Football Season Guide

After a memorable previous season, which saw them tasting the Champions League and clinching the Coppa Italia, the past campaign was a disappointing one for Bologna. In fact, up to the end of 2025, they did fine business, steadily dwelling in the top 5 and also impressing in Europe. After reaching and losing the Super Cup final, though, they almost stopped winning and fell down the table. They woke up again by mid-February and looked like heading to another top 7 finish but a heavy hammering in the Europa League quarter-finals at the hands of Aston Villa and a 3-game winless and scoreless run between weeks 33 and 35 eventually slowed their march and left them 3 points below European football. While they were not particularly bright defensively or offensively, last season Bologna relied mostly on their away performances, as only 3 sides did better than them. After only 2 seasons at the helm, coach Italiano decided not to remain at Bologna and left for pastures new, with Domenico Tedesco taking over. The latter is at his first experience in Italy and comes from disappointments at RB Leipzig, Belgium and Fenerbahce. Over the summer, Bologna tried rejuvenating the squad, letting a couple of aging players go. This was certainly the case of back-up left-back Lykogiannis, adequately replaced by Rahim, and key midfielder Freuler. They hired Amondarain; he may need some time before becoming a protagonist in the XI and so are currently looking for another midfielder, also considering that Sohm left, unnoticed. Elsewhere, they lost starting right-back Joao Mario, who returned to his parent club, while Holm made the opposite route and could act as Zortea’s back-up. Last but not least, they sold starting striker Castro to Roma, he was not very prolific with only 11 goals scored overall last season, and hired Dovbyk as his replacement. The Ukrainian comes off a season spent mostly on the sidelines and is in need of redemption. They may need another striker with back-up Dallinga still to leave a mark.