Football Season Guide

The past season was far from a memorable one for the ambitious Cagliari, who had to content themselves with a mere safety, obtained thanks to miraculous back-to-back wins over Fiorentina and Atalanta in the last two games played. In order to avoid another toiling campaign, the management let go Diego Lopez, the architect of salvation, and trusted the ship in coach Rolando Maran’s experienced hands. He will be expected to repeat the wonders done at Chievo Verona, up until the first part of the past season that is, when things began to derail. Besides that, they tried strengthening the squad, trying to avoid any relevant departures. In particular, the surprising Nicolò Barella was confirmed although several bigger clubs seemed to be interested in acquiring his services. Leandro Castan, who had sometimes been given starting chances at the back, travelled back to Roma as his loan expired, while the young Belgian Senna Miangue, who did not have many opportunities to shine on the left flank of the midfield due to injuries, was loaned out to Standard Liege. Cagliari strengthened their defence with the experienced, or, better, ageing, Darijo Srna, who is expected to earn himself a starting spot at right-back after glorious times at Shakhtar Donetsk. Then, they bought Lucas Castro from Chievo Verona: he was Maran’s favourite among the Flying Donkeys and he is expected to become a leader in the midfield. For the attack, they acquired Alberto Cerri from Juventus. The 22-year-old striker had a rather prolific season at Perugia, in Serie B, where he scored 15 goals, and he will be expected to repeat himself. However, his Serie A experience is limited as he only played 15 games on the whole, 2 while with Parma and 13 when at Pescara. Maran will be asked to tighten a defence which leaked like a siever and to improve offensively, as Cagliari attack was only better than Hellas Verona and Sassuolo in the past campaign. As he should be adopting his usual 4-3-1-2 formation, he might still need a centre-back, a valid alternative to the revelation from the past campaign Filippo Romagna and Luca Ceppitelli and, possibly, a holding midfielder.