Can a regret resonate louder within oneself despite the satisfactions that emerge? If the world worked on a black or white scale we would say yes. The palette, however, is larger than it sometimes seems. And colors can be used to express any feeling, even the most different ones, which can ultimately coexist. The Cagliari Spring driven by Fabio Pisacane he finished the season in seventh place. An unexpected goal for several reasons, which confirmed the validity of the path undertaken. But on the other hand it gave rise to a small regret that only time will transform into a stimulus.
Half
Relegation alone in the Primavera 1 championship this season could be misleading. In fact, he could make you think that holding the top category of Italian youth football was a simple thing. Nothing more wrong. Just look at the vintage of Lecce reigning Italian champion, who before a second positive part had navigated in the most murky waters together with Bologna And Florentine, the latter team having secured the Italian Cup in the category. Cagliari also started from a previous championship in which they had found salvation in the final stages, when the victory with the Frosinone – relegated this season – thanks to the goals of Sulev and Achour he had given the mathematical certainty of remaining in Primavera 1. And with a squad that was somewhat different given the transition into senior football of boys like Palomba, Veroli And Cavuoti. Thus, like any process in which innovations are not absent, it took time and the use of the classic carrot and stick method to obtain the desired results. Results transformed into 50 points in the standings in 34 days, just one point behind Milan who will face the playoffs as sixth place.
Present
“In the world of football there is only one suitable verbal tense, and that is the present,” the coach of the rossoblù youth team said to our microphones in the Isili retreat Fabio Pisacane. A concept that also passed in other terms during the year among the minds of a team that continued to play its cards until the last day. But it was especially fundamental in the first part of the season, when the island’s Primavera showed signs of an approach not simple – with the match against Atalanta above all to prove it – and then a trend made up of too evident ups and downs which led to a reprimand from the coach himself – see after the away match in Turin. The difficulties ended up strengthening the belief that daily work was the main aspect to take care of. The biggest victory, probably, for a group young (only two 2004s, Carboni and Catena, and one 2003 which is out of quota, Kingstone) and with wide margins for improvement. So i game concepts they thus had an easier time making space between the legs and heads of the players. Until they were expressed with ease in the final part of the year in which a Cagliari team that seemed to be cut off from the post-season found itself fighting until the last 180 minutes of the championship. The offensive phase was the privileged one, with the search for the dribble and the wide freedom left to the wingers as key points, but over the course of the year the improvements also came in the movements and attention of a rearguard that at the beginning suffered something too many during the opposing offensive sorties.
Modus operandi
From the collective to the individual. However, the main strength of Cagliari Primavera this year was the group, the root that remained firm in the ground which allowed those who didn’t start off on the right foot to take courage and those who were included, from Cogoni (the most important surprise of the year) a Malfitanoto have the time and the possibility to make mistakes. Arba And Balde the two main examples. Having started without the favor of the forecast and amidst the difficulties of the first few days, the right back and the rossoblù midfielder became fundamental for the balance of the team. In the middle there were also those who like Achour he learned how starting from the back you can be incisive and who has definitively transformed himself into a security like Idrissitoday the player he seems more ready for a possible leap among the greats in terms of physical structure and leg. The state of the group allowed Pisacane to keep alive the thread with the other youth teams, above all an U18 which gave the possibility to draw heavily given the quality with Ardau, Trepy and lastly Grandu to become familiar with a championship that will become a point of reference next year.
Future
If the present is the most important time, the future however fascinates. Arriving at next year with an extra year of experience will be important to continue on the known path on a tactical level, but also on a personality level. The pressures will be different, with Cagliari having to try to manage them to continue having fun and try to reach the playoffs, which will have to become an objective to take another step of growth. It won’t be easy, because the championship has seen an upward competitiveness and because the one just concluded was the last year of a key piece of the Primavera like Michele Carboni and of a player like Chain, on which the club will have to clarify its intentions, also based on the overage policy that it prefers to adopt. The midfielder, who Pisacane often moved forward a few meters to support the strikers, has a contract valid until 2027. The year was not easy from a physical point of view, but the quality is undoubted. Catena, on the other hand, had signed until 2026 last summer, but during the season some sirens had arrived. However, there will certainly be no shortage of stimuli, starting from the desire to transform a small regret into something positive. And thus demonstrate that the path taken was not the result of chance, but of a plan that could be decisive for the future of Cagliari.
Matteo Cardia
