A second defeat in a row for Cagliari, the signs are becoming clear. They are safe from relegation and with minds already on the summer break, Trieste just seemed like a hassle.
Players may leave in the summer, there are many issues to be resolved internally, they are probably sick to death of the anxiety that playing for this club involves, so it must have been hard to concentrate.
Travelling half way across Italy to Trieste to play a ‘home game’ against Udinese whose ‘away’ fixture was only around the corner, must have seemed tiresome to say the least.
Crazy Cagliari, who have played with wild desperation and such a siege mentality since January, have now just become apathetic, but who can blame them?
Their future is as secure as it can be considering the turmoil and they can now look forward to having a summer break whilst their agents busy themselves looking for a lucrative alternative to the madness. Some of them may even look forward to sometime in Sardinia, since they have hardly been there in the last couple of months.
The game came and went, Cagliari were not awful they were just beaten by a team who wanted it more, sometimes games can simply come down to that. After the game Cagliari assistant coach Diego Lopez admitted, “We were a bit below par, but these things can happen. We are not finished for the season, as we tried to get the equaliser right to the end and want to maintain 10th place.”
In all honestly they finished with fuel in the tank. Udinese coach Francesco Guidolin did not even bother to mention the ‘Trieste squatters’ saying “I didn’t think we would be fighting for Europe for a third consecutive year. It is a gift we are giving to ourselves. We’re already focused on the next game.”
The situation the Sardinians find themselves in lends itself to speculation that players will leave on mass, none more than Radja Nainggolan. However, he noted that he may be convinced to stay saying that, “I have an excellent relationship with my agent, he’s like a father for me and I have great trust in him. Now is not the time to discuss my future though as there are still four games left and I want to end the season well. Then we’ll see what happens. I don’t necessarily have to leave, I could stay at Cagliari – especially if some external problems here are resolved.”
Perhaps there should be hope with this news, but only a fool could miss what is going on at the club. With Serie A status secured and a mid-table finish ensuring that they are one the success stories of the year they have switched off. Why not you may ask, they have achieved the impossible.
Now maybe they deserve to relax and push the pressure onto the President and the local authorities. Nobody has said they will leave, but at the end of the day, who wants to play for a team with no stadium and a President who is under house arrest? Cagliari maybe apathetic, but who can complain?
Follow Richard Hall on Twitter: @Gentleman_Ultra or his blog The Gentleman Ultra
