Fenucci: “Verdi will stay at Bologna”

Bologna’s Chief Executive Claudio Fenucci was this morning speaking to Sky, revealing that Simone Verdi will not leave the club this January: “During our Christmas dinner, I said that it was important to maintain the squad’s structure, ensuring that we can achieve our sporting objectives. We’ve since received this offer for Simone Verdi. It could’ve been finalised on three conditions: a financial agreement with Napoli, the player’s consent and also the possibility of finding an adequate replacement. These three conditions were not met and we are very happy to continue along our path with Verdi, who is an important member of the team. Napoli’s offer was undoubtedly significant, but we want to reiterate that Simone is worth more than some of the fees that have recently been mentioned by the media. In addition to this, the player has demonstrated his commitment to the city and the team, while we do not need to sell players to finance our current regime. We can now be happy that we have a player who’s shown a desire to stay despite an offer from a top club. As already mentioned, one of the conditions was finding a solid replacement. It is true that Gabbiadini’s name has been mentioned a lot and he does have links to the city and the club. We are not hiding from the fact that in the future we would like to bring Manolo back to Bologna. We also drafted a potential deal with Juventus for Orsolini. As for issues concerning the federation, we are currently in a tricky situation, even if in the last few months there has been the implementation of a new statute and also fresh governance in the league. Within the league, there still remains a different vision to what the league’s role should actually be. There needs to be managerial figures with adequate powers who are independent from single clubs. It would be beneficial to now have a moment of reflection. Our footballing system has lost points in comparison to our European competitors. Missing out on the World Cup is only the tip of the iceberg. We need to rebuild and relaunch our system to regain our standing. I do not know if there are currently conditions in place to appoint a new commissioner, but it would be useful to first discuss Serie A and other strategies being used by various associations. The three candidates are credible and have presented themselves well, however, they’ve already spent a long time within the system and, therefore, do not represent the renewal that we’d hoped for. If we are still called to vote, then we will go for the candidate who is most likely to reform the current system.”