Marked for Roberto Malfitano
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match19 Dec 2037
3‑6 to AS Roma, 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.
Squad21 Dec 2037
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Player ratings21 Dec 2037
A brace, and Kingstone Mutandwa takes the afternoon — 7.86
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Kingstone Mutandwa provided it, and the 7.86 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Match19 Dec 2037
No end in sight to Cagliari's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Cagliari has to find a result from somewhere.
Market21 Dec 2037
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Cagliari they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad21 Dec 2037
Gabriele Gori: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Cagliari have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match19 Dec 2037
No clean sheets in sight for Cagliari
6 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Squad21 Dec 2037
Alessandro Vinciguerra 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.
Squad21 Dec 2037
Gianluca Gaetano 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad23 Nov 2037
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.
Player ratings23 Nov 2037
Zito Luvumbo, 35, rolls back the years — 8.55
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.55 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Market23 Nov 2037
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Cagliari is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad23 Nov 2037
Alessandro Vinciguerra 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.
Squad23 Nov 2037
Gianluca Gaetano 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.
Match21 Nov 2037
Zito Luvumbo scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Juventus, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad23 Nov 2037
“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.
Player ratings23 Nov 2037
7 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
Market23 Nov 2037
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Cagliari know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Nov 2037
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings16 Nov 2037
Age has not caught Davide Veroli yet — 9.25
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.25 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad16 Nov 2037
Gianluca Gaetano 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.
Squad16 Nov 2037
Defences have started doubling up on Davide Veroli
9 goals and a season average of 7.28 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad16 Nov 2037
The medical room confirms 37 days on the sidelines for Giacomo Serra, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Match14 Nov 2037
It finished 2‑2, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Boardroom16 Nov 2037
Wages eat 86% of everything Cagliari earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Market16 Nov 2037
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Cagliari know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The terraces16 Nov 2037
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match4 Nov 2037
The cup run ends for Cagliari
2‑3 against Alcione Milano, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Match7 Nov 2037
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Cagliari scored in the 90th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Player ratings9 Nov 2037
Davide Veroli, 34, rolls back the years — 9.41
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.41 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad9 Nov 2037
Jeffrey Baffoh: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Cagliari have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad9 Nov 2037
Alessandro Vinciguerra 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.
Player ratings9 Nov 2037
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad9 Nov 2037
Gianluca Gaetano 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.
Squad9 Nov 2037
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Tian Mačak commits to Cagliari for another 4 years.
Match7 Nov 2037
It finished 2‑1, and it was Davide Veroli’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Cagliari.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings26 Oct 2037
Davide Veroli, 34, rolls back the years — 9.18
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.18 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Market26 Oct 2037
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Cagliari is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad26 Oct 2037
Gianluca Gaetano 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.
Match24 Oct 2037
A 3‑1 win over Frosinone, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings26 Oct 2037
Alessandro Vinciguerra was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.62. 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 ratings26 Oct 2037
A performance of 8.16 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad26 Oct 2037
Words at Cagliari training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jacopo Del Fabro 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.
Squad26 Oct 2037
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Tadeo Calgaro, and the manager let it.
Squad26 Oct 2037
A season average of 7.25 with 4 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings28 Sep 2037
Two goals and a mark of 8.36 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad28 Sep 2037
“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.
Player ratings28 Sep 2037
Gianluca Gaetano, 37, rolls back the years — 8.23
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.23 at 37, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Market28 Sep 2037
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cagliari can pretend not to have heard.
Market28 Sep 2037
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Cagliari is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad28 Sep 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cagliari this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match26 Sep 2037
Genoa left with the points after a 4‑5 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad28 Sep 2037
Words at Cagliari training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gianluca Gaetano 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.
Match26 Sep 2037
9 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Cagliari and Genoa in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings31 Aug 2037
Age has not caught Zito Luvumbo yet — 8.21
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.21 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market31 Aug 2037
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market31 Aug 2037
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Roberto Malfitano will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Cagliari the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad31 Aug 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cagliari this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 Aug 2037
Words at Cagliari training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gianluca Gaetano 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.
Squad31 Aug 2037
“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.
Match29 Aug 2037
No clean sheets in sight for Cagliari
4 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Match29 Aug 2037
A bad afternoon for Cagliari against Torino
0‑2 to Torino, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad31 Aug 2037
“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 Cagliari know it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad3 Aug 2037
483 appearances across 13 seasons in these colours. Careers like that are not built any more, and Cagliari know what they have.
Market3 Aug 2037
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Roberto Malfitano will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Cagliari the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad3 Aug 2037
Gianluca Gaetano 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.
Market3 Aug 2037
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.
Squad3 Aug 2037
“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.
Squad3 Aug 2037
Cagliari will explain it as a decision about the team, and it may well be one. A dressing room has never once read it that way.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad6 Jul 2037
484 appearances across 13 seasons in these colours. Careers like that are not built any more, and Cagliari know what they have.
Market6 Jul 2037
Business is business: Andrea Maran goes
Slovan Bratislava paid $5.3M and Cagliari took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Market6 Jul 2037
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market6 Jul 2037
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Roberto Malfitano will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Cagliari the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad6 Jul 2037
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Gianluca Gaetano and Cagliari agree another 2 years.
Market6 Jul 2037
Siracusa come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Cagliari did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match29 Jun 2037
Cagliari refuse to drop out of the race
Position 1, 84 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.
Market29 Jun 2037
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad29 Jun 2037
Alessandro Vinciguerra 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.
Squad29 Jun 2037
Gianluca Gaetano 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.
Squad29 Jun 2037
“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.
Market29 Jun 2037
Salernitana are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Cagliari will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad8 Jun 2037
417 appearances across 12 seasons in these colours. Careers like that are not built any more, and Cagliari know what they have.
Market8 Jun 2037
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cagliari can pretend not to have heard.
Squad8 Jun 2037
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Cagliari have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad8 Jun 2037
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Matteo Prati and Cagliari agree another 3 years.
Squad8 Jun 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cagliari this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market8 Jun 2037
The name of Roberto Malfitano has come up in conversations Cagliari were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
In brief
-
Market
Livorno are about to pick up the phone
-
Market
Zito Luvumbo linked with a move away
-
Boardroom
Cagliari pull $4.3M back off the table
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad11 May 2037
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 16 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad11 May 2037
24 goals and a season average of 7.93 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Player ratings11 May 2037
Age has not caught Zito Luvumbo yet — 9.09
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.09 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market11 May 2037
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Cagliari is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad11 May 2037
Gianluca Gaetano 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.
Match9 May 2037
Whatever happens, Cagliari do not lose
7 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Match9 May 2037
Three points for Cagliari, 3‑2 the final word against Avellino in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings11 May 2037
Alessandro Vinciguerra was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.18. 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.
Squad11 May 2037
Gabriele Zappa 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad13 Apr 2037
A season average of 7.83 with 20 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad13 Apr 2037
A one-man rearguard from Andrea Maran
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad13 Apr 2037
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Cagliari will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings13 Apr 2037
Age has not caught Mattia Felici yet — 9.34
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.34 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market13 Apr 2037
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Cagliari is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Match11 Apr 2037
Cagliari keep winning on the road
6 away wins in a row. Travelling support is the truest kind, and this season it is being repaid in the only currency that counts.
Squad13 Apr 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cagliari this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match11 Apr 2037
Three points for Cagliari, 3‑1 the final word against Padova in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings13 Apr 2037
Marked 8.93. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Cagliari.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad16 Mar 2037
A one-man rearguard from Andrea Maran
There were 10 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad16 Mar 2037
Zito Luvumbo is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.80 with 17 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad16 Mar 2037
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Cagliari will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings16 Mar 2037
Mattia Felici, 35, rolls back the years — 8.70
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.70 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Market16 Mar 2037
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Roberto Malfitano will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Cagliari the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match14 Mar 2037
Still nobody has beaten Cagliari
The unbeaten run reaches 8. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad16 Mar 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cagliari this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings16 Mar 2037
23 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Match14 Mar 2037
Another one collected away from home
4 on the bounce on the road for Cagliari. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad16 Feb 2037
Zito Luvumbo is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.85 with 17 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Player ratings16 Feb 2037
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.01, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad16 Feb 2037
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Cagliari will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings16 Feb 2037
Mattia Felici, 35, rolls back the years — 8.92
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.92 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad16 Feb 2037
A one-man rearguard from Andrea Maran
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market16 Feb 2037
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Roberto Malfitano will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Cagliari the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match14 Feb 2037
Nobody wants to play Cagliari right now
4 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.
Squad16 Feb 2037
Gianluca Gaetano 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.
Match14 Feb 2037
11 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings5 Jan 2037
Two goals and a mark of 8.96 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad5 Jan 2037
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Player ratings5 Jan 2037
Age has not caught Zito Luvumbo yet — 9.67
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.67 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad5 Jan 2037
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. Cagliari will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Squad5 Jan 2037
466 appearances across 13 seasons in these colours. Careers like that are not built any more, and Cagliari know what they have.
Market5 Jan 2037
Cagliari say no — this time
The offer from Monza for Roberto Malfitano 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.
Squad5 Jan 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cagliari this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match3 Jan 2037
Three points for Cagliari, 5‑3 the final word against Virtus Entella in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Match3 Jan 2037
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 8 goals between Cagliari and Virtus Entella, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The terraces8 Sep 2036
Anger at Cagliari spills outside the ground
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.
Squad8 Sep 2036
A one-man rearguard from Andrea Maran
There were 12 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad8 Sep 2036
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 71 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad8 Sep 2036
A knee injury of the worst kind for Nicolò Cavuoti
48 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Cagliari lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings8 Sep 2036
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.94, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market8 Sep 2036
“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 Cagliari, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings8 Sep 2036
Age has not caught Mattia Felici yet — 9.45
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.45 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad8 Sep 2036
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Davide Veroli commits to Cagliari for another 3 years.
Match6 Sep 2036
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Cagliari and Venezia, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad25 Aug 2036
A knee injury of the worst kind for Gianluca Gaetano
14 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Cagliari lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad25 Aug 2036
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 85 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad25 Aug 2036
Gianluca Gaetano 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.
Market25 Aug 2036
The shirt still fits. Valerio Villa is back at Cagliari, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Boardroom25 Aug 2036
10 academy players handed senior numbers at Cagliari
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Market25 Aug 2036
The name of Roberto Malfitano has come up in conversations Cagliari were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Boardroom25 Aug 2036
Sambenedettese will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Gergő Kovács has pre-agreed a move to Cagliari, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Market25 Aug 2036
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Elia Bonetti 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.
Market25 Aug 2036
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Leonardo Ranieri is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
In brief
-
Squad
Gabriele Zappa falls out with a teammate over standards
-
Boardroom
Cagliari board go back on their word
-
Boardroom
No investment in the facilities at Cagliari
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad11 Aug 2036
A knee injury of the worst kind for Gianluca Gaetano
28 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Cagliari lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The terraces11 Aug 2036
Anger at Cagliari spills outside the ground
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.
Squad11 Aug 2036
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 99 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad11 Aug 2036
Gianluca Gaetano 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.
Market11 Aug 2036
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Boardroom11 Aug 2036
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Michael Phillips has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Cagliari have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Jul 2036
A knee injury of the worst kind for Gianluca Gaetano
42 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Cagliari lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad28 Jul 2036
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 113 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Boardroom28 Jul 2036
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Cagliari
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Squad28 Jul 2036
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Cagliari may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad28 Jul 2036
Gianluca Gaetano 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.
Market28 Jul 2036
Cagliari say no — this time
The offer from Casarano for Filippo Zangari 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match8 Mar 2036
No end in sight to Cagliari's wait for a win
16 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Cagliari has to find a result from somewhere.
Match8 Mar 2036
No clean sheets in sight for Cagliari
16 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Squad10 Mar 2036
Pietro Schiavone damages knee ligaments — 38 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 38 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.
Squad10 Mar 2036
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 88 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad10 Mar 2036
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Cagliari may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market10 Mar 2036
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cagliari can pretend not to have heard.
Market10 Mar 2036
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Giuseppe Lo Verde will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Cagliari the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Player ratings10 Mar 2036
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad10 Mar 2036
Gennaro Borrelli 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom3 Mar 2036
The end came on a Tuesday, as these things usually do: a short meeting, a shorter statement, and Luca Ranieri clearing his office by noon. Football’s cruellest ritual, performed to schedule.
Match1 Mar 2036
The wait goes on for Cagliari
15 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.
Match1 Mar 2036
Cagliari leaking at the back
15 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Squad3 Mar 2036
Pietro Schiavone damages knee ligaments — 45 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 45 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.
Squad3 Mar 2036
There were 9 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match1 Mar 2036
3 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Roberto Malfitano will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Cagliari escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Boardroom3 Mar 2036
Cagliari have nobody left to take training
Not an interim appointment — an institution with an empty coaching office. Somebody unfamiliar will run the sessions this week, and the question of how a club gets into this state is one the board will be asked and will not answer.
Match3 Mar 2036
Cagliari are in real trouble now
Position 18, 17 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Squad3 Mar 2036
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 95 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad18 Feb 2036
A knee injury of the worst kind for Davide Veroli
24 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Cagliari lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match16 Feb 2036
13 matches without a win for Cagliari
The run now stands at 13, and the questions being asked around Cagliari are no longer polite ones.
Match16 Feb 2036
Cagliari are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 13 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Player ratings18 Feb 2036
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.38 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad18 Feb 2036
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cagliari this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Feb 2036
Words at Cagliari training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gianluca Gaetano 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.
Squad18 Feb 2036
9 goals and a season average of 7.46. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Match16 Feb 2036
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings18 Feb 2036
One lapse, one goal, and ninety minutes of honest work counting for nothing. That is the job at Cagliari, and it is a cruel one.