Marked for Marco Libra
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market11 Jun 2029
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market11 Jun 2029
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Vicenza waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Cesena is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Match11 Jun 2029
Full time on the season at Cesena
Position 4 on 69 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
Boardroom11 Jun 2029
He arrived for a fee and leaves for a fraction of it. $1.1M of what Cesena paid for Federico Ravaglia is money the club will not see again, and the boardroom will be asked about it for two seasons.
Market11 Jun 2029
“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 The request is on a desk at Cesena, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market11 Jun 2029
Parma pay $5.3M, 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.
Transfer targets11 Jun 2029
The clubs have shaken hands with Pescara; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Match9 Jun 2029
Cesena cannot stop winning
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.
The dugout11 Jun 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Cesena may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market14 May 2029
“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 The request is on a desk at Cesena, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match12 May 2029
After 12 games, Cesena finally taste it again
The first defeat in 12 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Monza; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Market14 May 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Cesena is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad14 May 2029
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.
Match12 May 2029
3 matches without a goal for Cesena
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.
The dugout14 May 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Federico Ravaglia, and the manager let it.
Match12 May 2029
A bad afternoon for Cesena against Monza
0‑1 to Monza, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Market14 May 2029
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.
Squad14 May 2029
“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 Cesena know it.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Boardroom26 Mar 2029
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Cesena
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Match24 Mar 2029
No mercy from Cesena
Südtirol will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Cesena were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Market26 Mar 2029
“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 Cesena, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings26 Mar 2029
A brace, and Giovane takes the afternoon — 8.49
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Giovane provided it, and the 8.49 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The dugout26 Mar 2029
“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.
Market26 Mar 2029
Only the photograph left for Kike Pérez
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kike Pérez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Cesena the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match24 Mar 2029
Nobody wants to play Cesena 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.
Boardroom26 Mar 2029
Kike Pérez has agreed to leave Cesena for nothing
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.
Squad26 Mar 2029
A falling-out at Cesena
Andrea Cambiaso and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad20 Mar 2028
41 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Cesena lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match18 Mar 2028
It had gone 9 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Words exchanged at Cesena
Manuel García 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.
Match18 Mar 2028
Udinese made Cesena work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Words at Cesena training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kike Pérez 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.
Player ratings20 Mar 2028
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.28, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings20 Mar 2028
Riccardo Pagano was on a different afternoon to everybody else
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.
Market20 Mar 2028
Giacomo Calò is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Cesena has been clear about where Giacomo Calò stands, which is more than many ever get.
Squad20 Mar 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Marco Libra commits to Cesena for another 4 years.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad6 Mar 2028
Andrea Cambiaso damages knee ligaments — 17 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 17 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.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 10 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Boardroom6 Mar 2028
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Cesena
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Boardroom6 Mar 2028
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Match4 Mar 2028
Nowhere to hide for Cesena
0‑3 against AS Roma, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Market6 Mar 2028
“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.
Match4 Mar 2028
8 matches without a win for Cesena
The run now stands at 8, and the questions being asked around Cesena are no longer polite ones.
The dugout6 Mar 2028
Roberto Ogunseye: 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.” Cesena have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market6 Mar 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Cesena is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match3 Nov 2027
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and David Okereke obliged against Venezia. 3‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Cesena.
Player ratings8 Nov 2027
A brace, and David Okereke takes the afternoon — 8.29
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. David Okereke provided it, and the 8.29 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings8 Nov 2027
No sign of nerves from Marco Libra at 19 — 7.99
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Marco Libra did not need any: 7.99, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Market8 Nov 2027
Boschilia wants European nights
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.
Player ratings8 Nov 2027
Successful dribbles: 23. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Tempers go at Cesena
Andrea Cambiaso 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 terraces8 Nov 2027
He is 19 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.
Match6 Nov 2027
A bad afternoon for Cesena against Udinese
0‑2 to Udinese, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout8 Nov 2027
The manager makes an example of Alberto Cerri
“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.