Football Season Guide

Sometimes they come back. Roma’s huge failure a couple of years back seemed to have caused Zeman’s retirement for good. After the umpteenth disaster in his career, he was seen as an old man, incapable of dealing with modern football. The new Cagliari owners, who have taken Cellino’s place since his choice of moving to Leeds United after 23 years with the red and blues, apparently think it otherwise as they immediately signed the Czech as the new coach for the Sardinians. Such a choice logically led to a rather peculiar transfer campaign: most of the experienced players were let go and a whole bunch of promising youths was signed up or arrived on loan instead. Pinilla, Astori, Avramov, Perico and Nene all left for some reason, money, or another, unlikely adaptation to the new coach, thus leaving some big holes in all the departments. In Zeman’s typical 4-3-3 system of play, one between Cragno and Colombi will become the new face in goals while Capuano, alongside newcomer Balzano one of the Czech’s boys at Pescara, will be expected to replace Astori in the heart of the defence. Highly promising Crisetig, coming off a fantastic season in Serie B with Crotone, seems likely to fight with Dessena and Ekdal for a place in the midfield or he could even become the main alternative to 35-year-old Conti, the aging heart and soul of the team. A not very prolific attack, the main problem for the Sardinians in the past quiet campaigns, should see Longo becoming a protagonist alongside confirmed Sau and Ibarbo, with Cossu set to spend more and more time on the bench. As it always happens in Zemanlandia, more youths will end up becoming unexpected protagonists and this might very well be the case for Capello, Donsah or Benedetti and Caio Rangel.