Football Season Guide

Returning from only 1 year spent in Serie B, last season Cagliari managed to achieve salvation 1 week before the end of the campaign. Not many would have expected it to happen after the initial 9 weeks, though. In fact, with no wins in their tally, they were sitting at the bottom of the table and looked doomed for good. Wisely enough, the management confirmed Claudio Ranieri at the helm and this paid off in the long run, as the experienced coach succeeded steadying the ship and eventually led it to safe shores. While they did not score much, only 42 goals overall, Cagliari also had a rather leaky defence, at least until Mina’s arrival in January. The Colombian, together with attacking midfielder Gaetano, on loan from Napoli, turned out to be decisive for their salvation. The former was confirmed by the club while the latter returned to his parent club. Ranieri, tired of the too many battles fought, opted to retire and Cagliari did well in replacing him with salvation-expert Davide Nicola, coming off a successful campaign at Empoli. He will have to deal with a rather renewed squad, though. First of all, at the back they lost centre-back Dossena but Luperto, coming from Empoli, should represent an adequate replacement. Then, in the midfield, they saw key Nandez lured away by Arabian money, Oristanio return to Inter and Sulemana hired by Atalanta. They should have their substitutes in Marin, who is highly considered by Nicola, and Adopo, whose past season in Bergamo was totally forgettable. Zortea, also arriving from the Goddess, should act on the right flank where they had problems last season. In the attack, they lost Shomurodov and Petagna, whose loans expired, and so far they only managed to sign Piccoli, which leaves them rather short, also considering that Pavoletti and Lapadula are not any younger and too injury-prone. With Radunovic loaned out and Scuffet attracting the interest of bigger clubs, they are also looking for a possible starter in goal.