**** Official Premiership Hickey Thread ( merged ) ****

[Perth to Paisley]

1 hour ago, Pasquale for King said:

Or finish the main stand 😱

Think we are still trying to work out what to do with the space.

Parking makes it unattractive for regular  day time use.

 

Personally I think they should have a matchday high end espresso bar that sells porchetta/salsiccio panino.

 

Anybody who a) pronounces espresso with an 'x' or b) asks for a cappuccino after 11.00am should get a life time ban!

 

(Menebrea on tap is taking it too far!)

 

 

[Pasquale for King]

4 minutes ago, Perth to Paisley said:

Think we are still trying to work out what to do with the space.

Parking makes it unattractive for regular  day time use.

 

Personally I think they should have a matchday high end espresso bar that sells porchetta/salsiccio panino.

 

Anybody who a) pronounces espresso with an 'x' or b) asks for a cappuccino after 11.00am should get a life time ban!

 

(Menebrea on tap is taking it too far!)

 

 

They really should’ve thought of what to do with it when it was designed, that’s what usually happens. The bar and restaurant aren’t that big after all, the shop and especially the TO could be bigger also. 
There’s literally hundreds of customers looking to eat something kicking around 5 days a week. 

[Cairneyhill Jambo]

They mentioned it on BBC Radio Scotland today that Aaron Hickey has scored more goals in Serie A than Joe Jordan. 

Edited January 22, 2022 by Cairneyhill Jambo

[Tazio]

35 minutes ago, Cairneyhill Jambo said:

They mentioned it on BBC Radio Scotland today that Aaron Hickey has scored more goals in Serie A than Joe Jordan. 

Correct. Jordan spent time in Serie B where he scored most of his goals. 

[Mikey1874]

Just a reminder Aaron Hickey is suspended for today's game due to bookings. 

 

http://www.hesgoal.com/news/95040/Bologna_vs_Empoli.html

 

[Factuer Moi]

6 minutes ago, Mikey1874 said:

Just a reminder Aaron Hickey is suspended for today's game due to bookings. 

 

http://www.hesgoal.com/news/95040/Bologna_vs_Empoli.html

 

Thanks Mikey

Edited February 6, 2022 by Factuer Moi

[Masonic]

is he stays a bit longer the transfer fee would maybe get bigger if hes doing well and in turn net the club more so for that reason i hope he stays another year or two before a big money move to england or another top serie a side

[escobri]

Starts today  🦕 

[stuartp]

Commentator at the game calling Aaron Hickey the Scottish Flying Scotsman

[Perth to Paisley]

 

Meant to post this earlier from The Athletic l

 

After a season and a half with Bologna, Aaron Hickey knows, deep down, that living in the shadow of the Asinelli and Garisenda towers has changed him.

“I just don’t know what it is,” he tells The Athletic. The 19-year-old is no less Scottish than when he left Edinburgh’s Hearts but the Italian influence has seeped through like a dash of olive oil on some gnocco fritto.

Ironically enough, it is as he tries to put his finger on it that it comes to him.

“The hand gestures!” Hickey laughs. “I know every single one of them.”

He picked them up on the drive from the old town to Bologna’s training ground in Casteldebole, west of the city. At the traffic lights. In his mirrors. On the sidewalk.

“The Italians are crazy in the car,” he says.

Particularly around here. Emilia Romagna, the region in northern Italy where Bologna sits, is famous, among other things, for being home to the Ferrari factory, or stable as it is known, and the locals approach their commute as if they are trying to get into Q3 at Monza.

“They park so close to you and stuff.”

When Hickey does arrive for work and strides through the doors a teenage Roberto Mancini used in the early 1980s, the dressing room is no less animated than the roads outside.

“People are chatting like normal and they’re still throwing hands when they’re right next to each other,” Hickey says, shaking his head at the hilarity of it all. Riccardo Orsolini, Bologna’s in-form winger, is loud and usually has his team-mates in stitches. Lorenzo De Silvestri pops the music on. De Silvestri speaks English, so has taken his fellow full-back under his wing. “We’re all close,” Hickey says.

Eighteen months after his move to Serie A, the fresh-faced Glaswegian has no regrets.

“It’s really good,” he insists. “I’m enjoying myself and I’m all settled in. My mum’s here now and it’s good to have some company.”

He has found an apartment he likes — “on a wee street in the centre; really old on the outside, kind of modern on the inside” — and by now he is like a Bolognese when he is down at the bar (Italians call a cafe a bar) ordering a bite to eat. “It’s actually shocking I don’t know the name,” he cracks up. “What’s it called when you have a coffee and the wee pastry with cream in it?” A cornetto alla crema? “Aye, that’s the one. It’s top.”

When Hickey flew into Guglielmo Marconi Airport in the late summer of 2020 to complete his €1.7 million transfer, a move Bologna announced with a low-fi Loch Ness Monster-themed video, Italy was still in the grips of the pandemic. COVID-19 restrictions were much more severe here than back home and it made adapting to a new country, where Hickey did not speak the language, harder than normal.

“The restaurants weren’t open, the streets were empty,” he recalls. Life was limited to playing, training and staying safe. It meant sampling everything Bologna has to offer had to wait.

 

The city is known as “La dotta, la grassa e la rossa” — “learned” because Bologna’s university is the oldest in the world — no better place, then, for Hickey to continue his football education — “fat” because of the ragu, mortadella and tortellini that make up Bolognese cuisine and “red” because of its brickwork, Ferraris and left-wing politics. “When I first came to Bologna they did say to me some people come (as new players) and just eat pasta. They get overweight and you can tell on the pitch,” Hickey chuckles.

It is hard to resist. “My mum keeps telling me my face is getting fatter.” Only his nearest and dearest would know. To everybody else, Hickey looks as lean as a greyhound and often tops the sprint tests at the club. He carefully watches what he eats but if there is a day when he allows himself a cheat meal, well, he is in the right place. “The tagliatelle!” Hickey enthuses with a chef’s kiss of approval.

The restaurant ratings are up there with the one the local paper Il Resto del Carlino has been giving the young Scot’s performances at the Renato Dall’Ara Stadium this season.

Coach Sinisa Mihajlovic has never been afraid of giving young talent a chance. As a player in the early 1990s, Mihajlovic lobbied Vujadin Boskov to give a teenage Francesco Totti his Roma debut and, more recently, upon becoming a coach himself he was the one who made Gianluigi Donnarumma AC Milan’s starting goalkeeper in 2016, while he was still at school.

It is no different at Bologna. Last May, Mihajlovic brought on Wisdom Amey for the Arsenal-bound Takehiro Tomiyasu late in a 2-0 loss to Genoa. At 15 years and 274 days, Amey became the youngest player ever to play in Serie A.

Mihajlovic is not interested in the headlines these decisions make. On the contrary, he firmly believes that if you’re good enough, you’re old enough, no matter what the conventions of football are in Italy, where traditionally there has always been a tendency to go with experience first.

It speaks volumes about Mihajlovic’s faith in Hickey that no player in the under-20 age group has clocked up more minutes in Serie A than him this season. Since recovering from shoulder surgery, he has established himself in the first team ahead of former Ajax and Norwich City defender Mitchell Dijks, who is 10 years his senior, and has held down his place better than the other prospects signed by sporting director Riccardo Bigon and the club’s former talent identifier Walter Sabatini.

“The manager used to be a left-back,” Hickey says — a legendary one at that, in this part of the world, “Every day he teaches me something. It’s mostly defensive stuff, like your body shape when you’re defending. All the simple things but in great detail. It’s really good.”

Copying Mihajlovic’s playing style is one thing. The manager’s fashion is another. If the roll necks and Donegal flat caps are not enough, Mihajlovic is a sneakerhead too, prowling the touchlines of Italy in limited edition Ben & Jerry and Off White Nikes.

“Aye,” Hickey acknowledges. “He comes out with some good stuff.”

(Photo: Gianluca Ricci/LiveMedia/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

In addition to the spirit Mihajlovic showed in his recovery from leukaemia in 2019, what Bologna players most admire about him is his innate ability to strike a ball. Only Andrea Pirlo has scored more free kicks in Serie A history than the Serbian, who contends he played fewer games than the suave World Cup-winning Italy playmaker and that one of Pirlo’s free-kick goals should have been taken off him and declared an own goal.

Hickey is not a free-kick taker but regularly gets to watch his manager challenge those who have that duty for Bologna — not to mention the goalkeepers.  “Embarrassing them,” is what he does best, Hickey laughs. Though he turns 53 this month, Mihajlovic has still got it and the house always wins. This, after all, is a man who famously scored a hat-trick of free kicks for Lazio against Sampdoria in December 1998, so taking him on is a fool’s game.

Leaving the set pieces to others hasn’t stopped Hickey from chipping in with a fair few goals this season. Bologna’s switch to a back three means there is a little more cover behind him now so he can bomb on.

“It changes it a wee bit,” he explains, “because it allows me to go further up the park and get into attacks. As a wing-back, I’m able to get into more advanced areas and be a threat for the opposition but obviously, I have to balance it with defensive work and running back. It’s a tough shift.”

Hickey is up to four goals for the season in 25 appearances, making him one of the highest-scoring teenagers in Europe’s top five leagues. No defender has more and he was particularly proud of his top-corner screamer in the derby against Sassuolo just before Christmas. “A couple of my pals were saying: ‘You only score deflections’,” Hickey huffs at the cheek of it. “So that one felt good.”

They all count of course, and Scotland had more than one reason to watch Bologna vs Empoli last weekend, even if it did end in a goalless stalemate.

Hickey, who missed the game through suspension, calls it a “wee mini derby”, as the visitors’ ranks included countryman Liam Henderson, a former Celtic midfielder who also had a spell at Hibernian. Henderson left the Glasgow giants for Italy with Bari four years ago and has since played for Verona and Lecce before signing for Empoli last summer.

The pair of them are now part of an exclusive club of only five Scots to have scored in Serie A (the others being Denis Law, Joe Jordan and Graeme Souness).

“It’s good to be up with those famous names,” Hickey smiles. “I’m delighted to be in that category. It’s weird that there’s only five of us.”

More will surely follow.

So encouraged have Bologna been by Hickey’s adaptation and success that they went shopping in Scotland over the winter. Aberdeen’s Calvin Ramsay piqued their curiosity for a while and at one point, it looked like fans at the Dall’Ara would soon be seeing Hickey on the left and Ramsay on the right of their defence. In the end, the deal fell through and it remains to be seen if Bologna go back in for the 18-year-old in the summer.

Not that Hickey needs another Scot to feel at home. There is “Binksy” — 20-year-old Tottenham academy graduate and former Scotland and England youth international Luis Binks — and he gets on well with the squad’s Scandinavians and Sydney van Hooijdonk, 22, son of former Celtic favourite Pierre, too. “His dad was at a game and my dad got a selfie,” Hickey laughs.

Just some of the perks of playing at the Dall’Ara, a character-forming experience for Hickey, who enjoys turning out in front of the Curva Bulgarelli. “Our stadium’s actually really good,” he says. “They have pyro and all that.”

This weekend, Lazio and the Stadio Olimpico await him but very little fazes Hickey now after going to San Siro and the Allianz to play Inter Milan, AC Milan and Juventus. It comes as no surprise then that Premier League clubs, most notably Aston Villa and Brentford, have shown an interest in bringing him back to the UK.

For now, though, Hickey’s focus is no different to when he joined Bologna. “Get in the team, play, be consistent. Do that, score a few goals. That’s a bonus,” he says.

Even without the gestures, you have to hand it to Hickey.

Up until now, his time in Bologna has gone benissimo. 

 

[Vlad Magic]

Nice read.

 

Thanks for posting 👍👍

[GavK1012]

Great read...very pwoud of him and hope he does himself justice in the long haul and continue his progress...impressive player and young man...

 

 

[smiler]

Just started v an in form Spezia side. Hickey starts.

[Gambo]

Hickey gives ball away in lead up to goal. Should still have been defended better

[smiler]

Yep Spezia 1 up after 11mins.

[HMFC01]

The booking on the halfway line was class.   Spezia player goes down from a foul.  Referee charges towards incident and drops his cards.  Spezia player whilst still on the ground passes them up so the Bologna player  gets booked. 

 

Good match so far.    I expect more goals.    Hickey livley and had a near chance. 

[smiler]

1-1 HT

Hickey is 11/1 anytime scorer 22/1 3rd goalscorer.

[Perth to Paisley]

Another good game

[Mikey1874]

 

[CostaJambo]

Just stuck an inch perfect cross on Arnautovic' head for the opener away to Salernitana.

[neilnunb]

Great finish to the Lazio/Napoli game.

 

Looked like Lazio had got a draw with minutes to go but Napoli nick it in added time to go top of the league.

[Dayman]

On 26/02/2022 at 14:56, CostaJambo said:

Just stuck an inch perfect cross on Arnautovic' head for the opener away to Salernitana.

With his right foot as well…

 

Surely has to be in the next Scotland squad. 

[Montgomery Brewster]

43 minutes ago, neilnunb said:

Great finish to the Lazio/Napoli game.

 

Looked like Lazio had got a draw with minutes to go but Napoli nick it in added time to go top of the league.

Inter should be out of sight by now. Alas can’t hit a barn door at the moment. 

 

Last 2 games - 50 shots - zero goals !

[Perth to Paisley]

Well that's 90 minutes of my life I won't get back.

 

Bologna are a poor side.

Hickey had their only shot and even that was powder puff.

Napoli Milan later tonight can only be better!

[indianajones]

Its mental how this kid isnt in the Scotland squad. 

[neilnunb]

Milan go ahead in the big game 😎

[Mikey1874]

After snubbing Scotland U21s Hickey retains his place in Serie A. 

 

http://www.hesgoal.com/news/98227/Fiorentina_vs_Bologna.html

[Irufushi]

On 27/02/2022 at 22:27, Dayman said:

With his right foot as well…

 

Surely has to be in the next Scotland squad. 

Seen this mentioned a lot by folk . I’m sure he’s right footed anyway? 

[Dayman]

28 minutes ago, Irufushi said:

Seen this mentioned a lot by folk . I’m sure he’s right footed anyway? 

I think he’s one of the rare people who are pretty much ambidextrous, but his left is his preferred foot I’m sure. 

[Perth to Paisley]

Started a Lwb today away v Fiorentina, moved to LB after teamate stupidly got sent off on 40 mins

Played LB then RB when Dijks came on after 75 mins.

Played Right back/wing for last 10 mins chasing an equaliser.

Couple of good crosses with right foot.

Knackered and booked on 86 minutes (one for the team)

Another solid performance

Has the managers trust

 

#justsaying

[upgotheheads]

8 minutes ago, Perth to Paisley said:

Started a Lwb today away v Fiorentina, moved to LB after teamate stupidly got sent off on 40 mins

Played LB then RB when Dijks came on after 75 mins.

Played Right back/wing for last 10 mins chasing an equaliser.

Couple of good crosses with right foot.

Knackered and booked on 86 minutes (one for the team)

Another solid performance

Has the managers trust

 

#justsaying

 

I see where you're coming from but get real FFS.

 

One; he's only 19.

Two; he never played a first team game for Rangers and Celtic.

Three; he must come through the ranks unless (see one and two),

Four; we only ever pick players for specific positions and if those positions are already spoken for then tough.

Five; being adaptable and talented has never been a requirement for an international Scotland player with no old-firm connections.

 

Besides, there is no financial benefit for either of the big Glasgow clubs if his career prospers, so like I said, get real.

[Perth to Paisley]

😁

Similarly see where you are coming from.

[colinmaroon]

4 hours ago, upgotheheads said:

 

I see where you're coming from but get real FFS.

 

One; he's only 19.

Two; he never played a first team game for Rangers and Celtic.

Three; he must come through the ranks unless (see one and two),

Four; we only ever pick players for specific positions and if those positions are already spoken for then tough.

Five; being adaptable and talented has never been a requirement for an international Scotland player with no old-firm connections.

 

Besides, there is no financial benefit for either of the big Glasgow clubs if his career prospers, so like I said, get real.

 

Now, there's the truth!!!

 

 

[Perth to Paisley]

From this quarters Nutmeg

 

Daniel Gray

Suggest you buy it - fabulous read/value.

 

His shoulders drooped and he glanced downwards to the pitch. The Scotsman of Bologna was forlorn. For an hour and 
more in the Stadio Olimpico Grande, Torino had snapped the ball around and made their opponents resemble sumo 
wrestlers chasing ghosts. The home side wrote in calligraphy and the visitors in crayon. The score was only two-nil, but 
then Mona Lisa is only a painting and a piano only so much ivory and spring steel. Il Toro were lavish masters, I Rossoblù 
musty amateurs. No wonder Aaron Hickey looked away. His were a team with whom 
it was impossible to make eye contact. Hickey, though, had shone. Today, his had been the beam of an optician’s pen torch rather than a lighthouse. Yet from up in section 227 of the Distinti Granata, even in a humdrum team performance 
his twinkle toes were discernible. He was capable of guiding the ball through gaps between the legs of adversaries no wider 
than henhouse doors, and scurrying 60 or 70 yards in the manner of a starving 
greyhound at lunchtime. The Glaswegian has become one of those footballers who appear to invent space, a landscape 
gardener forever sculpting turf from quagmire. 
I revered in Hickey’s theatrics as much as I enjoyed his play. That is not to say that he indulged in the bleak arts of histrionics. 
More that his gesticulations and mannerisms have been infused with his surroundings. There is parmesan on the fish supper. Slighted by the referee, he would 
jaunt his neck and toss his palms towards God. When a Bolognese teammate failed to usher the ball Hickey’s way, thumbs would 
meet indexes and hands would palpitate, a finger purse wave back to Glasgow. It was as if Paolo Rossi himself were above 
the Stadio Olimpico, manipulating this Scottish puppet on spaghetti strings. 
 

[Mikey1874]

Regarding the above I would agree Hickey is more assertive on the pitch. Part of why he continues in the team. 

[Perth to Paisley]

.

 

Edited March 17, 2022 by Perth to Paisley
Link was for paid subscriptions only-removed

[Bazzas right boot]

22 hours ago, Perth to Paisley said:

From this quarters Nutmeg

 

Daniel Gray

Suggest you buy it - fabulous read/value.

 

His shoulders drooped and he glanced downwards to the pitch. The Scotsman of Bologna was forlorn. For an hour and 
more in the Stadio Olimpico Grande, Torino had snapped the ball around and made their opponents resemble sumo 
wrestlers chasing ghosts. The home side wrote in calligraphy and the visitors in crayon. The score was only two-nil, but 
then Mona Lisa is only a painting and a piano only so much ivory and spring steel. Il Toro were lavish masters, I Rossoblù 
musty amateurs. No wonder Aaron Hickey looked away. His were a team with whom 
it was impossible to make eye contact. Hickey, though, had shone. Today, his had been the beam of an optician’s pen torch rather than a lighthouse. Yet from up in section 227 of the Distinti Granata, even in a humdrum team performance 
his twinkle toes were discernible. He was capable of guiding the ball through gaps between the legs of adversaries no wider 
than henhouse doors, and scurrying 60 or 70 yards in the manner of a starving 
greyhound at lunchtime. The Glaswegian has become one of those footballers who appear to invent space, a landscape 
gardener forever sculpting turf from quagmire. 
I revered in Hickey’s theatrics as much as I enjoyed his play. That is not to say that he indulged in the bleak arts of histrionics. 
More that his gesticulations and mannerisms have been infused with his surroundings. There is parmesan on the fish supper. Slighted by the referee, he would 
jaunt his neck and toss his palms towards God. When a Bolognese teammate failed to usher the ball Hickey’s way, thumbs would 
meet indexes and hands would palpitate, a finger purse wave back to Glasgow. It was as if Paolo Rossi himself were above 
the Stadio Olimpico, manipulating this Scottish puppet on spaghetti strings. 
 

 

 

I wonder how much you need to smoke before you see football in this manner. 

I need to give it a try Tbh. 

 

Sounds fun. 

 

[TheBigO]

1 hour ago, Bazzas right boot said:

 

 

I wonder how much you need to smoke before you see football in this manner. 

I need to give it a try Tbh. 

 

Sounds fun. 

 

I'll certainly give parmesan a go on my next fish supper!  Well, maybe.

[Masonic]

whats the sell on fee %?

[Guest ToqueJambo]

8 hours ago, Bazzas right boot said:

 

 

I wonder how much you need to smoke before you see football in this manner. 

I need to give it a try Tbh. 

 

Sounds fun. 

 

 

I like Daniel Gray's books (and the nutmeg in general) but he does love an analogy. I'd love to see this done for all players, good and bad, in every match report mind you

 

"Charlie Adam patrolled the centre of the pitch with all the dynamism of a slug eating a Big Mac"

 

"NIsbet's shooting had all the accuracy of a toddler learning to piss standing up"

[db211833]

17 minutes ago, ToqueJambo said:

 

I like Daniel Gray's books (and the nutmeg in general) but he does love an analogy. I'd love to see this done for all players, good and bad, in every match report mind you

 

"Charlie Adam patrolled the centre of the pitch with all the dynamism of a slug eating a Big Mac"

 

"NIsbet's shooting had all the accuracy of a toddler learning to piss standing up"

Portos's back pass sailed like a plastic mug in a miners club.... 😕

[GlasgoJambo]

Bologna Atalanta the late night game on BT Sport the now. 0-0, second half just started. 
 

check the picture of Hickey from Bologna’s Twitter 😎

 

[Mikey1874]

International class.

[HMFC01]

Hickey played Cisse on for their goal.    Poor positioning.   You'd think he'd try harder after getting an international call up. 

 

Cisse grabbing all the headlines.   Big story for him coming through the ranks very quickly as an asylum seeker. 

[GlasgoJambo]

Atalanta 1 up. 
nice story about the scorer - a Guinean refugee (18) playing in the 8th teir last month. Signed to Atalanta, couple of games for the u19s and scores on his first team debut tonight - likely the winner.

Inspirational stuff.

https://the18.com/en/soccer-news/guinean-atalanta-refugee-moustapha-cisse

Edited March 20, 2022 by GlasgoJambo
Just, you know

[GlasgoJambo]

5 minutes ago, HMFC01 said:

Hickey played Cisse on for their goal.    Poor positioning.   You'd think he'd try harder after getting an international call up. 

 

Gone to his head. Passed it. Aberdeen next season.

[Riccarton3]

4 minutes ago, GlasgoJambo said:

Gone to his head. Passed it. Aberdeen next season.

That's my feeling , too. I mean, sounds like he made a mistake and expects to play for Scotland. What a charlie

[Thaw]

Stats corner...

 

 

Edited March 21, 2022 by Thaw

[Stendelnator]

I see Robertson is unlikely to play these friendly games for Scotland. Could open the door for Aaron to start one of them 

[sandyk]

Nice wee Beeb article here

 

Aaron Hickey: Scottish teenager rejected Bayern Munich for Serie A stardom - BBC Sport