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7 months ago
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A real surprise attraction in Italy this season, the Bologna team has spent the months of Serie A without ever faltering. Thiago Motta’s players have continued to confirm the good impressions by progressing collectively and individually. Sunday May 12, 2024 risks becoming a historic date for the Emilia-Romagna club. Indeed, with Bologna’s victory against Napoli coupled with the Roman defeat against Atalanta, the Rossoblù have officially qualified for the next edition of the Champions League. Thiago Motta’s boys are in fact 7 points ahead of AS Roma: impossible to catch up from now on. A performance as beautiful as it was unexpected for Thiago Motta’s Bologna. This is the first ticket for the big-eared cup since its name change in 1992. To find a European Bologna, you have to go back to the year 2003, that is to say 21 years ago, when they were finalists in the Intertoto Cup, now disappeared. But for the biggest continental competition, we have to go back to the 1965 season, almost 59 years ago. The Emilian dream will become reality next year alongside other beautiful stories like Girona in Spain.
This club and its fans have gone through countless ups and downs, but the endless wait has paid off. 22 years ago, Bologna missed qualification for the Champions League on the last day of the season. Since then, the Bologna fans have had to endure two relegations in Serie B and rather mediocre seasons in Serie A, to the point of becoming an almost insignificant team. Today, Thiago Motta, who arrived with great fanfare a year and a half ago, has managed to give new life to a historic Italian club with 7 Scudetti, managing to entertain the entire peninsula throughout the championship journey and obtaining thus qualifying for the precious Champions League. “Great performance and great test against an important team today. I’m not doing the calculations for the Champions League, I’m putting all my energy into enjoying this moment and these fantastic guys. I am happy for the fans who follow us to live these moments by supporting us, even in difficulties, but I am particularly happy for my boys”, said the Italian coach after the success against Naples (0-2). Once mathematically qualified, the Bolognese squad and staff took to the streets to party all night with their fans.
A perfectly constructed site!
This thunderous success is a collective work which firstly bears the mark of a strong collaboration between the sporting management and the technical management alongside an active and involved ownership. Since the takeover of the club by Joey Saputo, boss of a large Canadian dairy company, the Rossoblù have experienced numerous changes in their organizational chart, starting with their technical staff. From January 2014 to today, seven coaches (Stefano Pioli, Davide Ballardini, Diego López, Delio Rossi, Roberto Donadoni, Pippo Inzaghi, Siniša Mihajlović and interim Luca Vigiani) have succeeded one another before finding the perfect conductor in the person of Thiago Motta. This revolution was accompanied by a total overhaul of management in 2022 with the arrival of Giovanni Sartori in technical and former player Marco Di Vaio in sports, which has considerably transformed the philosophy of the club. After having accomplished several exploits, including the unforgettable fairy tale of Chievo (two participations in UEFA cups and participation in the summer play-offs of the Champions League), Giovanni Sartori reinvented himself as a true architect of Bologna. In the space of just two summer transfer windows, the 67-year-old Italian leader managed to bring into Motta’s ranks players from minor leagues, but who had significant potential and which is now largely maximized by Motta . All this was made possible thanks to precise planning: thousands of matches watched in the stands of stadiums in Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Switzerland, Denmark, Scotland, Poland, Spain and Portugal, everywhere in Europe. The players observed by Sartori are then inserted into the club’s database and then analyzed again once at home and another time away by three different scouts, and finally reports are drawn up which are evaluated by Sartori himself.
This international philosophy has made it possible to bring back players who are relatively unknown to the general public such as Joshua Zirkzee, Lewis Ferguson, Stefan Posch, Sam Beukema, Dan Ndoye, Riccardo Calafiori and Jhon Lucumí. These seven players now have a combined market value of even close to 200 million euros, although they were purchased for a total amount of 45.5 million euros. Without forgetting the addition of certain Serie A players lacking playing time in their previous club such as Alexis Saelemaekers and Giovanni Fabbian. The exceptional season experienced by Bologna is fully reflected in the ideas put forward by Thiago Motta. Technical-tactical choices that allowed the Emilian club to win and play well, satisfying even the most demanding palates of a public that was not used to fighting for decades on such important stages. The light brought by the former Parisian is characterized by high, offensive and suffocating pressing, seasoned with a classic ascending approach and interchangeable roles from midfield upwards. The writing of French Football Weekly already dedicated last season a large file on the Motta method drawn from the precepts of the greatest Italian coaches. A tactical organization which culminates in a 4-2-3-1 (or, where applicable, 4-3-3) which gives no reference to the opponents. In this continuous change of functions, the objective is to make the available team work as well as possible, almost achieving overperformance thanks to a meticulous, precise and detailed game organization. It is no coincidence that Motta is one of the most coveted coaches in Italy.
Big decisions to make
Zirkzee shouting in the streets of Bologna from the sunroof of his car, an Italian journalist getting into Riccardo Orsolini’s car to go to the party scene, smoke bombs on every street corner, flags and the tifos released in each plot… The scenes of jubilation are enough to attract the eye of all football supporters in the world, even those who do not follow Calcio. But after the great celebration, the sports management is preparing to experience a very special summer where several heroic members of this chivalrous epic risk receiving phone calls, starting with Thiago Motta. It’s no longer really a surprise but the future of the former PSG player is being written further and further away from Bologna, as we exclusively revealed to you last March. Indeed, the Italian coach has already warned his management that he had received concrete approaches from certain clubs including Juventus who make it an absolute priority and with whom he already has an agreement. AC Milan continues to push to beat the Turin competition to the wire, while Zlatan Ibrahimovic, now manager of the Rossoneri, makes him one of his favorite names to succeed Pioli. The Bolognese management is therefore working to anticipate the departure of the Italian tactician and several profiles have been surveyed in recent weeks by the leaders. According to our indiscretions, Vincenzo Italiano, Stefano Pioli and Alessio Dionisi are the three most coveted profiles, while the Italian press also adds that of Maurizio Sarri.
We will now see if last night’s historic celebration will change anything in the future of Thiago Motta who has not yet officially signed anything despite concrete offers on his desk. Among the other files to be managed by Bologna, all the Bologna gems which have exploded this season will attract people, especially the star striker, Joshua Zirkzee who has a tally of 11 goals and 4 assists in Serie A. Great teams Italians covet the former Bayern player. Indeed, AC Milan and Juventus have checked the Dutchman’s name for the next summer transfer window, while Bologna management is asking for more than 60 million euros. The Old Lady also has Riccardo Calafiori from Bologna in her sights. The Turin club hopes to bring back as many Bolognese protégés as possible to Piedmont in order to satisfy Thiago Motta, in pole position to take over from Massimiliano Allegri. Despite these almost assured departures, Bologna can count on management that is aware of the decisive months ahead.
