From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad1 Feb 2027
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.
Market1 Feb 2027
“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 The request is on a desk at Bologna, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad1 Feb 2027
“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.
Market1 Feb 2027
“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.
Market1 Feb 2027
Kevin Fustini 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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
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.
Match30 Jan 2027
Bologna are at home on the road
4 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words at Bologna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Remo Freuler 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.
Match30 Jan 2027
Bologna get the job done against Genoa
A 2‑1 win over Genoa, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
43 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Match20 Jan 2027
Bologna march on in the cup
Torino are out and Bologna go through, 1‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Match20 Jan 2027
Bologna win it in stoppage time
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 112th minute. Torino will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Market25 Jan 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad25 Jan 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Santiago Castro and Bologna agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Łukasz Skorupski was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad25 Jan 2027
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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market18 Jan 2027
Newcastle United pay $19.0M, 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.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
A brace, and Jens Odgaard takes the afternoon — 9.00
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Jens Odgaard provided it, and the 9.00 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market18 Jan 2027
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Barcelona moved on, Santiago Castro reports back to Bologna, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Squad18 Jan 2027
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.
Market18 Jan 2027
Bologna say no — this time
The offer from Campobasso for Kevin Fustini 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
8 goals and a season average of 7.55. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Market18 Jan 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Bologna have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at Bologna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Remo Freuler 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market11 Jan 2027
Lazio paid $6.4M and Bologna took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 25. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad11 Jan 2027
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.
Market11 Jan 2027
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Bologna will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Remo Freuler falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad11 Jan 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Łukasz Skorupski, and the manager let it.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Ninety minutes of Lewis Ferguson at his very best
Marked 8.97. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Bologna.
Loan watch11 Jan 2027
“I watch every Bologna game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Pineto runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad11 Jan 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market4 Jan 2027
Add another name to the list: Barcelona have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Santiago Castro. The answer from Bologna has not changed — yet.
Boardroom4 Jan 2027
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Jesse Saputo has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Squad4 Jan 2027
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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Riccardo Orsolini falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Match2 Jan 2027
A 3‑2 win over Udinese, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Marked 9.23. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Bologna.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
A performance of 8.92 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The terraces4 Jan 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Santiago Castro has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Ninety minutes of Nicolò Cambiaghi at his very best
Marked 8.74. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Bologna.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match26 Dec 2026
4 matches without a win for Bologna
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Bologna are no longer polite ones.
Squad28 Dec 2026
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.
Match26 Dec 2026
4 matches without a goal for Bologna
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Remo Freuler falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Boardroom28 Dec 2026
Wages eat 176% of everything Bologna earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Match26 Dec 2026
A bad afternoon for Bologna against Pisa
0‑1 to Pisa, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Marked 8.08 — 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad21 Dec 2026
Łukasz Skorupski damages knee ligaments — 18 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 18 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.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Bologna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Remo Freuler 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.
Match19 Dec 2026
The goals have deserted Bologna
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Bologna can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad21 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Santiago Castro, and the manager let it.
Squad21 Dec 2026
A season average of 7.46 with 7 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Match19 Dec 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Loan watch21 Dec 2026
“I did not go to Foggia to sit and watch. I want to come back to Bologna and fight for my place.” 2 appearances in 17 matches say the rest.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Marked 5.55, and generously at that. Nothing came off, and by the end the crowd had stopped expecting it to.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Dec 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Łukasz Skorupski
26 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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
3 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
36 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Match9 Dec 2026
Cup progress for Bologna
A 0‑0 win over Modena, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Squad14 Dec 2026
Remo Freuler 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.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 23 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Market14 Dec 2026
“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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
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.
Match12 Dec 2026
0‑1 to AC Milan, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad7 Dec 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Łukasz Skorupski
33 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market7 Dec 2026
“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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Bologna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Remo Freuler 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 ratings7 Dec 2026
A performance of 9.34 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Match5 Dec 2026
It finished 3‑1, and it was Nicolò Cambiaghi’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Bologna.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.97, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Loan watch7 Dec 2026
“I watch every Bologna game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Pineto runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad30 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Łukasz Skorupski
42 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Bologna lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
A defender's afternoon for Jhon Lucumí
Defensive actions: 31. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Defensive actions: 25, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Squad30 Nov 2026
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 ratings30 Nov 2026
Defensive actions: 22. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Squad30 Nov 2026
“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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
It is the quietest kind of dressing-room problem and the one that lasts longest, because nobody has done anything anyone can be disciplined for. 2 players sit outside all 3 groups entirely, which is the detail that tends to matter.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
Wages eat 202% of everything Bologna earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad23 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Łukasz Skorupski
51 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Bologna lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
A defender's afternoon for Simon Sohm
Defensive actions: 37. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 34 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Match21 Nov 2026
The 86th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Eddie Salcedo decided nobody was going anywhere. Inter had no time left to answer.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
27 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 ratings23 Nov 2026
Remo Freuler, 34, rolls back the years — 7.80
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.80 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad23 Nov 2026
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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
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.
Match21 Nov 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Eddie Salcedo’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Bologna.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Nov 2026
Łukasz Skorupski damages knee ligaments — 59 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 59 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.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
39 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
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.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
34 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.68 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 31 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Squad16 Nov 2026
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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Remo Freuler falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The terraces16 Nov 2026
At 22 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad9 Nov 2026
4 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Match4 Nov 2026
Bologna march on in the cup
Novara are out and Bologna go through, 1‑1 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Squad9 Nov 2026
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.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
A chastening introduction for Valerio Aureli — 5.30
It is a hard way to meet a crowd. Marked 5.30 on the day he was handed the shirt, and the important thing now is what the next one looks like.
Squad9 Nov 2026
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.
The terraces9 Nov 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Jonathan Rowe has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Marked 8.70 — 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.
Match7 Nov 2026
A bad afternoon for Bologna against Napoli
0‑1 to Napoli, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Marked 8.10 — 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market2 Nov 2026
“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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
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.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
Wages eat 202% of everything Bologna earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Ninety minutes of Nicolò Cambiaghi at his very best
Marked 8.94. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Bologna.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Tommaso Pobega 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Defences have started doubling up on Nicolò Cambiaghi
6 goals and a season average of 7.37 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad2 Nov 2026
“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.
Loan watch2 Nov 2026
“I did not go to Alcione Milano to sit and watch. I want to come back to Bologna and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 9 matches say the rest.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Oct 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Riccardo Orsolini
19 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Bologna lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 29 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Bologna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Remo Freuler 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 ratings26 Oct 2026
A performance of 9.44 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad26 Oct 2026
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.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.41, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match24 Oct 2026
Hellas Verona made Bologna work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Simon Sohm was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.14. 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
A season average of 7.30 with 5 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Oct 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Riccardo Orsolini
28 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.
Match17 Oct 2026
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 ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad19 Oct 2026
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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Eivind Helland 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.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
A performance of 9.07 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad19 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Tommaso Pobega, and the manager let it.
Match17 Oct 2026
It needed Nicolò Cambiaghi to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Sassuolo, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
11 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad12 Oct 2026
Riccardo Orsolini damages knee ligaments — 36 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 36 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.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Nobody could get near Simon Sohm
Successful dribbles: 27. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match10 Oct 2026
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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Martin Vitík is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad12 Oct 2026
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.
Match10 Oct 2026
1‑2 to Atalanta, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Loan watch12 Oct 2026
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Bologna, and 1 appearances in 7 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad12 Oct 2026
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.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
1 error, one goal, and a night in front of the same three seconds. He will see it tonight, tomorrow and probably in February, and everybody who has played knows exactly which frame he keeps stopping on.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Oct 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Riccardo Orsolini
44 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.
Match3 Oct 2026
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Nicolò Cambiaghi will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Bologna escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Match3 Oct 2026
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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Remo Freuler falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Match3 Oct 2026
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.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Wages eat 293% of everything Bologna earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Loan watch5 Oct 2026
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Bologna, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
A performance of 8.89 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Sep 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Riccardo Orsolini
51 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
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.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
A performance of 8.32 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Giuseppe Ciocci has improved at 24, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Loan watch28 Sep 2026
“I watch every Bologna game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Foggia runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Sep 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Riccardo Orsolini
60 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
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 ratings21 Sep 2026
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.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Jens Odgaard was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.56. 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Tommaso Pobega falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Sep 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Riccardo Orsolini
67 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Bologna lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 33 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Squad14 Sep 2026
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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 23 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Market14 Sep 2026
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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Bologna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Remo Freuler 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
João Mário 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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Sep 2026
Riccardo Orsolini damages knee ligaments — 75 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 75 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
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.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
A brace, and Nicolò Cambiaghi takes the afternoon — 10.00
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Nicolò Cambiaghi provided it, and the 10.00 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A move Artur 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. Artur is living that version at Bologna, and it tends to show in the first month.
Market7 Sep 2026
“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.
Market7 Sep 2026
“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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Remo Freuler falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Match5 Sep 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Nicolò Cambiaghi. 3‑1 against Lecce, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Wages eat 224% of everything Bologna earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad31 Aug 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Riccardo Orsolini
85 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.
Market31 Aug 2026
“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 ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market31 Aug 2026
The paperwork is done: Giuseppe Ciocci joins from Cagliari in a deal worth $720.0K. Now comes the harder part.
Squad31 Aug 2026
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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Jens Odgaard was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.72. 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
“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.
Match29 Aug 2026
Bologna and Parma 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad24 Aug 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Riccardo Orsolini
94 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.
Market24 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market24 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Bologna have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Market24 Aug 2026
“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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Remo Freuler falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
Graduation day at Bologna
5 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Aleksandar Busnić and Bologna agree another 4 years.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 Aug 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Riccardo Orsolini
101 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.
Market17 Aug 2026
Genoa 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
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.
Market17 Aug 2026
Everyone has stopped pretending: Pineto will make the call about Darius Cristian Groza this week. Bologna have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Market17 Aug 2026
Bologna bring in an old head
Mattia De Sciglio is 34 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Aug 2026
Bologna say no — this time
The offer from Napoli for Jhon Lucumí 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
Business is business: Nicolò Casale goes
Genoa paid $9.1M and Bologna took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Market10 Aug 2026
Genoa pay $9.1M, 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Santiago Castro commits to Bologna for another 5 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bologna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Bologna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicolò Cambiaghi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 Aug 2026
Bologna say no — this time
The offer from Carrarese for Benjamín Domínguez 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Riccardo Orsolini commits to Bologna for another 4 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Remo Freuler falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Market3 Aug 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Bologna, another week without a signature from Remo Freuler.