Football Season Guide

In the 3 years with Ivan Juric at the helm, Torino displayed an often-pleasant football and systematically placed them in the Serie A top 10. While the coach begged for strengthening in order to make a subsequent quantum leap, the management hesitated: this eventually led to the end of the Croatian’s permanence at the club. Even the past season left the Bull’s supporters with a bitter taste in their mouths. Torino finished on the 9th place after nursing the dream of European football for some time and they could have really made it, had they only succeeded turning a few of their 14 draws into wins. With Juric gone, Torino hired 52-year-old Paolo Vanoli as the new coach. He led Venezia to promotion from the Serie B last season but has not experience whatsoever as head coach in Serie A. Just like his predecessor, he will not have many hopes of fighting for Europe. First of all, Torino dismantled their back 3 almost completely, with starting Buongiorno leaving for good cash, starting Rodriguez and back-up Djidji not seeing their contracts renewed. Masina, who well impressed since joining on loan from Udinese, was signed permanently and he will step up from the bench, while waiting for Schuurs to recover from knee injury. Then, they signed Coco, who did well at Las Palmas. While they are still looking for a centre-back, versatile full-back Vojvoda and midfielder Tameze could still be adapted to the role. They saw no reason for changes in the midfield with young Gineitis set to earn himself always more playing time. On the other hand, in the attack they signed permanently Zapata, who at 32 was capable of 12 goals and 4 assists, while disappointing Okereke returned to his parent club. Considering that Pellegri is too often injured and hardly ever scores anyway and that Sanabria underperformed last season, they also hired Adams, who was very prolific in the Championship last campaign, scoring 15 goals. Beside a centre-back, Torino are still looking for a full-back and a midfielder.