9 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.
Position 18 and 24 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.
Position 18 on 24 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.
“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 The request is on a desk at Cagliari, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Daniel Maldini was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Yerry Mina trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
8 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Daniel Maldini was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Alen Sherri knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Alessandro Deiola will call it something else in private.
In brief
The terracesEverybody has an opinion about Alen Sherri
Position 18 and 23 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.
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 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.
Successful dribbles: 16. 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.
Something was said to Yerry Mina and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Zé Pedro.
Words at Cagliari training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniel Maldini 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.
Andrea Belotti 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.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Alessandro Deiola will call it something else in private.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Gennaro Borrelli signs something — a contract at Cagliari or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
22 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Cagliari lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Semih Kılıçsoy did not need any: 7.67, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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 21 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to M'Bala Nzola, and the manager let it.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
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.” Gabriele Ferrigno kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Daniel Maldini 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 Cagliari know it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Cagliari, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Successful dribbles: 14. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Gabriele Ferrigno chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Cagliari and Lazio, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
2‑4 to Lazio, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Cagliari training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniel Maldini 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 a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Cagliari can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Gabriele Ferrigno after 2‑4, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Jacopo Fazzini is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Daniel Maldini was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Cagliari, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” André Duarte has his answer from Cagliari; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
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 Giuseppe Aurelio is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Yerry Mina signs something — a contract at Cagliari or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
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.
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.
Michel Ndary Adopo 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.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 13 combined actions and a mark of 7.86, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
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.
A goalkeeper’s error has no defender behind it to tidy it away. He knew before the ball crossed the line, the crowd knew a second later, and there is nothing anybody can say tonight.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Gabriele Ferrigno after 1‑4, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Alen Sherri is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Daniel Maldini was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Gabriele Ferrigno was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Cagliari dressing room was either.
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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Cagliari, another week without a signature from Riyad Idrissi.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Cagliari that is a harder question to answer.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 2 arrived, 4 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Daniel Maldini was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad7 Sep 2026
10 new faces, and Cagliari 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Cagliari, another week without a signature from Adam Obert.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Cagliari than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Lecce in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
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 Gennaro Borrelli has written the date down.
Cagliari spent the window trying to move André Duarte on and nobody came. He trains with a squad that has already told him he is not part of it, and both sides now wait for the next one.
Riyad Idrissi 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.
A touch he did not want, a bounce he could not have read, and his name in the wrong column. There is no consoling a man after one of these, and Cagliari will not try tonight.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
15 seasons and 276 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.
The phone has started ringing about Elia Caprile again, and this time the name on the line is Atlético Madrid. Cagliari are listening politely and promising nothing.
“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 Cagliari hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
The offer from Torreense for Yael Trepy 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.
M'Bala Nzola 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.
In brief
SquadWords at Cagliari training over how hard people work