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CESENA Calcio ïƒ* BENVENUTA Kozak



Too much transfer rumours at season’ surprise Cesena

A great first season half brought relegation favourites (at the bookmakers) into second spot of the Serie B at Christmas day. A huge effort for a small club, what Cesena still is. Cesena has one of the smallest transfer- and wage budgets in the whole league. However the club seems to struggle against the power of manager Kozakiani within the club. Like this season the manager is 12k above a wage budget of 30k a week. The manager tried to learn the board players (with better wages) can be sold later for big money to big teams. This will compensate the loss on wages.

On top of the Serie B are the big stars from Fiorentina. The team is already 12 points ahead of a tight group of other teams. Nr2 and Nr 11 are all within 6 points. Cesena thanks the Nr 2 position to a great November and December where the team was hardly unbeatable. The signings Taralidis, Petrucci, Gill Swerts and Jelle ten Rouwelaar are 100% starters this season. Beside them also Di Tora, Scurto and Sannino had their value already. This players are still young and need to replace future leaving players.

Transfer rumours

A problem occurred in winter transfer window at Cesena Calcio. Some important players got interested other clubs around the floor. Teams are poaching to take the talented, but young and inexperienced players away from the Eastern coast team.
Topscorer & Cesena born’ Marco Bernacci got interest from Serie A giants Inter Milan. Local newspapers wrote that Internazionale even started bidding on the player who scored already 12 goals till New Year.
His compatriot in attack Fausto Mangili looks even followed closer by other teams. Serie A team AC Parma already made a huge 2.7m (+/+ exchanged player) to Cesena for Mangili. Words from Kozakiani made Mangili pretty unhappy, as the manager told the press Mangili wasn’t for sale. In a deeper interview with the manager he said “Mangili cant leave us at this moment. The club has never been so near to the Serie A, and we will need all our players to have a chance to comin the playoffs and fight for promotion�. Meanwhile rumours become bigger and bigger Mangili will leave Cesena at the end of this season. The creative and strong striker is especially loved by rich Empoli manager Damo Field. Empoli still in Serie C this season looks above and already spend millions on transfers this season. Some paparazzi photos showed Mr Field and Mr Kozakiani in one room with the general directors of both clubs. Mangili would have been a subject……and a move to Empoli could have been 100% ready.
At the end of the transfer window another player made the newspapers. His name: Pestrin. This defensive midfielder can get a strange season end. While Fields’ Empoli seemed to have signed the Palermo 50% transfer rights on Pestrin, Serie B rivals Salernitana showed up to get the remaining 50% from Cesena. Kozakiani has made clear: NO players will be sold or signed now. We will look further after this season.

Meanwhile a potential new DMc will join the Cesena team next season. Michele Pazienza will join from Serie A team Udinese where he didn’t play. This is a great signing in the bid to become a Serie B top team within 2 years.

Transfer rumours killed the Cesena team

After all this rumours games showed up again. On paper Cesena must make a gap early now with quite an easy first two games. Triestina away is a game you must win if you wanna promote. The game ended in a 1-1 though, however Cesena dominated this game. Wanted strikers Bernacci and Mangili were invisible and the rumours will be a reason for their bad play. Taralidis converted a penalty for Cesena.
Then a home game against midtable Catanzaro . The game ended in a goalless draw 0-0. Kozakiani was unhappy with his strikers again after another poor display. The poaching from other clubs and press had a bad effect on the young squad. Kozakiani, who couldn’t hide his anger, said poaching clubs could have a problem as he could block possible transfers in near future. “They must let this team rest and start showing interest after the season and not now�. Empoli manager Field probably is one of the people the Cesena’ manager talks about when he is talking about “those rich twats� .

Story to continue……

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Feeling the pace: Ascoli look forward to the Spring. By Cosimo Galtieri, Notizie Delle Marche.

Ascoli remained unbeaten throughout January, though the two games drawn at home (Inter, 1-1 on 15/1/06; Sampdoria, 0-0 on 25/1/06) did mean lost points. They fared better away, winning 2-1 against Genoa (22/1/06) and getting a decent draw in Rome against Lazio (1-1, on 29/1/06).

In February it was the reverse, though again it started with a home draw against Rome (1-1, on 5/2/06). A week later Siena were beaten 2-0 at Cino e Lillo del Duca, but from the two away games that followed Ascoli could scrape only a point. It came from the game at Brescia (1-1, on 19/2/06), after which they lost by a single goal to Atalanta on 26th February.

Few goals were being scored, but Dello Spliff kept faith in his basic 4-4-2 and in his first-choice strikers Riganó and Güiza, despite the latter's dwindling form. Over the January transfer window, young midfielder Marco Maestri was sold to Salenitana for 2M Euros, as he was being kept out of the team by young playmakers Gerardo Clemente and Roberto Bertolini. The sale allowed Dello Spliff to reinforce the squad, bringing in out-of-favour defensive midfielder Mathieu Flamini (Fra, 21) from Arsenal for around 1.3M Euros, as well as Guatemalan forward Dwight Pezzarossi (Gua/Ita, 26) from Vicenza -where he was languishing in the Reserves- for 350.000 Euros.

March has gotten off to a good start for Ascoli, with a good 5-2 home win over Messina, and with 54 points from 28 games they are in a good position to compete for a place in next season's UEFA Cup. And in any case they have already achieved their main objective, which was of course to avoid been drawn into a relegation dogfight.


The Results.

15/1/06, vs. Inter (home, Serie A): 1-1 (Bystron 55).
22/1/06, vs. Genoa (away, Serie A): 2-1 (Riganó 26, 64).
25/1/06, vs. Sampdoria (home, Serie A): 0-0.
29/1/06, vs. Lazio (away, Serie A): 1-1 (Pezzarossi 90+2).
5/2/06, vs. Roma (home, Serie A): 1-1 (Riganó pen 50).
12/2/06, vs. Siena (home, Serie A): 2-0 (Regueiro 37, Bertolini 42).
19/2/06, vs. Brescia (away, Serie A): 1-1 (Regueiro 55).
26/2/06, vs. Atalanta (away, Serie A): 0-1.
5/3/06, vs. Messina (home, Serie A): 5-2 (Riganó 2, 36; Clemente 6; Petre 40; Pezzarossi 90).

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WorldClan continues after Easter with a great season end for most managers

Serie A:
David Manson at Ascoli can make a big bunch into the Champions League. He is currently 4th and can move up to 3rd spot above Inter when he wins his game in hand.

Serie B:
Behind Fiorentina its very tight in this league, this season. Myself (Cesena), Piacenza (Alexis Manson)and Bari (Simon Toroskainen) can all still promote. We have to fight against teams like Vicenza and Reggina.
Lower in the Serie B it will be Triestina (Pavle), Albinoleffe (Kuky) & Ternana (Mika Nihtilä) who are fighting to stay away from the dangerous play-out spots. Treviso (Blaise Merela) already got relegated.

Serie C1a:
The top 3 is extremely tight in here. Just 1 team will promote directly + 1 from playoffs. Verona (James) took a big step for the first spot in last game at big spenders Empoli (Damo Field). Verona won 5-2 with a great Sigporsson. Empoli is 3rd now.

Lets see what happens in the last 2 sessions of this season.......Next week.....Same time ----->Tuesday

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Thanks for the vote of confidence though

Happy Easter clan

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Dissapointing season end for Albinos.
Leffe team just got saved from playouts in last two games (two wins). Altough expetations were low this season manager Kuk expected at least to finish in half-top table. Anyway , some young talents god some experience and some players just got back from hard injurys. Good news is that spectators came back to the stadium (from 4000 averge to 12000 averge ,tnx 5.05 ) That complitly changed the clubs finacial stats. Now it grows instead of last seasons. Two experienced and "good feet" Argentinan players consolidates in the club too so we can expect Albinos fight for 4-8 place next season. Kuk said he will not buy and new mid or att player thru summer. The objetive is to buy a good experienced DC to lead the defence. Albinos defence was one of the shittiest in the league ,meanwhile the attack was one of the best. Former Milans hope Carmine Buonagura was one big surprise, an incerdible MC that can shoot screamers from 35y. He is currently top team goalscorer ,not bad for an MC.

Thats all from Albinoland. Stay tuned

PS.

L'Equipe wrote today that Albino is looking to buy experienced Cesenas international Bulagrian defender Predrag Pazin. Also looks like star Davide Possanzini will be leaving the club this summer as he wants to make new experiences.

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Ascoli in amongst the giants. By Cosimo Galtieri, Notizie Delle Marche.


Just over a year ago, Ascoli secured passage to the élite of Italian fotball, and prepared themselves for what they assumed would be a long and protracted battle for survival. But with the squad strengthened in key positions, and several of the players enhancing their reputation with the consistency and quality of their performances, the team has been competitive beyond hope and achieved Ascoli's best-ever league position in the post-war era, which until now had been the 5th place in Serie A achieved during the 1979/80 season.

With 73 points from 38 games, which included 21 victories, 10 draws and 7 defeats, Ascoli finish the 2005/06 season in 4th place behind champions Milan, Juventus in 2nd and Inter in 3rd. For the first time in their history, Ascoli will take part in the Champions' League and compete with the best clubs on the continent, entering the competition at the Third Qualifying Round stage. A superb opportunity for the current board and for manager Dello Spliff to take the club a step further, and this much sooner than anyone (including, presumably, themselves) had expected. No doubt there will be much activity at Cino e Lillo del Duca this summer, and amongst the names most frequently touted one finds Matteo Brighi, Cristian Zaccardo, Halil Altintop and Matthew Upson, all players whose contract expires shortly and whom the club has allegedly approached with contract offers. The first of the official announcements are expected to coincide with the opening of the transfer window on 1st July.


The Results.

12/3/06: vs. Palermo (away, Serie A): 1-2 (Bucchi 54).
19/3/06: vs. Cagliari (home, Serie A): 3-2 (Riganó 3, 49; Bystron 11).
26/3/06: vs. Chievo (away, Serie A): 4-1 (Riganó 10; Clemente 33; Güiza 42, 67).
2/4/06: vs. Catania (home, Serie A): 4-0 (Regueiro 1, 49; Güiza 10; Ketelaer 55).
9/4/06: vs. Bologna (away, Serie A): 4-0 (Bystron 29, Terlizzi 45, Güiza 57, Bertolini 81).
23/4/06: vs. Udinese (away, Serie A): 1-1 (Riganó 67).
30/4/06: vs. Parma (home, Serie A): 3-0 (Riganó pen 3, Ketelaer 27, Güiza 81).
7/5/06: vs. Lecce (away, Serie A): 3-2 (Güiza 36, Riganó 54, Bertolini 82).
10/5/06: vs. Juventus (home, Serie A): 0-2.
14/5/06: vs. Milan (away, Serie A): 0-3.

Finished 4th on 73 pts (21 wins, 10 draws, 7 losses; 71 goals for, 38 goals against).

Top goalscorers: Güiza (17), Riganó (16), Bucchi and Regueiro (7).
Best player: Ketelaer (7.86 average).

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With the regular season finished we can already offer you the final standings:







For 4 people the season isn't over yet. They are fully into promotion/relegation games. Bari (Simon Toroskainen) and Piacenza (Alexis Manson) are in the Serie B promotion playoff semi-finals. While Triestina (Pavle) has to play 2 play-out games in Serie B against Avellino to save their body.

In Serie C playoffs its Damo with Empoli who is almost back in Serie B after winning the 1st leg with 2-0 away at Acireale.

A full review will follow later.

retired_nevkay

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CESENA Calcio ïƒ* BENVENUTA Kozak



Cesena did it, and is SERIE A now!

However the struggling continued in last season games for small Cesena a surprise happened. Small budget and relegations favourites promoted to the Serie A. After a 2-0 loss at rivals Vicenza with 3 games left it became so tight with four teams fully with chances for the 2nd spot all within 1 point. Three finals left for all teams. Behind these teams it was Reggina five points behind.

The first home was against low placed Triestina. The team that came visit Cesena without their drunk manager Pavle Fairhurst. In a game where out-form Cesena hammered it couldn’t score. With 25-4 in shots the game stayed tight to the end. The only goal came from Marco Bernacci with the head. Piacenza spoiled points and Cesena made a small gap to them. Vicenza and Cesena stayed very tight. But then the last to games ended in 2 draws for Cesena, but Vicenza just took 1 point from last two games! So it was Reggina what won all in the last games that came on 1 point from mighty Cesena, but it was Cesena Calcio that was promoted. A big effort for the low budget team, which will get a hard task to stay there. Manager Kozak was very happy and drunk on the party after the season. He was voted as the best Cesena manager ever, while clubtopscorer Marco Bernacci won the prize of best Cesena player of the season.

850k to build a Serie A valuable team

There is no money at Cesena to invest in the club. The wage budget rose to 80k a week. A wage that is lower than a player like Adriano earns on his own. A few players left Cesena. Including captain Biserni (to Perugia), Argentinian striker Denis (to Lierse) and Andrea Confalone (unknown yet).

In the mean time the technical staff of Cesena Calcio tried to buy in a few players. The first signing was a Swedish all-rounder that is especially signed for the left wingback positition. Christoffer Andersson came from Lilleström for a 650k fee. So almost all money was gone on this player. The pressure is high on him. Manolo Pestrin and Lorenzo Rosetti , who were on co-ownership, were acquired on a 100% Cesena’ ownership now.
In the same time Cesena picked up a few unwanted free players:
<UL TYPE=SQUARE><LI>Michele Pazienza comes from the Udinese B-team. This is a defensive midfielder.
<LI>German Alexander Meier played at HSV last season. He just played 2 games there. Manager Kozak believes in his capabilities.
<LI>Bulgarian international Hristo Yanev played in Russia last seasons at CSKA Moscow. This is an experienced winger that was hard needed because Salvetti becomes too old now.
<LI>Italian Lorenzi Amoruso is 35 years old and very experienced. The other defenders Compagnone & Guiseppe Scurto have no Serie A experience at all. Amoruso comes from 1st Division side Blackburn Rovers where he played lots of matches and promoted to the Premiership.
<LI>Andrea Petrelli comes on a loan deal from Parma. He is a young left midfielder who can also go deep.
<LI>Thiago Coelho is a Spanish-Brazilian defender that played in the Barcelona B-team last season. He was acquired because of the lack of defenders at Cesena. Manager Kozak hopes he can develop himself at Italy.</UL>

So 180k was left for one more buy. Cesena was behind Argentinian youth striker Juan Manuel Lucero for months already. The problem was that the team could only have 1 Non*EU player in the team. When Denis was sold, Kozak picked up this cheap youth international for around 100k. He comes from small Argentinian team Coquimbo Unido. He is half Argentinian and half Chilean. Is a pacy striker with good finishing stats in the past. After this buy Cesena also tried to acquire Vincenzo Montella but it couldn’t pay him the wages that Serie B team Chievo could offer.

MrBookmaker.com put Cesena on 2000-1 to win the Serie A title. The team is with Piacenza the biggest favourite for a fast relegation from Serie A this season. Lets see how far we can come….

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2006/2007: OBJECTIVE EUROPE. By Cosimo Galtieri, Notizie Delle Marche.


Last season's fourth place in Serie A gives Ascoli a decent, if unexpected, chance to battle it out with the élite of European club football. And having beaten Bruges 4-0 on aggregate in the Third Qualifying Round of the Champions' League -winning both legs 2-0- Ascoli will feel that their strenghtened squad can cause a few upsets along the way.

It was another busy summer at Piceno, with no less than nine first team squad members leaving the club, and fourteen brought in. Many of the latter were free transfers, negotiated six months earlier with players whose contract was ending this summer.


The Ins and Outs of Ascoli's summer market.

In:

* Matthew Upson (Eng, 27, D C, Free from Birmingham City).
* Jonathan Fortune (Eng, 25, D C, Free from Charlton).
* Andre Muri (Nor, 22, D C, E 1.5M from Stabaek).
* Stefano Lucchini (Ita, 25, D RLC, Unemployed).
* Cristian Zaccardo (Ita, 24, D/DM R, Free from Palermo).
* Antonio López (Spa, 24, D/M L, Free from Atletico Madrid).
* Andrea Federici (Ita, 28, D/M L, Free from Pisa).
* Matteo Brighi (Ita, 25, DM RC, Free from Chievo).
* Jorge (Spa, 24, AM RC, E 5.5M compensation fee from Atletico Madrid).
* Romeo Castelen (Hol, 24, AM R, E 1.2M from Feyenoord).
* Michal Gottwald (Svk, 25, AM/F C, Free from Zilina).
* Halil Altintop (Tur/Ger, 23, F C, Free from Kaiserslautern).
* Daniel Fredheim Holm (Nor, 20, F C, E 1.5M from Valerenga).
* Xisco (Spa, 25, F LC, Free from Valencia).

Out:

* Antonino Bernardini (DM C, to Empoli for E 1.5M).
* Mirko Pieri (D L, to Brescia for E 2.5M).
* Güiza (F RC, to Roma for E 14.5M).
* Elvis Abbruscato (S C, to Bologna for E 2.9M).
* Christian Bucchi (S C, to Perugia for E 1.5M)
* Rudoplh Douala (AM R, to Chievo for E 375K).
* Ovidiu Petre (D/DM C, to Chievo for E 800K).
* Marcelo Regueiro (AM RL, to Siena for E 1.5M).
* José (AM L, left the club at the end of his contract).


Thus Ascoli managed to add depth to the first team squad as well as make a handy profit, which should partly be used to augment the capacity at Cino e Lillo del Duca, which is currently slightly in excess of 28.000 seats. Ascoli have also invested in bringing in several promising youth players to the club, and a few of these names might even appear on the first team sheet this season. Defender Enrico Melli, along with young strikers Urbani and Barbiero, are highly rated by the Ascoli coaching staff and already feature to a minor extent in manager Delo Spliff's plans for the season:

"These are exciting times for the club" he stated, "and our main task is to consolidate the club's position within the top eight in Italy. We're very keen on bringing talented youngsters through the ranks, and I'm convinced that at least four or five of our current under-18 players will break into the first team within a couple of seasons. With our heavy playing schedule, some of them may even make their full professional débuts over the months to come.


Friendlies and Champions' League Qualifying results.

29.7.2006: vs. Fiorentina (Home, Friendly): 2-0 (Altintop 5, Pezzarossi 58).
9.8.2006: vs. Club Brugge (Home, Champions' League Third Qualifying Round): 2-0 (Clemente 14, Altintop 17).
23.8.2006: vs. Club Brugge (Away, Champions' League Third Qualifying Round): 2-0 (Fredheim Holm 29, Altintop 44).
29.8.2006: vs. Roma (Home, Friendly): 2-2 (Bertolini 66, Flamini 75).
4.9.2006: vs. Verona (Away, Friendly): 0-1.