INTERVISTA 🎙️| Angelozzi to “Il Cagliari in Diretta”
These are the words of Cagliari Sporting Director Guido Angelozzi, a guest this afternoon on the “Il Cagliari in Diretta” program on Radiolina.
CAGLIARI’S IDEA
“When President Giulini outlined the project we’re pursuing, I was immediately enthusiastic. I’ve always worked a lot with young players, especially since I was at Frosinone (but not only there), and the Gialloblù are still the youngest team in Serie B. Cagliari had chosen a young coach, and in his first season in Serie A, he was leading a squad with many Italian players and numerous young players coming from the youth system or scouted elsewhere. We’re satisfied; everyone’s talking about our young players and our ideas. The team is doing well, and so is the coach. It’s clear that we need to improve and stay up, which is our goal.”
COACH PISACANE
I’m learning about Pisacane every day. Ever since he was a coach, I’ve had the impression he was a good coach. Seeing his approach and his philosophy on and off the pitch, I think he’s a natural fit because he has a work ethic, a passion for the job, intuition, and a desire to dedicate himself uninterruptedly to football. He’s proving he can compete in Serie A, and it’s not a question of youth or age, but of skill. I already knew Fabio as a player; there was the idea of bringing him to me when he was a young player at Lumezzane, but it never came to fruition. We started this season with a dinner in Naples, where we got to know each other better and exchanged ideas, each with his own vision, and we began to shape Cagliari together with the president.
MARKET STRATEGIES
Sulemana is a possibility, we’re talking to him. He had various options, but when he heard there was the idea of returning to Cagliari, he expressed his availability. It means he’s enjoyed his time here, he’s done well, we hope to be able to satisfy him and bring a useful asset to our cause. We want to sign two midfielders, given the injuries suffered by Deiola and Folorunsho, who unfortunately have joined Felici and Belotti. We’ve identified one in Sulemana, who is currently playing against Bologna in Verona. We’ll see what we can do in the next few days, but until the signatures are in, nothing can be considered definitive.
“We’re evaluating whether to bring in another player to add to our defense. Up front, we’d prefer to wait a bit. The priority is definitely to bring in at least one midfielder as soon as possible. Then, between now and the end of the transfer window, we’ll think about the other positions. Trepy and Kilicsoy? They’re two players who have made good progress, young and talented, and who can and must continue to grow. We need to be careful not to make mistakes in the transfer market. We don’t necessarily need to bring in players or move players, risking worsening the situation once the injured players return. Transfers? We have a few requests, and we’re making comprehensive assessments.”
AGAINST JUVENTUS
“The match against Juventus will be a tough one, obviously. In football, you always start 0-0 and play 11 against 11; we’ll see who’s the better player. The team is working well, the lads are fired up after Genoa, and we’re starting with great confidence. We have a solid, healthy group, with a lot of quality and energy, and we have a lot of exciting players.”
THE PLAYERS
Cagliari’s youth academy is working really well. Trepy, for example, has attracted the attention of several teams in recent weeks, particularly after Inter-Cagliari in the Primavera 1 championship, but obviously also after Cremona. He’s untouchable because he’ll continue to grow with our team. Palestra? Until June 30th, he’s a player working for Cagliari, no doubt about it. Mina? He’s had some physical problems, and when things are like that, it’s normal to have ups and downs. He’s had some good performances and some less so. The national team has certainly kept him busy. He didn’t come to Genoa to continue working hard for Saturday, but he’s training well, and we hope to have him back with us soon. That’s true for everyone, though. Right now, we’re a bit short of our more experienced players, those most affected by physical problems.
CAGLIARI AS A CLUB AND NOT ONLY
Cagliari is a very unique place, certainly different from Frosinone, a city of 40,000 people with very different prerogatives. The big difference is undoubtedly logistics, because from Ciociaria you can quickly reach many places and large cities by car or train, while getting to and from Sardinia is never easy: you have to find flights and organize ahead of time. I’m very happy here; there was an initial understanding with the Sardinians, and now I’m really happy to represent these colors and try to make my contribution. Everything is really going well.
ANGELOZZI AT CAGLIARI
“Certainly in the past, such as at Frosinone, I had more responsibility for the club’s sporting management, being a full-fledged administrator with signing authority and overseeing many crucial aspects. Here, I have a more specific and less direct focus, so we can say that the potential repercussions in terms of personal responsibility are less.”
SCOUTING AND THE ROLE OF SPORT DIRECTOR
It always depends on the type of club you work for and the responsibilities you have. I’ve always traveled a lot to see players firsthand; it’s normal that when you build a team focused on scouting, you travel a little less over time. Personally, I like to get to know players, their social and family backgrounds, and understand every aspect of them to try to identify if they’re the right profile for your team. Today, the profession of sporting director and transfer market operator in general has changed a lot; there are clubs that work extensively or only with algorithms, not just those with foreign ownership or those tied to investment funds. I believe a balance between the various methods is always right; at Cagliari, we try to have a general and detailed mapping of the talents and profiles that could be right for us. My biggest signing? The one who gave me the most satisfaction was definitely Federico Gatti: I saw him play in the amateur leagues in northern Italy and wanted to sign both him and Daniel Boloca to bring them to Spezia; the club wasn’t convinced, so I chose Boloca. The following year, I saw Gatti again at Pro. Patria, in the meantime I had moved to Frosinone and I took him, he will bring in a nice capital gain a few months later with the move to Juventus”.
