment with no promises attached, which is how most of them start.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Sassuolo asked and AC Milan said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
100 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.
The bill for the sacking has arrived. Andrea Pellegrini leaves with $62.2K for the time left on his deal, and that money buys the club nothing it can put on the pitch.
Position 18 and 9 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 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sassuolo 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 Sassuolo, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
7 goals in 15 games at Südtirol — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Sassuolo updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Bari are out and Sassuolo go through, 1‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Match15 Dec 2027
Janis Antiste wins it after the whistle should have gone
103 minutes played. Janis Antiste found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Bari went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Armando Izzo 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 did not go to Renate to sit and watch. I want to come back to Sassuolo and fight for my place.” 5 appearances in 22 matches say the rest.
The dugout20 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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Andrea Pellegrini to a room that had heard them before.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Albion Rrahmani. 2‑1 against Lecce, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Stefano Turati knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
The dugout13 Dec 2027
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.” Andrea Pellegrini kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
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.
Nobody at Sassuolo 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.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Andrea Pellegrini has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Dany Mota 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.
Position 18 and 6 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.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Dany Mota had Sassuolo level again within 4 minutes, and Udinese never got to play with a lead at all.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Sassuolo can give him that is a question about the club, not about 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 Sassuolo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Agustín Álvarez wants continental football; whether Sassuolo can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
“I watch every Sassuolo game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Renate runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout22 Nov 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 0‑3 Andrea Pellegrini left the room before anybody could ask which.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Udinese in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
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.
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 Agustín Álvarez is on it.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Sassuolo would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Samuele Mulattieri’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Sassuolo needing him to play as if none of it matters.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Sassuolo will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ismaël Koné signs something — a contract at Sassuolo or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
4 goals in 11 games at Randers — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Sassuolo updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
In brief
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Luca Lipani’s exile
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Flavio Russo obliged against Crotone. 7‑1 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Sassuolo.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Fallou Faye did not need any: 8.32, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.96 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
8 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Sassuolo and Crotone in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
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.
“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 Sassuolo, and it is not being withdrawn.
5 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.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Armand Laurienté has his answer from Sassuolo; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sassuolo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Andrea Pellegrini after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Armand Laurienté trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sassuolo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I watch every Sassuolo game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Renate runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout25 Oct 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 1‑3 Andrea Pellegrini left the room before anybody could ask which.
Something was said to Edoardo Pieragnolo and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 15 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.
“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 Sassuolo, and it is not being withdrawn.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Sassuolo can tell you which week it ends in.
Something was said to Jay Idzes and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Andrea Pellegrini was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Sassuolo dressing room was either.
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.
23 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sassuolo 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 Sassuolo can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Sassuolo have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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 Sassuolo know it.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Sassuolo told Janis Antiste something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Sassuolo will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Sassuolo, and both men came out saying it was fine.
30 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sassuolo lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 Sassuolo, 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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Sassuolo, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The words a physio says slowly. 37 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.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Sassuolo can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
24 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 Sassuolo game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Renate runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout27 Sep 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 Andrea Pellegrini left the room before anybody could ask which.
45 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sassuolo lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The 89th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Ismaël Koné decided nobody was going anywhere. Monza had no time left to answer.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Crotone had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
7.96, 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 is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Agustín Álvarez wants continental football; whether Sassuolo can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
The words a physio says slowly. 52 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Sassuolo have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Arezzo had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The offer from Catania for Sebastian Walukiewicz 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.
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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Samuele Mulattieri and Sassuolo agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Sassuolo asked and AS Roma said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
59 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Sassuolo lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 18 arrived, 39 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Dany Mota 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. Juventus have kept their man, and Sassuolo go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The phone has started ringing about Flavio Russo again, and this time the name on the line is Arezzo. Sassuolo are listening politely and promising nothing.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Sassuolo has been clear about where Gioele Zacchi stands, which is more than many ever get.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Zakaria Aboukhlal’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Sassuolo needing him to play as if none of it matters.
In brief
The dugoutArmando Izzo has become a man the manager trusts
66 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Sassuolo lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Albion Rrahmani had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Frosinone were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sassuolo can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sassuolo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Lazio have kept their man, and Sassuolo go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Sassuolo have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad30 Aug 2027
27 new faces, and Sassuolo 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 watch every Sassuolo game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Renate runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
74 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sassuolo lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
Dany Mota and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom23 Aug 2027
6 academy players handed senior numbers at Sassuolo
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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Renato Milani 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. Stefano Fiorentino is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
82 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sassuolo lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Nobody at Sassuolo 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.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Sassuolo that is a harder question to answer.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Sassuolo. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Nobody writes a headline about a tutor. Nobody has to be told, either, what happens to a signing who spends two years being the man nobody can talk to at lunch.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Dany Mota
MatchNothing left to play for but pride at Sassuolo
89 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sassuolo lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Sassuolo asked and Juventus said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Sassuolo, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Yann Aurel Bisseck arrived with a record at a bigger club than this one, and the room has treated him accordingly. The young ones watch him train; the senior ones watch to see whether it lasts.
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.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Sassuolo will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
96 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Sassuolo lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Sassuolo can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sassuolo can pretend not to have heard.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Südtirol will make the call about Kristian Thorstvedt this week. Sassuolo have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Sassuolo can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Jay Idzes 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.
29 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.
Andrea Ghion damages knee ligaments — 103 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 103 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.
“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 Sassuolo, and it is not being withdrawn.
The name of Kristian Thorstvedt has come up in conversations Sassuolo were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Sassuolo 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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Agustín Álvarez wants continental football; whether Sassuolo can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Armando Izzo 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Sassuolo are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
110 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sassuolo lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 Sassuolo, and it is not being withdrawn.
Cesena paid $4.4M and Sassuolo took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Dany Mota 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 terraces19 Jul 2027
Sassuolo spend $19.1M on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $19.1M for Zakaria Aboukhlal, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
Sassuolo 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yann Aurel Bisseck was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Andrea Ghion damages knee ligaments — 118 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 118 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 fee is $9.0M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Empoli drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Dany Mota 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.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Sassuolo can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. AS Roma have kept their man, and Sassuolo go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Sassuolo will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
126 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Sassuolo lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Sassuolo and Empoli have settled on $9.0M. 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 board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Andrea Pellegrini has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
The offer went to Torino 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Empoli have kept their man, and Sassuolo go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Arijanet Murić was one of the reasons people came, and $5.7M does not replace that by itself.
“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 Sassuolo, and it is not being withdrawn.
Venezia did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $9.5M for Albion Rrahmani, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Juventus have kept their man, and Sassuolo go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Arijanet Murić 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.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Atalanta will make the call about Arijanet Murić this week. Sassuolo have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Sassuolo are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sassuolo can pretend not to have heard.
$9.5M on the table at Venezia. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Sassuolo have lost him in all but the paperwork.
He is going to Napoli, the club has $12.9M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
21 goals in 36 games at Hellas Verona — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Sassuolo updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Sassuolo 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 Sassuolo heard it as anything else.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $1.1M — a club that wants Pietro Iemmello enough to be asked twice.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sassuolo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Sassuolo people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Sassuolo have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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.
$750.0K on the table at Catanzaro. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Sassuolo have done the hard part with Udinese, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Alessio Sibilano has agreed terms with Torres for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Arijanet Murić 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.
“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; Sassuolo are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
33 games, 0 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at Sassuolo now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
11 goals in 33 games at Gornik Zabrze — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Sassuolo updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Sassuolo, and both men came out saying it was fine.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Woyo Coulibaly's mistake
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Aleksandar Stanković did not need any: 7.76, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“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 crueller way to lose a football match. Sassuolo scored in the 91th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Two goals and a mark of 8.43 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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 7.85 for the rest of it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Sassuolo is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sassuolo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Ismaël Koné wants continental football; whether Sassuolo can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
0‑4 against Fiorentina, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sassuolo can pretend not to have heard.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
19 goals in 32 games at Hellas Verona — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Sassuolo updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Armand Laurienté wants continental football; whether Sassuolo can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Rasmus Højlund 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 chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Sassuolo can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Rasmus Højlund 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Sassuolo can tell you which week it ends in.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Sassuolo pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
In brief
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Janis Antiste’s exile
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Rasmus Højlund's mistake
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sassuolo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Armand Laurienté has his answer from Sassuolo; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Armand Laurienté trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Andrea Pellegrini chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
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 Inter.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sassuolo can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Fali Candé will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sassuolo the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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 manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
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.
Arijanet Murić 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.
8.15. 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.
“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.
The dugout12 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.” Andrea Pellegrini, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Arijanet Murić 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.
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.
The offer from Degerfors for Luca Lipani 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sassuolo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Sonosi Daldum is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Sassuolo can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ismaël Koné trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Two goals and a mark of 9.03 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“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 Sassuolo, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Sassuolo have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sassuolo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Armand Laurienté wants continental football; whether Sassuolo can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
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.
Rasmus Højlund 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Sassuolo told Rasmus Højlund something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sassuolo can pretend not to have heard.
Rasmus Højlund 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 a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Sassuolo can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
“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 Sassuolo know it.
“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.
“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; Sassuolo are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sassuolo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Vasilije Adžić 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.
5 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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑2, Andrea Pellegrini could afford to be generous.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Sassuolo have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Arijanet Murić 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 12 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sassuolo can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Sassuolo people have started saying his name in the past tense.
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.
Arijanet Murić 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 watch every Sassuolo game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Cesena runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
11 combined actions and 6.39. 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sassuolo can pretend not to have heard.
Successful dribbles: 31. 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Sassuolo have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Spezia keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 4 arrived, 1 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
“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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sassuolo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Torino go through and Sassuolo go home, 0‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Sassuolo have lost him in all but the paperwork.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sassuolo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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; Sassuolo are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
0‑3 to AC Milan, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sassuolo can pretend not to have heard.
The deal that would have taken Fali Candé to Cosenza has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Sassuolo with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Sassuolo have done the hard part with Napoli, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Rasmus Højlund 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.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Sassuolo can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Foggia waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Sassuolo is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Up for the corner, and Ismaël Koné delivers — 7.46
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Ismaël Koné scored, was marked 7.46, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Sassuolo can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Kristian Thorstvedt provided it, and the 8.30 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sassuolo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Sassuolo can give him that is a question about the club, not about 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 Sassuolo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
The name of Armando Izzo has come up in conversations Sassuolo were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Sassuolo has been clear about where Josh Doig stands, which is more than many ever get.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Ismaël Koné at his very best
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Minute 95, against Fiorentina, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
“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 Sassuolo, and 4 appearances in 17 say he has earned the hearing.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 2‑2, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
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 hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Vasilije Adžić did not need any: 8.07, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Arijanet Murić 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 point taken on 85 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
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 Andrea Pellegrini left the room before anybody could ask which.
7.97, 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.
“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 Sassuolo hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
“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 Sassuolo know it.
Arijanet Murić 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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Sassuolo, and 0 appearances in 17 say he has earned the hearing.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sassuolo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“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 Sassuolo hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
“I watch every Sassuolo game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Cesena runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Andrea Pellegrini after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
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.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Kieron Bowie had Sassuolo level again within 2 minutes, and Udinese never got to play with a lead at all.
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.
Briajan Gjyla 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 ambition story running backwards, and the one nobody tells: a footballer who wants a smaller ground, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is rarely reported as anything else.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Sassuolo, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“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 dugout23 Nov 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Jay Idzes'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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Andrea Pellegrini after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sassuolo 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 Sassuolo, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Kristian Thorstvedt signs something — a contract at Sassuolo or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
At 24 he has taken a place rather than been given one, and somebody else has to find something to say about it. Sassuolo have a decision that made itself.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Arijanet Murić wants continental football; whether Sassuolo can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Arijanet Murić 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 watch every Sassuolo game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Laçi runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ulisses Garcia trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Josh Doig signs something — a contract at Sassuolo or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Frosinone in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Cristian Volpato provided it, and the 8.21 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sassuolo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Armand Laurienté wants continental football; whether Sassuolo can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about 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 Sassuolo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“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 Sassuolo 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: Sebastiano Esposito. 1‑0 against Bologna, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Sebastiano Esposito is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Two goals and a mark of 8.29 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Arijanet Murić 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.
Marked 8.00 — 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.
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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Andrea Pellegrini on a 3‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Sonosi Daldum is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Sebastiano Esposito had Sassuolo level again within 4 minutes, and Genoa never got to play with a lead at all.
“I watch every Sassuolo game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Laçi runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Sassuolo has been clear about where Cristian Volpato stands, which is more than many ever get.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Andrea Pellegrini on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Sassuolo is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Briajan Gjyla is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Sassuolo has been clear about where Armand Laurienté stands, which is more than many ever get.
Briajan Gjyla 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 watch every Sassuolo game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Cesena runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Sassuolo, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Genoa next, and one man in the Sassuolo dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Sassuolo. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
5 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.
8 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.
“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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Denis Şandro
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Denis Şandro has come out of that comparison in the side, and Sassuolo have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
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.
Arijanet Murić 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.
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Andrea Pellegrini was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Sassuolo dressing room was either.
Shots: 6. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
Juventus next, and one man in the Sassuolo dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Arijanet Murić 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.
Sassuolo asked and Ferro Carril Oeste 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 watch every Sassuolo game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Laçi runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑4, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Whether it was the goalkeeper or the ten in front of him is the argument that will fill every conversation in town this week. 5 saves does not settle it either way.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sassuolo can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Sassuolo is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sassuolo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I watch every Sassuolo game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Cesena runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 2 arrived, 5 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
“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 deal that would have taken Fali Candé to Pisa has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Sassuolo with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Sassuolo had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Udinese, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Sassuolo asked and Udinese said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
7 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.
In brief
SquadA place in the month's best eleven for Vasilije Adžić
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Sassuolo have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Reggiana paid $500.0K and Sassuolo took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
The ambition story running the other way, and the one nobody tells: a footballer asking for a smaller stage, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is very rarely reported as anything else.
The training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 4 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
Sassuolo have made the call to Ferro Carril Oeste. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Andrea Pellegrini chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
0‑4 to AC Milan, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Sassuolo offered $18.6M; Como said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Vicenza had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“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 Sassuolo, and it is not being withdrawn.
Sassuolo had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Basel, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Stade de Reims have kept their man, and Sassuolo go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Sassuolo asked and AC Milan said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Como wanted more than $25.3M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
$990.0K settles it between the clubs for Armando Izzo
Avellino have accepted the money. What Sassuolo do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Sassuolo 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 Sassuolo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The phone has started ringing about Fali Candé again, and this time the name on the line is Arezzo. Sassuolo are listening politely and promising nothing.
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 AC Milan.
AC Milan next, and one man in the Sassuolo dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
The offer went to Como 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.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Sassuolo people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“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 Sassuolo hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Denis Şandro 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.
Sassuolo 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.