Marked for Jacopo De Cintio
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match12 Sep 2026
Chastening afternoon for Cagliari
A 1‑4 beating by Inter was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Match12 Sep 2026
4 matches without a win for Cagliari
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Cagliari are no longer polite ones.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Yerry Mina 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 Cagliari this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“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.
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Squad14 Sep 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Yerry Mina'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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Too much change too quickly at Cagliari
6 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Yerry Mina's mistake decides it
Ten men and a goalkeeper behind him, and it still finished in the net. He knew before anybody told him, and nobody at Cagliari needed to.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 10. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Involvement in 2 goals, from a player who spent the ninety minutes doing the thing a manager actually wants: being where the ball was going to end up. 7.75 beside his name.
Squad14 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Siracusa this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match12 Sep 2026
Gianluca Contini scored, and precious little else went right: 3‑4 to Foggia, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Match12 Sep 2026
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Siracusa and Foggia in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Simone Iob gets it from the manager
“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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Nicola Valente dropped after a run of poor form
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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Maiko Candiano asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 13. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
The substitution nobody applauded turned out to be the whole story. Siracusa were going nowhere until he came on.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
256 appearances across 14 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Maksym Zaderaka gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Maksym Zaderaka has just signed for Cagliari, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Andrea Belotti commits to Cagliari for another 2 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Elia Caprile 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 2026
“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.
Market3 Aug 2026
The phone has started ringing about Jacopo De Cintio again, and this time the name on the line is Padova. Cagliari are listening politely and promising nothing.