Marked for Kai Andrews
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match19 Sep 2026
Three points for Cesena, 1‑0 the final word against Vicenza in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.77 on the card, and the Cesena support went home talking about one name.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Riccardo Pagano
“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 dugout21 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Armando Mariani, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 13. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Cesena, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad21 Sep 2026
“I am not asking anybody to be better than they are. I am asking everybody to be as good as they are, every week.” Said out loud, in front of everybody, and the room at Cesena was different afterwards.
Market21 Sep 2026
The name of Alessandro Siano keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Cesena say nothing, which says plenty.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market7 Sep 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cesena can pretend not to have heard.
Market7 Sep 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Cesena close the window on a squad of their own making
9 in and 3 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.
Market7 Sep 2026
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Cesena can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at Cesena
Kai Andrews 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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Cesena counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Cesena now.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Where he used to play does most of his talking for him at Cesena. The room defers to it, the kids study it, and the only thing that can puncture it is a bad month.
Squad7 Sep 2026
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Cesena have done the hard part with AS Roma, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Crotone have kept their man, and Cesena go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
5 academy graduates step up at Cesena
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Market24 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Teodoro Rossi 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.
Market24 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Stefano Bonaventura 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.
Market24 Aug 2026
One of our own: Simone Paro joins the Cesena first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Simone Paro is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market24 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Luciano Gentile 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Kai Andrews in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cesena this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Looking ahead24 Aug 2026
Hellas Verona next, and one man in the Cesena dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at AS Roma is saying, and nobody at Cesena is enjoying the guessing.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
$690.0K was the most the club would pay and Torino were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Cesena
Kai Andrews was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Cesena will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Market17 Aug 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Cesena, another week without a signature from Igor Lichnovsky.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Atalanta wanted more than $13.5M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Kai Andrews gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Kai Andrews has just signed for Cesena, and for once the answer mattered.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
An offer of $690.0K for Enzo Ebosse
Cesena have gone to Torino with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Stade de Reims keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Andrea Ciofi and Cesena agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Cesena
Andrea Ciofi 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
He is 20, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
Squad10 Aug 2026
No place for Kai Andrews in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Cesena are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.