EDUCATING AARON
Hickey faces a steep learning curve under Serie A warrior Mihajlovic as he bids to make his mark with Bologna
AARON HICKEY need only look at the nickname of the city of Bologna if he wants to learn more about his new home.
La dotta, la grassa e la rossa (the learned, the fat and the red) neatly summarises the defining characteristics of the Emilia-Romagna region’s stunning capital.
Bologna is ‘learned’ because it boasts the world’s oldest university, ‘fat’ for its mouth-watering culinary tradition and ‘red’ for its terracotta buildings and history of left-wing politics.
Hickey could do worse than soak up the city’s educational heritage. After all, he has a lot to learn — and fast.
A new culture, language and style of football are just some of the challenges facing a young man who’s been brave enough to take them on at just 18 years of age.
Considering the interest shown in the left-back, he could have chosen an easier route by remaining in the UK. But he was open-minded enough to spot an opportunity at Bologna.
Not only will he grace one of Europe’s top leagues, but he has a fighting chance of being involved in the first team from the off — something that was unlikely to be on offer at fellow suitors Bayern Munich.
The youngster acknowledged this fact when facing the media before jetting out to Italy, adding: ‘Bologna has a family feel to it, so I feel I’ve made the right decision.’
The welcoming environment has been carefully cultivated by the club, but don’t mistake friendliness for complacency. This is an outfit who harbour ambitions of threatening Italian football’s established elite as soon as possible.
There was a time when they were considered part of that sect. Bologna have seven Serie A titles to their name, as many as Roma, Lazio and Napoli combined. Only Juventus, AC Milan, Inter and Genoa boast a more impressive haul. But the last of their
Scudetti came in 1964, while the rest were clinched between 1925 and 1941. The glory days are long gone, with their last trophy of note the 1974 Coppa Italia.
In 2014, however, the club were taken over by Canadian businessman Joey Saputo, owner of Major League Soccer side Montreal Impact. After he oversaw an immediate promotion back to the top flight, Bologna have gone through a period of consolidation and are now looking to push ahead on and off the pitch. Renovation works are planned for the beautiful but dated Stadio Renato Dall’Ara, while the training ground has been upgraded. But the most notable investment has gone into the playing squad. Since Saputo’s arrival, the club have repeatedly broken their transfer record. Bologna’s five biggest signings have been made in the last five years: Riccardo Orsolini (€15million from Juventus), Takehiro Tomiyasu (€9m from Saint-Truiden), Lukasz Skorupski (€9m from Roma), Mattia Destro (€8.5m from Roma) and
Nicolas Dominguez (€8.5m from Velez Sarsfield).
The deals for Orsolini, Tomiyasu and Dominguez were struck last summer, along with further outlays on Nicola Sansone and Roberto Soriano (both €8m from Villarreal).
In addition, Sinisa Mihajlovic (left) began last season as the fourth highest-paid coach in Serie A with a net salary of €3m per year, more than Lazio boss Simone Inzaghi or Atalanta’s Gian Piero Gasperini.
Saputo is clearly aiming high. ‘The objective is no longer survival,’ he said in May, ‘but to be in the top half of the league and then to qualify for the Europa League’.
This summer has been much quieter on the transfer front after the disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Nevertheless, boss Mihajlovic has built a strong team capable of aiming higher than last season’s 12th-placed finish, featuring a blend of exciting youngsters and seasoned campaigners.
The 51-year-old has been through hell and back during his season and a half at the helm, making the on-field stability he has created nothing less than remarkable. When Mihajlovic replaced Filippo Inzaghi midway through the 2018-19 campaign, the Rossoblu were in a calamitous state. A humiliating 4-0 home defeat to relegation strugglers Frosinone was the final straw for the former AC Milan striker. When Serbian Mihajlovic came in the door, Bologna were in the relegation zone and supporters enraged by the team’s performances. His presence sparked a dramatic turnaround, the team claiming 30 points in the final 17 games as he dragged a group of previously unwatchable players all the way to tenth place, the club’s highest league finish in seven years. But then, in July 2019, the boss announced he had been diagnosed with leukaemia. He remained in charge regardless, undergoing three courses
of chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant during the 2019-20 campaign. It didn’t dent his battling spirit. Last September, he delivered a furious half-time team talk from his hospital bed over the telephone, with his side trailing 3-1 to Brescia. That rousing speech inspired a 4-3 comeback victory, prompting the team bus to stop outside Mihajlovic’s hospital ward on the way home so the players could sing their coach’s name up to his window. After being discharged from hospital in February, he led Bologna to mid-table security, only to contract Covid-19 in August. Thankfully, he was asymptomatic and quickly allayed any fears over his condition. ‘After what I experienced from July to January last year, six months of daily battle against leukaemia, in and out of hospital for three rounds of chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant, Covid was like a cool drink of water,’ he told
Gazzetta dello Sport.
With Mihajlovic set to finally have a full, undisrupted season coaching from the touchline in 2020-21, his influence on Hickey will be intriguing to follow.
During a decorated playing career, in which he won Serie A titles with Lazio and Inter and became renowned for his outstanding free-kick ability, Mihajlovic’s warrior spirit always stood out.
This has translated into his life as a coach. While in charge of Sampdoria, he threatened to ‘throw players off Juliet’s balcony’ if they didn’t win in Verona.
But he is more than a motivator. Mihajlovic’s side like to play on the front foot in a 4-2-3-1 formation, and he has shown willingness to give young players opportunities, with the likes of Tomiyasu, 20, Orsolini, 20, Dominguez, 21, Mattias
Svanberg, 20, Jerdy Schouten, 22, Musa Barrow, 20, and Andreas Skov Olsen, 19, featuring regularly last season.
Hickey, while younger than all of the above, has been signed primarily to provide competition for 27-year-old former Ajax left-back Mitchell Dijks.
The young Scot could even be in line for his debut against Parma tonight after the Dutchman was sent off against Milan last weekend. In any case, with fixtures set to pile up in the shortened season ahead, there is reason to hope that Hickey won’t have to wait too long for his opportunity. Especially when there are only two natural left-backs in the squad.
There is also an appetite from the fans to see their young Scot in action, as ÈTV’s Bologna correspondent Alessio De Giuseppe told Sportsmail.
‘There’s a lot of curiosity from Bologna fans,’ he said. ‘The move hasn’t gone under the radar because, compared to previous years, Bologna’s transfer business has been very quiet. So even a move for a player of his age, with youth and potential, but who was wanted by Bayern Munich, has piqued the curiosity of the fans.
‘There’s a desire to see what he can do, and great anticipation.’
Neither Hickey nor Bologna expect the Scot to make up the numbers or be shunted into the youth team.
But he has a steep learning curve ahead. He could well be tasked with keeping the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Papu Gomez or Lorenzo Insigne quiet in the next few months.
And there are few better mentors in the art of Serie A defending than Mihajlovic. As a player, he was one of the greatest foreign defenders the league has seen. As a coach, he will appreciate the hard work and dedication that Hickey is determined to provide.
It’s not a bad place to be a student, after all. In ‘la dotta’, with one of Europe’s grandest old universities a stone’s throw away, the teenage Scot’s football education is in good hands.