The multi-club model is not a shortcut to success—it is a crutch that collapses under its own weight, and CF Montreal’s spiraling decline alongside Bologna’s ascent to the Champions League proves it. Bologna’s improbable run under Thiago Motta was built on disciplined recruitment: Riccardo Orsolini’s creative brilliance, Joshua Zirkzee’s hold-up play, and Lewis Ferguson’s box-to-box energy. That team finished fifth in Serie A, a genuine overachievement. Meanwhile, Montreal trudged through a 2024 season that saw them miss the playoffs, fire head coach Hernán Losada, and replace him with Laurent Courtois, a man whose only prior senior management experience came in the club’s own reserve side. The contrast is not a coincidence—it is a structural indictment. The Saputo family pumped resources into Bologna to secure European football, while Stade Saputo’s stand grew emptier and Montreal’s squad became a revolving door of MLS castoffs and unproven academy teens.
The evidence of neglect is visible in the transfer ledger. Bologna signed Riccardo Calafiori from Basel, bought Jens Odgaard from AZ, and paid a fee for Giovanni Fabbian. Montreal, in the same window, traded away leading scorer Romell Quioto, let goalkeeper James Pantemis walk for free, and replaced them with loanees from other MLS clubs and a 34-year-old Sunusi Ibrahim brought in from nowhere. The “synergy” that owners trumpet—shared scouting databases, player loans between teams—never materialized. No Bologna star has ever dropped down to Montreal to raise the level; instead, Montreal’s promising youngsters like Mathieu Choinière and Sunusi Ibrahim are left to rot while their counterparts in Emilia-R