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.
Samuele Mulattieri 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.
Marked 7.97. There is a kind of forward whose value only shows up when you count what he was involved in rather than what he finished, and this is the day that argument makes itself.
6 goals in one match, Damián Pizarro on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Sassuolo and Ascoli.
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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Agustín Módica provided it, and the 9.22 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Successful dribbles: 25. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
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.
Samuele Mulattieri and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kristian Thorstvedt was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 The request is on a desk at Sassuolo, and it is not being withdrawn.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.
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.
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
“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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Michele Moretti after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at 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.
Squad26 Nov 2029
Words at Sassuolo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Armand Laurienté 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.
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
“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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Michele Moretti after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Justin Kumi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sassuolo the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Samuele Mulattieri 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.
Squad19 Nov 2029
Words at Sassuolo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kristian Thorstvedt 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.
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.
Player ratings19 Nov 2029
Patrick Nuamah was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.00. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Successful dribbles: 17. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout19 Nov 2029
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 2‑3 defeat, delivered by Michele Moretti to a room that had heard them before.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Antoan Stoyanov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sassuolo the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
Jay Idzes 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 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.
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.
Lecco are out and Sassuolo go through, 2‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
The terraces5 Nov 2029
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Armand Laurienté was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Luca D'Andrea wants continental football; whether Sassuolo can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Agustín Módica at his very best
Player ratingsArmand Laurienté was on a different afternoon to everybody 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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Janis Antiste wants continental football; whether Sassuolo can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jay Idzes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Michele Moretti after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Luca Lipani trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
91 minutes played. Kristian Thorstvedt found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Bari went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Successful dribbles: 28. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Sassuolo is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Jay Idzes 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.
Squad22 Oct 2029
Words at Sassuolo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Armand Laurienté 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.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout22 Oct 2029
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.” Michele Moretti kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
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.
Samuele Mulattieri 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 had gone 7 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.
Squad15 Oct 2029
Words at Sassuolo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Armand Laurienté 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.
0‑3 to Cremonese, 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jay Idzes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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.
“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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 11 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Matvey Dukso is living that version at Sassuolo, and it tends to show in the first month.
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.
“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 dugout1 Oct 2029
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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Michele Moretti to a room that had heard them before.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Justin Kumi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sassuolo the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Samuele Mulattieri was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Aleksandr Ballabio has just signed for Sassuolo, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad24 Sep 2029
Jay Idzes 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.
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.
Samuele Mulattieri 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.
Squad17 Sep 2029
Words at Sassuolo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jay Idzes 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.
“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 dugout17 Sep 2029
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 Michele Moretti left the room before anybody could ask which.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Sassuolo will try again when the window opens; Napoli may not be selling by then.
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 deal that would have taken Andrija Novaković to Como 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.
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 paperwork is done long before the player is. Alan Sosa has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Sassuolo have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Sassuolo asked and Twente 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 was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Boardroom3 Sep 2029
Deadline passes with 15 signed and 23 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mauricio Aravena will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sassuolo the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Sassuolo ran out of time with Atalanta. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
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.
Squad3 Sep 2029
Jay Idzes 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.
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.
The clubs have shaken hands with Avellino; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Justin Kumi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sassuolo the goodbyes have quietly begun.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Antoan Stoyanov 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.
Samuele Mulattieri was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jay Idzes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
6 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Tiziano Armani 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Arturo Donadoni is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Sassuolo and Napoli have settled on $14.8M. 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 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Antoan Stoyanov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sassuolo the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Jay Idzes 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.
Squad20 Aug 2029
Words at Sassuolo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Simone Romagnoli is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
A clause somebody insisted on years ago, in a negotiation nobody remembers, has just paid Sassuolo $666.7K. Filippo Romagna left a long time ago; the paperwork stayed.
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.
The offer from AC Milan 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.
Inter 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jay Idzes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Twente have kept their man, and Sassuolo go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
Sassuolo and Juventus have settled on $6.5M. 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 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.
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 no worse way to lose a footballer. Jeremías Blanco 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.
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 17 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jay Idzes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 offer went to Avellino 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 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.
Jay Idzes 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 the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Janis Antiste wants continental football; whether Sassuolo can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Simone Romagnoli was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Nicholas Pierini 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.
Lazio paid $3.2M 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.
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.
Samuele Mulattieri 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Matías Cantero is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad23 Jul 2029
Jay Idzes 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.
In brief
SquadFilippo Missori has improved at 25, which nobody expected
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Lazio waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Sassuolo is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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, terms agreed, medical booked. Matías Cantero will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sassuolo the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Mauricio Aravena has agreed terms with Bologna for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
At 23 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.
Samuele Mulattieri and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Agustín Módica has improved at 26, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
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 know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Lazio had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The name of Agustín Módica has come up in conversations Sassuolo were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The deal with Como is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Darryl Bakola is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
The offer went to Empoli 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.
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.
At 21 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.
Samuele Mulattieri 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 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 never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Janis Antiste commits to Sassuolo for another 4 years.
Squad2 Jul 2029
Words at Sassuolo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jay Idzes 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 offer from Lecco for Nicholas Pierini 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 asked and Inter said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Samuele Mulattieri 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 interest is real enough to have reached print. Sassuolo have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad25 Jun 2029
Words at Sassuolo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jay Idzes 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 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.
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.
Penarol paid $3.9M 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.
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.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Samuele Mulattieri and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad18 Jun 2029
Words at Sassuolo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jay Idzes 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.
“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 offer from River Plate for Andrija Novaković was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
“I want to 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.
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Sassuolo will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Squad11 Jun 2029
Words at Sassuolo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jay Idzes 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 unglamorous genius of a well-written contract. Stefano Turati is somebody else's player now, and $1.2M has arrived because the people who sold him thought further ahead than the transfer window.
The name of Arijanet Murić has come up in conversations Sassuolo were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Samuele Mulattieri 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.
Squad4 Jun 2029
Words at Sassuolo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jay Idzes 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.” Filippo Missori has his answer from Sassuolo; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
“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 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.
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 Filippo Missori is on it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sassuolo can pretend not to have heard.
Samuele Mulattieri and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 May 2029
Words at Sassuolo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jay Idzes is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I have 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.
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.
In brief
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Damián Pizarro’s exile
Samuele Mulattieri 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.
Squad21 May 2029
Words at Sassuolo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jay Idzes 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.
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 Duje Ćaleta-Car is on it.
What was a back-page link has become a chant, and the chant is not friendly. Sassuolo would rather it were settled quietly, and it has stopped being quiet.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Simone Romagnoli has written the date down.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Andrija Novaković may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
In brief
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Damián Pizarro’s exile
The dugoutYeferson Paz knocks on the manager’s door
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 72 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
Squad14 May 2029
Getting past Arijanet Murić has become the hardest job in the division
18 clean sheets and counting. Forwards used to back themselves here; now they shoot early, shoot wide, and look for somebody to blame.
Samuele Mulattieri 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.
Squad14 May 2029
Words at Sassuolo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jay Idzes is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I have 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.
“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.
Squad7 May 2029
Words at Sassuolo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jay Idzes 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.
“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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jay Idzes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
9 combined actions and 6.64. 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.
Two goals and a mark of 9.46 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“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.
Samuele Mulattieri 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.
Squad23 Apr 2029
Jay Idzes 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Luca Lipani 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.
Samuele Mulattieri was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jay Idzes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
8.38. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Player ratings16 Apr 2029
Riccardo Ciervo was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.21. 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.
0‑3 to Palermo, 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.
“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.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sassuolo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
14 goals and a season average of 7.26 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad9 Apr 2029
Jay Idzes 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.
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.
“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.
Position 3, 63 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Samuele Mulattieri and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad2 Apr 2029
Words at Sassuolo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jay Idzes 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.
0‑1 to Hellas Verona, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout2 Apr 2029
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 Michele Moretti left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad2 Apr 2029
6 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.
“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.
Samuele Mulattieri 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.
Squad26 Mar 2029
Jay Idzes 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.
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
The dugout26 Mar 2029
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 Michele Moretti left the room before anybody could ask which.
“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.
Successful dribbles: 13. 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe team sheet said everything about Yeferson Paz
Samuele Mulattieri 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.
Squad19 Mar 2029
Jay Idzes 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Samuele Mulattieri trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It needed Kristian Thorstvedt to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Virtus Entella, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout19 Mar 2029
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Michele Moretti was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Sassuolo dressing room was either.
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 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.
A season average of 7.31 with 14 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad12 Mar 2029
Jay Idzes 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.
“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.
Samuele Mulattieri 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.
Squad26 Feb 2029
Getting past Arijanet Murić has become the hardest job in the division
16 clean sheets and counting. Forwards used to back themselves here; now they shoot early, shoot wide, and look for somebody to blame.
Squad26 Feb 2029
Jay Idzes 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.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Samuele Mulattieri 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.
Squad19 Feb 2029
Words at Sassuolo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jay Idzes 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.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
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.
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.
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.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Padova? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
“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.
19 goals in 17 games at Slovan Bratislava — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Sassuolo updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
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.
Squad12 Feb 2029
Words at Sassuolo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jay Idzes 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.
“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 deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 9 arrived, 11 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Sassuolo will try again when the window opens; Genoa may not be selling by then.
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
Squad5 Feb 2029
Words at Sassuolo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jay Idzes 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.
Samuele Mulattieri 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The terraces29 Jan 2029
Sassuolo are taken apart by AC Milan — and the town wants answers
It finished 0-6. A cup exit is a disappointment; this was a public dismantling, and the difference between the two is the number of people who will still be talking about it in August.
Samuele Mulattieri 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 asked and Inter said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Inter paid $33.1M 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.
Cristian Volpato has gone, the accounts have $33.1M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
Add another name to the list: Atalanta have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Samuele Mulattieri. The answer from Sassuolo has not changed — yet.
“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.
Samuele Mulattieri was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jay Idzes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Sassuolo asked and Südtirol said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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 Hellas Verona for Arijanet Murić 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.
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.
19 goals in 17 games at Slovan Bratislava — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Sassuolo updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
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.
Ravenna paid $770.0K 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.
11 goals and a season average of 7.41 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Words at Sassuolo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jay Idzes 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.
Position 2, 44 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
The offer from Hellas Verona for Samuele Mulattieri 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.
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.
“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.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Sassuolo will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
“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 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.
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jay Idzes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The name of Fali Candé has come up in conversations Sassuolo were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 85th, and Juve Stabia spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Cristian Volpato provided it, and the 8.54 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“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.
5 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Ismaël Koné and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad25 Dec 2028
Words at Sassuolo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jay Idzes 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Cristian Volpato. 3‑2 against Juve Stabia, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Nicholas Pierini obliged against Parma. 1‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Sassuolo.
“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.
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
19 goals in 17 games at Slovan Bratislava — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Sassuolo updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
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.
Successful dribbles: 22. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad18 Dec 2028
Words at Sassuolo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jay Idzes 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 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.
16 appearances at Slovan Bratislava and the goals keep coming. Sassuolo are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
Squad11 Dec 2028
Jay Idzes 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.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Pescara tried to reorganise, Sassuolo did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
“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, terms agreed, medical booked. Laurs Skjellerup will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sassuolo the goodbyes have quietly begun.
5 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
Samuele Mulattieri 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.
Squad4 Dec 2028
Words at Sassuolo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jay Idzes 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 name of Damián Pizarro has come up in conversations Sassuolo were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The first defeat in 10 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Palermo; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Samuele Mulattieri 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.
Squad27 Nov 2028
Jay Idzes 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.
“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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Michele Moretti after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at 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.
4 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
Squad20 Nov 2028
Jay Idzes falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
A 1‑0 win over Hellas Verona, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
“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.
Two goals and a mark of 9.44 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jay Idzes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
8 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
“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.
Samuele Mulattieri 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.
Successful dribbles: 22. 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.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Jay Idzes 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.
The first defeat in 6 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Virtus Entella; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Successful dribbles: 30. 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.
5 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
“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.
Samuele Mulattieri was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jay Idzes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
8.50. 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.
“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.
Ismaël Koné 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.
Squad23 Oct 2028
Jay Idzes 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.
8.10. 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.
8.02. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
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.
“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.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jay Idzes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The club looked outside for a month, found nothing it preferred, and handed the job to the man who had been doing it anyway. He knows the building; now he has to prove he knows the rest.
“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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Samuele Mulattieri provided it, and the 8.62 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Sassuolo is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Samuele Mulattieri 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.
Squad9 Oct 2028
Jay Idzes falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Marked 9.14 — 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.
In brief
Player ratingsArmand Laurienté was on a different afternoon to everybody else
43 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.
Samuele Mulattieri 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Mauricio Aravena has, at Sassuolo, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
“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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jay Idzes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
8.34. 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.
“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.
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.
Successful dribbles: 22. 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Simón Navarro has, at Sassuolo, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jay Idzes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Joaquín Orrantia is living that version at Sassuolo, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Jay Idzes 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.
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad18 Sep 2028
9 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 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 team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Laurs Skjellerup will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sassuolo the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Jay Idzes and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Sassuolo and Mantova, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Marked 9.83 — 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.
In brief
SquadWords at Sassuolo training over how hard people work
“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.
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.27, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Boardroom4 Sep 2028
Sassuolo close the window on a squad of their own making
20 in and 46 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Jaime Báez has just signed for Sassuolo, and for once the answer mattered.
Jay Idzes 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.
7 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Avellino were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
6 goals in one match, Ismaël Koné on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Sassuolo and Avellino.
The offer from Cesena for Samuele Mulattieri was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Pescara waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Sassuolo is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
7 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.
Sassuolo and Lumezzane have settled on $910.0K. 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.
Successful dribbles: 28. 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.
Sassuolo had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Palermo, 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ismaël Koné was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The end came on a Tuesday, as these things usually do: a short meeting, a shorter statement, and Mario Bartoli clearing his office by noon. Football’s cruellest ritual, performed to schedule.
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.
Sassuolo interviewed the field and appointed the corridor: Mario Bartoli keeps the job he had been doing in all but title. Sometimes the safest pair of hands is the one already holding the wheel.
The offer from Bari for Ismaël Koné 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.
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 am not thinking past Saturday, and I would advise nobody else to.” The caretaker’s first rule is to pretend the job is small; Michele Moretti recited it perfectly.
“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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Sassuolo have done the hard part with Palermo, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Francesco Coppola is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
21 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 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.
“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.
At 23 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.
Jay Idzes 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.
In brief
SquadAgustín Módica has improved at 25, which nobody expected
28 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.
Sassuolo offered $3.7M; Empoli 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.
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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.
Jay Idzes 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.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Ismaël Koné has improved at 26, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
The name of Patrick Nuamah has come up in conversations Sassuolo were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
36 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 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.
The offer went to Empoli 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Davide Sorino is living that version at Sassuolo, and it tends to show in the first month.
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. Darryl Bakola is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Davide Sorino is 20, and Sassuolo have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
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.
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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.
Giugliano pay $520.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Words at Sassuolo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kristian Thorstvedt 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.
At 26 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
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.
“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 were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Hellas Verona is saying, and nobody at Sassuolo is enjoying the guessing.
Jay Idzes and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Lautaro Jaimes is living that version at Sassuolo, and it tends to show in the first month.
In brief
SquadWords at Sassuolo training over how hard people work
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.
$6.4M on the table at Udinese. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
“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.
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.
Jay Idzes 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Francesco Coppola is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Day 9 of the vacancy. Candidates have been priced, sounded out and quietly ruled out — and the caretaker’s win ratio is becoming an argument all by itself.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Words at Sassuolo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Domenico Berardi 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.
It is arithmetic now, and the arithmetic is done. A summer of hard questions starts early at Sassuolo, and next season's fixture list reads very differently.
The end came on a Tuesday, as these things usually do: a short meeting, a shorter statement, and Alessio Esposito clearing his office by noon. Football’s cruellest ritual, performed to schedule.
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 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.
Sassuolo asked and Padova said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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.
“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.
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.
“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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Udinese have kept their man, and Sassuolo go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Alessandro Russo reports back to Sassuolo with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
In brief
SquadJanis Antiste has improved at 25, which nobody expected
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.
Jay Idzes 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 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.
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 Nicholas Pierini is on it.
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.
Frosinone paid $7.1M 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.
“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.
Jay Idzes 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.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Words at Sassuolo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Domenico Berardi 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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
It is 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.
A window away with the national side, and a shirt at Sassuolo that briefly doubles as an advertisement. A call-up flatters the player and the club that built him in the same breath.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Alessio Esposito has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Frosinone waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Sassuolo is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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, terms agreed, medical booked. Andrija Novaković will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sassuolo the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Agustín Módica was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Position 18 and 21 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.
“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 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Sassuolo has been clear about where Agustín Álvarez stands, which is more than many ever get.
“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.
Jay Idzes 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 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 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.
“I watch every Sassuolo game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Gimnasia La Plata runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Alessandro Di Bitonto has his answer from Sassuolo; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
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.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Leandro Iglesias may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
“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 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.
Jay Idzes was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mariano Troilo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Sassuolo know it.
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
The dugout15 May 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Domenico Berardi'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.
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.
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.
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 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.
“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.
“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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kristian Thorstvedt was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Minute 92, against Como, 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.
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.
Jay Idzes 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.
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 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.
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.
In brief
Player ratingsArmand Laurienté was on a different afternoon to everybody else
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.
Jay Idzes was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kristian Thorstvedt was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every Sassuolo game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Gimnasia La Plata runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Alessio Esposito after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The words a physio says slowly. 14 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 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.
40 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 rules permit it and it stings anyway. Andrija Novaković has agreed terms with Udinese for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
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 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.
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout10 Apr 2028
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Alessio Esposito left the room before anybody could ask which.
The words a physio says slowly. 22 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 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.
30 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.
Jay Idzes 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.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Words at Sassuolo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kristian Thorstvedt is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I have 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Alessio Esposito on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
37 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.
Jay Idzes 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.
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.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Words at Sassuolo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Domenico Berardi 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 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.
“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.
Successful dribbles: 25. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Simone Cinquegrano will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sassuolo the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sassuolo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
12 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.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 12 actions, 7.24, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
The end came on a Tuesday, as these things usually do: a short meeting, a shorter statement, and the manager clearing his office by noon. Football’s cruellest ritual, performed to schedule.
52 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.
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.
17 seasons and 438 appearances, all of them here. Careers like this are not designed; they happen to a certain kind of man at a certain kind of club, and this town has one.
“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.
“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.
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.
“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.
Jay Idzes 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 oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Bologna scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
He has had enough of the noise. Whether Sassuolo can be a quieter place for him, or whether the only cure is a move somewhere the phone-ins are gentler, is a question for the next few months.
In brief
Player ratingsAn own goal to forget for Kevin Miranda
The words a physio says slowly. 68 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.
Jay Idzes 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.
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 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 Mariano Troilo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
76 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.
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.
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 fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Hellas Verona moved on, Stefano Turati reports back to Sassuolo, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Kevin Leone 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.
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.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Words at Sassuolo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kristian Thorstvedt 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Cristiano Colombo 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 words a physio says slowly. 85 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.
0‑4 against Juventus, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
the manager has until the next board meeting
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.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Andrija Novaković had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
“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.
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Sassuolo has to find a result from somewhere.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Deadline passes with 0 signed and 10 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.
92 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 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 know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Ascoli had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
“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. Stefano Turati will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sassuolo the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
Jay Idzes 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Udinese have kept their man, and Sassuolo go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
99 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.
Bari paid $20.1M 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 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.
The terraces24 Jan 2028
A cup hiding at Napoli leaves Sassuolo explaining themselves
2-5, 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.
Kenneth Taylor has gone, the accounts have $20.1M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
The offer from Reggiana for Kevin Bruno 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.