Lewis Ferguson no longer Bologna captain amid transfer talk and Rangers link
Lewis Ferguson has been stripped of the Bologna captaincy in a move that lands right in the middle of another summer of speculation linking him with a return to Rangers, the club he supported as a boy and was once on the books of as a youth player.
The change came under new head coach Domenico Tedesco, who confirmed to Italian media ahead of Bologna’s match with Lazio that a new leadership structure was being put in place. Veteran defender Lorenzo De Silvestri is now first-choice captain, with winger Riccardo Orsolini as his deputy and Ferguson dropped to third in line. Because De Silvestri didn’t start against Lazio, it was Orsolini who wore the armband in Ferguson’s first match under the new manager, rather than Ferguson himself.
The demotion follows a summer in which Ferguson has spoken openly about the transfer rumours surrounding him, with Rangers reported to have shown interest — and Juventus also mentioned as a club linked with him in the past. Ferguson addressed his contract situation directly, pointing out he still has two years left on his deal plus the option of a third, adding that he’s happy and feels at home in Bologna while remaining open to other opportunities. Asked specifically about a possible Rangers move, he didn’t hold back on his feelings for the club: they’re his favourite team, and he’s always said he wants to play for them, adding that he believes it will happen at some point in his career, even if he doesn’t yet know when.
This isn’t a new sentiment from Ferguson. In earlier comments reported around a week before this story, he’d said much the same thing when asked about interest in him over the summer, noting there’d been no actual offers to leave Bologna — his summer had been taken up by the World Cup, then a holiday, before returning to pre-season. He again described Rangers as the club in his heart, repeating that he’s always intended to play for them eventually, even without a concrete timeline.
Those comments came against the backdrop of a busy Rangers window under Derek McInnes, who has brought in ten new faces already without any sign of stopping. Midfield has been a specific area of focus, with Vanja Dragojevic, Cameron Devlin and Dan Neil already arriving to provide different qualities in that area of the pitch — though none of that business has cooled fan interest in a Ferguson move, given his boyhood connection to the club.
The broader arc of the Ferguson-to-Rangers speculation stretches back further than this summer. Earlier in the year, his agent Bill McMurdo discussed the midfielder’s situation live on air, suggesting Ferguson’s value had dropped to somewhere in the region of £8.6-13million due to Bologna’s rotational system limiting his game time — a figure McMurdo suggested could make him affordable for Rangers. McMurdo had previously played down the idea of a move to Ibrox, suggesting Ferguson would only consider clubs from Europe’s top five leagues, but softened that stance somewhat, telling the Daily Record’s Hotline Live that he believed Ferguson would play for Rangers before his career finishes, even if not necessarily next season.
More recently, in July, Italian outlet Tuttomercatoweb reported that Bologna had received no contact from Rangers despite the renewed speculation, and that the club were not in talks over a new contract with Ferguson at that stage either. That report characterized Bologna as being under no pressure to sell, with Ferguson under contract until 2028 — a deal length that leaves the Serie A side in a strong negotiating position should Rangers or anyone else come calling. The same report noted Ferguson had also been mentioned as one of three realistic midfield targets being assessed by Inter Milan under Cristian Chivu, with Inter said to be focused on midfielders who combine goals, technical quality and tactical intelligence — attributes Ferguson had shown across his time in Italy, including 13 goals in his first two Serie A campaigns before a serious knee ligament injury interrupted his progress.
On the international side, Ferguson has continued to build his standing with Scotland, establishing himself as a starter under Steve Clarke over the past year and being one of the more impressive performers for the national side at this summer’s World Cup. He’s expected to be part of new Scotland head coach Sebastian Pocognoli’s first squad for the upcoming Nations League matches against Slovenia and Switzerland.
Ferguson’s history with Rangers has an emotional layer that goes beyond ordinary transfer speculation. He was on Rangers’ books as a boy — his father Derek and uncle Barry both played for the club — but was released by Rangers at 14, a moment he’s previously said still hurts and continues to motivate him. He went on to make his senior breakthrough at Hamilton Academical before four seasons at Aberdeen, then moved to Bologna in 2022, where he built the career that’s made him a Scotland regular and, until this latest change, Bologna’s captain.
Taken together, the picture is of a player whose attachment to Rangers has never gone away, and whose stock as a genuine transfer target for the club has fluctuated over several years depending on form, fitness, contract status and Bologna’s own willingness to sell. This latest development — losing the captaincy under a new coach just as speculation resurfaces — adds a fresh layer to that story, even though nothing in the reporting suggests an actual move is imminent. Ferguson remains under contract in Italy until 2028, Bologna have shown no urgency to sell, and Ferguson’s own comments continue to describe a move to Ibrox as more of a long-term ambition than a current negotiation. Whether the captaincy change signals any shift in his standing at the club beyond team leadership, or has any bearing on his willingness to push for an exit, isn’t something the current reporting addresses — it’s simply the latest data point in a transfer story that’s been simmering, on and off, for several years.
