The Bologna Herald
Squad8 Feb 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Federico Bernardeschi
37 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Bologna lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Riccardo Orsolini runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 36. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market8 Feb 2027
Bologna say no — this time
The offer from Spartak Moscow for Santiago Castro was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Market8 Feb 2027
Thibaut Vargas 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.
Match6 Feb 2027
The wait goes on for Bologna
6 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.
Boardroom8 Feb 2027
Bologna to lose Jesse Saputo for free
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Jesse Saputo has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Federico Bernardeschi 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.
Market8 Feb 2027
Martin Vitík wants more than Bologna are offering
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Remo Freuler 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.
In brief
- The terraces The crowd has taken to Santiago Castro
- Player ratings Santiago Castro was on a different afternoon to everybody else
- Squad No hiding place for Juan Miranda