The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Pergolettese moved on, Tommaso Di Marco reports back to Torino, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Jonathan Dubasin was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Milutin Osmajić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Torino can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
18 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Torino, and 0 appearances in 12 say he has earned the hearing.
32 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Lecce lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Carpi waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Lecce is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The offer from Reggiana for Jamil Siebert was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Lecce, and it is not being withdrawn.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
$10.6M on the table at Young Boys. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Torino, and it is not being withdrawn.
$6.5M on the table at Fiorentina. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Torino can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Torino heard it as anything else.
Alieu Njie and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Torino offered $20.8M; Cesena said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Monza have accepted the money. What Torino do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 94 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
Torino asked and Gijón said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Torino had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
He is going to AC Milan, the club has $14.7M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
The name of Fisayo Dele-Bashiru has come up in conversations Torino were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The offer went to Cesena this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Peterborough United have kept their man, and Torino go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Torino, and it is not being withdrawn.
$1.6M on the table at Venezia. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Torino hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Torino can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Tiago Gabriel will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Torino the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad29 May 2028
Words at Torino training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fisayo Dele-Bashiru is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Ivan Ilić wants continental football; whether Torino can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
The first defeat in 5 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Frosinone; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 87. Frosinone had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
A mark of 7.66 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Tiago Gabriel will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Torino the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Torino, another week without a signature from Franco Israel.
25 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Torino lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
16 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Cesare Casadei provided it, and the 8.31 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Alessio Cacciamani did not need any: 7.67, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Tiago Gabriel will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Torino the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Torino hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
17 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Torino lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Tiago Gabriel will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Torino the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Kenny Olinga has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Alessio Cacciamani is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Marked 7.19 on 12 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
The first defeat in 21 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Padova; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
47 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Torino lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Torino can pretend not to have heard.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Cristiano Biraghi had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Torino close the window on a squad of their own making
8 in and 15 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Torino they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Riccardo Bianchi has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
57 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Torino lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Torino can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Torino people have started saying his name in the past tense.
He is going to AC Milan, the club has $18.1M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
84 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Torino lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Giovanni Simeone had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 99 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Torino, and it is not being withdrawn.
Torino asked and Genoa said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Lumezzane waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Torino is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 15 signed and 24 gone
That is the business done at Torino until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Alessio Cacciamani is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Krylya Sovetov have accepted the money. What Lecce do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Lecce people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
The offer went to Inter this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Torino asked and Genoa said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Torino have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Torino heard it as anything else.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Torino can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
With 6 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Torino this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ardian Ismajli trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.99 for the rest of it.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Torino told Gvidas Gineitis something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
“I watch every Torino game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Montana runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Torino told Cristiano Biraghi something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Torino know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
33 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Torino lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Torino had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Racing Genk, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Southampton have kept their man, and Torino go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Torino have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Südtirol had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Every dressing room knows how to read a signing like this one. Iker Benito is not here to sit and wait indefinitely, and the man whose place he has been bought to take knows it better than anyone.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $96.8M — a club that wants Rafiu Durosinmi enough to be asked twice.
In brief
SquadTiago Gabriel is a better footballer than he was
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Saúl Coco
48 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Torino lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Cristiano Biraghi and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.90 for the rest of it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sandro Kulenović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Carlo Grassi kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Eray Cömert is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sandro Kulenović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Torino 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Saúl Coco signs something — a contract at Torino or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
3 goals in 8 games at Audace Cerignola — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Torino updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.