FM24 - I Rossoblù (Bologna FC 1909)

[Jogo Bonito]

On 22/07/2024 at 19:56, warlock said:

Yes, looks like they're gone already; everything else still to play for, though. 

Always much to learn from the way you approach your transfers with an eye on both the long- and short-term implications. Good stuff 

Thanks mate, but I really don't think you need to learn anything from me!

[Jogo Bonito]

Season 2024/25 Part 4 (January 2025)

With the New Year transfer window opening and closing, this is a short update in terms of fixtures - but we still have plenty of news to report

On the pitch, things went well with league wins over struggling Cagliari and Monza plus Frosinone who were also a lower-table outfit

The 1-0 loss at Empoli was very disappointing as they are also facing a relegation battle of their own

Elsewhere, we had a great Coppa Italia Round 3 win over Serie B side Udinese, and two good results to earn our Europa League qualification

Our European journey has gone much better than expected so far - it doesn't mean we will win it of course, but we have met our first target

Here is the month-end summary showing good returns on the performance & financial graphs but revealing we need to improve our goals-against tally

We went in to transfer deadline day with some interest in adding a right-back, left-back, central defender and one or two strikers

A right-back was under consideration as Stefan Posch secured a 25 million Euros move to Al-Ahli (KSA) on 14th January

But we already had a couple of youngsters in our squad, plus Swiss winger Dan Ndoye who had played most of his football for us at wing-back

Mexican international right-back Julian Araujo of FC Barcelona agreed to join on loan, until we pulled out and decided to keep faith in our existing options

The left-back would have been an understudy to Antonino Gallo, especially as our U-20 left-back went to Udinese (a good compensation deal for us)

However we couldn't sort a 3 million Euros deal (or loan with mandatory fee) to land Emanuele Valeri of Lazio, who was our only target  

As with the left-back, a central defender wasn't essential either as we had a pair of U-20 talents performing well since promotion to the first-team

More important were decisions that needed to be made on our under-performing strikers, and we didn't shy away from this

AS Roma, AC Milan and PSG were still interested in want-away striker Joshua Zirkzee and we agreed he could go if a bid of 45 million Euros came in

We accepted an offer likely to reach that amount from AC Milan, but then PSG came in and agreed to potentially pay more with clauses

The player then had the choice, and he chose the French outfit which was good as we were not strengthening our Serie A rivals with the sale

The 44.5 million Euros up-front plus 4.8 million more for 30 league goals and 20% of any future profit was a good sum for a player who didn't score many

14 goals in 36 (+2) appearances last year was average at best, and this season he only had 7 from 25 (+4) in all competitions

What we didn't fully appreciate until the move completed was that FC Bayern were going to receive 50% of the entire fee!

Meanwhile, his deputy Mateo Retegui who had not delivered a single goal this term was keen to move to an interested Juventus

The 'Bianconeri' didn't even offer 50% of our asking price of 20 million Euros though, so we rejected their bids and he remains with us for now

That did leave us with a desire to add some other options though, and in the end we picked up two new strikers on deadline day

The first to sign was Jean-Philippe Mateta from Crystal Palace for a flat fee of 14.25 million Euros

Initially we thought we might go for one of the two strikers we had sorted fees and terms for - but shortly afterwards we confirmed the second too

A modest 4 million Euros plus a possible 500,000 Euros after 50 games (and low wages) seemed a great deal for Kevin Denkey of Cercle Brugge

We now have a pool of four strikers to select from, although at least two of them will probably be moved on in the summer

The reason for that is we want to promote our best two U-20 strikers ahead of next season, both of them being Italian and trained at the club  

Here is a summary of the incoming and outgoing moves during the winter window (at 54.25 million Euros profit, less what FC Bayern are taking)

We're now able to switch focus back to the pitch, as we tackle our ongoing commitments of 16 Serie A games plus the Europa League & Coppa Italia

 

 

Edited July 24 by Jogo Bonito

[El Payaso]

Really like the detailed view on transfers and your approach where you rather give the existing squad members a chance to show what they got. 

Karlsson sounds like an interesting name. Hasn't set the world on fire for you but seems to give a nice return for both goals and assists. 

Zirkee is a big loss on the paper but I think FM has simulated the effects of being unsettled quite nicely on this case. Might be better off without him. 

[Jogo Bonito]

1 hour ago, El Payaso said:

Really like the detailed view on transfers and your approach where you rather give the existing squad members a chance to show what they got. 

Karlsson sounds like an interesting name. Hasn't set the world on fire for you but seems to give a nice return for both goals and assists. 

Zirkee is a big loss on the paper but I think FM has simulated the effects of being unsettled quite nicely on this case. Might be better off without him. 

Thanks very much, appreciate the kind words. Having spent quite some time building up the U-20 talent pool it would be criminal not to give them a try. We've put three teenage Italian defenders in the first-team this season and given them a number of starts, next season we should be adding some of the midfielders and strikers. Even if it means Season 3 performances are inconsistent, I am excited to see what they can do for the seniors.

Karlsson has been our inspiration this season. 16 goals and 8 assists from a shadow striker position (just left of centre) are better than we could have hoped for. We have around 20 games left to play in all comps so he should get 20-25 if he keeps this form up. Considering none of the strikers are scoring, that's quite a good return and invaluable for us.

i agree on Zirkzee completely, very well simulated as he was unhappy, unsettled, unsure and underwhelming. The fact he had been sold in real life made me decide we should explore life without him. We haven't played again since the new strikers arrived, but absolutely no regrets on the sale.

[Jogo Bonito]

Season 2024/25 Part 5 (February-April 2025)

As the transfer window closed, we were 4th in Serie A and still in the Europa League and Coppa Italia

By the end of February, we had been dumped out of the Italian Cup in a really disappointing 0-2 home reverse to Sassuolo

Serie A form was better with a tough draw earned at Napoli followed up by good wins over Lazio and Torino  

March was an unbeaten month for us, but only win was recorded - although that victory over Athletic Bilbao edged us through another stern Europa League test

The 94th minute winner by rookie full-back Tommaso Corazza was his first for the club and could not have been better timed

Domestically, we dropped points in frustrating draws with Parma, Spezia, Sassuolo (them again) and Palermo - all very winnable matches

April saw us face better opponents in Serie A, but we managed to beat Fiorentina, Genoa and Juventus and also held 2nd-placed AC Milan 

Last time out we narrowly succumbed to a 1-0 loss at leaders Internazionale who are unbeaten in all of their 34 Serie A games (25 wins and 9 draws)

The other significant moment of the month saw our brave Europa League fight finally come to end in the North East of England

We were up against it after going 0-2 down inside five minutes of the first leg at home to Newcastle, but fought back with gusto to finish 2-2 on the night

A first goal for the club by January signing Kevin Denkey was a moment to celebrate, and it meant we had a slight glimmer of hope for the 2nd leg

The Geordies twice led in the return, but substitute Daniel Maldini then scored his first goal for the club to make it 2-2 and take it to penalties 

In the shoot-out drama we kicked things off and both sides held their nerve to score each of our first three efforts

Unfortunately young Marco Palestra missed our 4th, and the hosts scored theirs before we regained some composure to net our final kick

Moments later the majority of the 51,857 fans at St. James Park went crazy though, as they scored their 5th effort to seal a 5-4 victory on spot-kicks

Whilst it is obviously disappointing to exit the latter stages of the competition, we remain delighted to reach the last-eight against such strong opposition

With just four Serie A games left in May we can, as they would say, just concentrate on the league now

The table below shows where stand, and that reveals that we have realistic hopes of achieving Champions League qualification

The steady performance graph shows our recent consistency, and the financial graph also illustrates the club is in good shape

Shadow striker Jesper Karlsson has missed a fair few games recently with injury but still leads the way in goals-scored and average rating

Riccardo Orsolini has also been a major player this term, whilst the signing of striker Jean-Philippe Mateta in January has also been very fruitful

Another point of satisfaction is that we have given 38 (+12) appearances (over 3,700 minutes) to two teenage central defenders this season so far

Giovanni Leoni (now 18) was signed for 160,000 Euros and Mohamed Seck (now 19) was signed for 185,000 Euros so the pair have given superb value for money

Away from the pitch, we have agreed a 3 million Euros deal for an understudy left-back to arrive in the summer

We had tried but failed to sign Emanuele Valeri (26) from Lazio in January, but we have now been able to conclude the transfer on very good terms 

Edited July 27 by Jogo Bonito

[warlock]

Spreading the goals around nicely. Probably not good for a golden boot winner but it's something I like to see in my teams 

No shame losing to the Geordie petrodollar. I wonder if Cruyff would hold to his view that "I never saw a bag of money score a goal"? Probably, but he'd surely have to accept that a bag of money can buy you a player that can score a goal, or 30.

Good luck with the run-in... a final push should see you clinch that Champions League spot.

[The Don Carlo]

Goodluck locking that CL spot!

[Carambau]

Come on - one final run of consecutive wins should wrap CL qualification up! I´m sure you will make it happen  

What a coincidence with Newcastle in the Europa League for both our italian teams... we will have our revenge some day soon 

[danyates8]

I wish you the best in your quest for champions league qualification 

[Jogo Bonito]

17 hours ago, warlock said:

Spreading the goals around nicely. Probably not good for a golden boot winner but it's something I like to see in my teams 

No shame losing to the Geordie petrodollar. I wonder if Cruyff would hold to his view that "I never saw a bag of money score a goal"? Probably, but he'd surely have to accept that a bag of money can buy you a player that can score a goal, or 30.

Good luck with the run-in... a final push should see you clinch that Champions League spot.

Thanks mate, all good observations and comments. End of Season review to follow...

14 hours ago, The Don Carlo said:

Goodluck locking that CL spot!

Thank you Carlo! All to be revealed soon...

6 hours ago, Carambau said:

Come on - one final run of consecutive wins should wrap CL qualification up! I´m sure you will make it happen  

What a coincidence with Newcastle in the Europa League for both our italian teams... we will have our revenge some day soon 

Thanks for the support, let's find out if you are right! We had some tough ties, Bilbao was one, but Newcastle were just too strong, sorry I could not get revenge for you/us.

4 hours ago, danyates8 said:

I wish you the best in your quest for champions league qualification 

Thank you for the support, it's time to do the season summary now.

[Jogo Bonito]

Season 2024/25 Part 6 (May 2025)

Our quest for Champions League qualification depended on the final four fixtures, and a home loss to Atalanta in the first of them was a real setback

Next we travelled to the capital to tackle AS Roma who were 3rd and three points ahead of us

For most of the game we were second best, but never gave up and somehow emerged with a very late winner to dramatically overturn a 3-1 deficit

A home win over lowly Lecce was more routine, and we entered the final day level on points with AS Roma and only three ahead of Fiorentina

The journey to Sardinia was not only an important day for us, but also for hosts Cagliari who were just one place above Parma in the drop zone

The 3-2 final result makes it sound tighter than it was, as we gifted them a late goal and in reality even a draw would have been enough for us

The on-pitch celebrations for us at the final whistle were memorable, in complete contrast to the mood of the home side and their fans who ended with relegation

The goals of striker Jean-Philippe Mateta had made a big difference during the final few months, and five in his last three games evidenced his importance to us well

Here is the final table for the Serie A season, which was totally dominated by the two sides from Milan

Internazionale must be very disappointed that the only game they lost all season was their 37th of 38, but the Scudetto would be ample consolation

Our 3rd place finish was a great accomplishment for our efforts, as the teams just behind us all fought strong and hard for the entire season

The top scorer in all competitions was our shadow striker Jesper Karlsson, although injuries had prevented him from scoring any since the last game of January

Our joint-top scorers in Serie A were Riccardo Orsolini and January signing Mateta with 12 each

Financially we have really taken big steps in the last two years, but we are disappointed to have been a bit leaky with 45 goals conceded in our 38 games

Here are the player stats (across all competitions) for the first-team players who completed the season

Apart from the obvious names, we are very pleased with the progress being made by our young central defenders Giovanni Leoni & Mohamed Seck

The Player of the Season award went to left-back Antonino Gallo for the second successive year

Goalkeeper Michele Di Gregorio won the Serie A goalkeeper award, and we always looked much more stable when he was in the team

For the second season in succession, the club also won the 'Serie A Fair Play Club of the Year' award, so it shows that good guys can succeed

We also recorded the highest profits in Serie A this season, with a 36.24 million Euros profit in our transfer dealings

And we succeeded by having the best 'wages to turnover' ratio of all the sides in Serie A at just 23%

With such good financial prudence shown, we might have hoped for a little more than 25 million Euros transfer budget for next season

However, with a larger-than-necessary wage budget also at our disposal, we have no doubt this will be more than adequate to deliver what we might need 

To wrap up the 2024/25 season, we'll do a follow up post to show how the Under-20 side had got on this year too

[warlock]

Best of the rest in a competitive season!

5 hours ago, Jogo Bonito said:

we might have hoped for a little more than 25 million Euros

Boards, eh? 

[danyates8]

Makes the qualification more impressive when you've been able to be so frugal along the way. Good work with the finances and great work on qualifying for the CL

[El Payaso]

A solid season for you and probably the highly competitive and even Serie A was a biggest reason for the good league position despite amassing the draws especially in March. 

Mateta seemed to be a big difference maker for you and that might well have been a surprise as he probably wasn't a star signing for you. Love those kind of story lines. 

Lucca is probably a player that could be considered a disappointment. Obviously he us still young and could make an impact if you decide to give him a chance to show his quality. 

I actually see that budget as an interesting one as without any sales you are not going to be significantly able to strengthen the team. Obviously the aim is to do as well as possible but as there aren't really super teams like Real Madrid, Barcelona, PSG or Manchester City and Liverpool in Serie A, mounting a title bid could actually be quite easy if you were given a big amount of money. 

Simply love patient and well-thought approach like you have with this save. 

[Jogo Bonito]

6 hours ago, danyates8 said:

Makes the qualification more impressive when you've been able to be so frugal along the way. Good work with the finances and great work on qualifying for the CL

Thank you very much, we are proud of how we have performed both on and off the pitch. I feel like I am building this club in a proper & sustainable way, and very much looking forward to the 3rd season.

28 minutes ago, El Payaso said:

A solid season for you and probably the highly competitive and even Serie A was a biggest reason for the good league position despite amassing the draws especially in March. Mateta seemed to be a big difference maker for you and that might well have been a surprise as he probably wasn't a star signing for you. Love those kind of story lines. Lucca is probably a player that could be considered a disappointment. Obviously he us still young and could make an impact if you decide to give him a chance to show his quality. I actually see that budget as an interesting one as without any sales you are not going to be significantly able to strengthen the team. Obviously the aim is to do as well as possible but as there aren't really super teams like Real Madrid, Barcelona, PSG or Manchester City and Liverpool in Serie A, mounting a title bid could actually be quite easy if you were given a big amount of money. Simply love patient and well-thought approach like you have with this save. 

Thanks again. Yes, the attraction of Serie A is exactly as you say - it's very competitive and quite an even playing field.

We signed Mateta and Denkey as we were unsure which was the better (ability & value). Mateta got the first chance to start and took full advantage of his opportunity, but playing only one central striker it did mean Denkey was largely a substitute. Neither Retegui or Lucca got any more minutes after the January double-signing, but as Italians we would like both to make an impression. 

Really grateful for your comment in bold, it means a lot to hear that and as someone who begins to get a little bored after a few seasons at any club, I have to say I am excited to see what we can do in 2025/26. Success is always nice, but my main aim is to continue seeing sustainable progress, developing some of our younger players, and improving that goals-against column to bring it below 38 again!

Edited July 29 by Jogo Bonito

[Jogo Bonito]

Season 2024/25 - Under 20 team review

We are putting lots of time and effort in to building a good young core of Italian players here in Bologna, and this is really going well

Despite promoting our three best young defenders to the main squad for 2024/25, our remaining group delivered a fine season anyway

A domestic 'league & cup' double was very satisfying, and we also did well in the other two international competitions

In the Under 20 Campionato Primavera 1 TIM we actually finished a close 2nd to AC Milan

But we won through some Play-Off matches and beat Fiorentina 5-2 in the Final to be crowned 'champions' 

Below are the player stats, sorted by number of appearances (none of these are newgen players)

The top group has a number of really promising prospects we have developed (only Della Rovere & Di Maggio of these were signed by me)

Apart from those two, Karlsson, Amey, Urbanski, Raimondo, Stivanello, Ravaglioli and the two goalkeepers all have a good chance of breaking through

Annan & maybe Motolose will probably leave this summer as we are culling a few to ensure the best options get enough Under-20 minutes next season 

Baldursson, Tordiglione, Sardo, Cangiano, Sosa, Diop, Ciammaglichella & Menegazzo are also all good players who just had limited opportunities this year

To replace the above-mentioned Annan, we already signed left-back Bernasconi on a pre-contract deal for this squad

We already have a new right-back (Magni) coming from AC Milan on a deal we arranged in January 2025

Further to that we splashed a chunky 2 million Euros to steal highly-rated winger Bonomi away from AC Milan

And the last signing made to date for the U-20 squad of next season is Diouf, a very talented central defender from Senegal

Before signing any youngsters we always do extensive scouting including actual video analysis, reading external scouting reports & checking their actual data

This means these young talents, like the prospects we already signed in the first two years, are very well vetted and we know what they can bring to the club

[warlock]

36 minutes ago, Jogo Bonito said:

A domestic 'league & cup' double was very satisfying

Excellent achievement from what looks to be an outstanding group. About half of them look like they could do a job in the First XI.

[Jogo Bonito]

7 minutes ago, warlock said:

Excellent achievement from what looks to be an outstanding group. About half of them look like they could do a job in the First XI.

Indeed, they probably could. Getting them those opportunities will take a bit of managing, but it means the likes of Denkey, Ilic, Aebischer, Castro (back from loan) and any other foreigners will have to be performing well in order to keep their place in the squad. Even if they do, reasonable offers for all foreigners will be considered as long as we have a suitable (age is no barrier) Italian replacement in the ranks. 

Edited July 29 by Jogo Bonito

[El Payaso]

Surprised to see Urbanski still in the Primavera. But it might even be a good idea to give him plenty of game time and good performances there. Both he and Raimondo were really good in my Palermo side already in season two. 

Really interesting to read about the youth teams also and see a real progress. Would love to do the same with Torino but sadly there aren't really any promising players there in the beginning. 

[Jogo Bonito]

10 minutes ago, El Payaso said:

Surprised to see Urbanski still in the Primavera. But it might even be a good idea to give him plenty of game time and good performances there. Both he and Raimondo were really good in my Palermo side already in season two. 

Really interesting to read about the youth teams also and see a real progress. Would love to do the same with Torino but sadly there aren't really any promising players there in the beginning. 

You're right, Urbanski should be in the main squad and maybe will get that chance next season. I chose to give him regular game time for the Primavera squad to help his development, Raimondo did exactly what I wanted last year after a fair season out on loan in Year 1. These two, and maybe Kazper Karlsson are the closest to stepping up now - although Della Rovere at 17 is a very exciting wildcard to give opportunities too. 

Torino start with a much better core of Italian players in Buongiorno, Ricci and Bellanova, but apart from young Aaron as you say there didn't seem to be a great deal of talent coming through behind them. You could have spent transfer funds on recruiting them like I did, but clubs like ours also need to make good use of the transfer budget for the seniors so it's a tough balancing act.

[Carambau]

Congratulations of qualifying for the Champions League! Mateta made it possible  Looking forward to how you will enforce the team for the CL  

[_Ben_]

I long for a youth setup like yours! Well done on this season and good luck for next.

[Jogo Bonito]

On 30/07/2024 at 10:21, Carambau said:

Congratulations of qualifying for the Champions League! Mateta made it possible  Looking forward to how you will enforce the team for the CL  

Thanks very much, we certainly needed one striker to score and Mateta did so regularly. There will only be a few positions to look at, but nothing much.

On 30/07/2024 at 11:51, _Ben_ said:

I long for a youth setup like yours! Well done on this season and good luck for next.

Thanks again. We can be proud of our youth prospects, and hopefully one or two newgens might filter through in the future too.

[Jogo Bonito]

Season 2025/26 - Season preview

The summer was deliberately more about evolution than revolution - other than the installation of under-soil heating at the stadium

Below we review the changes we made to the playing squad, in timeline order

24th June 2025

Michel Aebischer had been a useful utility player through these past two years, but was not happy we didn't fancy giving a much improved contract

That unhappiness, coupled with being non-essential and non-Italian, convinced us to accept the 6.5 million Euros offered by Torino 

25th June 2025 

His departure allowed us to confirm two new arrivals the very next day, in the form of Italian pair Nicolo Fagioli and Rolando Mandragora

Both of them had been kept waiting as we didn't want to act unless genuine space became available in the squad 

Fagioli cost 12.5 million Euros but did become our highest earner on 74,000 Euros per week

Mandragora departed Italy for a ludicrous Saudi wage, but left after a year and the free agent slowly kept reducing his demands until a deal could be done 

1st September 2025

We had been offering out striker Mateo Retegui and defender Mihajlo Ilic throughout the summer, but by deadline day nothing had concluded

Retegui was particularly annoying as promoted Udinese offered the full asking price of 20 million Euros, but despite wanting to go he rejected their terms

No other offers of note came in and we couldn't loan him out either, so he has maintained a place in the squad for this season

Ilic on the other hand did not attract any offers close to our asking price, so we don't mind keeping him as an option 

On deadline day morning, U-20 defender Joaquin Sosa left on loan to Serie B side Benevento with them paying his full 9,000 Euros weekly wage

Striker Santiago Castro had been on loan at Cagliari last year and done OK, but with Retegui still hanging around we needed to lower the wage bill

The Argentine will be 'trained in Italy' by next summer so we gave him a new three year contract at a reduced 25,000 Euros per week

His previous wage had been 35,500 Euros per week so we got to keep a good young talent beyond 2026 and would save 10,500 Euros per week for the club too

We then offered him out on loan with no buy option, and by the evening Sampdoria (now in Serie C) offered to take him on and cover his wages 100%

Kevin Denkey had also been offered out but rejected several moves even when the full asking price of 4.3 million Euros was met

He then turned down several loan offers, but finally at 22.16 (44 minutes before the deadline) we struck a deal with Genoa that he agreed 

Like with the others, we made sure the loaning club would cover the full 100% wages for the season

Below is the summary of all business done this summer (those highlighted reflect first-team players)

As far as the first-team squad is concerned, that was three new players in (Valeri was revealed in an earlier update) plus five for the U-20 squad

Four first-team squad members left (Moro had been out on loan with a mandatory fee agreed) plus a number of others we didn't need

Season 2025/26 squad 

Having freed-up space to promote talented U-20 striker Antonio Raimondo we are set to start the season with this 25-man squad

We have also streamlined the U-20 group so that only those who have a real future are retained there (will show that squad next time) 

Pre-Season results

We completed our friendlies of July and August, and felt quite well prepared by the time the new season was set to kick-off

Edited July 31 by Jogo Bonito

[warlock]

Good recruitment, with an eye for a bargain, too .

Good luck for the upcoming campaign 

[Jogo Bonito]

Thanks mate. Happy with what we did.

The only thing is some of our key players (Calafiori especially but Ferguson and Karlsson too) we can't get anywhere near their new contract demands of 90k-100k per week. We will replace from the U-20 squad in midfield and attack whenever we need it, but losing Calafiori would be a major disappointment and we don't have anyone else anywhere near his level to replace him. 

[warlock]

2 hours ago, Jogo Bonito said:

we can't get anywhere near their new contract demands of 90k-100k per week

 Looks like wages are a problem at every level of football 

[Jogo Bonito]

Season 2025/26 - Part 1 (August-November)

The third season of our spell in Bologna had the added weight of Champions League football to manage, but Serie A remains our real focus

We had an interesting start to the season, with our first three home games in Serie A all ending 0-0

We wanted to make the defence tighter, so that was good - but we were disappointed not to score against Udinese & Frosinone in particular

In contrast we won our opening three games on the road in Serie A - scoring nine goals in the process (three in each)

September saw us open up our Champions League campaign, but we lost 1-0 away to both Celtic and RB Salzburg

Both of those fixtures we would have hoped to get something from, and can't help thinking that if one had been on home soil we would have done so

As we moved in to October, we managed to secure our first Serie A home win - in our hardest test so far with AC Milan

We followed it up with an away win against Juventus, before claiming a 2-2 draw with Internazionale for our first Champions League point

The result was encouraging, but we managed to throw away a 2-0 lead so we still had thoughts of what should have been

We rounded off the month with good wins at home to Salernitana and away at Lazio

In November, the league form was again strong with good wins over Spezia, Lecce and Genoa, plus a draw last time out with Atalanta

The Champions League however was still proving to much for us, with a 3-0 away defeat to Atletico Madrid and a scrambled 0-0 at home to Tottenham

Qualification looks extremely unlikely even via a Play-Off spot, as we have some tough fixtures to complete our series of matches

We are naturally delighted with our form in Serie A, although Napoli edged ahead of us after the dropped points in our 14th league game

Jean-Philippe Mateta has continued his fine goal-scoring form of last season, and is really the only regular marksman we have at this point

Our goals for and against tallies are both high in the rankings, with our DLP (defend duty) being as better shield than the anchor had been in defensive midfield

We haven't won hardly any prize money from Europe, but the TV revenue has certainly helped push the bank balance up nicely 

Whilst a European exit is expected soon, we certainly have lots to play for back in Italy as we look ahead to grey skies and the winter months

Edited August 4 by Jogo Bonito

[El Payaso]

A solid start to the season and really like the fact that you are putting the league first. The added amount of difficult games should also give you a great opportunity to give game-time everyone. 

What have been the tactical changes to try and improve the defensive record? 

[Jogo Bonito]

15 minutes ago, El Payaso said:

A solid start to the season and really like the fact that you are putting the league first. The added amount of difficult games should also give you a great opportunity to give game-time everyone. 

What have been the tactical changes to try and improve the defensive record? 

Thanks mate, after the opening two CL games it became clear we were not quite able to compete with these type of clubs, so definitely the league has to be the priority. Strangely, Season 1 saw AS Roma (winners) and Napoli and AC Milan very strong, the second season Inter only lost a solitary game out of 38 and only AC Milan got close, with AS Roma and Napoli dropping back by a big number of points. This season (so far) it's swung back to AS Roma and Napoli, although the two Milan sides are strong enough to push on still. Juventus have been nowhere near on any of the seasons so far. 

We've actually only changed one thing to improve the defensive stability. That saw the DM anchor changed to DLP with the arrival of Fagioli and his understudy Mandragora in the summer. Otherwise, it's the same formation and duties as before (re-group when losing the ball and counter when winning it back).

 

Edited August 4 by Jogo Bonito

[warlock]

1 hour ago, Jogo Bonito said:

the league has to be the priority

Have to agree thee - a tough Champions League group looks to be out of reach now.

But you're doing very well domestically. It might be better to start slow and build, than race out of the blocks and stumble later. So, just don't stumble later, I guess 

[Jogo Bonito]

The Bologna Under-20 Primavera squad has enjoyed two excellent seasons, and on 30th November 2025 we can share that we are doing well again

In the divisional rankings, we have many players at the top of the charts for the key metrics

We trimmed the deadwood in the summer and now have the below squad members

We really need to get Urbanski in to the senior squad as he Bagnolini, Stivanello, Bernasconi & Mazia are now too old for most of these matches 

Summer signing Diouf has already been capped at senior level by Senegal since he joined us after a series of outstanding performances (and a soaring value)

Magni, Bonomi and Di Gianni were also magnificent captures ahead of this new season

Of the squad that was already here, Della Rovere continues to shine brightly along with Amey & Di Maggio, Ravaglioli is unlucky to not get more game time 

Meanwhile, striker Castro has 14 in 12 at Sampdoria on loan in Serie C (plus 2 in 2 in Cup games)

He'll be back at the club next season and will be 'home grown in nation' by then too, as will Karlsson (Kazper)

Given the promise of this group, we're quite likely to let some of the foreigners in our first team squad move on to free up some spaces for next year

That might involve significant sales for the likes of Ilic, Ndoye, Ferguson, Karlsson (Jesper), maybe even Retegui who was not trained in Italy

If there are any player profiles you'd like to take a look at, it would be a pleasure to share them

Edited August 4 by Jogo Bonito

[Jogo Bonito]

21 minutes ago, warlock said:

Have to agree thee - a tough Champions League group looks to be out of reach now.

But you're doing very well domestically. It might be better to start slow and build, than race out of the blocks and stumble later. So, just don't stumble later, I guess 

No pressure then!!!! But yes, doing well in Italy, we are just not very good on overseas trips!

[Carambau]

Very good start to the campaign! It really is better to focus on the league atm, but you maybe could still pull off some surprise results in the CL when playing without pressure   Castro looks class!

[Jogo Bonito]

8 hours ago, Carambau said:

Very good start to the campaign! It really is better to focus on the league atm, but you maybe could still pull off some surprise results in the CL when playing without pressure   Castro looks class!

Thanks for the comments. Castro will be home grown in June 2026 so next season he will be back at our club and in the senior squad again. He currently has 20 goals in 22 games on loan at Sampdoria in Serie C. 

Yes I agree we need to put the league as priority, but we still try our best to grab decent results in Europe. More of that to come in the imminent update 

[Jogo Bonito]

Season 2025/26 - Part 2 (December 2025-January 2026)

With the grey skies of winter upon us, we began December in fine style with a 2-0 win at Fiorentina

We followed that up with our first Champions League victory as we beat French side Marseille 2-0 on home turf

High-flying AS Roma were a different proposition though, as they came and took all three points in a rare home defeat

The month was rounded off with a superb 4-0 away win over Reggiana and a respectable home draw with Internazionale

Box-to-box midfielder Lewis Ferguson who has been disappointing in his outputs, was the unlikely hero of the month with six goals in five games 

January started with a trip to Dubai, but 60,000 fans saw us lose to AC Milan in the Italian Supercoppa Semi-Final after extra time

Back in Italy, we drew with Torino in Turin, cruised past Parma in the league, and then edged past the same team in Coppa Italia Round 3

Our next opportunity to claw back the gap on one of the two teams above us came with a trip to South Italy to face Napoli

Unfortunately, we again missed the chance to make up ground on the top two, reflecting on a 2-1 defeat instead

A trip to Manchester in January is never pleasant, but we put up a decent fight against Man City in our latest Champions League defeat

With one European game to go, we were adrift of the 24th spot we needed to scrape in to the next round

A 3-1 win at Udinese in Serie A boosted the mood of the squad though, and we had a slim chance of achieving something

To the surprise of everyone, central defender and captain Sam Beukema scored his first and second goals of the season as we hosted Villarreal and sunk 'The Yellow Submarine'

We will see later whether this win would be enough to make Champions League progress with just eight points from our eight continental fixtures

Jean-Philippe Mateta remains our top scorer despite being away from late December to January (one month/five matches) on AFCON duty for DR Congo

Wing-back Dan Ndoye has assisted much better this season, and we also coped with the injury absence of 'keeper Michele Di Gregorio quite well

18 goals conceded in 22 league games is an improvement (the DLP in defensive midfield seems to help ball retention and ease pressure against us)

Financially we continue to progress nicely, and we currently hold a very acceptable 3rd place in Serie A with 16 league games to go

Thanks to that last game victory over Villarreal we did just manage to qualify in Europe, finishing 23rd of the 24 teams to go through

We will tackle FC Porto of Portugal over two legs in the Knockout Play-Off, and we don't really have any expectations of progression

At the start of January, the transfer window opened with Joey Saputo giving us a hefty boost to our funding 

However, most of the window saw us failing to offload the handful of players we felt were surplus to requirements

Mateo Retegui is the main one we have given up on, he hasn't had many minutes but hasn't scored or impressed for over two years now

He had rejected a 20 million Euros transfer some months earlier, now nobody wanted to buy him for even 10% of that - or loan him, or loan-to-buy

We also wanted to move out defender Mihajlo Ilic and replace him with another Italian or home-grown-in-nation type

The Serbian has decent attributes but had never performed very well, and his place in the squad has long since been surpassed by two young Italians

Desperation saw relegation favourites Spezia eventually splurge 4 million Euros on him by 26th January and we had no hesitation accepting the bid

That deal will rise to 5 million Euros after 20 appearances, and we would also get 20% of any future profit 

The other departure saw U-18 'new-gen' winger Michele Volpi (16) head to Monza for a tidy sum of 775,000 Euros

On the incoming front, our whole window had been spent trying to lure a new Italian central defender of quality to the club

One of our two fancies was Giorgio Scalvini but his slight interest ended when Real Madrid paid 57 million Euros for his services

Our preferred and more realistic target was Torino captain Alessandro Buongiorno (26) who had a market value of 42-63 million Euros

We were willing to spend our entire budget on either player, and after months of expressing interest in the latter, we got him to show interest in joining

Unfortunately, Torino played hardball and insisted on a fee of over 120 million so we just couldn't get them to entertain our bids

We saw him as being the missing final ingredient as he was left-sided, but would play central of our three unless Riccardo Calafiori was absent

He also had the benefit of being proper captain-material, and his leadership in the heart of defence would have been invaluable to our squad

On deadline day we had to accept a deal could not be struck, so we recruited Alan Matturro (21) from Genoa for 7.5 million Euros instead

The Uruguayan already had 'trained in nation' status, and is a left-sided central defender who will be a good back-up to Calafiori

This is a player I know from his impressive displays for the 2023 World Cup winning Uruguay U-20 side, so it's a pleasure to sign him for our club 

He made 36 starts in Serie A for Genoa in 2024/25 at an average rating of 6.91, so we hope he will be a good acquisition

The other two January arrivals were Italian pair Davide Mastrantonio (22) and Lorenzo Sassanelli (17) who are not first-team squad members 

Due to age, the 'keeper will not be able to feature often for our U-20 squad, and the latter is a left-sided central defender with high potential for the U-18 group

We also did two pre-contract deals for the summer to land AC Milan striker Marco Nasti (22) and Internazionale striker Mattia Mosconi (18)

Both of these young Italians have been capped at international youth level and seem sensible swoops for no outlay

The wages for the former will merit a place in the senior squad next season, as we continue to work on the exits of Retegui and loan-outcast Kevin Denkey

Edited August 9 by Jogo Bonito

[Carambau]

Nice to see your continuing focusing your transfers on domestic talent  hard luck in the CL group phase, but you have nothing to lose now so you can play without pressure against Porto  I have faith in the rossoblu!

[Jogo Bonito]

13 minutes ago, Carambau said:

Nice to see your continuing focusing your transfers on domestic talent  hard luck in the CL group phase, but you have nothing to lose now so you can play without pressure against Porto  I have faith in the rossoblu!

You have more faith than me, but we will see!

Yes, domestic talent is one key aim and hopefully we will have a full squad of them in the near future.

[Dong21]

Really good update as always @Jogo Bonito. I enjoy reading about the transfer targets as well as the concluded deals, it paints a picture of your squad building approach. 

Excellent performance in the league and although the Champions League has been challenging, the most important thing is you are through to the next round.

I'm sure now Mateta is back from AFCON he will be firing the goals in consistently again.

[warlock]

Just two league losses in a tough two-month schedule isn't at all bad. And salvaging further progress in Europe is a bonus (even if it doesn't last long).

As @Dong21 says, the Return of Mateta could be a great boost for the business end of the season. Hanging on to third place would be a great achievement.

[Jogo Bonito]

Season 2025/26 - Part 3 (February-March 2026)

As we pushed out of winter in to February, we were keen to focus on our domestic performance

We prepared for our upcoming Champions League clash with FC Porto by comfortably beating Palermo and Frosinone (the latter in both league and cup)

This run of form gave us the confidence to edge out our European visitors in a narrow but all-important 2-1 win in the first leg at home

Another narrow Serie A victory over Sassuolo set us up for the return trip to Portugal, where we fully expected our adventure to end

But a 50th minute equaliser from left wing-back Antonino Gallo salvaged an unlikely 1-1 draw and saw us scrape through to the next round

Our reward for this was a tough end to the month, seeing a good point won at AC Milan before being totally outclassed in a 3-0 home defeat to Juventus

March began with similar difficulty, a home Round of 16 Champions League clash with Tottenham ending in a 2-1 away win for the visitors

We did then beat Salernitana in the league, before heading off to North London to see if we could perform a minor miracle against Spurs

The outcome was exactly as most would have predicted though, a 2-0 loss on the night and 4-1 aggregate score ending our European dreams

It had been a great run anyway, and we progressed further than we would have imagined - banking some valuable cash along the way

We returned to Serie A action a few days later, but could only draw 1-1 at home to Lazio as we struggled to re-set our minds

And then we lost in the Coppa Italia Semi Final First Leg meeting with Internazionale in another tough encounter

The last game of the month gave a slight boost though, as we just about got past bottom side Spezia 3-2 to hold on to 3rd in the league table 

 

As the below progress report shows, we are well-placed for a top-four finish in Serie A which would see another year of Champions League football

We could do with Jean-Philippe Mateta returning to his best goal scoring form now, as he has slowed dramatically since returning from AFCON duty

We remain 3rd best in attacking and defensive outputs, but the board and bank are no doubt delighted with our financial position 

On the transfer front, we managed to complete the sale of striker Kevin Denkey to his loan-club Genoa for 3.5 million Euros on 3rd March

We still haven't managed to find a buyer for fellow striker Mateo Retegui though, after missing out on a potential fee of 8 million Euros to a Saudi club 

Meanwhile, we did get slightly closer to signing our main seasonal transfer target Alessandro Buongiorno at the end of February

Unfortunately, despite agreeing a club record fee of 60 million Euros and crazy-high wages, we couldn't get the funds together to close the deal

After delaying it for several weeks as we tried every way of making it possible, Torino eventually - and understandably - cancelled the transfer

Edited August 12 by Jogo Bonito

[Jogo Bonito]

On 08/08/2024 at 22:06, Dong21 said:

Really good update as always @Jogo Bonito. I enjoy reading about the transfer targets as well as the concluded deals, it paints a picture of your squad building approach. 

Excellent performance in the league and although the Champions League has been challenging, the most important thing is you are through to the next round.

I'm sure now Mateta is back from AFCON he will be firing the goals in consistently again.

Thanks mate, appreciated. Good and bad in Europe as you can read above. And we need more from Mateta to see out the last few months of the season in style!

On 08/08/2024 at 22:29, warlock said:

Just two league losses in a tough two-month schedule isn't at all bad. And salvaging further progress in Europe is a bonus (even if it doesn't last long).

As @Dong21 says, the Return of Mateta could be a great boost for the business end of the season. Hanging on to third place would be a great achievement.

Thanks mate. We have suffered a few losses since then, but we always need to remember these are tough challenges and we are putting up a good fight domestically and in Europe.

Mateta hasn't quite kept up his best ratios since signing last January, but hopefully he will get back to his best form in April and May.

[Dong21]

You did well to knock out Porto and it is no shame being eliminated by Tottenham. Premier League top sides are dangerous beasts and very hard to topple, whoever you are managing.

As you highlight, your league form is still very strong and you continue to exceed expectations by keeping hold of 3rd position. Good luck for the final two months of the season!

[Jogo Bonito]

15 minutes ago, Dong21 said:

You did well to knock out Porto and it is no shame being eliminated by Tottenham. Premier League top sides are dangerous beasts and very hard to topple, whoever you are managing.

As you highlight, your league form is still very strong and you continue to exceed expectations by keeping hold of 3rd position. Good luck for the final two months of the season!

Thanks mate. Indeed Porto was a good result which we did not expect, Tottenham were just too big and too strong for us. We struggle against the big teams in Italy, let alone sides like them. Very happy with the league form, could still grab the title, but 3rd or 4th would definitely do for me!

Edited August 12 by Jogo Bonito

[Carambau]

It´s only 5 points and Roma surely will drop some points in the next 8 games - this is the time you gotta be there! (and i´m sure i rossoblú will!) Good luck mate  

Edited August 13 by Carambau

[Jogo Bonito]

On 13/08/2024 at 18:51, Carambau said:

It´s only 5 points and Roma surely will drop some points in the next 8 games - this is the time you gotta be there! (and i´m sure i rossoblú will!) Good luck mate  

Thanks for the support, it's time to find out as the season just completed.

[Jogo Bonito]

Season 2025/26 - Part 4 (April-May 2026)

At the start of April we had eight Serie A games left, and a Coppa Italia Semi Final 2nd Leg recovery mission ahead

We started off with two fairly routine league wins over sides we would expect to beat, but got a wake-up call in a 3-1 loss at Atalanta

Somehow we then pulled out a remarkable performance to beat Internazionale on penalties in the Coppa Italia, after a fine 4-2 second leg triumph

The prize for that was a chance to take on Napoli in the Final - not easy as at this point they were still Serie A table-toppers

The month ended with a 1-1 home draw with mid-table Fiorentina, which was disappointing as we could have closed the gap on the top two sides

And next up, we travelled to one of them as AS Roma (2nd) hosted us in the capital

A draw would have been seen as an excellent day out for us, but they had an early red card and we fought back from a goal down to bash them 5-1

The numerical advantage was clearly a massive game-changer, but we still performed very well in one of our best displays of the season

We followed this with a comfortable win over relegation-bound Reggiana before setting off for the Coppa Italia Final

Unfortunately, on the big day we just didn't turn up and nobody came out with any credit as we surrendered far too easily to deserved winners Napoli

Our penultimate league game saw us visit Internazionale, but an early 2-0 lead was thrown away and they came out 3-2 winners

This pretty much ended any outside title chance we had, as both AS Roma and leaders Napoli were three points clear going in to the final day

To be fair, our boys responded well to see off Torino 4-1, but as expected it was never going to be enough to deliver celebrations

Leaders Napoli contrived to draw their last game, but AS Roma held their nerve to win and jump ahead of them to claim the Scudetto by a two point margin

Our fine season ended with us repeating the 3rd of last year, but the deficit was only three points to the winners and one point to the runners-up

We never really threatened to win the title and can have no complaints of bad luck, we send our congratulations to AS Roma and our respect to Napoli too

Reflecting on our own performance, we didn't win anything but 3rd and a Coppa Italia Final was a good effort - not to mention the last 16 of the Champions League

Here is the final table, showing all the successes and failures in the Italian top flight

As usual, we see a steady performance graph through the season, plus of course an ever-growing financial improvement

On the pitch, our main marksman Jean-Philippe Mateta rediscovered his best scoring form in the last two months to end up as our top scorer by some margin

We managed to significantly improve our goals-against record (3rd best with 35) but not to the detriment of our attacking returns as our 79 was 2nd best

We also won the Serie A fair play award for the third successive season with just 22 yellow cards (best) and no red cards in the league

Here are the player stats (all competitions) for every player who had featured for the first team and completed the season with us 

It is worth mentioning that we finally managed to tie Riccardo Calafiori down to a new bumper deal on 80,000 Euros per week until 2031 (delighted with that)

Mateta scored 21 of his 25 goals in Serie A to become the top league scorer, ahead of both Lautaro Martinez & Victor Osimhen - well done to our boy JP

We also wanted to share the below clips, highlighting our Profit & Loss excellence and league-best Wages-to-Turnover ratio

The board have set their initial budgets for next season, which should allow us to be competitive again

We'll do our best to try and finally land Alessandro Buongiorno, but we don't expect to do much else incoming at first-team level

Some of the foreign contingent may be allowed to move on if suitable fees are offered, and we could actually get very close to '100% local' for 2026/27

We have managed to arrange some early transfers, with Mateo Retegui finally being put out of his misery with a cut-price transfer to the Saudi Pro League

On the incoming front, we already talked about the top two young Italians joining this summer, but we have added another two names to the list

Cristian Cama (18) is an Italian youth international left-back being poached from AS Roma for our U-20 squad

And long-time target Mattia Liberali (19) is an exciting left-footed attacking midfielder snapped up from AC Milan for 2.8 million Euros

Already capped and scoring at Italy U-21 level, he is a player well known to me who should flourish in a transitional year with the Bologna U-20 squad

Edited August 15 by Jogo Bonito

[warlock]

Nicely done! Just one win away from the title, and a close-run thing in the cup. Champions League again will keep the money flowing in... although it looks like you don't need much of it 

Liberali looks like an absolute steal if he comes good on that potential.

[Dong21]

15 hours ago, Jogo Bonito said:

Our fine season ended with us repeating the 3rd of last year, but the deficit was only three points to the winners and one point to the runners-up

A fine season indeed, and definitely year-on-year improvement! 
Excited to see what happens next to the squad, with your increasing pipeline of young Italian talent knocking on the door.

Edited August 16 by Dong21

[Carambau]

Another successful season  Congrats on CL qualification - this will secure some more money into your war chest... nice to see your domestic transfer approach is working well!