Bologna, September 17, 2026 – No fear, only confidence. Raffaele Palladino presents himself like this: “I am happy, enthusiastic, and ambitious: my first task will be to restore enthusiasm to the players and the city. I have little time and a lot of work to do; when you take over, you have to understand the problems, spend as much time as possible with the players, understand them, in order to be able to intervene. I am here for this. And I am here because I have known the Bologna management for two years and they have outlined a project, not just a bench. I had never signed a three-year contract before.”
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It is a project that according to CEO Claudio Fenucci will bring Bologna back to competing for the Coppa Italia and Europe over a three-year period: “We decided to dismiss Tedesco on Tuesday, after a meeting in which confused ideas emerged. Based on our experience, we took responsibility for the decision, also because otherwise we would have risked wasting time and Palladino. Three-year project during which we want to return to competing for the Coppa Italia and Europe.”
“It is necessary to say goodbye to Tedesco – continues Fenucci -. The dismissal was for technical reasons. We were worried about the team’s performance. We had a short path but decided to dismiss him after four matches, which is not usual for us. For various reasons, he did not achieve the results we expected. With Sartori and Di Vaio, we decided that his type of work and the coach’s ability to make an impact were below expectations.”
Then the invitation to the players: “They must regain hunger and motivation.” In other words, now it’s up to them.
Before thinking about the future, however, it is necessary to focus on the delicate moment and Palladino is ready: “I am charged and confident. I have a strong team, the right players, we can play with 3 or 4, I prefer a 3-man defense. Above all, the working methodology changes and we will have to do a lot of physical work to regain intensity. We have little time and many things to do, looking ahead to Saturday: first of all, get into the players’ heads, get to know them, understand their moods, thoughts, fears, ambitions. This is a club that has done great things and there are players who have done great things. It is my responsibility to bring them out quickly. We have to fight match by match to get out of the bottom and then go bother those at the top of the standings.”
There is a break ahead to implement his principles and a Torino on Saturday to beat by all means to bounce back: “Saturday’s match is very important. We will use the break as a sort of pre-camp, to improve condition and concepts, we will work a lot. We will also do it to recover the ball further up. We need to bring back enthusiasm, not set limits, and be ambitious. We are not looking at the standings now, head down and pedal: now we have to get back up if we want to bother those in front again.”
