One name a day, one denial a day. And the Cagliari bench that belonged to Claudio Ranieri remains empty. The feeling is that president Tommaso Giulini and sporting director Nereo Bonato have already identified the figure to whom they will entrust the team for the coming season. But patience and calm are needed because the chosen one, to date, has yet to decide his future. And so, having said goodbye to Paolo Vanoli and Marco Baroni, attention shifts to Davide Nicola and, above all, Luca Gotti. Who are potentially confirmed on the benches of Empoli and Lecce, but who will only define their positions next week.
Rossoblu intrigue
Cagliari does not want and cannot make a mistake in the most important choice, that of a coach who will collect the heaviest legacy, that left by Claudio Ranieri, who was not for nothing awarded yesterday at the Serie A Festival, organized by the Lega di A, with the “Legendary Coach”, together with Arrigo Sacchi and Fabio Capello. The rossoblù club tried with Baroni but the Florentine coach, after leaving Verona, had the ambition of raising the bar. First the opportunity to go to Monza, then the call from Lazio, which will be his first time in a high-end club.
Similar story with Vanoli, very close to sporting director Bonato and one of the scouting managers, Stefano Fattori. But after the promotion with Venezia the call from Torino arrived. The official announcement is still missing, but the coach thanked Cagliari but chose the Granata. Now the rossoblù are looking at Lecce and Empoli, teams that have achieved salvation which, on paper, should trigger the automatic renewal for both coaches.
But those renewals are still just a hypothesis. "We will start again with Gotti because he did an excellent job," the president of the Apulian team, Saverio Sticchi Damiani, had explained in recent days. However, "there is no final discussion with the technical area to see if the vision on a sporting level is shared and, if so, we will start again together with him with enthusiasm". An "if" that gives Cagliari hope, also because the coach wants guarantees and in Sardinia, where he already worked as assistant to Roberto Donadoni in 2010-11, he would gladly return. The Giulini-Bonato couple consider him the perfect successor to Ranieri. Similar situation for Nicola, who after the change of sporting director (Gemmi in place of Accardi) awaits a discussion with president Corsi next week to decide whether to move forward or stop here.
Legendary
Meanwhile, the awards continue for the last owner of the rossoblù bench, Claudio Ranieri, protagonist yesterday in Parma together with Sacchi and Capello. The Roman coach went back on his decision and launched an appeal to the fans: «I think it was right to close now, if I had dreamed it like this I wouldn't have succeeded. Cagliari's exploits are unique to me and I won't change them for anything else. The new Cagliari coach? I won't go into that. The only thing I would recommend is that the fans understand the club's choices and that they welcome the new manager as they welcomed me 35 years ago."
Then, on stage, he recalled some episodes of his career and, when asked which match was still dreamed of at night, he had no doubts: «All the Cagliari matches this year. My wonderful thought was to save Cagliari. I woke up at 4 to study the match."
Alberto Masu