Sorry for the delay. You can read more about where I’ve been here.

What a season we had, and what a season ahead. The rise of Bologna has been astonishing, or as the Italians say stupefacente, which sounds cooler in every way. With the Bologna squad ageing, the manager has taken the not so radical step of trying to lower the average age – more on that later – as we approach Roberto Baggio’s last stand. Will the Divine Ponytail spearhead one more miracle? For now, I have to eat this entire ice cream in 2 minutes after saying Dave Black would never succeed. Buon appetito…

That’s right James, we’re back after a fairly long break to continue with Bologna. Becoming the Serie A Champions in season 2 set us some way ahead of the expected curve but the next stop as ever is to try and win the Champions League. Work to be done I feel but here’s a reminder of how we won the league

Some mad happenings across in the home land. Wrighty as player-manager is what we’re all here for. Pearce is just to be expected.

Right, I’m going to overhaul the squad. Mad to do that to a winning team perhaps but the reality is our talisman is 35, Emmers isn’t far behind, Mick Quinn doesn’t count, Barnesy is knocking on, Marocchi is even older. So on and so forth. I also still need a number 9 who can reliably score goals. Young Nevland is the first to pick up the baton.

This is the Stoichkov regen. He will become magnificent.

Everybody’s favourite Icelandic regen will replace Emmers or Barnes. He’s versatile.

De Sanctis arrives to push Antonioli as the number 1.

Aaron Hughes will be a back up centre half who could improve – my centre halves are fairly young anyway, so this is just a squad filling exercise.

The marquee signing, if you can have such a thing in 1999, is Leandro from Sporting. The lad is a goal machine in a poor league but his skills look like they should transfer – albeit we need to be patient due to that adaptability stat.

More backup here.

Now for some succession planning. Wingbacks are hard to buy, I’ve no idea if young Juli will prove to be a success but he’s got creativity, dribbling, flair and passing so he’s a winner in my eyes.

On the other side, Soler arrives to replace our ageing men for 15 years. He’s a bit like Juli but less impressive.

All of that leaves the squad looking like this. I’ve given up on Dwight Yorke, it’s telling that nobody wants him. Romario is also past his best. I’d like to trim those two and a few other ageing goons but that’s what we have for now.

This is our first 11, again for now. Some places up for grabs of course.

Maybe times have changed. The Italian Charity Shield is ours after a first half burst sees off Juventus. Impressive!

That’s not the worst group. Rosenborg cannot be underestimated due to the Norwegian power in the game.

Coppa Italia O’Clock and we’re off to Perry Como. Nevland and Popov open their accounts for the club and it’s a safe passage to round 3.

The Serie A season starts away at Juventus – cheers fixture computer – and it’s an absolute disaster. There is definitely still work to be done.

At home we are still formidable though. Parma are obviously a threat but Nevland has a taste for goals.

That taste is knocked out of his mouth early doors by Ravenna who rub salt in the wounds when ex-Bologna man Kolivanov opens the scoring. Leandro comes on for the Nev though and from there, he steals the show along with help from two of our longer serving stars. The garden is rosy.

With Nevland out for a few weeks it’s Leandro and Purk for the short term and this time it’s Purk’s turn to score twice as Benfica are defeated. A solid start to the Champions League campaign.

He’s at it again against Ancona, rescuing us after a sub-par performance gave the minnows the chance of a point.

One of the backup defenders departs. Never let us down and I’m a bit worried that he’s gone to Inter, as that implies he is decent. Then again, they have been quite average in Serie A in this save so maybe their reputation has suffered. We’ve got Aaron Hughes now, so yeah.

A tricky trip to Pescara is decided by an own goal. An away clean sheet for us is not a regular occurrence.

Other than the first couple of games, the fixture list has been quite generous. A home win over Genoa keeps our momentum going.

We should really be 2 out of 2 in the Champions League but as I alluded to earlier, Rosenborg have the Norwegian qualities. That said, it’s an Italian called Marazzina who does us over, scoring twice in 3 minutes to flip the game on its head. Baggio seals a point which we are grateful for.

Obviously we then go to Milan and win. It should probably be easier than it was, Milan playing 80 minutes a goal and a man down after Desailly’s rush of blood. Weah equalises from a corner and we’re pretty average but young Popov wins it.

Sometimes though, inexplicable things happen. We played well here but Roma scored just about every shot they had on target.

We battered them in truth but that equaliser just never arrived. Consider the wind out of my sails.

That rare home defeat costs us top spot at the hands of…Salernitana!? Honestly, Serie A has been ridiculous in this save. Early days yet in Season 3 but some unfamiliar names in the top 12 and Inter are nowhere to be seen. I wonder if Ronaldo is starting to get itchy feet…

We’ll leave it there for this week. It’s great to be back and to have another unpredictable season underway. Join me next week for the all important middle section of the season where we’ll try and get out of the Champions League group whilst continuing to take on Italy’s finest.