We all love fairy tales. They’re child-like and idyllic. But in modern football we are seeing increasingly less of them, and the gravity of the fairy tales that do happen are not as great as they used to be.
Bologna currently reside in 10th place, it’s not as eye popping as say Leicester’s title charge but in a world where only the footballing giants are taken notice of, it’s something we should appreciate.
You could argue Bologna’s current squad is an island of misfit toys and unpolished gems, managed by a coach who nobody seems to appreciate.
First, we have the brains of the operation
Roberto Donadoni’s path to misfitdom is an odd one. The Italian winger won six Scudettos and three European Cups in his time at Milan, in Italy a stellar playing career is usually enough to warrant a big job even if you might not have earned it. Not for Donadoni though, he started out with third division Lecco, with unremarkable results. In fact Donadoni’s entire managerial career thus far has been unremarkable. His failure with Italy at EURO 2008 only set back his career a few notches.
The sack ‘n’ hire culture of Italian football obviously has several flaws, one being that owners rarely seem to have a replacement in mind when they sack their current manager, something that is unthinkable in leagues such as the Bundesliga.
On the 28th October Bologna sacked Delio Rossi, but Joey Saputo and Pantaleo Corvino had a man in mind. Donadoni had caught attention in his time with Parma, whom he stayed with despite going in bankruptcy.
“I thought perhaps it would be better to wait and get back into the game later,” he admitted. “A better offer would come along. Bologna were in the relegation zone. They had lost eight of their 10 games since returning to the top flight via the play-offs.”
In a way the Parma experience had toughened up Donadoni, he took on the Bologna job and inherited a squad that raised a few eyebrows.
A look at their frontline illustrates how Bologna have been dealt the scraps of Italy’s bigger clubs, with Donadoni often donning a 4-3-3 with Mounier, Destro and Giaccherini. Mattia Destro seems to have finally found solace at the Stadio Renato Dall’Ara. The Ascolani striker had a lot of hype surrounding him when he was scoring freely for Inter’s youth system. A few transfers later Destro was at Roma, during the 2013/14 season Destro scored 13 goals in 20 games, prompting people to believe he could be a top striker if given playing time.
Milan were one of these clubs and decided to bite on Destro, but he only scored 3 goals in 15 games during his turbulent spell. Now at Bologna, Destro is doing a lot with a little, he’s not exactly surrounded by creative talent but his eight goals have more than helped steer the Rossoblu from relegation. What’s more impressive is that under Rossi, Destro hadn’t scored once and it was almost November. Destro’s number are essentially from November up until now.
On the left side of Destro, we have Emanuele Giaccherini. Perhaps the epitome of an Antonio Conte player – a player with no real redeeming features, but works hard and helps the team glue together. Giaccherini had two rather uneventful years with Sunderland and is now on loan at Bologna, but the Italian winger never seemed to find an identity in his career. Arguably only truly appreciated in his time at Cesena, Giaccherini seems to have realised that the glitz and glamour of Juventus or the dollar notes of the Premier League don’t compare with being appreciated at a football club.
Bologna have offered a home of appreciation for a host of players Daniele Gastaldello was let go by Sampdoria at the end of last season and is still proving to be as an astute defender as he did under Siniša Mihajlović. The much hyped Saphir Taïder, who was part of Inter’s post-Mourinho youth revolution, is finally settling into a team at Bologna. Antonio Mirante learnt the art of appreciation in his six years at Parma after developing at Juventus’ youth system. After sailing in the rocky ship that was 2014/15 Parma, Mirante neded some consistency and he’s found it with the Rossoblu.
But of course Bologna’s entire team isn’t entirely cast offs. The Rossoblu boast an impressive youth core.
The crown jewel of Bologna’s youthful core is Amadou Diawara. The eighteen year old box to box midfielder has drawn the attention of Bayern Munich in recent weeks and it won’t come as a surprise to any watchers of Bologna. Diawara has been the glue that has linked this team together, he does the dirty work, the clean work, everything to help his team succeed. I hate attaching heavy labels to young players but he is reminiscent of a young Patrick Vieira.
Other youngsters that seemed destined to move onto bigger things include Moroccan left back Adam Masina, whom particularly impressed me during Bologna’s 1-0 win over Milan at the San Siro. A two way defender that prides himself on his footballing intelligence, Italy’s big clubs may come knocking this summer. Godfred Donsah is another African midfielder who has played a vital role in Bologna’s impressive midfield, with the Ghanaian being able to feature as a defensive midfielder or another box to box type player.
To an outsider, Bologna’s season might seem like an uninteresting footnote. But we should all take notice. This is a team who were only promoted via the play offs last season and have done excellently to compile a formidable team.
With Joey Saputo as owner/president, Bologna seem to have higher aspirations than ‘just sticking around’ as the purchase of Mattia Destro shows. Credit also has to go to sporting director Corvino for putting this team together. Bologna seem to be one of the most forward thinking teams in the league and it’s paying off. But of course, credit has to go Roberto Donadoni, too.
The role of managers in today’s footballing world is a passive one. They’re just men in suits who can be easily replaced by another man in a suit, and they are only a handful of excellent ones in world football. If the season had started when Donadoni took over, Bologna would currently reside in 5th, the change in mentality he has delivered is evident.
So here’s to you, Bologna. For beating expectations thus far and showing that there are still innovative clubs in Italy.
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