Football in August, as they say in Italy, is bugiardo. A liar. 

The expression is a relic of a different time, when the season ended in late May and did not return until well into September, rather than cannibalising the calendar for 12 months.

Back then, August was no time to offer verdicts on teams, players and managers, mainly because there was no football to speak of.

Even now that the season got underway just a week after Italy’s mid-summer holiday of Ferragosto, drawing conclusions after one round of fixtures is an exercise in futility.

How could it be otherwise, when the transfer window does not shut until September 1 and signing or selling a player could significantly move the needle for a number of clubs?

Maurizio Sarri has long regarded the calciomercato as a hindrance rather than an opportunity, and he found a surprising ally in Vincenzo Italiano.

“There are people on the phone to their agent the morning of the game, people who want out, who have no desire to play, and as such, it’s like they don’t exist,” the Bologna manager thundered on Sky Sports. 

“It is pure madness that the transfer window is open when the season starts. You spend months and months preparing the team and it’s pure madness. 

“Many people think this way. It’s not fair on the coaches. You can’t work like this. It’s total madness. Teams will drop points because of it.”

Italiano’s verbal salvo was a thinly-veiled message to Jhon Lucumi, who has expressed his desire to leave before next month.

He was one of the Felsinei’s best players last term, making 42 appearances in all competitions and helping them lift the Coppa Italia, the club’s first trophy in 51 years.

Lucumi’s €28m (£24m) buy-out clause expired this summer before a suitable offer arrived. When it did, Bologna had already sold fellow centre-back Sam Beukema to Napoli for €31m and were understandably reluctant to allow the Colombian to follow him through the door.

“Jhon had aspirations of leaving the club. Unfortunately, the offer arrived too late, otherwise we could have kept Sam [Beukema],” Bologna CEO Claudio Fenucci told Quotidiano Sportivo last week. 

“However, we didn’t decide the timing of the offer, and today the conditions aren’t right to replace him [Lucumi], so he’ll stay with us.”

Sunderland are understood to have tabled a €30m offer for the player, who had agreed terms on a three-year deal worth €3m per season on Wearside.

Lucumi, who joined from Belgian side Genk for €8m three years ago, earns €800,000 per year and Bologna have offered to double his wages and extend his existing deal by two years to 2029.

On Sunday, Lucumi’s agent Simone Rondanini hit back at Bologna by describing the impasse as “disappointing” and urged the club to find a solution before the transfer window shuts this coming Monday.

“From the beginning, our project was based on a two-or-three-year stay, recognising Jhon as a player who is constantly improving,” he told journalist Fabrizio Romano.

“Last year, we were asked to stay, and we did so with great willingness. This year, however, from the start of the season, the message has been clear from both sides: if the right offer had arrived, Jhon would have the opportunity to move. 

“I therefore hope that Bologna can reflect on the matter and find a balanced and positive solution for everyone.”

The feeling is Bologna have realised their model of selling their crown jewels requires more plate-spinning than ever if it is to remain successful. 

After qualifying for the Champions League under Thiago Motta in the 2023-24 season, the Rossoblu sold Riccardo Calafiori to Arsenal and Joshua Zirkzee to Manchester United.

The impact of their departures was mitigated by Italiano’s brilliant coaching and by Giovanni Sartori’s knack for finding hidden gems in the transfer window.

Since joining from Atalanta three years ago, Bologna’s sporting director has turned the club into one of the most profitable in Europe.

In his first three seasons in charge, they spent more than €15m on just two occasions, when they signed Zirkzee from Bayern Munich for €27m in 2022 and when Calafiori arrived from Basel for €24m the following summer.

The pair were sold for a combined €87.5m, while Beukema returned a €20m surplus and Dan Ndoye, the match-winner in last season’s Coppa Italia final, was sold to Nottingham Forest this summer for €42m, nearly three times the fee Bologna paid for his services three years ago.

The latter two exits partly explain why Bologna stood their ground over Lucumi. Selling the crown jewels is a sustainable business only for so long before the performances on the pitch suffer as a result.

Never a club to sit still under Sartori, the Rossoblu have started planning for the future by signing three centre-backs, who combined cost less than what they received for Beukema.

Nicolo Casale arrived from Lazio, while Torbjorn Heggem joined from West Brom and Martin Vitik signed from Sparta Prague.

At 27, Casale is four months older than Lucumi, while Heggem and Vitik are respectively 26 and 22, as is Jonathan Rowe, who arrived from Marseille for €17m to replace Ndoye.

While his transfer saga rumbles on, Lucumi endured a difficult night as Bologna lost their opening game of the Serie A season against Roma at the Stadio Olimpico on Saturday.

He inadvertently set up Wesley’s second-half winner as Gian Piero Gasperini got his tenure in charge of the Giallorossi off to the perfect start.

Bologna’s defeat in the Eternal City was compounded by an injury to Ciro Immobile, who hobbled off barely 60 minutes into his debut and is set to miss the next two months with an injury to his hip flexor.

The former Italy striker arrived from Besiktas hoping to add to his tally of 201 goals in 354 Serie A appearances and his absence is a major blow to Italiano’s plans.

If the signings of Vitik and Rowe suggested future-proofing, the arrivals of Immobile and Federico Bernardeschi were expected to deliver immediate returns.

At 35 years of age, the three-time Capocannoniere is in the winter of his career, while former Juventus winger Bernardeschi is four years his junior but has spent the last three seasons in the MLS.

Immobile and Bernardeschi joined on free transfers and a sprinkle of veterans on top of a young core has proved a successful recipe for Bologna under both Motta and Italiano.

Riccardo Orsolini, last season’s top scorer with 17 goals in all competitions, is only 28, while Santiago Castro and Thijs Dallinga, who netted 17 times between them, are 20 and 25 respectively. The midfield trio of Lewis Ferguson, Tommaso Pobega and Jens Odgaard are all only 26.

Bologna started slowly last season too, winning just twice in their opening eight Serie A fixtures. In the midst of a post-Motta hangover, Italiano insisted he needed time to get the players to buy into his system and he was proved spectacularly right.

Bologna lifted a first trophy in half a century and only a brutal run-in coupled with the Coppa Italia celebrations derailed their bid to qualify for the Champions League for a second consecutive season.

If there are any concern over the Rossoblu, it is they are dangerously close to their glass ceiling. Having established themselves as a regular contender for the European spots, the only step up is a deep run in the Europa League or another top-four finish.

Whether Italiano’s squad is good enough for either, only time will tell. For now, Monday can’t come soon enough for those of a Rossoblu persuasion.