Football Season Guide

Since their return to the top flight of the Italian football back in 2015, Bologna have failed to become real protagonists of the league. In fact, they did only for a short period of time until the end of winter 2016. They usually content themselves with reaching some very dull salvations. Coach, Roberto Donadoni, who proved his skills more than once in the past, utterly failed to lead his boys further than an anonymous 14th in the table. While he was confirmed at the helm of the team by the American management, after all responsibility for such disappointing campaigns was not his alone, he will be asked for some better results this time around. Up to this moment, no big names left the squad, and this is great news. Or maybe they just do not have any big stars to sell, Simone Verdi aside. In fact, the likes of Federico Viviani, who had a rather poor second half of the past season, and Umar Sadiq, who did not leave any real mark, returned to their parent clubs. Meanwhile, Marios Oikonomou and Luca Rizzo were let go to SPAL so that they can earn some more playing time. Just as well, the management tried strengthening the team in all the departments. Thus, Giancarlo Gonzalez, who proved to be a solid defender in the MLS and for Costarica more than with Palermo, and Sebastian De Maio, whose permanence at Fiorentina went unnoticed but had been very positive with Genoa, could become options for the heart of the defence. Meanwhile while Andrea Poli should join Saphir Taider in the middle of the park. For the attack, Donadoni was supposed to count on Cesar Faletti and Felipe Avenatti, both from Ternana, but the latter could miss out for a long stretch of time due to a heart condition. The feeling is that, despite adding some potential quality in defence and midfield, Bologna are still missing something up-front. Destro has proven to be an inconsistent scorer and they cannot really rely exclusively on his goals.