Marked for Manuel Bertolini
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad18 Jun 2035
Manuel Bertolini damages knee ligaments — 20 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 20 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.
Match18 Jun 2035
Nobody above Torres
First, on 74 points. The table is a fact and a fact is allowed to be enjoyed, which is as far as anybody at the club is prepared to go in public.
Market18 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 The request is on a desk at Torres, and it is not being withdrawn.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 targets18 Jun 2035
$380.0K settles it between the clubs for Emil Holm
AC Milan have accepted the money. What Torres do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Market18 Jun 2035
Torres say no — this time
The offer from Livorno for Mirko Castagnini 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.
Transfer targets18 Jun 2035
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Empoli is saying, and nobody at Torres is enjoying the guessing.
Squad18 Jun 2035
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.
Squad18 Jun 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.
Transfer targets18 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.
Back issues
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 The request is on a desk at Torres, and it is not being withdrawn.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
Boardroom4 Jun 2035
This is the season the town will measure the next twenty against. The trophy travels home with the squad, and the route through the streets was agreed days ago.
Squad4 Jun 2035
A knee injury of the worst kind for Manuel Bertolini
34 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.
Market4 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.
Market4 Jun 2035
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mirko Castagnini will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Torres the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad4 Jun 2035
Words exchanged at Torres
Michele Barbella 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.
Transfer targets4 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.
Boardroom4 Jun 2035
$667.5K on the table at Torres
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
Market4 Jun 2035
“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.
Transfer targets4 Jun 2035
A loan enquiry to Hellas Verona: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.