Marked for Benjamín Domínguez
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad23 Jul 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Gianluca Mancini
70 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. AS Roma lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market23 Jul 2029
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. AS Roma have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market23 Jul 2029
Inter come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and AS Roma did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Match23 Jul 2029
AS Roma are in among the leaders
Position 3 and 83 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Transfer targets23 Jul 2029
AS Roma asked and Inter said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad23 Jul 2029
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Benjamín Domínguez has just signed for AS Roma, and for once the answer mattered.
Market23 Jul 2029
Every dressing room knows how to read a signing like this one. Benjamín Domínguez is not here to sit and wait indefinitely, and the man whose place he has been bought to take knows it better than anyone.
Squad23 Jul 2029
A falling-out at AS Roma
Charles De Ketelaere and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad23 Jul 2029
At 20 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom23 Jul 2029
The club looked outside for a month, found nothing it preferred, and handed the job to the man who had been doing it anyway. He knows the building; now he has to prove he knows the rest.
Market23 Jul 2029
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market23 Jul 2029
Benjamín Domínguez has left for AS Roma in a $5.4M deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Transfer targets23 Jul 2029
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Market23 Jul 2029
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad23 Jul 2029
Łukasz Skorupski was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad23 Jul 2029
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Joaquín Espina is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad23 Jul 2029
At 24 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Squad23 Jul 2029
Riccardo Orsolini falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad16 Jul 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Gianluca Mancini
77 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. AS Roma lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market16 Jul 2029
The bid was some way short and AS Roma did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets16 Jul 2029
AS Roma have gone to Bologna with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Market16 Jul 2029
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at AS Roma, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Words exchanged at AS Roma
Fermín and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Simone Pafundi is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Market16 Jul 2029
Add another name to the list: Gijón have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Manuel De Luca. The answer from AS Roma has not changed — yet.
Squad16 Jul 2029
A row about effort at AS Roma
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Djed Spence was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout16 Jul 2029
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market16 Jul 2029
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Empoli waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Bologna is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market16 Jul 2029
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Bologna, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market16 Jul 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Bologna is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market16 Jul 2029
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Bologna have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Boardroom16 Jul 2029
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Simone Addessi has agreed terms with Vis Pesaro for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad16 Jul 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bologna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets16 Jul 2029
$430.0K was the most the club would pay and Parma were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Squad16 Jul 2029
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad16 Jul 2029
At 27 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 3 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market2 Jul 2029
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market2 Jul 2029
Only the photograph left for Tommaso Ebone
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Tommaso Ebone will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Bologna the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market2 Jul 2029
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Bologna hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad2 Jul 2029
“The easiest signature of my career.” Federico Bernardeschi and Bologna agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad2 Jul 2029
A falling-out at Bologna
Federico Bernardeschi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market2 Jul 2029
Everyone has stopped pretending: Empoli will make the call about Nicolò Cambiaghi this week. Bologna have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Squad2 Jul 2029
Tiago Libares pulls a muscle — 18 days out
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 18 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Squad2 Jul 2029
A row about effort at Bologna
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Riccardo Orsolini was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets2 Jul 2029
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Benevento have kept their man, and Bologna go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market25 Jun 2029
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Bologna have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market25 Jun 2029
Daniel Boloca hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Bologna can pretend not to have heard.
Market25 Jun 2029
Banfield come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Bologna did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market25 Jun 2029
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Benjamín Domínguez wants continental football; whether Bologna can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad25 Jun 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bologna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 Jun 2029
A row about effort at Bologna
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Riccardo Orsolini was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom25 Jun 2029
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Ilya Kirko has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Bologna have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Transfer targets25 Jun 2029
Bologna asked and Blackburn Rovers said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The dugout25 Jun 2029
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom4 Jun 2029
The statement thanked him for his efforts and wished him well, in that order and in about that many words. The search begins immediately.
Boardroom4 Jun 2029
An empty coaching office at Bologna
There is nobody left to promote and nobody left to run a session. The board have brought in a name the supporters do not know, and the question of how a club gets here will outlast whoever answers it.
Transfer targets4 Jun 2029
The clubs have shaken hands with Pisa; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Market4 Jun 2029
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market4 Jun 2029
Nikola Moro hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Bologna can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom4 Jun 2029
Emergency meeting at Bologna
The whole football department in one room on a weekday morning. Nothing was announced afterwards, which is what a board announces when it has run out of patience.
Transfer targets4 Jun 2029
Bologna have gone to Reggiana with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Boardroom4 Jun 2029
“I am not thinking past Saturday, and I would advise nobody else to.” The caretaker’s first rule is to pretend the job is small; Interim Coach recited it perfectly.
Market4 Jun 2029
Add another name to the list: Inter have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Jens Odgaard. The answer from Bologna has not changed — yet.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match24 Jan 2029
Napoli march on in the cup
Atalanta are out and Napoli go through, 3‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Transfer targets29 Jan 2029
An offer of $17.0M for Andy Diouf
Napoli have gone to Inter with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Squad29 Jan 2029
The match ball belongs to Santiago Giménez, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Player ratings29 Jan 2029
A brace, and Mohammed Kudus takes the afternoon — 8.21
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mohammed Kudus provided it, and the 8.21 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market29 Jan 2029
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Audace Cerignola waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Napoli is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Player ratings29 Jan 2029
Successful dribbles: 27. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Player ratings29 Jan 2029
At 35 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 7.88, and nobody on the pitch better.
Market29 Jan 2029
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Transfer targets29 Jan 2029
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad18 Dec 2028
The match ball belongs to Santiago Giménez, whose 5 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Match13 Dec 2028
Napoli march on in the cup
Perugia are out and Napoli go through, 10‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Player ratings18 Dec 2028
A brace, and Thijs Dallinga takes the afternoon — 10.00
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Thijs Dallinga provided it, and the 10.00 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad18 Dec 2028
The match ball belongs to Benjamín Domínguez, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Market18 Dec 2028
Only the photograph left for Amir Rrahmani
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Amir Rrahmani will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Napoli the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad18 Dec 2028
Words exchanged at Napoli
Stanislav Lobotka and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad18 Dec 2028
Words at Napoli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohammed Kudus is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Player ratings18 Dec 2028
A performance of 10.00 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Match13 Dec 2028
10 goals as Napoli and Perugia go for it
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 10 goals between Napoli and Perugia, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match1 Nov 2028
Cup progress for Napoli
A 3‑0 win over Triestina, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Player ratings6 Nov 2028
Two goals and a mark of 8.25 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings6 Nov 2028
At 37 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.17 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market6 Nov 2028
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Napoli they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Words exchanged at Napoli
Alessandro Buongiorno and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Words at Napoli training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kevin De Bruyne is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad6 Nov 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Giovanni Di Lorenzo and Napoli agree another 2 years.
Match4 Nov 2028
A 3‑2 win over Cagliari, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The dugout6 Nov 2028
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad29 May 2028
Riccardo Orsolini was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad29 May 2028
A row about effort at Bologna
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nicolò Cambiaghi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market29 May 2028
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Bologna can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
The dugout29 May 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Riccardo Orsolini's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Squad29 May 2028
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Bologna know it.
The dugout29 May 2028
The manager makes an example of Orji Okwonkwo
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Market29 May 2028
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Nicolò Cambiaghi’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout29 May 2028
Tommaso Corazza has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Bologna will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The dugout29 May 2028
Dion Beljo asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market15 May 2028
Only the photograph left for Thijs Dallinga
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Thijs Dallinga will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Bologna the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market15 May 2028
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Bologna, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad15 May 2028
Łukasz Skorupski was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad15 May 2028
A row about effort at Bologna
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Riccardo Orsolini was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout15 May 2028
The manager makes an example of Jens Odgaard
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Boardroom15 May 2028
95% of the income goes out in wages at Bologna
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Squad15 May 2028
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Bologna are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The dugout15 May 2028
Lewis Ferguson knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Lewis Ferguson trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market15 May 2028
2 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Bologna money.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings17 Apr 2028
Successful dribbles: 45. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Market17 Apr 2028
Only the photograph left for Thijs Dallinga
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Thijs Dallinga will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Bologna the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market17 Apr 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Bologna may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad17 Apr 2028
A falling-out at Bologna
Riccardo Orsolini and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Words at Bologna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicolò Cambiaghi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Samuele Zanetti was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Bologna dressing room was either.
Market17 Apr 2028
The clock does Thijs Dallinga’s negotiating for him
2 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Bologna could ask drops and the wages Thijs Dallinga can ask rise.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market10 Apr 2028
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Bologna, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market10 Apr 2028
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Bologna have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Squad10 Apr 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bologna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Words at Bologna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Riccardo Orsolini is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Market10 Apr 2028
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Boardroom10 Apr 2028
Wages eat 103% of everything Bologna earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Squad10 Apr 2028
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Bologna can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Player ratings10 Apr 2028
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.92 on the card, and the Bologna support went home talking about one name.
The dugout10 Apr 2028
The manager makes an example of Daniel Boloca
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom3 Apr 2028
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Market3 Apr 2028
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Bologna, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The dugout3 Apr 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Bologna may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad3 Apr 2028
A falling-out at Bologna
Łukasz Skorupski and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match1 Apr 2028
After 8 games, Bologna finally taste it again
The first defeat in 8 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Juventus; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Market3 Apr 2028
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Bologna heard it as anything else.
Squad3 Apr 2028
A row about effort at Bologna
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Riccardo Orsolini was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad3 Apr 2028
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Bologna are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom27 Mar 2028
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Bologna
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Player ratings27 Mar 2028
Successful dribbles: 32. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings27 Mar 2028
A brace, and Antonio Raimondo takes the afternoon — 9.23
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Antonio Raimondo provided it, and the 9.23 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market27 Mar 2028
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Bologna, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Bologna may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market27 Mar 2028
Only the photograph left for Nicola Sansone
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nicola Sansone will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Bologna the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market27 Mar 2028
FC Dallas come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Bologna did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Match25 Mar 2028
Still nobody has beaten Bologna
The unbeaten run reaches 8. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad27 Mar 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bologna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings14 Feb 2028
Successful dribbles: 29. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Words exchanged at Bologna
Riccardo Orsolini and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Market14 Feb 2028
The Monza deal is off
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Davide Franzini reports back to Bologna with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Squad14 Feb 2028
A row about effort at Bologna
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nicolò Cambiaghi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad14 Feb 2028
200 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
Boardroom14 Feb 2028
Wages swallow 104% of the Bologna income
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
The dugout14 Feb 2028
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Market14 Feb 2028
The Tommaso Ebone conversation is coming
Everyone has stopped pretending: IK Start will make the call about Tommaso Ebone this week. Bologna have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
The dugout14 Feb 2028
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Samuele Zanetti chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom31 Jan 2028
The scrutiny sharpens at Bologna
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Bologna is running low.
The dugout31 Jan 2028
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market31 Jan 2028
The deal that would have taken Nicola Sansone to Carpi has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Bologna with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Match29 Jan 2028
The wait goes on for Bologna
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Jens Odgaard in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bologna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market31 Jan 2028
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Davide Franzini will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Bologna the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad31 Jan 2028
A row about effort at Bologna
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Riccardo Orsolini was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad31 Jan 2028
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Bologna are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The dugout31 Jan 2028
The manager makes an example of Jens Odgaard
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings24 Jan 2028
Successful dribbles: 46. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match22 Jan 2028
Bologna bow out of the cup
Lazio go through and Bologna go home, 0‑0 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Market24 Jan 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Bologna is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market24 Jan 2028
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Bologna, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad24 Jan 2028
1 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Market24 Jan 2028
Arsenal pay $9.2M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Market24 Jan 2028
Business is business: Emil Holm goes
Napoli paid $7.8M and Bologna took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad24 Jan 2028
A falling-out at Bologna
Jens Odgaard and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Riccardo Orsolini falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout22 Nov 2027
Jesper Karlsson: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Bologna have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Łukasz Skorupski was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Riccardo Orsolini falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Boardroom22 Nov 2027
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Joselito has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Bologna have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Market22 Nov 2027
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Bologna can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
The manager makes an example of Niklas Pyyhtiä
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad22 Nov 2027
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Bologna can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Match20 Nov 2027
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Samuele Zanetti was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Bologna dressing room was either.