VIDEO | President Giulini at a press conference
Rossoblu President Tommaso Giulini held a press conference at the Palazzo Tirso Hotel. He met with the media to discuss the recent season and the future of the club, both managerially and technically, from a variety of perspectives: decisions, financial dynamics, and vision—the many topics addressed by the club’s president.
Also in the audience was the new sporting director, Guido Angelozzi, alongside general manager Stefano Melis and corporate CEO Carlo Catte. They were joined by board member Nicola Riva.
LOOKING TO THE PAST
I have to thank the key players of last season. With coach Nicola, we achieved our goal fairly quickly, winning all our direct matches in the second leg, even though we mathematically dragged ourselves to the penultimate round. The positives outweigh the negatives. We’ve developed several players, and we redeemed three of them precisely for this reason. We’ve consolidated our position in the division. Coming to Cagliari after a master like Ranieri was a complicated challenge, one that Nicola overcame, even with great enthusiasm at the start. In recent months, I’ve nicknamed Nereo Bonato “king of the winter transfer market,” and I have to thank him for leading the club into a new era. He’s made very few mistakes, and for a club like Cagliari, that’s the most important thing. We’ll always make mistakes, but we have to be surgical in making them as few as possible, and Bonato helped us a lot in our last two relegation efforts. He’s had a great January transfer window over the years, especially when you consider Mina, Gaetano, Caprile, and Ranieri in Serie B. Unfortunately, Coman, who has great class, arrived with a bad injury, and otherwise it would have been Bonato’s fourth gem. We’re renewing Viola’s contract, but he’s been one of the key players in recent years and was kind enough to captain a group of our young players in the TST tournament in America. We remain deeply grateful for his class, but in football, decisions have to be made. This morning I hugged and thanked Augello, whose contract is also expiring, as well as Palomino and Jankto, who, despite not playing a minute last season, always trained with professionalism. I’m very pleased that the building blocks for survival have been laid by Deiola and Pavoletti, two key players for next season, as well as Mina, who chose Cagliari despite numerous offers. Mina is a different kind of player; he needs to be managed at the highest level. This will also be a challenge for Pisacane and Angelozzi, given the many injuries he’s had in his career. But I’m sure he’ll be fine; he can help us make a huge leap in quality. Finally, I thank our fans, who have been the extra push to stay up and achieve the goals of recent years, even with that necessary touch of protest. The season ticket campaign, which is already underway, is already underway. record tells us that they recognize the work done in recent years”.
YERRY MINA LEADER
“We have a player like Mina who’s known for his talents, and we need to manage him well from every perspective. This is our biggest challenge; Mina can help us make a leap in quality, as we’ve seen in the past year and a half he’s been with us.”
NEW INVESTORS IN CAGLIARI
I believe that, with all due respect, successions in football are not easy. Look at Garrone at Sampdoria, or Marino at Olbia. Massimo Cellino told me he hoped to sell the club to someone who would manage it with consistency, professionalism, and passion: I think I succeeded, with all the mistakes, imperfections, and dynamics that can happen in eleven years. This is a world where day in and day out the Silvestrones or funds whose foundations and backgrounds you don’t know show up. We haven’t approached anyone because no truly strong group has approached us. In the last few years, 27 companies have called us to discuss a potential acquisition. But then, studying their strengths, we realized that the right components weren’t there for them to be a useful investor for the future of Cagliari Calcio. This is why there isn’t a new shareholder today. I would never want fans enraged by Fluorsid protesting because someone has arrived who will cause the same fate as other clubs that have been relegated or disappeared. A few years. This, despite the more or less legitimate criticism of recent years, I believe I deserve credit for. After all, I already know that if Pisacane does poorly, it will be my fault; otherwise, it would have been clear to everyone that he was a banal candidate for Cagliari’s bench. Finally, I believe that if the Region, in particular, changes its approach on the stadium issue, this club will have increasingly stronger appeal, even for potential new shareholders or investors. I don’t think it’s less appealing than, say, Udinese or Verona; in fact, I think it could be superior. We have the eighth-largest fan base in Italy; if we put two clubs like Genoa and Sampdoria together in terms of number of supporters, I think these are objective data that should be taken into account.
CLUB MANAGEMENT
“We’ve regained solidity after the post-Covid budgets, and it’s thanks to this that we were able to buy Caprile, Piccoli, and Adopo. They will also be covered by personal guarantees. I hope the stadium deadlines are met and that the tender for the construction of the new stadium will be launched by Christmas. That will be the moment where we’ll potentially accelerate some discussions with stakeholders regarding the financial aspect, especially given the costs that have skyrocketed over time.”
THE NEW UNDER 20
“We’ve rejuvenated the entire first-team coaching staff, bringing in many players from the Primavera, plus the arrival of a few young coaches from outside. Angelozzi will respond to the Primavera in a few days, but we’re also working on that once the main discussions about the first team are over.”
THE CAGLIARI OF THE FUTURE
“I have positive feelings. Within a club, if everyone works for us, you can’t help but make leaps forward. From Ranieri onwards, we’ve increasingly eliminated people who were more concerned with promoting themselves than doing the club good. I’m not just talking about the coaching staff, but about all the human capital that revolves around a football team. I just ask you to have faith in this club, in this team, and in the entire Cagliari world.”
ANGELOZZI
We’d been thinking about it for a while. For weeks, I’d say even after Napoli, we’d realized that Nereo Bonato would prefer to replace Nicola with an experienced manager. The idea of Angelozzi came to me after talking to lawyer Antonio Romei on the way back from the evening at the San Paolo. We wanted someone who could work with young players, who had experience, and who knew both Serie A and Serie B well. We didn’t contact any other sporting director, and that’s important. He said yes right away, even though he’d received more lucrative offers from Serie A than ours. Perhaps, as a Sicilian, he embraced the allure of the other island. Let’s not forget that he resolved his situation at Frosinone, where they were deeply grateful for him, and for that I have to thank President Stirpe, whom I respect.
THE NEW STADIUM
“There’s some frustration about the timelines, which are getting longer and longer. There have been significant steps forward over time. We hope to have news by early July before we can move on to the conference of services. This delay bothers me, and at this point I don’t know if I’ll be Cagliari’s president when the new stadium is finally built. We’re certainly working to get new partners, and I’m disappointed that I won’t be the one to inaugurate the new stadium. But I want to be optimistic.”
CAGLIARI CONTINUING
“Director Angelozzi and Coach Pisacane will represent us. We’ll continue on our path, planning and trying to have more and more of our own players, fully or almost entirely in the squad. We’ve managed to consolidate ourselves over the years, making as few mistakes as possible. Now we must continue like this, aiming to be the best, to be better than the others. In the meantime, our youth sector has improved and achieved historic results. I’m here today simply to outline Cagliari’s path forward.”
PISACANE
We’ve been working for months to avoid having to talk about liquidity indicators and financial constraints in the transfer market. These are issues we’ve overcome day after day thanks to enormous work. We arrived in June with the strength to make three high-value buyouts, and there’s a huge amount of work behind us. We’ll make some outgoing deals, like the recently announced Hatzidiakos deal, but we also want to build a top-class team to have a good season. The goal will be to keep as many strong players as possible and make the best signings possible. What do I expect from Pisacane? That he gives space to the hunger of many young players who want to prove themselves, players like Obert and Luvumbo, as well as Prati and Veroli, who is returning. All players who need to prove their worth. I’m also thinking of Felici and Gaetano, who had limited playing time last season. Liteta, Vinciguerra, and some other players returning from the Primavera will be brought in at least for the training camp. Cavuoti will be tested, and the coach sees great potential in Idrissi. Pisacane can certainly reward our planning and the targeted investments we made recently, such as that of Prati. It’s clear he’ll need to gain experience, too. The coach and the sporting director will then present the transfer strategies, discuss playing systems, and so on. Pisacane’s time had come; there are moments in life, and this was his. We couldn’t lose him. He’s so hungry and knowledgeable, it was right to give him space. We believe in him for our growth journey, which also relies on many young players. The choice is based on the path we’ve taken, and now we believe he’s ready. He’ll have to prove himself, as all young coaches (and there are many) in Serie A always have to prove themselves. If you don’t reward those who have done well in the youth system, you lose credibility internally, too. We wanted to pursue and strengthen our identity model, which we’ve been pursuing for years, building it step by step. We’re pairing him with an experienced director; I’m sure he’ll be the right man. Bonato? He didn’t embrace this choice; it seemed like a gamble to him, and for us it isn’t, so it was right for us to part ways, as we don’t have the same ideas.
IL MERCATO
“I don’t trade players; I held out for a long time on Nandez, for example. If I sign a player, I do it to keep him, and everyone knows that. Of course, if irreplaceable offers come in and the players are pushing to leave, you have to sell, but as of today, I think all three of the players we just bought need another high-level year with Cagliari before they can move elsewhere with healthy ambition. When we were relegated, we sold Vicario, who later joined the Premier League, and this must be Caprile’s ambition; he’s a smart guy and knows it. I’m not worried about the future of these players, but—I repeat—it’s normal that if certain figures come on the table, you have to think about it.”
FOOTBALL CHANGES
We tried to raise the bar after Barella’s sale, and it didn’t go so well at the time. However, it’s clear that the three new buy-outs, given that I also provided personal guarantees, are equally valid in a different historical moment. We’ll definitely try to do better than we did then. The numbers from recent years reflect what we’ve been like. I’m proud to have spent ten out of twelve years in Serie A; I’m the president with the longest tenure in the top flight in the club’s history. Today, Barcelona is back to winning ways by focusing on the youth academy. We want to continue this path. Football has changed so much that PSG is no longer buying Mbappé, but selling him to focus on other players, which led them to win the Champions League after 15 years of trying. These are important examples that you must follow, even in your own small way. This year, we’ll relaunch ourselves to raise our profile in Serie A; we’ll definitely try.
DESIRE TO DREAM, WITH REALISM
Fans always have the right to dream, and they’re always right when they support the team. I’m a dreamer, but I can’t delude anyone. We’ll continue to dream big, but football has completely changed. The Italian movement is less powerful than other foreign clubs, and the ownership has also been shaken up. Our league has become completely impoverished, and all the rights are vested in other international competitions. This drastic change means that some clubs with Italian ownership, tied to the local area, must make as few mistakes as possible and must be better than everyone else to stand out. If we succeed, we’ll climb a few places in the standings. Of course, we mustn’t give up on the dream, but with realism and pragmatism, as always.
GIGI RIVA TROPHY
We’ll close with an announcement of particular emotional impact and significance for the Rossoblu summer. “On August 2nd, we’ll play the first ‘Gigi Riva Trophy’ against Saint-Étienne,” explains Giulini, “who are the first team Cagliari has faced in the European Cup (formerly the Champions League). Every year we’ll face a different opponent, but this year it will be a two-day celebration and remembrance for our Legend. There will be a whole series of collateral events around the city, and we’re very passionate about this initiative. The trophy will be made by an emerging Sardinian sculptor, just to give a glimpse of the many ideas behind such a beautiful and ambitious project that will be developed.”
