Top flight status, an Italian international and searing heat - why Cagliari Calcio could pose stiff test for Leeds United

Massimo Cellino went through managers like hot dinners during 22 years in charge of Cagliari Calcio before a similar pattern as president of the Whites.

Five years after his Cagliari era ended and two years after leaving the Whites, Cellino is in charge of Serie B side Brescia whose aim is to join his former side at the top level of Italian football with Cagliari approaching their fourth consecutive season in Serie A and primed to offer United a stern test in soaring heat.

There is, after all, much more to Cagliari than Cellino with the club former winners of the Serie A title who have Claudio Ranieri and Gianfranco Zola amongst their former heroes with ex-Juventus boss Massimiliano Allegri having also played for them in the 1990s.

Former Catania and Chievo manager Rolando Maran is the new man at the helm of a side who dominate the football scene on the Italian island of Sardinia.

In approaching their meeting with Leeds, there are similarities between the two sides with United in their centenary year which Cagliari will celebrate next year.

The year 1970 remains by far Cagliari’s most successful season with the club winning the Serie A title and conceding a record 11 goals en route to that success.

And the Rossoblu have again been quietly progressive in recent years having kept their necks above water in Italy’s top flight for the last three years following their Serie B title triumph in 2016.

That triumph meant an immediate return to the top flight after the previous year’s relegation which came in the club’s 11th consecutive season in Serie A having previously yo-yoed between the two divisions and even dipping into Serie C before Ranieri worked the oracle in the late 1980s.

Cellino kept the club ticking over and more - to the 1994 UEFA Cup semi finals no less - with the most famous sale being the switch of Inter Milan’s Belgium midfielder Radja Nainggolan to Roma in 2014.

Fifteen years on, Maran was appointed as Cagliari boss last June with the former defender steering the club to a 15th-placed finish which ended with something of a whimper with four defeats from the side’s last five games.

But there were several highs during the season with Inter Milan falling to a 2-1 defeat at Sardegna Arena last March. Milan were also held to a 1-1 draw at Sardegna Arena last September with Roma also only leaving with 2-2 draw in December in front of a season’s best gate of 16,223.

Cagliari were one of the division’s lowest scorers – netting only 36 times from 38 games with only Serie A’s bottom two sides Frosinone and Chievo scoring fewer goals at 29 and 25 respectively.

Half of those goals came via Leonardo Pavoletti who was rewarded for his fine goalscoring form with a call up to Roberto Mancini’s national side in March for the team’s UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying matches against Finland and Liechtenstein.

The 30-year-old then came on as a 72nd-minute substitute for his international debut and scored the final goal just four minutes later in a 6-0 romp.

Without his league goals, Cagliari would have been lost with even third-bottom and relegated Empoli far outscoring Cagliari – netting 15 more with 51 – yet the concession of 70 goals put paid to their top-flight status.

Cagliari, though, boosted their third best defence in the division’s bottom half with 54 goals against and seven clean sheets.

If Pavoletti can be kept hold of and his goals can be added to, then there ought to be plenty to build on for a club previously managed by Ranieri who took the club from Serie C1 to Serie A between July 1988 and June 1991 with Zola at the helm for a short stint in 2014-15.

Zola enjoyed two years with the club in the twilight of his career as a player after leaving Chelsea from 2003 until 2005, finishing with a double against Juventus in his last ever professional game.

Fourteen years on, the signs are mildly promising though Leeds ought to have an advantage in fitness with the Whites now only one week away from the start of their new campaign.

Cagliari took in their first pre-season friendly only last Sunday with a 1-1 draw at home to Feralpisalo ahead of Wednesday’s home tie against Chievo.

Clashes against SC Freiburg and Fenerbache then await before the first round of the Copa Italia on August 8.

That said, the hosts will be better equipped to deal with the heat which is set to hit 33 degrees this weekend and even 29 degrees come Saturday’s 7.30pm kick-off.

For both, the heat will then be on to ensure their respective centenary seasons are ones to savour.