Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of 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.
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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words at Torino training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leon Goretzka 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.
Out, 0‑1 to Bologna, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
A brace, and Nikola Vlašić takes the afternoon — 8.95
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Nikola Vlašić provided it, and the 8.95 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“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 The request is on a desk at Torino, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Leon Goretzka falls out with a teammate over standards
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.
The phone has started ringing about Flynn Macnack again, and this time the name on the line is Carpi. Torino are listening politely and promising nothing.
In brief
Boardroom91% of the income goes out in wages at Torino
32 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
11 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
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.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Che Adams 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 phone has started ringing about Gvidas Gineitis again, and this time the name on the line is Padova. Torino are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Leon Goretzka falls out with a teammate over standards
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.
“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 7 appearances in 20 say he has earned the hearing.
In brief
BoardroomNobody left the Torino dressing room in a hurry
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Torino have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
The offer from Carpi for Flynn Macnack 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.
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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Emirhan İlkhan is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
38 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Torino have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Che Adams 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.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 22 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Match26 Dec 2026
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for Torino. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Torino training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leon Goretzka 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.
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
“I watch every Torino game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Padova runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Derby days make names, and Giovanni Simeone made his against Juventus. 1‑0, bragging rights secured, and one half of town will be tired of hearing about him by Tuesday.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.06 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Torino have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
Saúl Coco had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Lecce were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
“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.
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.
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Saúl Coco was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.63. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
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.
Marked 8.20 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
3‑1 against Standard Liege, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Saúl Coco was at the centre of the description.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Nikola Vlašić will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Torino escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.31 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Che Adams 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Leon Goretzka falls out with a teammate over standards
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.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Marked 8.80 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Saúl Coco scored, was marked 6.98, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Torino training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leon Goretzka 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.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.54, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad23 Nov 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Saúl Coco'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.
“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 13 say he has earned the hearing.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Nikola Vlašić wants continental football; whether Torino can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Che Adams 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.
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Torino training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cesare Casadei 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 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.
3‑3 against CSKA Sofia, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Nikola Vlašić was at the centre of the description.
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. CSKA Sofia kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Torino will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Two goals and a mark of 8.59 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
7.81, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
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.
“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.
Che Adams 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Leon Goretzka falls out with a teammate over standards
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.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
“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 7 appearances in 10 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
28 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
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.
Franco Israel 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 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.
Che Adams 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Leon Goretzka falls out with a teammate over standards
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.
Marked 8.32 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad19 Oct 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Franco Israel'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.
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Flynn Macnack is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at Torino training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leon Goretzka 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 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.
At 26 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Michael Zeppieri is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Nikola Vlašić was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.14. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Che Adams was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.93. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
In brief
SquadWords at Torino training over how hard people work
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Emirhan İlkhan is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Torino training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leon Goretzka 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.
2‑0 against Standard Liege, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Duván Zapata was at the centre of the description.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 35 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
25 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Che Adams 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Leon Goretzka falls out with a teammate over standards
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.
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Torino did not have in the autumn.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Nikola Vlašić was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.57. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Torino will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 32 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
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.
A 2‑0 win over Hellas Verona, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 24 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 offer from Cosenza for Flynn Macnack 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.
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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Michael Zeppieri is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
6 goals in one match, Andrea Luongo on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Torino and Sassuolo.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Leon Goretzka falls out with a teammate over standards
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.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
8.23. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
In brief
Player ratingsSaúl Coco was on a different afternoon to everybody else
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Torino will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 29 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 24 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Torino training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leon Goretzka 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 44 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Torino scored in the 92th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Che Adams 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Alieu Njie 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.
Three points for Torino, 1‑0 the final word against Cagliari in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Torino training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cesare Casadei 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.
In brief
BoardroomNo investment in the facilities at Torino
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Torino will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Leon Goretzka is living that version at Torino, and it tends to show in the first month.
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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Torino training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leon Goretzka 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 name of Tommaso Gabellini has come up in conversations Torino were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
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.
Add another name to the list: Gubbio have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Rafael Melo. The answer from Torino has not changed — yet.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Torino training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gvidas Gineitis 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.
“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.
Che Adams 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.
Add another name to the list: Pergolettese have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Zannetos Savva. The answer from Torino has not changed — yet.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Torino training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cesare Casadei 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.