Marked for Lyfe Oldenstam
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 May 2027
Daniele Giorico damages knee ligaments — 104 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 104 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The dugout10 May 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Market10 May 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Andrea Zaccagno’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout10 May 2027
Fábio Rampi gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Fábio Rampi is on it.
The dugout10 May 2027
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Alessandro Masala has written the date down.
The dugout10 May 2027
Mattia Sala knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mattia Sala trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 May 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Daniele Giorico
111 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Torres lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad3 May 2027
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Torres will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
The dugout3 May 2027
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Loan watch3 May 2027
22 appearances away from home and 10 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
Squad3 May 2027
“I will know when it is time. I am not there yet.” Nicolò Antonelli is 37, with 471 appearances behind him, and Torres will have to plan for whichever answer comes.
The dugout3 May 2027
When it matters, Mattia Sala plays
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad8 Mar 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Nicolò Antonelli and Torres agree another 2 years.
Match6 Mar 2027
Whatever happens, Torres do not lose
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nicolò Antonelli, and the manager let it.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Lyfe Oldenstam is the month’s best young player
At 20 he was better than everybody his age in the division for four weeks running, which is harder than one good afternoon. Torres will try not to make too much of it.
Player ratings8 Mar 2027
7.86, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Torres had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
Loan watch8 Mar 2027
22 appearances away from home and 10 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Francesco Corsinelli has come out of that comparison in the side, and Torres have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Torres told Mattia Piermarini something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Match6 Mar 2027
It needed Lorenzo Di Stefano to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Forli, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
No sign of nerves from Lyfe Oldenstam at 20 — 8.05
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Lyfe Oldenstam did not need any: 8.05, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Match13 Feb 2027
Latina made Torres work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad15 Feb 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Torres this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces15 Feb 2027
At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Daniele Giorico, and the manager let it.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Pietro De Carli on a 3‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
Adama Diakité knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Adama Diakité trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Lyfe Oldenstam is the weekend's best young player
At 20 he is being measured against the rest of the division's kids and coming out in front. The senior version of this award is where the club would like this to lead.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match9 Dec 2026
The cup run ends for Torres
0‑1 against AC Milan, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Giuseppe Mastinu, 35, rolls back the years — 7.83
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.83 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Match12 Dec 2026
Campobasso made Torres work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Riccardo Idda, and the manager let it.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Pietro De Carli could afford to be generous.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
Cristian Bunino has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Torres will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Market14 Dec 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Andrea Zaccagno’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 11. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match5 Dec 2026
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 85th, and Pescara spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
Daniele Giorico: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Torres have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Marked 7.87 at 19, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Match5 Dec 2026
Pescara made Torres work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
The terraces7 Dec 2026
He is 19 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad7 Dec 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Cristian Bunino and Torres agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 2‑1, already talking about the next one.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Somebody watched every match in the division at the weekend and decided he was the best thing in any of them. A small honour, and most careers end without one.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Nov 2026
A falling-out at Torres
Alessandro Masala and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Adama Diakité
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Giacomo Zecca asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Cristian Bunino has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Torres will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Market16 Nov 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Andrea Zaccagno’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Loan watch16 Nov 2026
The goals keep arriving from Michele Carboni’s exile
3 goals in 9 games at Hamrun Spartans — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Torres updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Market16 Nov 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Looking ahead16 Nov 2026
Next up on the road: Forli, position 16. The supporters who go will talk about it all week and the ones who do not will check their phones at ten to five.
Squad16 Nov 2026
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match24 Oct 2026
Torres strike at the death to beat Latina
There were 87 minutes on the clock and Latina had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Torres did not stop to explain themselves.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.55, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Match24 Oct 2026
Torres get the job done against Latina
A 2‑1 win over Latina, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The terraces26 Oct 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Lyfe Oldenstam has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alessandro Masala, and the manager let it.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Pietro De Carli could afford to be generous.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Andrea Zaccagno is on it.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The plan did not have a place for Giuseppe Mastinu
Nobody at Torres is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 12. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Torres told Alessio Insignito something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Lyfe Oldenstam has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Torres will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Daniele Sorrentino has written the date down.
Squad12 Oct 2026
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
Looking ahead12 Oct 2026
Home comforts ahead for Torres
Pianese, position 16, come to town on Saturday. Nobody will call it a big game and nobody at the club will be treating it as anything else.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Match12 Sep 2026
Livorno left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Pietro De Carli after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Michael Brentan's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Fábio Rampi and Torres agree another 1 years.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
Michael Brentan asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market14 Sep 2026
Torres bring in an old head
Fábio Rampi is 37 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
A mark of 4.91 tells the story without any need for embellishment. He will want the tape of this one quietly lost.
Looking ahead14 Sep 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Spezia in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 15 in, 0 out at Torres
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 15 arrived, 0 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Torres asked and Benfica said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Too much change too quickly at Torres
6 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Torres, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Michael Brentan has moved up it.
Looking ahead7 Sep 2026
Livorno next, and one man in the Torres dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Squad7 Sep 2026
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Torres will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A new face in his position, and Nicolò Antonelli suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. Torres have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.