Bologna U18

Italian Serie A U18
1 Dec 2030
Sunday
Process
226 Edition

The Bologna Herald

25 Nov 2030
From our football correspondent Steady

Match

9 unbeaten for Bologna

Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 9 matches without defeat is a foundation Bologna did not have in the autumn.

Market

Only the photograph left for Gennaro Anatriello

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Gennaro Anatriello will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Bologna the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

Emil Holm 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.

Squad

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.

Player ratings

Thijs Dallinga was the difference for Bologna

Marked 7.84. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.

Player ratings

Riccardo Orsolini was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 15. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.

Match

Honours even between Bologna and Lecce

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 dugout

The manager’s verdict

“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Mauro Mazza was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Bologna dressing room was either.

Squad

Bookings catch up with Eivind Helland

One yellow too many, and a match watched from the stand. The most avoidable absence in football, and Bologna will feel it on Saturday.

In brief

  • Looking ahead Bologna take on the side everybody is chasing
  • Market Lewis Ferguson linked with a move away
  • The dugout The manager makes an example of Luca Nesi
Back issues
225 Edition

The Bologna Herald

18 Nov 2030
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

Bologna strike at the death to beat Parma

There were 87 minutes on the clock and Parma had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Bologna did not stop to explain themselves.

Match

8 unbeaten for Bologna

Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 8 matches without defeat is a foundation Bologna did not have in the autumn.

Squad

Tempers go at Bologna

Federico Bernardeschi 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.

Squad

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.

Player ratings

Antonio Raimondo in the eights

A performance of 8.64 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.

Match

Antonio Raimondo the difference as Bologna beat Parma

Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Antonio Raimondo. 1‑0 against Parma, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.

Player ratings

Tommaso Pobega beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 18. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

The dugout

The view from the dugout

“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Mauro Mazza, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.

The dugout

Mariano Díaz gets it from the manager

“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.

In brief

224 Edition

The Bologna Herald

11 Nov 2030
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Tempers go at Bologna

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.

Match

7 unbeaten for Bologna

Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 7 matches without defeat is a foundation Bologna did not have in the autumn.

Squad

A row about effort at Bologna

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emil Holm was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Player ratings

One of those days for Antonio Raimondo

There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.47, and no argument anywhere in the ground.

Player ratings

One of those days for Tommaso Pobega

There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.21, and no argument anywhere in the ground.

Match

Late, late show earns Bologna a point

Minute 87, against Torino, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.

Match

Bologna and Torino take a point apiece

It finished 2‑2, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Nicolò Casale

“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.

Player ratings

Riccardo Orsolini beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 15. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

In brief

223 Edition

The Bologna Herald

4 Nov 2030
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

Orji Okwonkwo sends Bologna through

Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Orji Okwonkwo obliged against Lecco. 6‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Bologna.

The terraces

Anger at Bologna spills outside the ground

It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.

Player ratings

Thomas Henry scores twice — 9.65

Two goals and a mark of 9.65 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.

Player ratings

Riccardo Orsolini beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 31. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Squad

3 goals for Orji Okwonkwo

The match ball belongs to Orji Okwonkwo, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.

Market

Konrad Sobolewski puts it in writing

“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.

Market

Emil Holm wants to know where this is going

“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.

Squad

A falling-out at Bologna

Emil Holm and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Market

Bologna may not be able to give Juan Miranda what he wants

It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Juan Miranda wants continental football; whether Bologna can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.

In brief

222 Edition

The Bologna Herald

28 Oct 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Sebastián Zeballos 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.

Market

Bologna may not be able to give Emil Holm what he wants

It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Emil Holm wants continental football; whether Bologna can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.

Market

Gennaro Anatriello is on his way

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.

Squad

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.

Squad

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.

Player ratings

Riccardo Orsolini beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 18. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Player ratings

Emil Holm stands above it all

Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.77 on the card, and the Bologna support went home talking about one name.

The dugout

The manager’s verdict

“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Mauro Mazza was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Bologna dressing room was either.

The dugout

A promise honoured at Bologna

Something was said to Luca Kjerrumgaard and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.

In brief

221 Edition

The Bologna Herald

21 Oct 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

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.

Squad

Words at Bologna training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emil Holm 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 ratings

Torbjørn Heggem was immovable

16 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.

The dugout

Half-satisfied: Mauro Mazza on the draw

“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.

Market

Lewis Ferguson linked with a move away

The name of Lewis Ferguson keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Bologna say nothing, which says plenty.

Match

Point won or two lost for Bologna?

Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Sassuolo? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.

Looking ahead

Federico Ravaglia faces his old club

Frosinone next, and one man in the Bologna dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.

Player ratings

Eivind Helland was immovable

12 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Antonio Raimondo

Successful dribbles: 11. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

In brief

220 Edition

The Bologna Herald

14 Oct 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Antonio Raimondo takes the match ball home

3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.

Squad

A falling-out at Bologna

Emil Holm and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

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.

Player ratings

Antonio Raimondo in the eights

A performance of 9.78 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Federico Ravaglia

“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.

Player ratings

Ninety minutes of Kieron Bowie at his very best

Marked 8.17. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Bologna.

Match

Two points walk out of the ground

Level with 97 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Bologna had all but put away. Atalanta will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.

Match

Antonio Raimondo rescues a point for Bologna

It needed Antonio Raimondo to find the net to bring anything home at all: 3‑3 against Atalanta, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.

The terraces

Everybody has an opinion about Federico Ravaglia

He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.

In brief

219 Edition

The Bologna Herald

7 Oct 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Boardroom

Bologna hand the job to Mauro Mazza

“I have supported clubs like this one. I know what a bad Saturday feels like here.” The new man starts with nothing behind him and everything in front of him.

Player ratings

Vintage Federico Bernardeschi — 7.86

At 36 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 7.86, and nobody on the pitch better.

Market

Konrad Sobolewski asks to leave Bologna

“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.

Squad

Words exchanged at Bologna

Federico Bernardeschi 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.

Squad

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.

Squad

Torbjørn Heggem signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Torbjørn Heggem and Bologna agree another 3 years.

Match

At last: Bologna win one

6 matches without a win, and then this, against Cagliari. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Antonio Raimondo

“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.

Match

Antonio Raimondo the difference as Bologna beat Cagliari

Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Antonio Raimondo. 2‑0 against Cagliari, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.

In brief

218 Edition

The Bologna Herald

30 Sep 2030
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

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.

Market

Sebastián Zeballos puts it in writing

“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.

Market

Gennaro Anatriello is on his way

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.

Squad

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.

Boardroom

Still nobody in the Bologna dugout

41 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.

Squad

A row about effort at Bologna

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Federico Bernardeschi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Squad

Appearance number 500 for Federico Bernardeschi

500 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.

Match

Bologna come up short against Inter

Inter left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.

Player ratings

Riccardo Orsolini runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

In brief

217 Edition

The Bologna Herald

23 Sep 2030
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

5 matches without a win for Bologna

The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Bologna are no longer polite ones.

Squad

Emil Holm 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.

Squad

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.

Match

A bad afternoon for Bologna against Lazio

1‑2 to Lazio, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.

Squad

A smaller club would suit Federico Ravaglia now

He has had enough of the noise. Whether Bologna can be a quieter place for him, or whether the only cure is a move somewhere the phone-ins are gentler, is a question for the next few months.

The dugout

Interim Coach faces the questions

“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Interim Coach after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.

The dugout

No hiding place for Abdel Rahim Alhassane

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Abdel Rahim Alhassane, and the manager let it.

Squad

5 new faces, and Bologna are still learning each other

A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.

Player ratings

Tommaso Pobega runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 14. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

In brief

216 Edition

The Bologna Herald

16 Sep 2030
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

No end in sight to Bologna's wait for a win

4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Bologna has to find a result from somewhere.

Squad

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.

Squad

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.

Squad

Konrad Sobolewski is a better footballer than he was

Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.

Match

A bad afternoon for Bologna against Napoli

1‑3 to Napoli, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Federico Ravaglia

“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.

Squad

A late step up for Sebastián Zeballos

At 29 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.

Player ratings

Antonio Raimondo in the eights

A performance of 8.10 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.

The dugout

The manager’s verdict

“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑3 Interim Coach left the room before anybody could ask which.

In brief

215 Edition

The Bologna Herald

9 Sep 2030
From our football correspondent Steady

Player ratings

Riccardo Orsolini beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 45. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Market

Luca Kjerrumgaard asks to leave Bologna

“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.

Market

So close: Luca Kjerrumgaard’s move dies late

The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Empoli moved on, Luca Kjerrumgaard reports back to Bologna, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.

Squad

Federico Bernardeschi signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Federico Bernardeschi and Bologna agree another 2 years.

Squad

Tempers go at Bologna

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.

Market

Juan Miranda 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.

Squad

Benjamín Fariña is a better footballer than he was

Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.

Squad

Words at Bologna training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Federico Bernardeschi 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.

Match

3 matches without a goal for Bologna

The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.

In brief

214 Edition

The Bologna Herald

2 Sep 2030
From our football correspondent Crisis

Market

Sebastián Zeballos 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.

Boardroom

Deadline passes with 16 signed and 19 gone

That is the business done at Bologna until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.

Market

Eivind Helland 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.

Squad

Federico Bernardeschi stays put

“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.

Market

Gennaro Anatriello has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Bologna they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

Tempers go at Bologna

Emil Holm 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.

Boardroom

Daniil Dimitrișin signs for Atalanta while still at Bologna

The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Daniil Dimitrișin has agreed terms with Atalanta for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.

Squad

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.

Player ratings

Riccardo Orsolini was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 21. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.

In brief

213 Edition

The Bologna Herald

26 Aug 2030
From our football correspondent Crisis

Boardroom

Bologna run out of patience with Valentino Montanari

The end came on a Tuesday, as these things usually do: a short meeting, a shorter statement, and Valentino Montanari clearing his office by noon. Football’s cruellest ritual, performed to schedule.

Boardroom

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.

Boardroom

Interim Coach minds the shop at Bologna

“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.

Player ratings

Riccardo Orsolini beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 26. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Squad

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.

Squad

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.

Squad

Real improvement from Diego Francioli at Bologna

Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Diego Francioli is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.

The dugout

No hiding place for Riccardo Orsolini

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Riccardo Orsolini, and the manager let it.

Boardroom

8 academy players handed senior numbers at Bologna

The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.

In brief

212 Edition

The Bologna Herald

19 Aug 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Boardroom

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.

Market

Terms done: Luca Kjerrumgaard is going

Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Angers SCO waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Bologna is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.

Squad

Riccardo Orsolini 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.

Squad

Konrad Sobolewski is a better footballer than he was

Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.

Squad

Words at Bologna training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Federico Bernardeschi 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.

Squad

A late step up for Sebastián Zeballos

At 29 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.

The dugout

Riccardo Orsolini 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 Riccardo Orsolini trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.

Market

No place for Konrad Sobolewski in the plan

“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Konrad Sobolewski has his answer from Bologna; what he does with it is the next window’s story.

Market

The Lewis Ferguson story refuses to die

It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Lewis Ferguson signs something — a contract at Bologna or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.

In brief

211 Edition

The Bologna Herald

12 Aug 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Transfer targets

David Vujević turns down Bologna

The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Carrarese keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.

Squad

Words exchanged at Bologna

Emil Holm 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.

Squad

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.

Squad

The step up is real for Benjamín Fariña

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.

Squad

A move Tim Gallezot would have made for nothing

There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Tim Gallezot is living that version at Bologna, and it tends to show in the first month.

Boardroom

Federico Bravo will join Bologna for nothing

The paperwork is done long before the player is. Federico Bravo 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.

Market

The Luca Kjerrumgaard conversation is coming

Everyone has stopped pretending: Girona will make the call about Luca Kjerrumgaard this week. Bologna have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Antonio Raimondo

“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.

The dugout

Jesper Karlsson gets picked when it counts

Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Jesper Karlsson is on it.

In brief

210 Edition

The Bologna Herald

5 Aug 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Boardroom

Bologna spell it out for Valentino Montanari

The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Valentino Montanari has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.

Boardroom

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.

Market

Luca Kjerrumgaard puts it in writing

“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.

Market

Emil Holm 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.

Market

Gennaro Anatriello is on his way

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.

Transfer targets

David Vujević is a medical away from Bologna

The deal with Carrarese is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.

Squad

Tempers go at Bologna

Federico Bernardeschi 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.

Squad

Finlay Cartwright gets the move he always wanted

Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Finlay Cartwright has just signed for Bologna, and for once the answer mattered.

Squad

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.

In brief

209 Edition

The Bologna Herald

29 Jul 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Luca Kjerrumgaard has said yes to Benevento

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.

Market

Only the photograph left for Marco Chiosa

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Marco Chiosa will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Bologna the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

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.

Squad

Words at Bologna training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Federico Bernardeschi 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 dugout

The manager makes an example of Konrad Sobolewski

“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.

Market

Federico Ravaglia linked with a move away

The name of Federico Ravaglia keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Bologna say nothing, which says plenty.

The dugout

Abdel Rahim Alhassane gets picked when it counts

Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Abdel Rahim Alhassane is on it.

The dugout

Abdel Rahim Alhassane 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 Abdel Rahim Alhassane trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.

Squad

A wage question at Bologna

Konrad Sobolewski has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.

In brief

208 Edition

The Bologna Herald

22 Jul 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Boardroom

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.

Market

Santino Chavero asks to leave Bologna

“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 targets

Vittorio Magni will not be coming to Bologna

Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Cesena is saying, and nobody at Bologna is enjoying the guessing.

Squad

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.

Squad

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.

Market

Benevento join the queue for Luca Kjerrumgaard

Add another name to the list: Benevento have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Luca Kjerrumgaard. The answer from Bologna has not changed — yet.

Squad

Home is on Santino Chavero's mind

“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 dugout

No hiding place for Juan Ignacio Berasi

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Juan Ignacio Berasi, and the manager let it.

Market

The Lewis Ferguson story refuses to die

It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Lewis Ferguson signs something — a contract at Bologna or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.

In brief

207 Edition

The Bologna Herald

15 Jul 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Luca Kristancig 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.

Transfer targets

Vittorio Magni is a medical away from Bologna

The deal with Cesena is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.

Squad

Words exchanged at Bologna

Federico Bernardeschi 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.

Transfer targets

Bologna rebuffed over Christopher Attys

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Triestina have kept their man, and Bologna go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Squad

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.

Boardroom

Bologna agree a free transfer for Davide Agazzi

Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.

Market

Abdel Rahim Alhassane has his eye on Europe

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.

Squad

Tiziano Noriega stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Tiziano Noriega and Bologna agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Sascha Britschgi

“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.

In brief

206 Edition

The Bologna Herald

8 Jul 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Boardroom

Valentino Montanari has until the next board meeting

What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Bologna can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.

Market

Luca Kjerrumgaard agrees terms with Derby County

The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Bologna people have started saying his name in the past tense.

Boardroom

Crisis meeting at Bologna

The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.

Market

Luca Kjerrumgaard asks to leave Bologna

“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.

Market

Only the photograph left for Gennaro Anatriello

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Gennaro Anatriello will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Bologna the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

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.

Market

Juan Miranda wants European nights

The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.

Squad

Words at Bologna training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emil Holm 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.

Boardroom

7 new boys at the Bologna academy

Signed today, seen by nobody for years, and one of them may one day be the reason the club exists. That is the whole of the argument for an academy, and it is a good one.

In brief

205 Edition

The Bologna Herald

1 Jul 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Bologna say no — this time

The offer from Gil Vicente for Luca Kjerrumgaard 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.

Market

Luca Galli puts it in writing

“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.

Market

Emil Holm wants European nights

The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.

Market

Only the photograph left for Marco Chiosa

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Marco Chiosa will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Bologna the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

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.

Squad

Real improvement from Ossian Nordvall at Bologna

Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ossian Nordvall is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.

Squad

Words at Bologna training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tommaso Pobega 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 dugout

Eivind Helland loses the manager who believed in him

A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Eivind Helland's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.

The dugout

No hiding place for Minel Kujraković

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Minel Kujraković, and the manager let it.

In brief

204 Edition

The Bologna Herald

24 Jun 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Boardroom

Pressure builds in the Bologna boardroom

The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.

Market

Jesper Karlsson asks to leave Bologna

“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 dugout

Jesper Karlsson says Bologna went back on their word

“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.

Market

Gennaro Anatriello agrees terms with Hellas Verona

The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Bologna people have started saying his name in the past tense.

Transfer targets

No deal for Viery at that price

Bologna offered $6.0M; Fiorentina said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.

Squad

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.

Squad

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.

Squad

A muscle injury sidelines Joris Petravičius for 14 days

Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Bologna will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.

Squad

Luca Lo Monaco stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Luca Lo Monaco and Bologna agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

In brief

203 Edition

The Bologna Herald

17 Jun 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

The dugout

Abdel Rahim Alhassane says Bologna went back on their word

“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.

Squad

Tempers go at Bologna

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.

Squad

Words at Bologna training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jesper Karlsson 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 dugout

Riccardo Orsolini 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.

The dugout

No hiding place for Sascha Britschgi

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Sascha Britschgi, and the manager let it.

Squad

Sebastian Strappini stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Sebastian Strappini and Bologna agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

The dugout

When it matters, Jesper Karlsson plays

It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.

Market

The Riccardo Orsolini talk will not go away

Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Bologna know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.

Market

Bologna put Jesper Karlsson up for sale

The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Jesper Karlsson may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.

In brief

202 Edition

The Bologna Herald

10 Jun 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Benjamín Domínguez moves on

Napoli pay $20.1M, 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.

The dugout

Sascha Britschgi says Bologna went back on their word

“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.

The terraces

Supporters turn on the $20.1M sale of Benjamín Domínguez

He is going to Napoli, the club has $20.1M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.

Transfer targets

Bologna bid $1.7M for Nicolò Buso

The offer went to Catanzaro this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.

Transfer targets

An offer of $1.3M for Viery

Bologna have gone to Fiorentina 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.

Market

Luca Kristancig puts it in writing

“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.

Squad

Tempers go at Bologna

Lewis Ferguson 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.

Transfer targets

Bologna bid $470.0K for Flavio Di Marzio

The offer went to Gubbio this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.

Market

Juan Miranda 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.

In brief

201 Edition

The Bologna Herald

3 Jun 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Boardroom

Bologna spell it out for Valentino Montanari

The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Valentino Montanari has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.

Boardroom

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.

Market

Luca Galli puts it in writing

“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 dugout

Juan Ignacio Berasi says Bologna went back on their word

“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.

Market

Eivind Helland wants to know where this is going

“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.

Market

Marco Chiosa has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Bologna they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

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.

Boardroom

Marco Chiosa has agreed to leave Bologna for nothing

He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.

Squad

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.

In brief

200 Edition

The Bologna Herald

27 May 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Boardroom

Pressure builds in the Bologna boardroom

The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.

Market

Sebastián Zeballos puts it in writing

“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.

Squad

Riccardo Orsolini 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.

Squad

Benjamín Domínguez 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.

Market

The Lewis Ferguson story refuses to die

It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Lewis Ferguson signs something — a contract at Bologna or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.

The dugout

When it matters, Nicolò Casale plays

It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.

In brief

199 Edition

The Bologna Herald

20 May 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Luca Kjerrumgaard puts it in writing

“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.

Squad

Words exchanged at Bologna

Federico Bernardeschi 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.

Squad

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.

Squad

Santino Chavero wants to go home

“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 dugout

Jesper Karlsson gets picked when it counts

Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Jesper Karlsson is on it.

Market

The Riccardo Orsolini talk will not go away

Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Bologna know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.

The dugout

Ali Jaber 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.

Boardroom

The Bologna academy earns its keep

29 graduates, from a department now rated 9 out of 20. Nothing about the academy appears in a result, and nothing about the club’s future exists without it.

The dugout

The manager comes out for Benjamín Domínguez

Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Benjamín Domínguez has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.

In brief

198 Edition

The Bologna Herald

13 May 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Benjamín Domínguez asks to leave Bologna

“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.

Match

The season ends: position 14 for Bologna

The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 43 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.

Player ratings

Age has not caught Riccardo Orsolini yet — 7.94

At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.94 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.

Player ratings

Juan Miranda goes up and wins it — 7.96

A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.96 for the rest of it.

Squad

Tempers go at Bologna

Federico Bernardeschi 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.

Squad

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.

Squad

Federico Ravaglia shuts the door again

13 clean sheets and counting. Strikers leave this ground muttering his name, which is exactly how a goalkeeper measures a good season.

Match

Juan Miranda the difference as Bologna beat Hellas Verona

Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Juan Miranda. 2‑0 against Hellas Verona, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.

Market

Abdel Rahim Alhassane has his eye on Europe

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.

In brief

197 Edition

The Bologna Herald

6 May 2030
From our football correspondent Crisis

Boardroom

Valentino Montanari has until the next board meeting

What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Bologna can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.

Boardroom

Crisis meeting at Bologna

The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.

Squad

12 seasons of Riccardo Orsolini

448 appearances across 12 seasons in these colours. Careers like that are not built any more, and Bologna know what they have.

Market

Luca Galli asks to leave Bologna

“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.

Market

Emil Holm 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.

Squad

Riccardo Orsolini stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Riccardo Orsolini and Bologna agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Market

Only the photograph left for Alessandro Celli

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alessandro Celli will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Bologna the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

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.

Boardroom

Andrei Toroc has agreed to leave Bologna for nothing

He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.

In brief

196 Edition

The Bologna Herald

29 Apr 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Boardroom

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 ratings

Age has not caught Riccardo Orsolini yet — 8.08

At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.08 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.

Market

Sebastián Zeballos puts it in writing

“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.

Market

Bologna may not be able to give Emil Holm what he wants

It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Emil Holm wants continental football; whether Bologna can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.

Squad

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.

Squad

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.

Match

Riccardo Orsolini sends Bologna past AC Milan

It finished 2‑1, and it was Riccardo Orsolini’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Bologna.

The terraces

The crowd has taken to Sascha Britschgi

At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.

Player ratings

Kieron Bowie runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

In brief

195 Edition

The Bologna Herald

22 Apr 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Luca Kjerrumgaard puts it in writing

“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.

Player ratings

Age has not caught Riccardo Orsolini yet — 8.16

At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.16 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.

Match

No end in sight to Bologna's wait for a win

4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Bologna has to find a result from somewhere.

Squad

Words exchanged at Bologna

Lewis Ferguson 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.

Squad

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.

Player ratings

Benjamín Domínguez runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

The dugout

Benjamín Domínguez 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 Benjamín Domínguez trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.

Match

Bologna share the spoils with Como

A 1‑1 draw with Como leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.

The dugout

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.” Valentino Montanari chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.

In brief

194 Edition

The Bologna Herald

15 Apr 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Benjamín Domínguez asks to leave Bologna

“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.

Squad

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.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Benjamín Domínguez

Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Squad

Benjamín Domínguez 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.

Squad

Federico Ravaglia shuts the door again

11 clean sheets and counting. Strikers leave this ground muttering his name, which is exactly how a goalkeeper measures a good season.

Squad

Federico Bernardeschi wants out of the spotlight

The ambition story running the other way, and the one nobody tells: a footballer asking for a smaller stage, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is very rarely reported as anything else.

The dugout

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.” Valentino Montanari chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.

The dugout

When it matters, Jesper Karlsson plays

It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.

Market

The Riccardo Orsolini question follows Bologna around

Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Riccardo Orsolini’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.

In brief

193 Edition

The Bologna Herald

8 Apr 2030
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

Nowhere to hide for Bologna

0‑6 against Juventus, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.

Boardroom

Bologna spell it out for Valentino Montanari

The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Valentino Montanari has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.

Boardroom

The Bologna board call everybody in

Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.

Squad

A one-man rearguard from Federico Ravaglia

There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.

Market

Emil Holm attracts admirers

The name of Emil Holm has come up in conversations Bologna were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.

Market

Luca Galli asks to leave Bologna

“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 dugout

Ali Jaber keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Bologna may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Market

Alessandro Celli is on his way

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.

Squad

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.

In brief

192 Edition

The Bologna Herald

1 Apr 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Boardroom

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.

Market

Sebastián Zeballos asks to leave Bologna

“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.

Squad

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.

Match

Still nobody has beaten Bologna

The unbeaten run reaches 7. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.

Squad

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.

The dugout

Jesper Karlsson gets it from the manager

“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.

Match

Bologna refuse to lose to Lecce

A point taken on 85 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Riccardo Orsolini

Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Match

Bologna share the spoils with Lecce

A 1‑1 draw with Lecce leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.

In brief

  • The dugout The manager’s verdict
  • Looking ahead A test against the best for Bologna
  • Market The Lewis Ferguson story refuses to die
191 Edition

The Bologna Herald

25 Mar 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Match

Lewis Ferguson breaks Spezia hearts

Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Lewis Ferguson scored in the 86th minute, Spezia had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Bologna took the lot.

Market

Luca Kjerrumgaard 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.

Player ratings

A defender's goal wins it for Bologna — 7.96

1 for Lewis Ferguson, marked 7.96, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.

Squad

Tempers go at Bologna

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.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Benjamín Domínguez

Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Squad

Words at Bologna training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Benjamín Domínguez 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.

Match

6 unbeaten for Bologna

Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Bologna did not have in the autumn.

Match

Bologna find a way past Spezia

Spezia made Bologna work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.

Squad

Federico Ravaglia shuts the door again

10 clean sheets and counting. Strikers leave this ground muttering his name, which is exactly how a goalkeeper measures a good season.

In brief

190 Edition

The Bologna Herald

18 Mar 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Player ratings

Riccardo Orsolini was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 33. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.

Market

Benjamín Domínguez puts it in writing

“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.

Squad

Tempers go at Bologna

Federico Bernardeschi 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.

Squad

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.

Squad

Getting past Federico Ravaglia has become the hardest job in the division

9 clean sheets and counting. Forwards used to back themselves here; now they shoot early, shoot wide, and look for somebody to blame.

Squad

Santino Chavero wants to go home

“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 ratings

Torbjørn Heggem shuts the door

Defensive actions: 15, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.

The dugout

Valentino Montanari on the point

“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Valentino Montanari after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.

The dugout

Jesper Karlsson gets picked when it counts

Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Jesper Karlsson is on it.

In brief

189 Edition

The Bologna Herald

11 Mar 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Player ratings

Riccardo Orsolini beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 26. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Player ratings

Tommaso Pobega pops up at the right end — 7.99

7.99, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.

Market

Alessandro Celli has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Bologna they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

Eivind Helland signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Eivind Helland and Bologna agree another 5 years.

Squad

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.

Market

Juan Miranda wants to know where this is going

“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.

Squad

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.

Match

Two points walk out of the ground

Level with 89 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Bologna had all but put away. Palermo will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.

The dugout

Bologna keep their word to Benjamín Domínguez

Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.

In brief

188 Edition

The Bologna Herald

4 Mar 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Player ratings

Benjamín Domínguez was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 34. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.

Boardroom

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.

Market

Sebastián Zeballos 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.

Market

Eivind Helland wants to know where this is going

“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.

Squad

Riccardo Orsolini 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.

Squad

A row about effort at Bologna

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Benjamín Domínguez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Market

Abdel Rahim Alhassane wants European nights

The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.

Squad

Francesco Cassata stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Francesco Cassata and Bologna agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

The dugout

No hiding place for Nicolò Casale

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nicolò Casale, and the manager let it.

In brief

187 Edition

The Bologna Herald

25 Feb 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Match

Antonio Raimondo wins it after the whistle should have gone

93 minutes played. Antonio Raimondo found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Atalanta went from a point to nothing inside one movement.

Match

The drought breaks for Bologna

12 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Atalanta were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.

Squad

Federico Ravaglia keeps Bologna in it on his own

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.

Market

Luca Kjerrumgaard 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.

Player ratings

Riccardo Orsolini, 33, rolls back the years — 7.94

There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.94 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.

Market

Emil Holm has his eye on Europe

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.

Squad

Words exchanged at Bologna

Federico Bernardeschi 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.

Squad

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.

Match

Bologna see off Atalanta

Three points for Bologna, 2‑1 the final word against Atalanta in a contest settled by the finer margins.

In brief

186 Edition

The Bologna Herald

18 Feb 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Match

No end in sight to Bologna's wait for a win

12 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Bologna has to find a result from somewhere.

Market

Benjamín Domínguez asks to leave Bologna

“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.

Player ratings

Riccardo Orsolini was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 30. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.

Squad

Tempers go at Bologna

Federico Bernardeschi 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.

Squad

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 dugout

The manager makes an example of Juan Miranda

“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.

The dugout

Tommaso Pobega is still being punished for one mistake

Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.

Match

Bologna share the spoils with Cagliari

A 1‑1 draw with Cagliari leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.

The dugout

The manager’s verdict

“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Valentino Montanari was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Bologna dressing room was either.

In brief

185 Edition

The Bologna Herald

11 Feb 2030
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

No end in sight to Bologna's wait for a win

11 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Bologna has to find a result from somewhere.

Player ratings

Age has not caught Riccardo Orsolini yet — 7.99

At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.99 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.

Market

Ernesto Starita puts it in writing

“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.

Squad

Benjamín Fariña arrives at the club he grew up with

Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Benjamín Fariña has, at Bologna, and the first month will show what that does to a man.

Market

Only the photograph left for Alessandro Celli

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alessandro Celli will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Bologna the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

Riccardo Orsolini 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.

Squad

A row about effort at Bologna

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Benjamín Domínguez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Match

A bad afternoon for Bologna against Fiorentina

1‑3 to Fiorentina, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.

Boardroom

Bologna agree a free transfer for Oleksandr Dragan

Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.

In brief

184 Edition

The Bologna Herald

4 Feb 2030
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

The wait goes on for Bologna

10 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.

Squad

A one-man rearguard from Federico Ravaglia

There were 10 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.

Match

A hiding for Bologna

Beaten 0‑3 by Inter, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.

Market

Sebastián Zeballos puts it in writing

“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.

Boardroom

Deadline passes with 0 signed and 3 gone

That is the business done at Bologna until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.

Market

Emil Holm raises the bar for Bologna

“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.

Market

Only the photograph left for Francesco Cassata

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Francesco Cassata will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Bologna the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

Federico Bernardeschi signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Federico Bernardeschi and Bologna agree another 2 years.

Boardroom

Alessandro Celli signs for Modena while still at Bologna

The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Alessandro Celli has agreed terms with Modena for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.

In brief

183 Edition

The Bologna Herald

28 Jan 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Match

No end in sight to Bologna's wait for a win

9 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Bologna has to find a result from somewhere.

Market

Terms done: Nadir Zortea is going

Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Palermo waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Bologna is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.

Player ratings

Benjamín Domínguez beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 28. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Market

Luca Kjerrumgaard asks to leave Bologna

“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.

Market

Spezia 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.

Squad

Tempers go at Bologna

Federico Bernardeschi 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.

Squad

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.

Player ratings

A masterclass from Tommaso Pobega

Marked 8.20 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.

Match

Late, late show earns Bologna a point

Minute 94, against Lazio, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.

In brief

182 Edition

The Bologna Herald

21 Jan 2030
From our football correspondent Crisis

Market

Benjamín Domínguez asks to leave Bologna

“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.

Match

8 matches without a win for Bologna

The run now stands at 8, and the questions being asked around Bologna are no longer polite ones.

Market

Terms done: Francesco Cassata is going

Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Torino waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Bologna is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.

Market

Riccardo Calcagni is on his way

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.

Squad

Tempers go at Bologna

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.

Market

Nadir Zortea attracts admirers

The name of Nadir Zortea has come up in conversations Bologna were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.

Squad

Benjamín Domínguez 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.

Match

Bologna come up short against Napoli

Napoli left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.

Player ratings

Benjamín Domínguez beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 19. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

In brief

181 Edition

The Bologna Herald

14 Jan 2030
From our football correspondent Crisis

Player ratings

Riccardo Orsolini beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 33. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Match

7 matches without a win for Bologna

The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Bologna are no longer polite ones.

Market

Giovanni Rabbi says no to Novara

“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Giovanni Rabbi had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.

Market

Como 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.

Market

Giovanni Rabbi asks to leave Bologna

“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.

Squad

A falling-out at Bologna

Lewis Ferguson and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

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.

Match

Torino take the points off Bologna

Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.

The dugout

The view from the dugout

“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑3 defeat, delivered by Valentino Montanari to a room that had heard them before.

In brief

180 Edition

The Bologna Herald

7 Jan 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Match

No end in sight to Bologna's wait for a win

6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Bologna has to find a result from somewhere.

Player ratings

Riccardo Orsolini beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 27. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Market

Bertony Renelus 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.

Squad

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.

Market

Juan Miranda has his eye on Europe

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.

Squad

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.

The dugout

Benjamín Domínguez gets it from the manager

“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.

Player ratings

A masterclass from Benjamín Domínguez

Marked 8.23 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.

Match

Bologna caught on 88 minutes

The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Venezia scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.

In brief

179 Edition

The Bologna Herald

31 Dec 2029
From our football correspondent Crisis

Market

Luca Kjerrumgaard 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.

Match

5 matches without a win for Bologna

The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Bologna are no longer polite ones.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Riccardo Orsolini

Successful dribbles: 25. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Market

Benjamín Domínguez has his eye on Europe

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.

Squad

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.

Squad

A row about effort at Bologna

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Benjamín Domínguez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout

No hiding place for Federico Ravaglia

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Federico Ravaglia, and the manager let it.

Match

Bologna come up short against Hellas Verona

Hellas Verona left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.

Player ratings

Benjamín Domínguez was on a different afternoon to everybody else

8.24. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.

In brief

178 Edition

The Bologna Herald

24 Dec 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Federico Ravaglia keeps Bologna in it on his own

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.

Market

Nadir Zortea puts it in writing

“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 dugout

Luca Lo Monaco keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Bologna may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Market

Emil Holm wants European nights

The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.

Market

Riccardo Calcagni is on his way

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.

Match

No end in sight to Bologna's wait for a win

4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Bologna has to find a result from somewhere.

Squad

Words exchanged at Bologna

Federico Bernardeschi 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.

Squad

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.

Player ratings

A masterclass from Riccardo Orsolini

Marked 8.01 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.

In brief

177 Edition

The Bologna Herald

17 Dec 2029
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

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.

Squad

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.

Match

AC Milan take the points off Bologna

Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.

The dugout

No hiding place for Jesper Karlsson

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jesper Karlsson, and the manager let it.

The dugout

Valentino Montanari: “No excuses”

“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.

Player ratings

Benjamín Domínguez beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 13. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

The dugout

Bologna pick somebody else ahead of Sascha Britschgi

There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.

Market

The Lewis Ferguson story refuses to die

It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Lewis Ferguson signs something — a contract at Bologna or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.

The dugout

Abdel Rahim Alhassane 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.

In brief

176 Edition

The Bologna Herald

10 Dec 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Player ratings

Benjamín Domínguez was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 35. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.

Squad

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.

Market

Juan Miranda 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.

Match

Whatever happens, Bologna do not lose

6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.

Squad

A row about effort at Bologna

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jesper Karlsson was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout

Bologna pick somebody else ahead of Juan Miranda

There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.

The dugout

The manager’s verdict

“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Valentino Montanari was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Bologna dressing room was either.

Squad

Getting past Federico Ravaglia has become the hardest job in the division

7 clean sheets and counting. Forwards used to back themselves here; now they shoot early, shoot wide, and look for somebody to blame.

Market

The Riccardo Orsolini story refuses to die

It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Riccardo Orsolini signs something — a contract at Bologna or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.

In brief

175 Edition

The Bologna Herald

3 Dec 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Player ratings

Riccardo Orsolini beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 28. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

The dugout

Nicolò Casale keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Bologna may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Player ratings

Federico Bernardeschi, 35, rolls back the years — 8.43

There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.43 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.

Market

Benjamín Domínguez 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.

Squad

Tempers go at Bologna

Federico Bernardeschi 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.

Squad

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.

Squad

Home is on Luca Kjerrumgaard's mind

“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.

Match

Genoa snatch it back from Bologna

A goal on 95 minutes turned three points into one and a good afternoon into an argument about game management that will run until Saturday.

Squad

Benjamín Domínguez named player of the month

The award goes to Benjamín Domínguez, and nobody around here is inclined to argue with the choice.

In brief

174 Edition

The Bologna Herald

26 Nov 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Federico Ravaglia stands alone

13 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.

Market

Luca Kjerrumgaard puts it in writing

“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.

Market

Riccardo Calcagni is on his way

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.

Squad

Words exchanged at Bologna

Lewis Ferguson 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.

Squad

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.

Match

Bologna see off Juventus

Three points for Bologna, 2‑1 the final word against Juventus in a contest settled by the finer margins.

Player ratings

Thijs Dallinga in the eights

A performance of 8.58 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.

Squad

Nicolò Casale reaches 200 appearances

200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.

Player ratings

Benjamín Domínguez was on a different afternoon to everybody else

8.00. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.

In brief

173 Edition

The Bologna Herald

19 Nov 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

The dugout

Thomas Henry says Bologna went back on their word

“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.

Squad

Riccardo Orsolini 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.

Squad

A row about effort at Bologna

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Benjamín Domínguez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Player ratings

Ninety minutes of Benjamín Domínguez at his very best

Marked 8.32. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Bologna.

The dugout

Jesper Karlsson gets it from the manager

“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 dugout

Riccardo Orsolini 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 Riccardo Orsolini trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.

Match

Honours even between Bologna and Lecce

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 dugout

The manager’s verdict

“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Valentino Montanari was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Bologna dressing room was either.

Looking ahead

The leaders are next for Bologna

Juventus top the table and they are coming into view. Nothing to lose, which is what every manager says before losing.

In brief

172 Edition

The Bologna Herald

12 Nov 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Player ratings

Benjamín Domínguez scores twice — 8.50

Two goals and a mark of 8.50 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.

Player ratings

Riccardo Orsolini runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 28. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Player ratings

Vintage Federico Bernardeschi — 7.94

At 35 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 7.94, and nobody on the pitch better.

Squad

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.

Squad

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.

The dugout

No hiding place for Benjamín Domínguez

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Benjamín Domínguez, and the manager let it.

Match

Bologna see off Spezia

Three points for Bologna, 2‑0 the final word against Spezia in a contest settled by the finer margins.

Squad

A smaller club would suit Lewis Ferguson now

He has had enough of the noise. Whether Bologna can be a quieter place for him, or whether the only cure is a move somewhere the phone-ins are gentler, is a question for the next few months.

Squad

Santino Chavero wants to go home

“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.

In brief

171 Edition

The Bologna Herald

5 Nov 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Match

Bologna bow out of the cup

Catanzaro go through and Bologna go home, 0‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.

Squad

A one-man rearguard from Federico Ravaglia

There were 8 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.

Player ratings

Riccardo Orsolini was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 25. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.

Market

Emil Holm 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.

Market

Benjamín Domínguez has his eye on Europe

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.

Match

No end in sight to Bologna's wait for a win

4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Bologna has to find a result from somewhere.

Squad

Tempers go at Bologna

Federico Bernardeschi 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.

Match

Bologna cannot find the net

4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.

Squad

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.

In brief

170 Edition

The Bologna Herald

29 Oct 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Benjamín Domínguez

Successful dribbles: 38. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Market

Luca Kjerrumgaard asks to leave Bologna

“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.

Market

Emil Holm wants European nights

The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.

Market

Only the photograph left for Riccardo Calcagni

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Riccardo Calcagni will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Bologna the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

Tempers go at Bologna

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.

Squad

A row about effort at Bologna

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Benjamín Domínguez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout

Nicolò Casale gets it from the manager

“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 dugout

Valentino Montanari: “We have to be better”

“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.

The dugout

Sascha Britschgi dropped after a run of poor form

The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.

In brief

169 Edition

The Bologna Herald

22 Oct 2029
From our football correspondent Crisis

The dugout

Ernesto Starita: 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.

Squad

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.

Squad

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.

Player ratings

Benjamín Domínguez runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Match

Bologna come up short against Sassuolo

Sassuolo left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Jesper Karlsson

“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.

The dugout

Valentino Montanari faces the questions

“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Valentino Montanari after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.

The dugout

When it matters, Jesper Karlsson plays

It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.

Market

Ernesto Starita is free to find somewhere else

“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Bologna has been clear about where Ernesto Starita stands, which is more than many ever get.

In brief

168 Edition

The Bologna Herald

15 Oct 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Player ratings

Both of them Lewis Ferguson's — 8.42

2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.42, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.

Squad

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.

Squad

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.

Squad

Luca Galli is a better footballer than he was

Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.

Match

Bologna see off Atalanta

Three points for Bologna, 2‑0 the final word against Atalanta in a contest settled by the finer margins.

Match

Bologna end the wait against Atalanta

It had gone 5 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.

Player ratings

Ninety minutes of Benjamín Domínguez at his very best

Marked 8.11. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Bologna.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Nadir Zortea

Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Squad

A quiet fortnight at Bologna

With 4 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like one.

In brief

167 Edition

The Bologna Herald

8 Oct 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

The dugout

Antonio Raimondo says Bologna went back on their word

“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.

Squad

12 seasons of Riccardo Orsolini

421 appearances across 12 seasons in these colours. Careers like that are not built any more, and Bologna know what they have.

Match

5 matches without a win for Bologna

The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Bologna are no longer polite ones.

Squad

Riccardo Orsolini stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Riccardo Orsolini and Bologna agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Squad

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.

Squad

A row about effort at Bologna

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Benjamín Domínguez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Benjamín Domínguez

Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

The dugout

No hiding place for Benjamín Domínguez

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Benjamín Domínguez, and the manager let it.

Player ratings

One of those days for Thijs Dallinga

There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.21, and no argument anywhere in the ground.

In brief

166 Edition

The Bologna Herald

1 Oct 2029
From our football correspondent Crisis

Market

Luca Kjerrumgaard asks to leave Bologna

“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.

Squad

A career in one shirt: Riccardo Orsolini

12 seasons and 420 appearances, all of them here. Careers like this are not designed; they happen to a certain kind of man at a certain kind of club, and this town has one.

The dugout

Nicola Bagnolini says Bologna went back on their word

“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.

Market

Only the photograph left for Riccardo Calcagni

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Riccardo Calcagni will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Bologna the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

Tempers go at Bologna

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.

Match

No end in sight to Bologna's wait for a win

4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Bologna has to find a result from somewhere.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Federico Bernardeschi

“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.

Squad

A row about effort at Bologna

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tommaso Pobega was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Match

Fiorentina take the points off Bologna

Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.

In brief

165 Edition

The Bologna Herald

24 Sep 2029
From our football correspondent Crisis

The dugout

Thomas Henry: 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.

Squad

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.

Squad

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.

Match

A bad afternoon for Bologna against Inter

0‑1 to Inter, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.

Player ratings

Riccardo Orsolini was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 16. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.

The dugout

Valentino Montanari: “No excuses”

“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.

The dugout

No hiding place for Sascha Britschgi

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Sascha Britschgi, and the manager let it.

Market

The Lewis Ferguson story refuses to die

It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Lewis Ferguson signs something — a contract at Bologna or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.

The dugout

Jesper Karlsson gets picked when it counts

Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Jesper Karlsson is on it.

In brief

164 Edition

The Bologna Herald

17 Sep 2029
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

Federico Ravaglia keeps Bologna in it on his own

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.

Squad

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.

Squad

Words at Bologna training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Benjamín Domínguez 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 ratings

Benjamín Domínguez runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Match

A bad afternoon for Bologna against Lazio

1‑2 to Lazio, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.

The dugout

Valentino Montanari: “No excuses”

“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.

Squad

Home is on Santino Chavero's mind

“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 dugout

Antonio Raimondo gets it from the manager

“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.

Market

The Riccardo Orsolini story refuses to die

It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Riccardo Orsolini signs something — a contract at Bologna or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.

In brief

163 Edition

The Bologna Herald

10 Sep 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Benjamín Domínguez signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Benjamín Domínguez and Bologna agree another 5 years.

Squad

Tempers go at Bologna

Federico Bernardeschi 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.

Match

7 unbeaten for Bologna

Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 7 matches without defeat is a foundation Bologna did not have in the autumn.

Market

Juan Miranda wants to know where this is going

“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.

Squad

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 dugout

Benjamín Domínguez gets it from the manager

“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.

Player ratings

One of those days for Benjamín Domínguez

There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.00, and no argument anywhere in the ground.

Match

Late, late show earns Bologna a point

Minute 88, against Napoli, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.

Match

Bologna share the spoils with Napoli

A 2‑2 draw with Napoli leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.

In brief

162 Edition

The Bologna Herald

3 Sep 2029
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Market

Luca Kjerrumgaard 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.

Boardroom

Bologna close the window on a squad of their own making

12 in and 16 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.

Market

Riccardo Calcagni is on his way

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.

Market

Benjamín Domínguez raises the bar for Bologna

“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.

Squad

Words exchanged at Bologna

Federico Bernardeschi 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.

Squad

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.

Match

Still nobody has beaten Bologna

The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.

Match

Another one collected away from home

3 on the bounce on the road for Bologna. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.

Match

Antonio Raimondo the difference as Bologna beat Torino

Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Antonio Raimondo. 1‑0 against Torino, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.

In brief

161 Edition

The Bologna Herald

27 Aug 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Player ratings

Emil Holm beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 42. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Market

Not going: Emil Holm stays at Bologna

“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Club Brugge had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.

Market

Martin Vitík puts it in writing

“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.

Market

Nimes 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.

Squad

Riccardo Orsolini 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.

Squad

A row about effort at Bologna

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Martin Vitík was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Boardroom

Graduation day at Bologna

7 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.

Market

Martino Paganelli steps up from the Bologna academy

There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Martino Paganelli has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.

Boardroom

A promise the Bologna board did not keep

There was a commitment, there was a date, and the date went past. Trust at a football club takes years to build and one afternoon to spend.

In brief

160 Edition

The Bologna Herald

20 Aug 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

A fracture rules Federico Bernardeschi out for 20 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Bologna will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Market

Terms done: Martin Vitík is going

Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Avellino waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Bologna is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.

The dugout

Luca Kjerrumgaard says Bologna went back on their word

“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.

Market

Giovanni Rabbi turns Forli down

“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.

Market

Marco Chiosa asks to leave Bologna

“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.

Market

Levante 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.

Squad

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.

Squad

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.

Squad

Giovanni Rabbi signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Giovanni Rabbi commits to Bologna for another 4 years.

In brief

159 Edition

The Bologna Herald

13 Aug 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

27 days out for Federico Bernardeschi after a fracture

A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Bologna will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.

Market

Avellino 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.

Boardroom

Bologna to lose Riccardo Calcagni for free

There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Riccardo Calcagni 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.

Squad

Tempers go at Bologna

Federico Bernardeschi 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.

Squad

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.

Squad

Luca Kjerrumgaard wants to go home

“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.

The dugout

Federico Bernardeschi 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 Federico Bernardeschi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.

Market

The Lewis Ferguson talk will not go away

Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Bologna know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.

The dugout

When it matters, Jesper Karlsson plays

It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.

In brief

158 Edition

The Bologna Herald

6 Aug 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

A fracture rules Federico Bernardeschi out for 34 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Bologna will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Boardroom

Bologna spell it out for Valentino Montanari

The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Valentino Montanari has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.

Boardroom

The Bologna board call everybody in

Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.

Market

Luca Kjerrumgaard puts it in writing

“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.

Market

Only the photograph left for Riccardo Calcagni

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Riccardo Calcagni will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Bologna the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

Tempers go at Bologna

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.

Market

Emil Holm wants to know where this is going

“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.

Squad

Minel Kujraković is a better footballer than he was

Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.

Squad

Words at Bologna training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Martin Vitík 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.

In brief

157 Edition

The Bologna Herald

30 Jul 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Federico Bernardeschi breaks a bone — 43 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 43 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Nicola Bagnolini

16 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.

Market

Martin Vitík puts it in writing

“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.

Market

Bologna sell Tommaso Ebone for $1.7M

Tommaso Ebone has left for Frosinone in a $1.7M deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.

Squad

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.

Squad

Ossian Nordvall is a better footballer than he was

Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Odilon Kossounou

Bologna asked and Juventus said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

Transfer targets

Bologna baulk at the price for Hassane Kamara

Udinese wanted more than $110.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Kieron Bowie

“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.

In brief

156 Edition

The Bologna Herald

23 Jul 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Terms done: Martin Vitík is going

Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Virtus Entella waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Bologna is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.

Boardroom

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.

Squad

Nicola Bagnolini damages knee ligaments — 23 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 23 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Antonio Casas

Bologna asked and Juve Stabia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

Market

Bologna say no — this time

The offer from Racing Santander for Thomas Henry 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.

Squad

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.

Squad

The step up is real for Ali Jaber

At 21 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.

Transfer targets

No deal for Luca Pandolfi at that price

Bologna offered $470.0K; Trapani said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.

Squad

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.

In brief

155 Edition

The Bologna Herald

16 Jul 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Nicola Bagnolini damages knee ligaments — 30 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 30 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.

Market

Virtus Entella 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.

Squad

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.

Squad

Real improvement from Tommaso Ebone at Bologna

Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Tommaso Ebone is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.

Squad

Late improvement for Eivind Helland

At 24 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.

Market

Bologna may not be able to give Benjamín Domínguez what he wants

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.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Antonio Raimondo

“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.

The dugout

Martin Vitík knocks on the manager's door

“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Bologna, and both men came out saying it was fine.

Market

Frosinone are about to pick up the phone

A conversation is coming this week. Bologna will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.

In brief

154 Edition

The Bologna Herald

9 Jul 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

The knee: Manuel Grassi out for 20 days

20 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Bologna lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Market

Nicola Bagnolini turns Fortaleza down

“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.

Squad

Federico Bernardeschi stays put

“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.

Squad

Words exchanged at Bologna

Federico Bernardeschi 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.

Market

Juan Miranda wants European nights

The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.

Squad

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.

Market

Thomas Henry attracts admirers

The name of Thomas Henry has come up in conversations Bologna were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.

The dugout

Nicolò Casale gets it from the manager

“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 dugout

Martin Vitík 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 Martin Vitík trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.

In brief

153 Edition

The Bologna Herald

2 Jul 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Manuel Grassi damages knee ligaments — 28 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 28 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.

Boardroom

Bologna spell it out for Valentino Montanari

The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Valentino Montanari has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.

Market

Martin Vitík asks to leave Bologna

“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.

Boardroom

The Bologna board call everybody in

Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.

Market

Not going: Thomas Henry stays at Bologna

“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Angers SCO had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.

Squad

Federico Bernardeschi stays put

“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.

Squad

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.

Market

Emil Holm has his eye on Europe

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.

Squad

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.

In brief

152 Edition

The Bologna Herald

25 Jun 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Manuel Grassi damages knee ligaments — 37 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 37 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.

Boardroom

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.

Market

Martin Vitík says no to Virtus Entella

“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Martin Vitík had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.

Market

Terms done: Tommaso Ebone is going

Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Atalanta waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Bologna is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.

Market

Nadir Zortea 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.

Market

Bologna turn down Tigre for Jesper Karlsson

The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.

Squad

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.

Squad

Words at Bologna training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Martin Vitík 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.

Squad

Bologna are still strangers to each other

5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.

In brief

151 Edition

The Bologna Herald

18 Jun 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

The knee: Manuel Grassi out for 44 days

44 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Bologna lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Market

Gennaro Anatriello says no to Atletico Goianiense

“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Gennaro Anatriello had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.

The dugout

Sascha Britschgi keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Bologna may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Market

Bologna say no — this time

The offer from Elche for Thomas Henry 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.

Market

Tommaso Ebone puts it in writing

“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.

Boardroom

Simone Addessi signs for Livorno while still at Bologna

The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Simone Addessi has agreed terms with Livorno for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.

Squad

Tempers go at Bologna

Federico Bernardeschi 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.

Squad

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 targets

Too dear: Bologna walk away from Hassane Kamara

$110.0K was the most the club would pay and Udinese 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.

In brief

150 Edition

The Bologna Herald

11 Jun 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Bologna turn down Juventus for Martin Vitík

The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.

Transfer targets

Giacomo Manzari due for a Bologna medical

Everything agreed with Bari, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.

Market

Nicolò Cambiaghi moves on

Napoli pay $16.4M, 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.

Market

Tommaso Ebone agrees terms with Estrela da Amadora

The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Bologna people have started saying his name in the past tense.

The dugout

Nicola Bagnolini keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Bologna may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Squad

Ernesto Starita arrives at the club he grew up with

Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Ernesto Starita has, at Bologna, and the first month will show what that does to a man.

Squad

Words exchanged at Bologna

Federico Bernardeschi 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.

Transfer targets

Too dear: Bologna walk away from Kevin Piscopo

$450.0K was the most the club would pay and Juve Stabia 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.

Market

Tommaso Pobega raises the bar for Bologna

“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.

In brief

149 Edition

The Bologna Herald

4 Jun 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Boardroom

Bologna put Valentino Montanari on notice

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.

Boardroom

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.

The dugout

Tommaso Corazza keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Bologna may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Market

Juventus watching Martin Vitík

The interest is real enough to have reached print. Bologna have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.

Market

Riccardo Calcagni asks to leave Bologna

“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.

Squad

Riccardo Orsolini 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.

Market

Bologna say no — this time

The offer from Unión de Santa Fe for Tommaso Ebone 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.

Market

Juan Miranda 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.

Squad

Words at Bologna training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Martin Vitík 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.

In brief

148 Edition

The Bologna Herald

28 May 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Boardroom

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.

Market

Nicola Bagnolini has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Bologna they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

Tempers go at Bologna

Federico Bernardeschi 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.

Squad

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.

Squad

Home is on Felipe Fernández's mind

“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 dugout

The manager makes an example of Jesper Karlsson

“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.

In brief

147 Edition

The Bologna Herald

21 May 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Martin Vitík puts it in writing

“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.

Squad

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.

Squad

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.

Squad

A smaller club would suit Federico Ravaglia now

He has had enough of the noise. Whether Bologna can be a quieter place for him, or whether the only cure is a move somewhere the phone-ins are gentler, is a question for the next few months.

Squad

Enzo Galizzi wants to go home

“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.

The dugout

Juan Miranda 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.

Market

Nicolò Cambiaghi linked with a move away

The name of Nicolò Cambiaghi keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Bologna say nothing, which says plenty.

The dugout

Nicolò Casale gets picked when it counts

Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Nicolò Casale is on it.

Boardroom

The Bologna production line keeps running

22 graduates out of an academy now rated 9 out of 20. Clubs this size survive on exactly that, and the town knows every name.

In brief

146 Edition

The Bologna Herald

14 May 2029
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Market

Nicolò Cambiaghi asks to leave Bologna

“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.

Match

Riccardo Orsolini wins it after the whistle should have gone

94 minutes played. Riccardo Orsolini found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Pisa went from a point to nothing inside one movement.

Match

Bologna finish in position 10

47 points, and the season has a number on it. Whatever it felt like from the inside, this is what it will look like in a book.

The dugout

Nicolò Casale: 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.

Market

Mihajlo Ilić has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Bologna they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

Riccardo Orsolini 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.

Squad

A row about effort at Bologna

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Martin Vitík was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Player ratings

Nicolò Cambiaghi beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 21. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Squad

Riccardo Orsolini reaches 100 goals

100 goals for the club, every one of them filed away in the memory of a supporter somewhere.

In brief

145 Edition

The Bologna Herald

7 May 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Boardroom

Valentino Montanari has until the next board meeting

What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Bologna can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.

Squad

Words exchanged at Bologna

Federico Bernardeschi 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.

Market

Emil Holm wants to know where this is going

“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.

Market

Juan Miranda wants European nights

The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.

Squad

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.

Player ratings

Riccardo Orsolini beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 20. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

The dugout

Bologna keep their word to Federico Bernardeschi

Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.

Player ratings

The afternoon belonged to Luca Kjerrumgaard

A mark of 7.97, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Nicolò Casale

“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.

In brief

144 Edition

The Bologna Herald

30 Apr 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Boardroom

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.

Squad

Federico Ravaglia pulls a muscle — 14 days out

The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.

Market

Tommaso Ebone asks to leave Bologna

“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.

Market

Nicola Bagnolini has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Bologna they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

Tempers go at Bologna

Federico Bernardeschi 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.

Market

Emil Holm wants European nights

The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.

Squad

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.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Riccardo Orsolini

Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Match

Bologna find a way past AC Milan

AC Milan made Bologna work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.

In brief

143 Edition

The Bologna Herald

23 Apr 2029
From our football correspondent Crisis

Market

Martin Vitík 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.

Match

Bologna leave it late against Fiorentina

Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 85th, and Fiorentina spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.

Squad

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.

Squad

Words at Bologna training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Martin Vitík 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 ratings

Riccardo Orsolini was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 20. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.

Match

The drought breaks for Bologna

5 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Fiorentina were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.

Match

Bologna get the job done against Fiorentina

A 1‑0 win over Fiorentina, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.

Player ratings

Nicolò Casale shuts the door

Defensive actions: 17, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.

Player ratings

Emil Holm stands above it all

Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.82 on the card, and the Bologna support went home talking about one name.

In brief

142 Edition

The Bologna Herald

16 Apr 2029
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

A one-man rearguard from Federico Ravaglia

There were 9 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.

Market

Nicolò Cambiaghi puts it in writing

“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.

Match

The wait goes on for Bologna

5 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.

Market

Mihajlo Ilić is on his way

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.

Squad

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.

Squad

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 dugout

No hiding place for Riccardo Orsolini

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Riccardo Orsolini, and the manager let it.

Match

Bologna come up short against Inter

Inter left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.

Player ratings

Riccardo Orsolini beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 18. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

In brief

141 Edition

The Bologna Herald

9 Apr 2029
From our football correspondent Crisis

Player ratings

Riccardo Orsolini beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 30. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

The dugout

Thomas Henry says Bologna went back on their word

“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.

Player ratings

A defender's goal wins it for Bologna — 7.92

1 for Tommaso Pobega, marked 7.92, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.

Match

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.

Squad

Words exchanged at Bologna

Federico Bernardeschi 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.

Squad

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.

Match

Thijs Dallinga’s goal not enough for Bologna

Thijs Dallinga scored, and precious little else went right: 2‑3 to Lazio, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.

The dugout

Federico Ravaglia gets it from the manager

“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.

Player ratings

A masterclass from Thijs Dallinga

Marked 8.36 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.

In brief

140 Edition

The Bologna Herald

2 Apr 2029
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

Federico Ravaglia stands alone

9 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.

Boardroom

Bologna put Valentino Montanari on notice

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.

Boardroom

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.

Market

Tommaso Ebone asks to leave Bologna

“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.

Market

Nicola Bagnolini is on his way

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.

Squad

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.

Squad

A row about effort at Bologna

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Martin Vitík was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Match

Napoli take the points off Bologna

Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.

The dugout

Valentino Montanari answers for it

“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.

In brief

139 Edition

The Bologna Herald

26 Mar 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Martin Vitík asks to leave Bologna

“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.

Squad

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.

Squad

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.

Player ratings

Nicolò Cambiaghi was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 21. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.

Match

Whatever happens, Bologna do not lose

6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.

Squad

Home is on Felipe Fernández's mind

“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 dugout

Nicolò Casale gets it from the manager

“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.

Squad

A quiet fortnight at Bologna

With 4 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like one.

Match

Bologna and Spezia take a point apiece

It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.

In brief

138 Edition

The Bologna Herald

19 Mar 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Nicolò Cambiaghi asks to leave Bologna

“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.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Riccardo Orsolini

Successful dribbles: 31. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Market

Mihajlo Ilić is on his way

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.

Squad

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.

Squad

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.

Player ratings

Juan Miranda was the difference for Bologna

Marked 7.61. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.

The dugout

No hiding place for Tommaso Corazza

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Tommaso Corazza, and the manager let it.

Player ratings

A defender's afternoon for Martin Vitík

Defensive actions: 15. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.

The dugout

The manager’s verdict

“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Valentino Montanari was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Bologna dressing room was either.

In brief

137 Edition

The Bologna Herald

12 Mar 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

The dugout

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.

Player ratings

Age has not caught Federico Bernardeschi yet — 8.52

At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.52 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.

Squad

Tempers go at Bologna

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.

Market

Tommaso Pobega wants to know where this is going

“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.

Squad

Martin Vitík 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.

Match

Bologna find a way past Frosinone

Frosinone made Bologna work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.

Market

Benjamín Domínguez wants European nights

The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.

Player ratings

Riccardo Orsolini in the eights

A performance of 8.18 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Tommaso Pobega

“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.

In brief

136 Edition

The Bologna Herald

5 Mar 2029
From our football correspondent Crisis

Boardroom

Bologna put Valentino Montanari on notice

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.

Player ratings

Federico Bernardeschi scores twice — 8.94

Two goals and a mark of 8.94 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.

Boardroom

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.

Squad

A one-man rearguard from Federico Ravaglia

There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.

Squad

11 seasons of Riccardo Orsolini

406 appearances across 11 seasons in these colours. Careers like that are not built any more, and Bologna know what they have.

Market

Tommaso Ebone puts it in writing

“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.

Squad

Riccardo Orsolini signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Riccardo Orsolini and Bologna agree another 2 years.

Market

Nicola Bagnolini has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Bologna they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

Tempers go at Bologna

Federico Bernardeschi 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.

In brief

135 Edition

The Bologna Herald

26 Feb 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Martin Vitík 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.

Squad

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.

Market

Bologna may not be able to give Juan Miranda what he wants

It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Juan Miranda wants continental football; whether Bologna can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.

Squad

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.

Player ratings

Riccardo Orsolini was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 20. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.

Squad

Marcelo Pappano wants to finish where he started

Every long career reaches the week the player starts thinking about the last one. He would like it to be at the club that first put him on a pitch, and Bologna now know that too.

The dugout

Valentino Montanari: “We have to be better”

“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Nicola Bagnolini

“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.

The dugout

Tommaso Corazza dropped after a run of poor form

The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.

In brief

134 Edition

The Bologna Herald

19 Feb 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Nicolò Cambiaghi 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.

Squad

A one-man rearguard from Federico Ravaglia

There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.

Player ratings

Age has not caught Federico Bernardeschi yet — 8.40

At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.40 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.

Market

Only the photograph left for Mihajlo Ilić

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mihajlo Ilić will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Bologna the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

Riccardo Orsolini 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.

Squad

Words at Bologna training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Martin Vitík 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.

Match

Thijs Dallinga sends Bologna past Cagliari

It finished 2‑0, and it was Thijs Dallinga’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Bologna.

The dugout

Antonio Raimondo gets it from the manager

“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 dugout

The manager’s verdict

“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Valentino Montanari kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.

In brief

133 Edition

The Bologna Herald

12 Feb 2029
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

Nowhere to hide for Bologna

0‑3 against Genoa, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.

Match

No end in sight to Bologna's wait for a win

4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Bologna has to find a result from somewhere.

Boardroom

Flavio Junčaj has agreed to leave Bologna for nothing

He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.

Squad

Words exchanged at Bologna

Federico Bernardeschi 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.

Match

Bologna cannot find the net

4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.

Market

So close: Tommaso Ebone’s move dies late

The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Sassuolo moved on, Tommaso Ebone reports back to Bologna, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.

Squad

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.

Player ratings

Tommaso Pobega beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 20. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Squad

Tommaso Corazza stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Tommaso Corazza and Bologna agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

In brief

132 Edition

The Bologna Herald

5 Feb 2029
From our football correspondent Crisis

Market

Martin Vitík agrees terms with Spezia

The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Bologna people have started saying his name in the past tense.

Match

Chastening afternoon for Bologna

A 0‑4 beating by Juventus was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.

Squad

Federico Ravaglia keeps Bologna in it on his own

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.

Boardroom

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.

Boardroom

Window shuts: 1 in, 4 out at Bologna

The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 1 arrived, 4 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.

Market

Tommaso Ebone asks to leave Bologna

“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.

Market

Nicola Bagnolini is on his way

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.

Squad

Tempers go at Bologna

Federico Bernardeschi 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.

Squad

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.

In brief

131 Edition

The Bologna Herald

29 Jan 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Match

Bologna bow out of the cup

Lazio go through and Bologna go home, 0‑7 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.

Market

Martin Vitík puts it in writing

“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.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Riccardo Orsolini

Successful dribbles: 29. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Market

Tommaso Ebone agrees terms with Hellas Verona

The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Bologna people have started saying his name in the past tense.

The terraces

Bologna are taken apart by Lazio — and the town wants answers

It finished 0-7. A cup exit is a disappointment; this was a public dismantling, and the difference between the two is the number of people who will still be talking about it in August.

Squad

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.

Match

Nobody could stop scoring

7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Bologna and Lazio in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.

Squad

A row about effort at Bologna

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Martin Vitík was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Squad

Beaten 7 times: a bad day for Federico Ravaglia

4 saves does not settle the argument about whose fault it was, and the argument will run all week. Goalkeepers carry these scorelines whoever caused them.

In brief

130 Edition

The Bologna Herald

22 Jan 2029
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Market

Nicolò Cambiaghi 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.

Market

Terms done: Nicola Bagnolini is going

Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Parma waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Bologna is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.

Player ratings

Federico Bernardeschi, 34, rolls back the years — 8.47

There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.47 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.

Market

Bologna say no — this time

The offer from San Lorenzo for Thomas Henry 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.

Market

Only the photograph left for Mihajlo Ilić

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mihajlo Ilić will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Bologna the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Squad

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.

Squad

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.

Transfer targets

Bologna rebuffed over Luca Lezzerini

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Torino have kept their man, and Bologna go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Match

Bologna find a way past Parma

Parma made Bologna work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.

In brief

129 Edition

The Bologna Herald

15 Jan 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Player ratings

Riccardo Orsolini runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 46. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Market

Not going: Federico Bernardeschi stays at Bologna

“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Moreirense had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.

Market

So close: Martin Vitík’s move dies late

The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Virtus Entella moved on, Martin Vitík reports back to Bologna, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.

Market

Terms done: Davide Franzini is going

Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Sampdoria waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Bologna is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.

The dugout

Abdel Rahim Alhassane: 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.

Market

Emiliano Pino asks to leave Bologna

“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.

Squad

Words exchanged at Bologna

Federico Bernardeschi 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.

Squad

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.

Match

Bologna and Torino take a point apiece

It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.

In brief

128 Edition

The Bologna Herald

8 Jan 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Match

Lewis Ferguson leads the rout of Venezia

3‑0, and Lewis Ferguson took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Bologna tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.

Market

Nadir Zortea puts it in writing

“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.

Market

Terms done: Thomas Henry is going

Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Mallorca waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Bologna is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.

Player ratings

Riccardo Orsolini was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 29. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.

Market

Virtus Entella join the queue for Martin Vitík

Add another name to the list: Virtus Entella have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Martin Vitík. The answer from Bologna has not changed — yet.

Player ratings

Lewis Ferguson pops up at the right end — 7.98

7.98, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.

Market

Bologna say no — this time

The offer from Palermo for Mihajlo Ilić 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.

Squad

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.

Squad

Martin Vitík 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

127 Edition

The Bologna Herald

1 Jan 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Martin Vitík puts it in writing

“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.

Match

Bologna tear Pisa apart

Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Pisa, and it could have been more.

Market

Bologna turn down Gimnasia La Plata for Federico Bernardeschi

The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.

Player ratings

Nicolò Cambiaghi beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 31. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

The dugout

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.

Player ratings

Age has not caught Federico Bernardeschi yet — 7.83

At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.83 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.

Squad

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.

Boardroom

Bologna to lose Mihajlo Ilić for free

There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Mihajlo Ilić 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.

Match

Bologna end the wait against Pisa

It had gone 7 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.

In brief