Marked for Ryan Wright
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market6 Aug 2035
“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 The request is on a desk at Torres, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets6 Aug 2035
Torres and Venezia have settled on $140.0K. 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 targets6 Aug 2035
Torres asked and Inter said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Transfer targets6 Aug 2035
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Como is saying, and nobody at Torres is enjoying the guessing.
Transfer targets6 Aug 2035
The deal with Genoa is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Squad6 Aug 2035
Tempers go at Torres
Michele Barbella 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.
The dugout6 Aug 2035
Frensi Mali gets it from the manager
“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.
Market6 Aug 2035
“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.
Squad6 Aug 2035
A row about effort at Torres
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and George Morris was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market25 Jun 2035
“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 The request is on a desk at Torres, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets25 Jun 2035
Torres had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at AC Milan, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad25 Jun 2035
A falling-out at Torres
Michele Barbella and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets25 Jun 2035
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.
Transfer targets25 Jun 2035
Renate have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
The dugout25 Jun 2035
Michele Carboni 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.
Squad25 Jun 2035
A row about effort at Torres
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and George Morris was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout25 Jun 2035
“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.
The dugout25 Jun 2035
“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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad11 Jun 2035
27 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Torres lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market11 Jun 2035
“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 Torres, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets11 Jun 2035
Torres had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at AC Milan, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Transfer targets11 Jun 2035
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Cosenza have kept their man, and Torres go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad11 Jun 2035
Tempers go at Torres
Tommaso Marchetti 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.
Squad11 Jun 2035
Words at Torres training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Michele Barbella 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.
Market11 Jun 2035
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Teodoro Castelli has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market11 Jun 2035
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Sebastiano Rizzi has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market11 Jun 2035
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Mario Bertolini has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad9 Apr 2035
Achille Zenoni damages knee ligaments — 25 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 25 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.
Match7 Apr 2035
Torres make home a hard place to visit
16 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
The dugout9 Apr 2035
Ryan Wright: 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.
Market9 Apr 2035
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Torres is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Match7 Apr 2035
Torres make it 3 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Torres have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad9 Apr 2035
Words exchanged at Torres
Raphaël Gaudel 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 2035
A row about effort at Torres
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Michele Barbella was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match7 Apr 2035
Pineto made Torres work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
The dugout9 Apr 2035
“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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match1 Jan 2035
39 points and nobody above them. The word is not being said around the ground yet, and it is being thought in every seat.
Market1 Jan 2035
Rodrigo Gomes hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Torres can pretend not to have heard.
Squad1 Jan 2035
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Torres had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Match30 Dec 2034
8 unbeaten for Torres
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 8 matches without defeat is a foundation Torres did not have in the autumn.
Squad1 Jan 2035
Tempers go at Torres
Michele Barbella 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.
Match30 Dec 2034
Torres keep winning on the road
4 away wins in a row. Travelling support is the truest kind, and this season it is being repaid in the only currency that counts.
Squad1 Jan 2035
Words at Torres training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Souleymane Diallo 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.
The terraces1 Jan 2035
At 22 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.
Match30 Dec 2034
Three points for Torres, 1‑0 the final word against Sambenedettese in a contest settled by the finer margins.