Football Season Guide

Coming off 3 anonymous campaigns, which saw them just achieving some dull salvations no higher than the 14th place in the table, Bologna opted for a change at the helm during the summer. So, the experienced Roberto Donadoni was replaced by Filippo Inzaghi, whose stint at Milan just 3 years ago had been far from memorable. The new coach spent the past two seasons at Venezia, where he remade his name bringing the Neroverdi from the Lega Pro to the semifinals for the Serie A promotion playoffs. Inzaghi should be opting for a 3-5-2 or a 4-3-3 formation quite similar to the one that has characterized the recent Bologna campaigns. However, the summer not only brought Bologna a new coach but also a bunch of new players while several protagonists of the recent past left for pastures new. This was certainly the case of Antonio Mirante, the goalkeeper and captain, Simone Verdi, their creative genius, top scorer and top assist-man (with 10 goals and 10 assists in the past campaign) and Federico Di Francesco, a promising winger. In the goal, Mirante will be duly replaced by Lukas Skorupski, who already proved his skills when at Empoli but had little chances to play last season. Verdi’s departure certainly represents a big loss for Bologna, who opted to renew their not very prolific attack, signing the likes of Diego Falcinelli, who had a disastrous experience at Fiorentina (no goals scored in 6 months), and the Paraguayan Federico Santander, who spent the last 3 seasons scoring goals in Denmark at FK Copenhagen. This means that once promising Mattia Destro will be relegated to the bench for good with evergreen Rodrigo Palacio. However, Bologna saw also the departures of players like Emil Krafth, Adam Masina, Simone Romagnoli and Vassilis Torosidis. The newcomers Mitchell Dijks, Federico Mattiello and Andrea Rispoli should represent the new options for the flanks but there might still be some hole at the back. In fact, the management are still looking for a centre-back while a new midfielder might be needed too, since Donsah will need some time before returning from injury.