Yes, agreed, the C tournament was long, difficult and ruthless. True, but the B tournament is a whole other thing, a different story, you have to remember it well and know that Cesena will be facing a championship that in many ways has nothing to do with those just left behind. What are these aspects? The insiders – read coaches and players – agree: increased physicality, technique and knowing how to make decisions (possibly the right ones) at the right time. In short, the level is raised in every way. And for this you need players who know this type of championship, this type of new level of play and competition. Cesena in its incoming market will act above all in this direction. You need players who know the B and who have already played there. And the sports director Artico is already working towards this. In the squad that triumphantly won the C championship and brought Cavalluccio back to B after six years since their last participation in 2017-2018, there were 13 players who had already played at least one Serie B championship in their career. And we are referring to the starting goalkeeper Matteo Pisseri, the defenders Luca Coccolo, Giuseppe Prestia and Matteo Piacentini, the midfielders Daniele Donnarumma, Riccardo Chiarello, Francesco De Rose, Saber Hraiech and Ivan Varone and the forwards Simone Corazza, Roberto Ogunseye and Augustus Kargbo. Among them, only three players arrived in Romagna with three years played in the cadet championship: Donnarumma who played at Cittadella from 2020 to 2023, Varone who is divided between Ternana in 2017-2018, Cosenza in 2018-2019 and Reggiana in 2020-2021 and Corazza who played from 2015 to 2017 at Novara and then at Alessandria in the 2022-2023 championship. Of the 13 mentioned above, not all will stay, on the contrary. Coccolo is a free agent and will leave, Pierozzi was not redeemed on loan and will return to the parent company of Fiorentina, while there are several doubts, albeit for various reasons, that oppose the confirmations of Piacentini, Chiarello, De Rose, Hraiech, Varone, Ogunseye and perhaps even Corazza. If they were to all leave Cesena, only four players with ‘real’ experience in the B championship would remain under the orders of the new coach: Pisseri and Prestia, teammates at Alessandria in the 2021-2022 season, Donnarumma and Kargbo who got to know the cadet league at Crotone in the 2019-2020 season and at Reggiana in the following one. This means that Artico and Mignani will have to work and act above all on this side to give the new Cesena a good dose of experienced players who know what to expect from B and above all how to deal with its pitfalls and dangers, which will certainly not be few. And this mix, together with the notable group of young players that Cavalluccio can count on, could create that winning union destined to give further satisfaction to the large and passionate Juventus fans.
Stefano Benzoni
