Football Season Guide

Just one season after their unavoidable relegation to the Serie B due to a highly-troubled campaign from all points of view, Bologna, now in the hands of some American entrepreneurs, made it immediately back to the top flight of the Italian football. Expected to reach promotion quite easily given the strength of their squad, they only made it at the very last moment, thanks to the playoffs, following coach Diego Lopez’s sacking and the arrival of Delio Rossi. The latter, deemed architect of the promotion, will thus lead the team also in the new Serie A campaign. For the new season, Bologna management have been working on a rather limited budget so far, investing very little money while re-calling several players from loans or hiring some free agents. At the same time, they lost some important players as Laribi and Kristcic, who returned to their parent clubs. For such reason, Bologna seem to have been looking especially for experienced players: in fact, the likes of Pulzetti, Rossettini, Brighi, Brienza and Mirante, to name just a few of the newly-arrived or returning players, have all several Serie A campaigns behind their backs. Among them, Mirante should be the starting goalkeeper while Rossettini will be acting in the heart of the defence with Oikonomou and Gastaldello while Mbaye and Masina will be the full-backs. At the same time, Bologna have also signed some promising youths, with the Chilean Pulgar, Rizzo and Crisetig, whose last season at Cagliari was quite two-faced, likely to become the protagonists in the middle of the park in a classic 4-3-3 formation. At the moment, the attack seems the weakest department of the team as Acquafresca has not been a prolific striker for several years while Mancosu still has to repeat the wonders displayed in Trapani. For such reason, Destro’s rumoured arrival could turn out to be fundamental for their ambitions.