Maifredi advises. "Bologna, Motta is the past. There is little sense in booing him. Better to support Italiano"

Gigi Maifredi, on Saturday Bologna will have Motta back as Juve coach: do you expect boos, applause or indifference from Bologna fans?

"Thiago is the past, so if I were a Bologna fan I would avoid paying particular attention to him. Bologna's present is called Italiano, a coach who has also fixed many things since the beginning of the season. So I would think above all about supporting him".

The fact remains that Motta cannot be just any opponent for the people of Bologna, especially given how the divorce came about in May: amid knife throwing.

"I'll say straight away what I think: Thiago was not a traitor for Bologna. He put together a triumphant season, he must have thought it would be impossible to repeat it and he did what any ambitious coach would do: seize an important professional opportunity for growth".

What she did in the summer of '90 when she said goodbye to Bologna and sat on the Juventus bench.

"I wouldn't compare my story to Motta's, simply because the experience I had in Bologna was unique. In rossoblù I had three years, one better than the other, the people of Bologna had adopted me and I felt Bolognese inside".

Then one day a phone call came from Turin.

"Everyone knows how it went. Just as I'm not revealing anything new in recalling that Juve wanted to give me the bench even before that summer. But I had a contract with Bologna and a special relationship with the city. Furthermore, Corioni, by getting in the way, told me things that emotionally touched me and forced me to stay."

On November 11, 1990, you returned to the Dall'Ara for the first time as Juventus coach and a banner in the Andrea Costa curve read: 'Maifredi, can you feel the love of your curve? Bologna embraces you'.

"We won with a penalty from Baggio (awarded for an almost non-existent contact in the rossoblù area between Negro and Schillaci, ed.), Detari instead missed the penalty. In the end I was happy with the victory but not very happy: I had upset a city with which I had been one and the same for three years".

The following year, however, he returned to the Bologna bench in Serie B and was fired after 11 games.

"I was no longer the Maifredi I was two years earlier, I was wrong to come back."

And what is Juventus coach Motta doing wrong if it's true that his team concedes very few goals but doesn't score?

"When judging Thiago's work, one cannot ignore the many injuries he has had to deal with. I am convinced that in the long run he will bring his idea of ​​football, but patience is needed."

Do they give Juve time to grow and learn to win?

"I see more benevolent information towards him. Maybe because even in Turin they have understood that you can't get everything right away. But this story of defensive compactness only holds up in Italy: in the Premier League I don't think the fans celebrate 'clean sheets'".

In all this Italian, Champions League excluded, he gave a direction to Bologna.

"Managing to have a season not too far, in terms of results, from the one done by Motta for Bologna would already be a great achievement. Italiano is facing a good test this year: tougher than his three years in Florence. Because here, and we return to the starting point, it comes after a masterpiece".

We are entering the realm of science fiction: is a second Thiago in Bologna, in an indefinite future, even conceivable?

"Why not? Motta aims to coach top clubs, but regardless of how the Bolognese feel about him today, I don't see his return being impossible in a few years."