Bologna on my mind: A Vicious Circle. (3 March)

Written by: Massimo Sampaolesi. Translated by: Carlotta Belluzzi.

We currently seem to be treading a contagious and irreversible road: to legitimate our presence in the social universe, we must complain. This behaviour influences each aspect of our daily life, including football, which should instead be an excuse to relax and get away from our problems and toils.

And there is nothing Saputo can do, despite the fact that he is trying everything: his latest interview with Sky proves it. Once again, he reiterated the 3 main objectives of the team: ‘First of all avoid relegation, secondly, rack up more points than last year, and third, allow the young players that we bought this year to grow and develop”. Out of these 3 aims, the most uncertain at the moment appears to be the second one. Last season, we reached 14^th place with 42 points, now we have 28 points and are sitting in 15^th position. There are still 12 matches to go, and 36 potential points to score: to perform better than last year, we would need 5 wins. Can we do it? Nobody can know, not even the cleverest journalists, or those fans who always seem to know more than anyone else. And yes, we could look at the data and analyse trends, discuss possibilities and probabilities – but we would still not know for certain what lies ahead.

And here paths divide: the optimists, who think that Saputo is our guarantee for a serene future, no matter what, and the pessimists, who think that he is not enough. For both of these categories, though, the medicine is the same, and its main ingredient is maple: ‘If we do not have more points than last year, then we have to reconsider our strategy to make sure that next year, we perform better than this year’. Simple and definitive.

A German philosopher, Gotlieb Fichte, wrote in an essay that ‘we need to consider everything that happens as good and necessary, contextualise, and accept what is for the sake of love and the transcending goal’. Well, I consider the transcending goal to be Bologna Football Club 1909, and its historical ability to play a leading role in the first league, even if this ability currently needs to be restored. And to do this, there is only one way: following the lead of the man who is giving us direction and spending money in order to achieve these aims – everyone knows this.

What I think is a fundamental passage in Saputo’s interview, regards respect. His words apply to all of us, fans and referees, journalists and Serie A officials: ‘I want us to be respected as a team, as a club, and I want our players to be respected”. This is the foundation on which this new Bologna stands. And offending, for example, Destro, is not respectful. And the latest series of wrong judgements by referees – whether they were due to human errors or bad faith – are not respectful. Equally, attacking Fenucci, Di Vaio, or Donadoni is not respectful, neither to Saputo, nor to Bologna.

And yet, in some sort of intellectual kama sutra, we defend Saputo but not the men chosen by or through him. To some, Saputo is no more than a bilingual wallet, who has no rights but to spend more and more on our team.

To conclude, I think that respect towards others and ourselves is the only way of communication that holds together communities, allowing them to achieve their ambitions. On the other hand, the lack of respect leads to a vicious circle that can only bring instability – both to us and to Bologna.

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