Marked for Darwin Pérez
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market1 Oct 2029
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings1 Oct 2029
Successful dribbles: 24. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad1 Oct 2029
Words exchanged at Torino
Rolando Mandragora 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.
Squad1 Oct 2029
A row about effort at Torino
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zakaria Aboukhlal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings1 Oct 2029
Marked 7.37 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Torino had the best player on the pitch.
Squad1 Oct 2029
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Torino can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout1 Oct 2029
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.
Squad1 Oct 2029
The captaincy has been taken off Saúl Coco. Torino will call it a decision about the team; a dressing room reads it as a verdict on a man.
Market1 Oct 2029
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market23 Jul 2029
“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.
Squad23 Jul 2029
45 days out for Alberto Paleari after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Torino will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Transfer targets23 Jul 2029
Everything agreed with Lazio, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Transfer targets23 Jul 2029
Torino and Alcione Milano have settled on $320.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Transfer targets23 Jul 2029
$2.1M on the table at Bologna. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Transfer targets23 Jul 2029
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The dugout23 Jul 2029
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Market23 Jul 2029
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad23 Jul 2029
Words exchanged at Torino
Franco Israel 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market21 May 2029
Duván Zapata has one foot out of the door
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.
Squad21 May 2029
Words exchanged at Torino
Franco Israel 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.
Squad21 May 2029
A row about effort at Torino
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rolando Mandragora was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout21 May 2029
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 Rolando Mandragora is on it.
The dugout21 May 2029
“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 dugout21 May 2029
Cesare Casadei 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 Cesare Casadei trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market21 May 2029
The name of Zakaria Aboukhlal keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Torino say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout21 May 2029
Deian Verón is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Market21 May 2029
“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 Marco Dalla Vecchia.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The dugout9 Apr 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Torino may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market9 Apr 2029
“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.
Market9 Apr 2029
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.
Match7 Apr 2029
The wait goes on for Torino
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad9 Apr 2029
Words exchanged at Torino
Zakaria Aboukhlal 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.
Squad9 Apr 2029
A row about effort at Torino
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rolando Mandragora was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad9 Apr 2029
Darwin Pérez gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Darwin Pérez has just signed for Torino, and for once the answer mattered.
Boardroom9 Apr 2029
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Andrea Santarcangelo has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Torino have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Match7 Apr 2029
Torino come up short against Parma
Parma left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.