edtheguy Posted April 6, 2016 Author Share Posted April 6, 2016 June/July 2022 As usual I returned from vacation to 48 messages, numerous staff updates and one transfer request. FC Sochaux-Montbe wanted one of our young strikers, Luca Rocco, on loan - I declined. I am starting to get used to this world travel thing though, as shortly after returning from France we were off to the States for a couple days to catch up with the Burns’ and Gias responsibilities with the Jayden fund. Dario wasn’t too worried about this trip, he said the people Gia was wrestling with weren’t likely to try anything in the states, which was nice to hear. He still had Gabrielle accompany us though. While we were there the Rev’s had a home game and I got to see Andrew Farrell receive his MLS player of the week award before the Rev’s 3-1 win at home vs Orlando. Andrew was all smiles when I caught up with him after the game, he thanked me again for helping him reach the top of his game and said he was still loving life in New England. The Rev’s are only 7-7-5 so far this year under Guzan. They have let both Lee Nguyen and Alvaro Traver go as Guzan plays a narrow diamond formation and had little use for wingers. While we were there I got a news story on my tablet that Barcelona president Jose Jesus Munoz has admitted that Marco Benassi is the top of their wishlist. I am under no illusions that I could keep any of our players here if an offer came in from Barca, so I’ll have to have some sort of contingency plan in place in case something materializes there. It was nice to catch up with Mike and Michelle, who are both doing well. Mike said they were going through a lot of the same ups and downs that they did when I took over for Jay, which I felt a little guilty about - it felt like by leaving I had sent the franchise backwards, but Mike felt they were heading in the right direction at least. Michelle just shook her head when Gia told her about the struggle she was having to restore the Theater and wondered out loud if drama just followed Gia and I around all the time. I can’t say that I’ve never wondered the same. The trip to Boston was very nice and we even got a meal at Estragon with Gabrielle and Viviana who agreed the atmosphere at our old favorite hangout was wonderful, but all too soon we were back home in Turin and I was off to work again. In between meetings with the football and non-football staff to set the operational frameworks for the upcoming season there were several news items over the next couple weeks- The 2022 World Cup is advancing to the Quarter Final where defending champion England will play Canada on the 1st, with the day's other match featuring Germany and Italy. In the other quarterfinals Argentina faces Serbia and Portugal plays Croatia. The Friendly Cup competition we had been scheduled to participate in was cancelled due to scheduling conflicts. We will open the new season on 8/21 at Sassuolo and our first home game will be a week later against Cagliari. Our average attendance of 18,944 last season was a club record, breaking 2015’s mark of 17,582 Santiago Arias broke the record for average rating (another right back…he must have been channelling his inner Andrew Farrell) with a 7.51. The old record was also set in 2015, as Giuseppe Vives averaged 7.39. And the football organizational meetings for the week accomplished a lot of different tasks, including- Replacing staff members whose contracts had expired, including; A DOF, U20’s Assistant, Physio, U20’s Coach, 3 U18’s Coaches,a U18’s Physio, and 8 Scouts - so not that much really…. I offered the DOF position to Serie C/B club Perugia’s DOF 46 year old Italian Roberto Goretti who is also a former Perugia player. Roberto is among the best in the world at evaluating talent and only one tick below the best at evaluating potential, won’t have any problems adapting to a new team and is more disciplined and determined than most DOF’s I’ve met. I offered the U20 Assistant position to 39 year old Italian coach Valerio Di Cesare, who is spirited and good at defensive, mental and technical coaching. I offered several scouts positions, and instead of looking solely for the best talent evaluators I looked to increase our knowledge in central europe, south america and africa. One of the scouts tendered an offer was Goretti’s best scout at Perugia, Marcello Pizzimenti With the personnel end mostly sorted I held an organizational meeting with staff, we discussed a new 5122 formation and set organizational goals of developing our youth players, expanding our scouting knowledge, maintaining our club infrastructure at the highest level, and purchasing as many youth players as possible to stock the Balon Boys, so that using our worldwide scouting we can then produce home grown eligible players drawn from the worldwide talent pool. Young French striker Gaspard Martins finally joined the team when his contract expired and the coaches put him just ahead of Loris Forni on the depth charts. Aside from a complete inability to mark or tackle the only real weakness I found was his positioning, which will require work. His personality isn’t quite what I would like either, but we will see if we can get him into our mentoring program when the full squad returns to work on that. We had another Board Meeting - I’m still Very Secure, they are taking into account last season’s successes and our good use of young players but are still disappointed with Lopez leaving, We are still financially secure, with a 8.64m profit last month, but will deteriorate…. Blah blah blah. Italy beat Germany 1-0 on a Tiziano Tulissi goal in the 85th minute, and England beat Canada 1-0 on a Ross Barkley goal in the 3rd minute. Italy will play the winner of Portugal vs Croatia and England will play the winner of Argentina vs Serbia in the semi final. Fulham offered 6.5 m for Gallo, I countered at 20m and they ended talks, Gallo’s agent immediately asked for a new deal and I called Stefano. Stefano’s former agent now has one less client. Our new French scout Jean-Sebastien Merleux recommended En Avant de Guingamp youth player Marc Roche, a 14 year old striker who the club valued at 300k, I made the offer and they accepted. Roberto Goretti agreed to terms and started work as our new DOF and I brought him up to speed on club goals for the year. I told the press I was delighted to have him at the club, and that he would be a great asset to the organization. Croatia beat Portugal 2-1 , the deciding goal scored in the 50th minute by Adrian Grbic and Serbia defeated Argentina 1-0 in extra time on a Srdjan Plavsic goal in the 112th minute in the last two World Cup Quarter Final matches. The Semi Finals will begin in three days with Italy vs. Croatia and on the next day England will play Serbia. The next week I started a Prospects shortlist where we can evaluate everyone under 18 to find players to bring into our development system. I also put Roberto to work by making our two South American wonderkids that we found last season transfer targets, I don’t expect any success, but it’s worth a shot. His first independent action was to make a 13m offer for diminutive forward Luis Javier, who has been playing for Dynamo Kyiv. In the first World Cup semi final Italy defeated Croatia 2-0, with the help of an own goal from Antonio Milic and a second half extra time clincher by Filippo Melegoni. Needless to say, all of Italy is fully invested in this World Cup now eagerly looking forward to the final. Our HOYD Massimo Bava found another striker to add to our program and signed 18 year old Italian Samuel Luzi, who will join our U20 team. Luzi is Serie B level right now, and sits 5th on our senior squad depth chart. The second World Cup semi final saw England earn the chance to defend their title with a 2-0 victory over Serbia. England scored twice late, with Raheem Sterling netting a goal in the 86th minute and Saido Berahino sealing the game in extra time. Continuing my new jet-setting ways, I was able to book a trip for myself and Gianna to attend the final which was two days before our training camp opened. Dario said there would be more security there than you could shake a stick at, but Gabrielle and one of his male employees came with us anyway. Massimo completed the Signing of 14 year old French striker Marc Roche, he will join our program next August. 7/9/22 Italy vs England - World Cup Final - Italy 4231 Scuffet, Calabria, Rugani, Romagnoli, Dimarco, Verratti, Valzania, Berardi, Vazquez, Gabbiadini, Bonazzoli vs England 4123 Butland, Holgate, Gomez, Stones, Dasilva, Swaby, Barkley, Henderson, Sterling, Grealish, Kane. Italy’s Franco Vazquez got the game off to a quick start with an 8th minute strike and less than 5 minutes later it was 2-0 as Manolo Gabbiadini volleyed home a corner kick. England's defense of the title looked to be over before it began and I started to imagine just how crazy Turin would be when I got home if Italy won the World Cup. The defending champions were made of sterner stuff than that though as less than five minutes later Raheem Sterling got one back for England and we were in a game. The crazy first half continued as Sterling added a second to tie the match at 29 minutes and each keeper made multiple nice saves to preserve a 2-2 score at the half. The biggest stop was when Simone Scuffet made a diving parry of an England penalty kick that was inexplicably taken by John Stones. In the second half England used all three substitutions early, taking the ineffective Grealish and Barkley off at the half for Lewis Cook and Saido Berahino and putting Danny Ings in for Harry Kane before the 60 minute mark. Italy responded in a similar manner taking forward Berardi off at halftime and midfielder Valzania at 54 minutes, followed by central defender Rugani at the hour mark. Tulissi, Cataldi and Ely came on for the Italians. The England substitutions looked sharper though and it was former Leeds midfielder Lewis Cook who finally broke the tie with a 69th minute strike. Italy was forced to press the issue after that, but never looked as positive as they did at the start of the game as England saw the match out to win their second consecutive World Cup. Italy vs England World Cup Final2-317 Shots 1311 On Target 1020 Fouls 949% Possession 51%Goals: Vazquez (8) Gabbiadini (12) Sterling (17,29) Cook (69) I went home to a city in a far different mood than I had imagined when the score was 2-0. The Turin papers took a break from lambasting the national team long enough to scoff at my trip to the match, saying I was only there because Juve manager Gerardo Martino was attending and I was trying to put on airs. There was no goodwill for anyone after that disappointing collapse, sometimes it doesn’t matter what you do you can’t stay out of the crossfire. The first item for me to address (after not making eye contact with any irate Italian football fans on my way into the stadium) was the transfer of Luis Javier, for 13 m. I delayed the transfer for a week and sent our chief scout out to get a better report on the player. This would be 65% of our transfer budget. I could always look to sell players to recoup the money, but I don’t think I want to go through the massive roster shift at the moment. 7/11/22 vs Torino U18s - Friendly - 5122 Bruno Varela, Traore, Nicoletti, Glik, Arias, Sissoko, Duarte, Benassi, Gallo, Martins, Forni vs 5122. Well, at least we know we are better than our U18’s. The new formation looked good and created some really beautiful movement and a solid looking defense. But, really, we probably could have looked good without a formation so I’ll reserve judgement for a while. Torino vs Torino U18s Friendly6-121 Shots 49 On Target 24 Fouls 1458% Possession 42%Goals: Gallo (13) Sissoko (20) Martins (21) Duarte (24) Scarano (40) Nicoletti (41) Forni (73) Adson came demanding assurances he would get more playing time than last year. To the transfer list it is then. After getting the scouting report I cancelled the Luis Javier deal, he would probably be good, but he barely edged Fortounis in head to head... and 13m is a lot of money. We completed the signing of Federico Barba, a defender who can play left back and center back, for a 1.4m transfer fee and 600k/yr salary. 7/20/22 vs Bayern - Friendly - 5122 Bruno Varela, Traore, Nicoletti, Glik, Arias, Sissoko, Duarte, Benassi, Gallo, Martins, Forni vs 4141. This time we were the U18 team. Muller and Lewandowski ran circles around our three defenders who stood huddled in a group and watched them. Lewandowski scored at 6 minutes, which was a sign of things to come. Short term, though we responded well as we struck right back with Loris Forni scoring a mirror image goal at 7 minutes. After that was embarrassing, however, as Bayerns defense firmed up and held resolutely against all our attacks while our defense… didn’t. Loss 1-4 Torino vs Bayern Friendly1-48 Shots 133 On Target 915 Fouls 746% Possession 54%Goals: Lewandowski (6, 41) Forni (7) Brandt (18) Patric (40) Traore, Nicoletti, Glik and Arias were all told that if they played like that again they would not see any competitive matches. To their credit, they all seemed to take it well. Adson signed with Bremen, they can worry about his playing time now. I offered Traore and Nicoletti, who I wasn’t impressed with last season, around and received several offers for them, I accepted all offers but ones from Serie A clubs. 7/23/22 at Novara - Friendly - 5122 Bruno Varela, Polesano, Barba, Rivoira, Novello, Sissoko, Duarte, Benassi, Gallo, Martins, Forni vs 442. This was a pre season game, a real mixed bag. At times we looked unstoppable, at times we were the keystone cops. In the end we won 4-2. Torino at Novara Friendly4-217 Shots 910 On Target 45 Fouls 647% Possession 53%Goals: Forni (7) Perrin (10) Martins (52) Tremolada (79) Rocco (80) Duarte (87) Manuel Nicoletti signed with Liecester. And in through the open door came Abubakar Sodje a 24 year old center back from Rio Ave. Daouda Traore signed with Girondins de Bordeaux. 7/27/22 at Feirense - Friendly - 5122 Bruno Varela, Barba, Sodje, Polesano, Novello, Sissoko, Duarte, Benassi, Gallo, Martins, Forni vs 451. We started to look a lot more cohesive in this game, despite using an all new back three. We were good defensively, good in the transition and incisive up front. Torino at Feirense Friendly3-012 Shots 48 On Target 05 Fouls 1451% Possession 49%Goals: Martins (10) Gallo (32) Duarte (80) The media’s preseason predictions have us 11th in Serie A. I made an offer for Real Madrid backup keeper Kepa Arrizabalaga and offered terms. He would rate just ahead of Bruno Varela, and give us some competition for the position. Atletico keeps trying to buy our 15 year old keeper Giacomo Bellini, who I have no intention of selling. 7/30/22 at Ascoli - Friendly - 5122 Resta, Barba, Sodje, Polesano, Novello, Padovano, Bahamondes, Marotta, Fortounis, Rocco, Natali vs 442. Our second stringers (with the ‘first team’ defenders) was completely overwhelmed all game, but managed to only allow one goal. We changed to the 4231 at 70 minutes and came back for a draw. Torino at Ascoli Friendly1-113 Shots 208 On Target 612 Fouls 636% Possession 64%Goals: Motti (48) Natali (85) Roberto Goretti acquired Man U youth midfielder Paul Williams on loan, I confirmed the deal. When the head groundskeeper inquired I left our home pitch at a standard size, we definitely don’t have the competitive edge my last couple Rev teams did so a large pitch would be a bad idea. Home is strange right now, Vivianna is visiting from the states and Gabrielle is almost always there, so I feel like I’m an outsider in a women’s home most of the time. And the woman I actually see the least of is Gianna. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
edtheguy Posted April 7, 2016 Author Share Posted April 7, 2016 August 2022 Gia and I doubled with Dario and Gabrielle for dinner after another painless but boring board meeting. Dinner basically turned into an operational meeting for Gia’s enterprise as Dario covered a security briefing that led to a discussion concerning her current plans. As far as the security went all was quiet for the moment which, it turned out, was probably because Gia’s efforts to save the theatre were losing ground and unless she came up with considerable financial backing by the end of the year the new redevelopment of the area was going to go forward. I don’t like seeing Gia so down, but knowing she isn’t in danger 24/7 is very nice, I guess I can’t really win no matter how things go. Or maybe I can’t lose? I just hope everyone is ok when this all ends. We finalized Arrizabalaga signing with four friendlies still on the schedule, which will give us time to work him into the squad. After a worrisome report from Sal I had to talk to Marco Natali about training levels. The big man has the potential, but without the work ethic he isn’t likely to see much time on my squad. I have a feeling he didn’t really get the message, but we will have to wait and see. 8/3/22 at Beerschot-Wilrijk- Friendly - 5122 Bruno Varela, Rivoira, Sodje, Bianchetti, Novello, Padovano, Bahamondes, Fortounis, Williams, Rocco, Natali vs 4123 DM Wide. Our second team looked much better against a lower level of opposition. We did make some very minor tweaks to our tactic. Marco seemed to respond to our talk. Win 3-0. Torino at Beerschot-Wilrijk Friendly3-015 Shots 45 On Target 22 Fouls 1254% Possession 46%Goals: Natali (4,14,40) Dr. Albertini - our Head Physio - informed me after the game that Matteo Bianchetti had suffered a broken ankle in the game and will miss 2 to 3 months. 8/6/22 at Akhisar Belediye Genclik ve Spor- Friendly - 5122 Arrizabalaga, Rivoira, Barba, Sodje, Novello, Padovano, Duarte, Fortounis, Gallo, Rocco, Martins vs 4411. There seems to be some promise in this team and this approach, especially against lesser teams - which, unfortunately, we won’t see much of once the season starts. We conceded possession for most of the game, but seemed to have the entire pitch covered. Everywhere Akhisar tried to go we had two players waiting and when we got the ball it took us no time to work it into the net. Win 4-1 Torino at Akhisar Bld. Friendly4-113 Shots 108 On Target 55 Fouls 442% Possession 58%Goals: Rocco (3,22) Padovano (6) Gallo (45) Alibaz (75) The day after the Akhisar friendly I put an overseas call into Andrew Farrell to congratulate him on breaking Lee Nguyen’s all time appearance mark for New England with his 308th in their last game. Since being released from the Rev’s Lee has retired and is looking for work as a DOF, when I spoke to him over the summer I suggested to him he was better suited to be a coach but wished him luck. The day before our next friendly, against Wolfsburg, Fulham made an 8m bid for our very promising midfielder Stefano Gallo which I rejected resulting in the inevitable phone call from his agent looking for a new deal, which I offered and we agreed to terms on. 8/10/22 vs Wolfsburg- Friendly - 5122 Arrizabalaga, Polesano, Barba, Sodje, Novello, Sissoko, Duarte, Benassi, Gallo, Martins, Forni vs 4231. This game was far less embarrassing than the Bayern one. We played with them for the better part of the game and looked fairly even. Except they could score and we couldn’t. Loss 0-2. Torino vs Wolfsburg Friendly0-213 Shots 134 On Target 76 Fouls 144% Possession 56%Goals: Schulz (17,82) Roberto made an offer for young Malmo striker Thomas Hallberg that I cancelled, as he wasn’t as good as our home grown strikers. 8/10/22 at Fondi- Friendly - 4231 Bruno Varela, Rivoira, Long, Glik, Bahamondes, Martone, Sissoko, Rodriguez, Natali, Fortounis, Forni vs 442. Well, the 4231 is definitely more lively. Also, I don’t think we will be invited to play in Serie D any time soon. We were, um, impressive. So was the woodwork. We did manage to find the space between the posts three times, which was two less than the five times we hit the woodwork. Win 3-0. Torino at Fondi Friendly3-031 Shots 110 On Target 07 Fouls 2360% Possession 40%Goals: Rodriguez (7) Fortounis (85) Martone (87) HOYD Massimo Bava bid on 16 year old Catania midfielder Carlo Rossini. The young man agreed to terms three days later. I commended Massimo on the move, which was right in line with our club philosophies outlined earlier in the summer. Serie B’s Brescia bid on Niccolo Novello which I rejected. Prior to our first league game at Sassuolo I spoke to Kamil about removing him as captain, his career is winding down and he doesn’t have the status in the squad he once did. Since his personality wasn’t the main thing that made him the club’s captain in the first place he agreed that there were probably better options on the squad now. We named Marco Benassi captain kept Bianchetti as vice captain. Kamil said he thought it was a good idea, I was pleased that the transition went so smoothly, a change in captains always has the potential to upset the apple cart. Leonardo Marotta signed a three year contract extension with the club. The morning of our season opener the Board sent their competition expectations review: Serie A - Mid Table. Italian Cup Quarter Final. Those are reasonable goals that I am hopeful we can achieve at the very least. 8/21/22 at Sassuolo- Serie A G1 - 4231 Bruno Varela, Novello, Barba, Sodje, Duarte, Benassi, Sissoko, Rodriguez, Gallo, Fortounis, Forni. vs 4231. This game was an adventure. Sassuolo started on the front foot, beating us to loose balls, pushing us off our lines, taking possession from us at will and we had to drop into our 4123 at 20 minutes just to stem the tide. The change served us well and we hit them on a counter just before half with Loris Forni getting the goal. We then played them even-ish until they scored off a set piece to tie at 66 minutes. I wasn’t willing to go back to the 4231 that they easily handled at the beginning of the game so we used our last two substitutions and added a striker changing to our 5122 going attacking. This change worked as well and Forni again scored at 89 minutes after which we went defensive. Win 2-1. Torino (0-0-0) at Sassuolo (0-0-0) Serie A G12-19 Shots 126 On Target 48 Fouls 646% Possession 54%Goals: Forni (39,89) Morganella (66) Clarence Seerdorf didn’t take the loss well and said we didn’t deserve the win, which of course for team morale reasons I couldn’t let stand so I said my lads deserved even more. Guess how Clarence reacted to that. Oh well, you can't win them all. Austria Wien accepted an offer for 24 year old center back Daniel Federhen, I offered him a contract and he signed the next day. We accepted an offer from Sheffield Wednesday for Andrea Polesano and he signed with them, lessening our congestion of mediocre central defenders. The press conference was quiet before the Cagliari game, I said our transfer business was winding down and that any time you have a string of results against an opponent it can’t hurt. The finance department announced our final season ticket sales at 12,098, roughly the same as last seasons 11,904. 8/28/22 vs Cagliari - Serie A G2 - 5122 Arrizabalaga, Long, Barba, Sodje/Duarte (57), Arias, Sissoko, Bahamondes, Benassi, Gallo, Martins, Forni; vs 451. We started the game in our 5122 and through the first twenty minutes we only saw 37% possession but had the better quality of play overall with 6 shots, four on target. Cagliari finally capitalized on their possession finding a way around the outside of our three at the back and taking the lead 1-0. The game continued to see us have the edge without possession until the half. At half I called for some passion from the players and moved us into a slightly more aggressive 5212. Less than 5 minutes after the break our more consistent pressure forced Cagliari defender Luka Krajnc into a calamitous own goal and three minutes after that Stefano Gallo, now operating in the AMC position rifled home a powerful shot to put us up. Two more goals later and the final score didn’t look as close as the game was. Win 4-1. Torino (1-0-0) vs Cagliari (1-0-0) Serie A G24-113 Shots 48 On Target 212 Fouls 1040% Possession 60%Goals: Campbell (19) Krajnc og(49) Gallo (52) Sissoko (57) Forni (69) In the second half Sodje, whose error allowed the Cagliari goal, was pulled and Duarte, one of our two starting left backs, went in at center back and we had him play the role of ball playing stopper to see what effect it hat. Early results looked good, we may try it for a full game next. Kepa Arrizabalaga said it was my halftime plea for passion that ignited the comeback. With the win we sit top of the league after two weeks, on goal differential. I am under no illusions that that is a sign of things to come, but to sit top at any point in the season isn’t a bad thing. We now have an international break and then will be back in action at Roma in 14 days. Napoli is putting a concerted effort into getting Marco Benassi, their last bit was 16.5m. I have no interest in selling our new captain, especially to another Serie A team... but 30m would do it. We extended young right back Niccolo Novello’s contract another three years. Head Physio Gianfranco Albertini reported that Stefano Gallo strained a stomach muscle in training and will miss 2-3 weeks, which is actually good timing with the international break up next. Udinese and Bari made offers for 21 year old midfielder Angelo Martone, who I see as an excellent prospect, so the offers were rejected. Bari made a 1.9m bid for Rivoira that I accepted. Again with our surplus of uninspiring central defenders the decision seemed easy. Atalanta made an offer for Bruno Varela, but I am definitely not willing to send them a top level Serie A keeper. We purchased another mediocre central defender from OGC Nice for a mere 850k, 21 year old Sofiane Benyahia, who at least is stellar in some key defensive abilities, marking, heading, tackling. We are having a hard time finding the caliber of defender I require though. Even without a ‘major reshuffling’ we were still the most active club in the transfer window, moving 14 players. The squad seems to be settling in so far though, and our early results are encouraging. We need to see how we weather the next storm when things get tough to see where we’re really at though. It’s good to be underway and have the excuse to not be home much. Over the summer things got very familiar between myself, Gabrielle, Vivianna, and Gianna and it’s making me a little uncomfortable. We’re acting like one big family unit, but there’s too many attractive women in the house for that to end well for me. It would be bad enough just having them there all the time, but on top of that Viv, the former dancer who has developed into a voluptuous beauty since she retired from the stage, has decided that I am her confidential stress counselor as she continues to deal with her violation in the south of France last year, and Gabi, the hard as nails bodybuilder who makes up for having a body that doesn’t really do it for me by having a personality that.. well.. does, acts like we are college roommates - I see danger everywhere. Time to become a workaholic. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
edtheguy Posted April 7, 2016 Author Share Posted April 7, 2016 September 2022 Loris Forni finished third in the Serie A goal of the month and made the team of the month for his 3 goals in two games in August. I congratulated the young man on his performance, but could have thanked him just as easily as it has been good for the club to have a young, exciting striker for the supporters to follow as well. With the international break giving me some time and Gianna’s fundraising efforts at a standstill we were able to take a whole day together around the monthly board meeting instead of just dinner afterwards. We had a nice lunch at a small restaurant in the hills right around the corner from our house before killing the afternoon walking around the property surrounding the Savoy palace before grabbing some espresso on the way to my board meeting and Gia’s shopping. The meeting itself wasn’t any more interesting than the last few, which suited me just fine. I’m still very secure, the board still remembers last season and like using young players, but now are unhappy with our former keeper Lecomte leaving. Finance reported a loss of 2.51m last month, but still rates us secure overall, despite the expected deterioration over the next few months. We went to a restaurant called Osteria La Capannina for dinner, which was very good - like all the other restaurants we’ve tried so far. During dinner I made a comment to Gia about there being too many women in the house for me right now. She told me she never doubted me for a minute but she understood how uncomfortable it must be at times. She added that it was only because our relationship was strengthened by everything we have already been through that she even considered doing something like this. I told her that meant a lot - but I was still glad to be out of the house more now. All in all it was very nice to have her all to myself for the better part of a full day, and I think she felt the same. Opportunities like that have been far too rare for us. Looking over the status of the club once I got back to work I have to admit I’m not thrilled with our transfer business this year, the defender issue resulted in us spending 10m more than we sold and all we have are marginally better defenders, we also used both overseas signings on those defenders. On the plus side, the acquisition of young prospects who will become home grown players looks very promising. On the training pitch, we have now fully committed to narrow formations in training as Fortounis, Rodriguez and Loddo are our only wide players. This means we have plenty of players to pack the middle of the pitch but even if I preferred to play wide formations we lack the depth to make it through a season using them. And only Loddo, who is yet to develop as I hoped anyway, can’t play the central positions as well. Our U20’s played their third league game of the season and collected their second win, beating Chevio 3-1. Goalscorers were Tommaso Padalino, Samuel Luzi, and Loris Vercella. The player of the match was Leonardo Marrotto. 9/11/22 at Roma - Serie A G3 - 5122 Arrizabalaga, Barba, Long, Sodje, Arias, Martone/Rodriguez (63), Duarte/Bahamondes(63), Sissoko, Benassi, Forni, Martins; vs 4231. This game started quietly as both teams appeared evenly matched. We made some adjustments to counter Roma's best players, which were their wingers, and moved our third midfielder up progressively as the game went along finishing with Rodriguez in the AMC, but the only team that showed any signs of life was Roma, fortunately not enough to score a goal though. Draw 0-0. Torino (2-0-0 1st) at Roma (1-0-1 13th) Serie A G30-06 Shots 122 On Target 418 Fouls 1342% Possession 58%Goals: -- The game was so uninteresting there wasn’t even a post game press conference. Which, in hindsight, is far better than the drubbings we suffered at their hands last season. Next week will see some intentional squad rotation as we have a midweek game against Bari. Our U20’s improved to 3-0-1 as they beat Genoa 2-0 behind goals from Samuel Luzi and Zsolt Csamango. Csamango was player of the match. 9/18/22 vs Sampdoria - Serie A G4 - 5122 Arrizabalaga, Barba, Long, Federhen, Novello, Benassi/Martone(62), Bahamondes, Williams, Fortounis, Rocco, Forni/Natali(72); vs 4312 narrow. The game started according to plan as Sampdoria had most of the possession and expended much energy but we scored first. We couldn’t defend however and eventually gave up the tying goal. We once again found ourselves a goal to the good less than ten minutes after the half and this time we looked good, until Sampdoria went all out attacking at 80 minutes and immediately got what they wanted, twice, to my immense frustration. Finding ourselves down late we served them with their own medicine, pushing everyone up into attack and scoring the equalizer on a thumping header by man-beast Marco Natali. Draw 3-3. Torino (2-1-0 4th) vs Sampdoria (2-0-1 7th) Serie A G43-37 Shots 146 On Target 514 Fouls 1642% Possession 58%Goals: Novello (2) Cordeiro (37) Forni (54) Bonazzoli (84) Zappacosta (89) Natali (90+1) In the end, we were thoroughly outplayed, and have shown no ability to control the ball in any of our matches so far. It might be time for more of my (in)famous tactical tweaking. I called a coaches meeting which ran late into the night and resulted in a 5212 based tactical approach for the Bari game. We don’t want to play a pure counter from deep style as our defenders aren’t good enough to survive the ball being that close to them all the time - we need to get on the front foot more. As the meeting ran late we had to fend for ourselves as Mrs. Ferri wasn’t about to stay ‘all hours into the night’. Of course this made me remember my first ever PA, without whom I wouldn’t have survived that first year in Foxboro. 9/21/22 at Bari - Serie A G5 - 5212 Bruno Varela, Benyahia, Barba, Savino, Arias, Duarte, Padovano, Sissoko, Gallo, Martins, Forni; vs 442. There’s nothing like playing the bottom of the league to make your tactics look sound. Or maybe they were actually improved. Or maybe Loris Forni is a world class player now. We didn’t generate much, but Loris converted three of our four shots on net and we didn’t allow a single good chance against. Even after going down to ten when Arias picked up a second yellow. Leonardo Rivoira put himself forward to be the London Woodbury of Serie A by giving us a penalty in the first two minutes of the game, thereby doing more for us as an opponent than he did as a player. Win 3-0. Torino (2-2-0 4th) at Bari (0-0-4 20th) Serie A G53-09 Shots 64 On Target 113 Fouls 450% Possession 50%Goals: Forni (pen 2,36,57) I told the press that Loris did indeed have a good game and that I thought we could keep winning matches. Seriously, those were the questions. And they wonder why managers scorn the press. I know they have a job to do, but really now, I would scold my players for that kind of effort (or lack thereof). We were back in the press room two days later for the AC Milan pre match conference and they wanted to know if it was easy to prepare for this game because we didn’t really have to try to beat Bari, I told them assertively that questions like that were disrespectful to our fellow professionals and declined to comment on our tactics. There's another half hour of my life gone. 9/24/22 at A.C. Milan - Serie A G6 - Bruno Varela, Sodje/Glik(62), Long/Benyahia(62), Barba, Novello, Duarte, Sissoko, Benassi, Gallo/Padovano(79), Martins, Forni; vs 4231. We tried to come out more aggressively in this game and found ourselves quickly backed up against our own net, so we switched to a more counter attacking approach, once again conceding possession. Less than 5 minutes after the change, Gaspard Martins scored his first goal for the club on a magnificent individual counter attack. Milan struck back immediately to tie and the game almost made it to the half even, but Marco Benaasi scored on a wonderful strike from distance after a scrum in the box right on 45 minutes. Milan once again tied quickly, less than five minutes after the half as our loanee central defender Hugo Long completely failed to mark his man on a free kick. We continued to outchance Milan the rest of the way without having much possession, but there were no more goals. Draw 2-2. Torino (3-2-0 3rd) at A.C. Milan (4-0-1 2nd) Serie A G62-212 Shots 77 On Target 412 Fouls 1140% Possession 60%Goals: Martins (12) Nitcham (14) Benassi (45) Jemerson (50) We stayed in the locker room for a long time after the match as after the team talk there were several players that I had to single out. Abubakar Sodje and Hugo Long were reminded that for defenders to remain in the game they have to actually defend and Stefano Gallo was reminded that no matter how promising his future is when he is on the pitch it is a good idea to contribute something, anything, or at least bring refreshments for his teammates. On the other side of the coin Gaspard Martins, Marco Benassi, Niccolo Novello, and Ibrahima Sissoko all had excellent games and were held up as examples for their teammates. This is a very professional, even borderline resolute group and they all seemed to take the feedback well. Except Kamil Glik, who showed why he is no longer our captain by throwing a temper tantrum. Jermaine, is that you? That’s not fair, Kamil has been a good representative of the club since well before my arrival, so I guess he’s allowed one outburst, but it still didn’t impress me. After 6 games we are first in Serie A with 14 goals scored, but no one other than Loris Forni has more than one. Loris has half of our goals, with 7 in 6 games. Loris is 22 now, joined the club through the youth ranks in 2013 and made his senior debut in 2017. Last year for me he scored 11 goals in 24 games. A quick start is no guarantee for him however as he does have the reputation of being inconsistent, something that I have had bad experiences with in the past. Hopefully we can work that out of the young man. Dr. Albertini informed me that Hugo Long tore his hamstring in practice and will be out 2-3 months, which after the last game he played didn’t cause me any great consternation. Next up we will try to continue the momentum from our 3-3-0 start against Chievo and their ever troubling striker Alessio Masi. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
EvilDave Posted April 8, 2016 Share Posted April 8, 2016 Looks like Peter and Italy are a rather good match Ed! Still a great read, and the balance you strike between the footballing action and the off-field character development is something I'm very much enjoying. Looking forward to seeing where the various threads all weave together in this... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
edtheguy Posted April 8, 2016 Author Share Posted April 8, 2016 Looks like Peter and Italy are a rather good match Ed! Still a great read, and the balance you strike between the footballing action and the off-field character development is something I'm very much enjoying. Looking forward to seeing where the various threads all weave together in this... Thank you sir, Peter does seem to be liking Italy. The move didn't make his authors job any easier though. I am glad the balance in the story works, I've been pleased with how it's gone so far, although there have been times it felt like I had the tiger by the tail. Like when Mr. Banalik took the job in Italy - I had several story threads started that I had to either wrap up in a hurry or drop altogether - He needs to warn me before he does something like that! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
edtheguy Posted April 8, 2016 Author Share Posted April 8, 2016 October 2022 Our October board meeting was the day before the Chievo game - and the only change from the last few months was the mention of the fans being disappointed with the 3-3 draw against Sampdoria, not our best game of the season, but hardly a massive disappointment in my view. Maybe this means the supporters expectations are rising now, which I am fine with. Since there hadn’t been any further developments in Gia’s attempts to block the redevelopment of the Piazza Castello and the Teatro Regio we were once again allowed a peaceful private dinner. We went to one of Turin’s most historic eateries, Ristorante del Cambia and while the setting and food were very much to my liking the servers and patrons were a little too high brow for my tastes. We were just getting ready to order our after meal beverages when Dario was escorted to our table by a very offended looking maitre d’. When he got to the table Dario told us we needed to go with him right away. He was calm and professional but Gia and I both picked up on something in his demeanor and knew better than to ask any questions. When the person responsible for your safety shows up unexpectedly like this you just do what he says. Dario led us out to a waiting limo and had one of his employees take the keys to drive our car home for us. When we got in the limo Gabrielle was there as well as another security officer. Once we were on the move Dario briefed us on why he was there. He told us he had just learned that Bonifacio Savelli, the head of the region’s wealthiest and most influential ‘family’ had just passed away. Among other interests the Savelli family were the leaders of the new Piazza Castello development project and Gia’s main opposition. Dario explained that since Bonifacio was predeceased by his children and his elderly widow had been in seclusion in Switzerland for years and was presumed to be senile or even deceased as well by the family there was already a power struggle starting to try to claim leadership and ‘fill the power vacuum’ left by Bonifacio’s death. He went on to explain that one of the best ways for someone to show they deserved to lead the family was to ‘take care’ of the ‘female problem’, as they called Gianna, once and for all. Because of this threat he was going to drastically up our security for the foreseeable future. Gia was pretty quiet as they got us settled at home and explained the new security measures that would be put in place. She did call Vivianna to make sure she was safe as we were on the way home, but Dario had that covered and Viv was already safe and sound at home. I could tell from the look in Gia’s eyes that while she was definitely scared there was no way she was going to back down. It was the wee hours of the morning as we were lying in bed trying to find a way to sleep that I finally remembered I had a game to manage in a few hours. 10/2/22 vs Chievo - Serie A G7 - 5212 Arrizabalaga, Savino/Federhen(45), Barba, Benyahia, Arias/Novello(53), Duarte, Sissoko, Benassi, Natali, Martins/Rocco(89), Forni; vs 4123 DM wide. We looked sharp most of the game, came out of the gates fast but fell behind 1-0 when Davide Savino impersonated a turnstile. We came back to tie and eventually take the lead and generally looked like scoring more the entire game, but never did. And at 78 minutes we paid for that as constant thorn in our side Alessio Masi started and finished a counter attack, or in short - this was a very frustrating game. Draw 2-2. Torino (3-3-0 4th) vs Chievo (2-3-1 9th) Serie A G72-219 Shots 116 On Target 511 Fouls 1347% Possession 53%Goals: Ivanov (8) Forni (27) Benyahia (52) Masi (78) I actually praised Masi in the post match press conference, breaking a long standing tradition of not acknowledging opposition players, but I also continued a long standing tradition and praised one of my own players Santiago Arias, who had a fantastic game. The next day as I was trying to get used to the increased security everywhere I went and to not worry about Gianna, who was meeting with her fundraising committee to discuss the new developments, I called Daniel Federhen to congratulate him on his first cap for Austria. He was delighted with the whole experience. As I hung up the phone Francisco Rodriguez came into my office, giving a sideways glance to the security personnel in the hall, and asked if we could discuss his future. I told him he’d get a shot in the first team and he left happy, and stared openly at the security on the way out. I held a coaches meeting to discuss the new security measures that we would all have to be living under. Once that was covered we also went over the squad’s development which was good overall. Finally we reviewed our tactic and after some discussion we took the playmaker role out and changed to a more fluid approach. We also discussed a deeper midfield (5122 or 532 again) but I still remember how that went in the past. Our U20’s improved to 5-2-1 with a 3-1 win over Palermo, Giuseppe Pugliese, Samuel Luzi, and Stefano Amato scoring the goals. Claudio Perego was the player of the match. Giuseppe Pugliese is a 17 year old striker who we purchased for 125k from Fiorentina last season and his skills are developing at a very pleasing rate, coupled with his resolute personality there might actually be something there. He made his first team debut late last season appearing in one game, but he may be back for a longer stay soon. Our next game is in Udine and Dario assured me that I wouldn’t have to worry about Gia while we were away, but there is no chance I won’t be worrying. We have already seen suspicious cars shadowing us any time we went anywhere the last couple weeks and it’s starting to feel like we are in some sort of mobster movie. 10/16/22 at Udinese - Serie A G8 - 5212 Bruno Varela, Federhen, Barba, Benyahia/Padovano (58), Arias/Novello (78), Bahamondes, Sissoko, Benassi, Gallo, Martins, Forni/Natali (58); vs 4411. We struggled to do anything in this one, we did get the lead on a nice team play that started with Gaspard Martins and ended with Marco Benassi coming late into the box from Midfield, but stefano Gallo gave away a penalty before the half and the game was even. No one was able to do much in the second half, Udinese had the only so-so scoring chances. Draw. 1-1. Torino (3-4-0 3rd) at Udinese (3-2-2 9th) Serie A G81-18 Shots 123 On Target 414 Fouls 347% Possession 53%Goals: Benassi (19) Fernandes (pen 34) I told the press that no matter who was in the lineup we should have done better. They seemed to think we were resting a number of key players? I also said the decision to award a penalty was the correct one - because it was. As soon as the press conference was over I called Gia, and she answered right away, which she told me she would always try to do. She was fine, and probably just as worried about me as I was for her. The Revolution have one game left in their MLS season and sit in 7th in the Supporters Shield and 4th in the Eastern Conference with a 12-12-9 record. They were knocked out of the US cup in the quarter final, but are unbeaten and leading their group in the NACL with a 4-0-0 record. Dico leads the team with 21 goals in all competitions, followed by Mansilla with 18. Franck Kom is the team leader with 10 assists - Andrew Farrell only has 2 assists and an average 6.73 rating. I think Andrew liked my style of play better. In the pre match press conference I was asked about Palermo’s over achievements so far this season and I said that they had to be taken seriously now. The press asked if I was being patronizing and I said no… then they asked Palermo’s manager Antonio Cassano if he thought I was being patronizing and he said no as well. I bet they still run a headline saying I’m patronizing Palermo. Our U20’s moved up to 2nd in the standings with a 3-0 win over Sampdoria. Jan van de Kracht and Stefano Amato added to a Sampdoria own goal. Stefano Gallo strained a muscle in the weight room and will miss 2-3 weeks. 10/23/22 vs Palermo - Serie A G9 - 5212 Bruno Varela, Federhen, Barba, Benyahia, Arias, Bahamondes, Padovano/Martone (59), Benassi, Rodriguez/Fortounis (59), Martins, Forni; vs 433. Now this was more like it, more goals would have been nice but we controlled the game completely against a team in good form. Our pitch coverage was beautiful, our ball movement was dangerous and we never looked worried. Gaspard Martins scored at 26 minutes by taking on three Palermo defenders and making them look silly and then scoring through the keeper. Gaspard only has two goals this year but they have both been impressive. After that we made chance after chance but couldn’t add to our lead. Palermo couldn’t do anything though and were probably glad to hear the full time whistle. Torino (3-5-0 4th) vs Palermo (4-3-1 3rd) Serie A G81-020 Shots 97 On Target 35 Fouls 952% Possession 48%Goals: Martins (26) After the game I said I was still impressed with Palermo and that Loris didn’t have the type of performance we expect from him. He has a fairly professional personality so I am hoping that challenging him will help with his consistency. Abubakar Sodje came into my office on Monday to complain about his lack of playing time - which is a result of him ah... completely sucking... when he has played. I told him as much and he asked for direction on what to improve. The weakest part of his game is tackling so that’s where I went. He said he’d take that on board and if I started him in the next few games he wouldn’t let me down. Well that's a decent attitude so we’ll give it a shot. Toronto FC fired Jesse Marsch, which is only noteworthy because it makes Gary Locklear’s golden boy Brad Guzan the current favorite in the press’ ‘sack race’. One of the cars that had been following us recently was found abandoned down the street from our Villa. I asked Dario if his men had something to do with that and he said they didn’t. He figured it was in fighting between the pretenders for control of the Savelli family. When I said there hadn’t been any reports of bloodshed in the news he told me that things were different here, they didn’t run around the streets with tommy guns like american gangsters. When I said that was fine with me, he told me I shouldn’t be so sure, it was probably more dangerous here. Isn’t he supposed to be making us feel safe? Our U20’s moved to the top of the table with a 3-0 win over Milan. Jan van de Kracht scored once and Samuel Luzi twice in the victory. Luzi was player of the match. 10/26/22 at Carpi - Serie A G10 - 5212 Arrizabalaga, Sodje, Glik, Barba/Benyahia (62), Arias, Duarte, Benassi, Sissoko, Fortounis, Martins, Forni vs 5212. Since we were going well and playing the 19th place team in the league followed by another game on short rest I figured this was as good a time as any to let Sal have a shot at the lineup and he did well, the game went like a second place club against a nineteenth place team should. Federico Barba got his first for the clup off a set piece inside 15 minutes, Gaspard Martins made it two games in a row just outside the half hour mark and Kostas Fortounis converted two penalties. Win 4-0. Torino (4-5-0 2nd) vs Carpi (1-2-6 19th) Serie A G104-015 Shots 107 On Target 011 Fouls 1849% Possession 51%Goals: Barba (13) Martins (32) Fortounis (pen 65, pen 85) Dico scored his 22nd league goal in the Rev’s last MLS game, breaking the club’s old record of 21, set by Juan Agudelo, who is now playing for the Russian team Kuban. The Montreal Impact hired Jermaine Jones to be their ‘Head Coach.’ That should be interesting - like Jermaine’s personality. Our U20’s dropped to third in the standings with a draw against Bari. Diego Bergese was the goalscorer. In the game Giuseppe Pugliese injured his knee in the game and will miss 4-5 weeks. 10/30/22 vs Atalanta - Serie A G11 - 5212 Bruno Varela, Sodje, Glik, Barba, Novello, Bahamondex, Benassi, Sissoko, Fortounis/Rodriguez (65), Martins, Forni/Natali (52); vs 532. The first half was back and forth, but as time went on we started to assert control and by the end of the half we had created several scoring chances, and Atalanta had only one. Early in the second half Loris Forni left with an injury, but it didn’t slow us down as we continued to knock on the door. Finally Atalanta gave up all pretense and dropped into a defensive shell to try to preserve the draw. It worked. Draw 0-0. Torino (5-5-0 2nd) vs Atalanta (3-3-4 15th) Serie A G100-022 Shots 69 On Target 313 Fouls 1255% Possession 45%Goals: -- Forni’s injury was diagnosed by the physios as a thigh strain and he will be out for 9-11 days. The media had been building Forni up so I had a talk with to make sure it wasn’t going to his head, and he actually told me that he felt his performances had been pretty average. I told him in that case I was looking forward to more, and thanked him for being a good example. Our unbeaten streak to start the season is now at eleven, I think our record is perhaps slightly better than our performances have been so far and that coupled with the fact that we don’t really have the depth to get through a full season yet are stopping me from getting very excited, but there is no denying the fact that we have made steady progress since my arrival. Hopefully it can continue. Hopefully we’ll all be alive to see it continue. It’s looking like we won’t be of much interest to the old families for much longer as most of Gia’s volunteers on the fundraising board have found reasons to resign all of a sudden and her chances of securing the financing by the end of the year are looking bleak. Our next game will be at Lazio on the 6th of November. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
edtheguy Posted April 16, 2016 Author Share Posted April 16, 2016 November 2022 We considered not going out after the Board Meeting rather than deal with security concerns, but finally decided that we couldn’t let other people dictate our lives - The board meeting was satisfying, my status is untouchable and the board stated that they were absolutely delighted with the way I am leading the team. They highlighted our fantastic performance in Serie A, but pointed out their disappointment with Paul Williams. Financially it was the same story as always, we lost 1.9m last month, finances are currently okay, but will continue to deteriorate. We had a nice dinner at Ristorante Sibiriaki, a Russian/Serbian eatery in the bustling downtown area where unfortunate issues were slightly less likely to occur. The meal was very nice and I loved the historic, medieval building that housed the restaurant. Gia is starting to sound like she did when her Real Estate business was going under and it’s hard to hear, I tried to boost her morale by pointing out how many times I’d failed as manager compared to my ‘successes’ she appreciated the effort, but I don’t think it really helped much. After practice the following day Kamil Glik took advantage of our full week between games to officially announce he will retire when his contract expires at the end of the season. I thanked him for his service to the club and told him we would do everything we could to see him off in style. Our U20’s won their U20’s cup second round match against Crotone 6-0. Padalino, Mingione, Amato (2), Cissokho, and Gutierrez scoring. Stefano Amato was player of the match. In the pre match press conference I said Gaspard was going to thrive on the positive attention he is getting, the Atalanta game will drive the team to do better and said - as I have all season - that it would be tough to get something out of the match against Lazio. In their second game of the week our U20’s dropped to fourth in the standings with another draw, 1-1 against Roma. Samuel Luzi with the goal. Joseph Fili was the player of the match with an assist and several nice touches. Luzi pulled up injured late in the game and will miss 2-3 weeks. Goretti extended 21 year old goalkeeper Marco Farabegoli’s contract by three years. Farabegoli is stuck in the middle, currently our third string behind Bruno Varela and Arrizabalaga and he has two four to five star goalkeeper prospects behind him on the U20 club, Giacomo Bellini (the Italy U21 backup), and Leonardo Resta. 11/6/22 at Lazio - Serie A G12 - 5212 Bruno Varela, Sodje, Glik, Barba, Arias, Duarte, Williams, Sissoko, Rodriguez, Rocco, Martins; vs 4231 narrow. Lazio was in control from the start, flooding over our players and attacking Bruno Varela in net. It took only seven minutes for them to get the lead but fortunately after that they slowed down some. We dropped to a structured counter attacking posture and made it to the half only down 1-0. As we had found our way back into the game somewhat we stayed the course after half and when Lazio fell asleep on a set piece Rocco and Martins broke two on none on the keeper and Luca put it home to tie. The tie lasted a mere 15 minutes as we had one chance to take the lead but Rocco hit the post then Lazio once again swarmed over our players and drove home the winner at 67 minutes. Loss 1-2 Torino (5-6-0 3rd) at Lazio (4-3-4 12th) Serie A G101-210 Shots 274 On Target 1015 Fouls 247% Possession 53%Goals: Wimmer (7) Rocco (52) Niang (67) It was a completely deserved win for Lazio as we were terrible. I calmly told the players after the match that it just wasn’t good enough and went on my way. There were no individual lashings to be given, this was more of a complete team failure. That was our first loss of the season and with it coming on matchday 12 we are the last team in Serie A to lose a game. Due to our 6 draws, however it drops us to fourth in the standings. And it comes right before an international break so we have fourteen days to stew on it. Kamil Glik suffered a back strain lifting weights and will miss 3-4 weeks of his retirement tour. Back in New England Mike Burns signed Braian Mansilla, who I brought to the club when I was there, to a four year extension. We used the two weeks of practice to change our narrow 4231, which I had tried in the middle of a couple games and didn’t like what I saw to a 4321, actual christmas tree formation. The way we set it up can make good use of the players at our disposal and should mimic the play of the formation that won trophies in New England. Of course we all remember how things went before I had quality central defenders with the Revs. On Thursday before the game Gaspard Martins strained a thigh muscle in training and will miss the next 9-11 days. 11/20/22 vs Genoa - Serie A G13 - 4321 Bruno Varela, Novello, Sodje, Barba/Bianchetti(73), Duarte, Padovano, Gallo, Benassi, Fortounis/Martone(73), Rodriguez, Forni/Rocco(56); vs 442. For much of the game it looked like Christmas a month early as we were dominant and built a 2-0 lead on a nice Loris Forni Goal and a very good Francisco Rodriguez tally. In fact there was only 60 seconds of the entire game that we weren't in complete control of. And that was when Genoa scored twice. Pfeiffer at 85 minutes and Rudan at 86. Two points lost. Draw 2-2 Torino (5-6-1 3rd) vs Genoa (3-5-4 15th) Serie A G132-220 Shots 79 On Target 48 Fouls 860% Possession 40%Goals: Forni (1) Rodriguez (29) Pfeiffer (85) Rudan (86) I aggressively told them what I thought of that performance. Most of the game was beautiful, it was like watching an old friend as the narrow christmas tree played, as intended, just like the old Revolution 4231. But it doesn’t matter if you lose concentration and surrender multiple goals in a matter of a minute. Loris Forni left the game with an injured leg after a hard challenge and will miss 2-3 days of practice. He has seemed injury prone, as the coaches report indicated, but so far they have only been day to day type injuries. He has not been very inconsistent as the coaches predicted though, which is nice. In the post match press conference I said that while it was nice to keep an unbeaten streak going against Genoa, the players needed to learn not to lose their concentration and throw it all away. Graziano Pelle agreed with my statement that his team was lucky to get a point out of the match. Luca Rocco pulled a hamstring in practice and will miss 3 weeks. Continuing to keep my strikers around, Mike Burns extended Dico for another four years. Our U20’s dropped back to 4th with a 1-1 draw against Atalanta. Franco Cagnazzo scored the goal and Tommaso Padalino was selected as the best player. 11/26/22 at Juventus - Serie A G14 - 5212 Arrizabalaga, Sodje, Bianchetti, Barba, Novello, Duarte, Sissoko, Benassi, Gallo/Padovano(69), Forni, Natali/Martins(69); vs 4123 DM wide. In a game very reminiscent of last season we went to visit our rich neighbors and played a cautious, defensive game and were completely run off the pitch - but refused to yield. The sense of deja vu was building as we came out in the second half still scoreless and, sure enough, at 59 minutes Duarte, Gallo, and Benassi all won consecutive battles for the ball and Juventus’ Andre Wisdom missed an attempt at a sliding interception that let Loris Forni in alone on the keeper. If you’re Juve, Loris is the wrong man to let take our only shot on target. Win 1-0. Torino (5-7-1 4th) at Juventus (8-1-4 2nd) Serie A G141-04 Shots 181 On Target 519 Fouls 645% Possession 55%Goals: Forni (59) The win moved us past Juve and into second on the table. OL Boss Hamza Hamzaoglu was in the stands to watch Benassi and Sissoko, both of whom he is interested in. The Rev’s beat Chicago in the second leg of the conference final to earn a chance to win their third straight MLS Cup. Juve Manager Gerardo Martino had some very choice words about me and my club after the game. It was almost enough to make me wish I hadn’t taken the high road and complimented him in my presser. Almost. I’ll take the high road, the three points, and let him stew. The draw for the first round proper of the Italian cup saw us with a home match against Serie C/C club Benevento Calcio whose team logo is a crest with a lovely silhouette of a witch on a broom. I approve. Dario has completely changed our security team members over the month, he feels it’s best not to have any set routines that someone might take advantage of which makes sense but it's a little disconcerting to see the new faces everywhere. Also, Viv finally went back to the States to my great relief. I can’t remember the last time I was home that she wasn’t in the same room, I was even selecting the smallest pieces of furniture when I sat down so that she couldn’t sit next to me. Gia seems well aware of Viv’s apparent attachment but is always compassionate to Vivanna, so I have done my best to be the same. It’s nice to have her gone though, now I have one less thing to be tense about at home. We will start December with another big league match against Inter at Stadio Olimpico. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
edtheguy Posted April 18, 2016 Author Share Posted April 18, 2016 December 2022 The December board meeting was a nice little ego boost for me, I’m untouchable and the board is delighted with my leadership of the club. They highlighted our fantastic performance in Serie A, but did express disappointment with the signing of Daniel Federhen, which I could only agree with. Inter’s Marcelino said in his pre match press conference that people were getting carried away with their praise of our performance and that they would be looking to bring us back to earth on saturday. He seemed very worked up about it too. I calmly told the press he was wrong and I was very confident in our talented group of players. I also said I wasn’t riled up about anything Marcelino had said and was only focused on the match ahead. When the press tried to rile Marcelino up about my comments he sent them away and said he had no issues with me at all, so maybe something I said actually calmed him down. The day before the Inter game the board called me back to the corporate offices to discuss extending my contract, I told them I was still content with our team philosophy and was willing to hear their offer. Their initial offer was a healthy raise to 650k euro/yr and I negotiated significantly more to 750k euro/yr without too much trouble - it’s nice to be untouchable. After the higher math conversions are done, I am now making almost exactly what my last contract with the Rev’s was worth, which is still peanuts compared to the ‘established’ managers here in Serie A - but it's a step. I told the press I was delighted with the new contract and was absolutely loving it here. Which, compared to my last couple years in the states is absolutely true, I rather do enjoy the climates, setting and atmosphere of both the country and the Club. If Gianna could only find some fulfillment here all would be good. I called the staff together to discuss tactics for the Inter game. My first inclination was to go with the same approach that stole three points against Juve. But Inter is not Juve, and we will be at home. They tend to favor a 442, which our 4321 looks very capable of tearing up, unless we are overmatched and can’t keep the ball. Most of the staff’s advice went well with our 5212 so I finally decided to stick with my first instinct. 12/3/22 vs Inter - Serie A G15 - 5212 Arrizabalaga, Sodje, Bianchetti/Benyahia (45), Barba/Fortounis (45), Novello, Bahamondes, Sissoko, Benassi, Rodriguez, Martins, Forni/Natali (64); vs 442. The decision to go with the 5212 was a tactical blunder. Especially when two of the three central defenders fold like a house of cards. We surrendered three goals in the first half, changed to the 4321 at halftime, told Matteo Bianchetti and Federico Barba to hit the showers since they obviously had no intention of putting any work in today. The second half was more even, but we never came close to getting back in the game. Loss 3-1. Torino (6-7-1 3rd) vs Inter (7-5-2 2nd) Serie A G151-312 Shots 137 On Target 75 Fouls 955% Possession 45%Goals: Bittencourt (12) Chaves (18) Rodriguez (24) Engvall (41) I calmly told the squad it wasn’t good enough, which they already knew. Then I told Barba, Bianchetti and Forni that with performances like that they all deserved to be taken off the pitch. Marcelino didn’t seem to publicly gloat about putting us in our place, but I’m sure he was pleased in the win and the manner in which they beat us. Mainz boss Christian Streich was in the stands to watch Sissoko, who he has vocally been a fan of. I sold Davide Savino to Turkish club Rizespor for 1.8m - a loss against the 2.75m we purchased him for last year, but he wasn’t breaking into the crew of defenders we already have that aren’t good enough so I didn’t see a future and decided to get what money we could in the bank. The Revs won the MLS cup for the third year in a row beating Real Salt Lake 1-0 on a Braian Mansilla goal. Guzan finished 2nd in MLS coach of the year. Abubakar Sodje who we purchased for 4.8m is attracting interest, at least in the press, as he has a 8.25m free release clause and his current market value has risen to 11m. I would offer him a new contract with a higher free release, but I’m not convinced he can be a regular defender for us, so I’ll wait for a while. I could definitely make the comment that my career so far has been blessed with an abundance of disappointing centre-backs. Mike Burns signed Andrew Farrell to a three year extension, I called Andrew to congratulate him and he seemed to be happy, but a bit reserved. Come to think of it, even Andrew was at one time a disappointing centre-back for me. 12/10/22 at Bologna - Serie A G16 - 4321 Bruno Varela, Arias, Sodje, Barba, Bahamondes, Sissoko, Benassi/Martins (73), Fortounis, Gallo, Rodriguez/Padovano (63), Forni; vs 442. We came out in out more aggressive formation and pressured Bologna early, with Forni scoring a nice goal off a Arias cross and things seemed to be going to plan. Then we let Bologna score two quick goals on the counter and spent the rest of the game running around like chickens with our heads cut off. OK, maybe it wasn’t quite that bad, but it was bad enough. Loss 1-2. Torino (6-7-2 4th) at Bologna (5-2-8 16th) Serie A G161-219 Shots 78 On Target 56 Fouls 753% Possession 47%Goals: Forni (7) Destro (23) Haller (42) It was yelling time after the match. There was no single individual to blame, just a poor team effort. Racing Club de Lens made a 200k bid for Bianchetti, who I would have liked to be good for us, but hasn’t shown any inclination to play for me since I arrived, so I accepted their offer. Niccolo Novello twisted his ankle in training and will miss three weeks. As well as some first team rotation we will give debuts to Goalie Leonardo Resta and Right Back Tommaso Padalino from our U20 team in the cup game. They have both been playing well this season and Paddalino’s skills are improving by leaps and bounds. We also tweaked our 4231 to a narrow diamond so we could have a screen in front of the d-line to head off the quick counters that killed us the last two times we used the tactic. 12/14/22 vs Benevento - Italian Cup First Round - 442ND Resta, Padalino, Federhen, Benyahia, Duarte, Padovano, Fortounis, Martone, Gallo, Martins; Forni vs 442. Things looked good both in the flow of play and on the scoreboard, as the defensive midfielder did his job and was needed. I would have liked to dominate the match more, but there is probably a reason that Benevento made it this far already. We did get a goal from each striker early in each half, Martins in the first and Forni in the second and managed to hold Benevento off for the whole game, though we did have to finish in a counter attacking 41311. Win 2-0. Torino vs Benevento Italian Cup First Round2-016 Shots 74 On Target 210 Fouls 1656% Possession 44%Goals: Martins (18) Forni (47) I gave the players a why don’t you play every game like that, which confused some of them, but it's time for a little pushing now. Especially since it’s my intention to go with the more aggressive formation and let them go a little. Next in the Cup we get Juventus in the quarter final. In the Benevento game both Leonardo Resta, with a clean sheet, and Tommaso Padalino, with an assist and a 9.0 match rating, had solid debuts. Bianchetti signed with Lens and will leave when the transfer window opens. Goodbye disappointing centre-back number…. whatever. 12/17/22 vs Napoli - Serie A G17 - 442ND Bruno Varela, Arias, Sodje, Long/Federhen (59), Bahamondes, Sissoko, Padovano, Benassi, Gallo, Martins, Forni; vs 4123 DMW. We looked good from the off, moving the ball nicely and covering Napolis attacks well. We created several scoring chances, some through possession and some through defense and finally got the lead on a nice combination between the two strikers that ended in a Loris Forni goal. That was the only goal we scored however, but we seemed to have an answer to everything Napoli tried. Until they went all out attacking at the end of the game when the did actually create some scoring chances, but one great Bruno Varela save and we had the win. 1-0. Torino (6-7-3 6th) vs Napoli (6-7-3 7th) Serie A G171-011 Shots 126 On Target 58 Fouls 552% Possession 48%Goals: Forni (31) I told them it was a good job after the game, but honestly I don’t know what to make of it. We’ll have to see a few more games for me to have an opinion. We now have a three week break before we return to action after the holidays. We added Dejan Radic to our scouting staff to give us some coverage of eastern europe. Patrik Andersson was brought on to similarly give us some Scandinavian presence. Our U20’s defeated Juventus 2-0 with Samuel Luzi scoring a brace and winning player of the match. River made a 9m bid for Santiago Arias, I negotiated it to 10m and accepted. We don’t have any other right backs as good as Santiago now, but he is on the wrong side of 30 and we have no less than three prospects that are good enough to play for us now and have the potential to be as good or better than Arias down the line. We’ll take the 10m. Arias agreed to terms with River on boxing day and I called him up to tell him he had been fantastic for the club and was welcome back any time, he thanked me, said I had really helped him with his game and went on his way. Before the end of the day Leonardo Bahamondes came to me to ask why we would sell Santiago and I told him the truth, when he disagreed with me that it was in the club's best interests I cautiously told him he would have to trust me and he said he could accept that. I love dealing with a professional squad. They probably love dealing with a more mature Manager than the squad those first couple years in New England had to deal with. Stoke made a 2.8m offer for Francisco Rodriguez, who doesn’t really fit into our tactics, but has still managed to be productive whenever he has played. I declined and said it wasn’t a good enough offer. Gia and I took advantage of the break in my schedule to go out for some drinks on New Year’s and had a nice evening doing our best to stay clear of the worst of the crowds. The city put on a fantastic fireworks show after which we headed home. On the way Gia made a comment about it all being over now as the deadline for her to raise the funds needed to outbid the development consortium for the Theatre had passed. I just gave her hand a squeeze, there wasn’t much that hadn’t already been said. When we got home there were two new guards outside the house again and one of them approached us a we got to the front door, asking us to go with him into the house. I was getting very anxious as he led us to the main living room and refused to answer any questions. When we got there I finally saw someone we knew - an embarrassed looking Dario was standing in the corner with his hand on the arm of a very angry looking Gabi. It was the elderly woman in the middle of the room sitting in our most comfortable chair that commanded attention though. I didn’t like the looks of this at all but I summoned all of my courage, positioned myself in front of Gia and demanded to know what was going on. The woman, who looked to be unbelievably old fixed me with a penetrating gaze that sent chills down my spine before she responded. “I appreciate your desire to protect your lovely wife young man,” she said, and I couldn’t help but note that she was referring to a nearly 50 year old as young, “but,” she continued, “It is your brazen young wife I am here to see.” She turned to Gia, “My name is Giovanna Savelli, I am here to tell you that your deadline has been extended. It seems the consortium that you have been so valiantly struggling against has lost a significant portion of their funding and finds themselves unable to complete the deal in time as well.” She smiled wryly and muttered something that sounded like “oche allegri,” or silly geese. There was silence in the room as she rose from the chair, “Come with me, my dear, we need to talk.” Gia looked at me and shrugged almost imperceptibly as she followed the woman out onto the patio. 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edtheguy Posted April 20, 2016 Author Share Posted April 20, 2016 January 2023 The two women spent most of the next day in seclusion and Gia agreed to fill me in at dinner after the monthly board meeting, at which I was told that I was still untouchable. The board said they were still delighted with my management and my use of young players. They did highlight their disappointment with Paul Williams and stated they were no longer delighted with Serie A performance. We went to a far more relaxed dinner with our new privately employed head of security, Gabrielle, lurking just out of sight. Dario has resigned his position with the club and returned to work for his original employer, Giovanna Savelli. Which explains how she was waiting for us in our home last night. After much discussion and negotiation Gia has agreed to ‘get into bed with’ the Savelli family, under the leadership of their new matriarch. It turns out the rumors of her senility or demise were a carefully cultivated ruse to allow her to bide her time for the opportune moment to wrest control of her family from her ‘criminal husband and his slimy little friends’ as she put it. 'Gio and Gia' are now a team as the old woman said she admired the 'audacia' of a young foreign woman taking on her widower and his merry geese. Giovanna also thought the men’s plan to redevelop the square was a travesty and pure idiocy. Gianna now has her funding and is officially the Chair of the Teatro Regio, a complete victory for her cause. I asked her about partnering with a family with so many questionable ties and she assured me she had given that a lot of thought but she was confident that Giovanna was the real thing. I decided there wasn’t much for me to say to that. I’ll just have to hope she is right, I guess. I decided I’d have to have a long talk with Gabrielle about the whole situation when I got a chance though, I have a feeling there's more going on here than we know. At the moment though the only thing for me to do was thank the stars that things didn’t turn out worse and get back to work. PSG made a 1.4m bid for 17 year old first squad player Alex Padovano that I rejected. I might actually sell the young man, but only for a LOT more than that. When Alex’ agent came asking for an improved deal we agreed that he didn’t need an agent meddling in his business right now. With Bianchetti completing his move to River, Sal recommended he be replaced as vice captain by Loris Forni. I wouldn’t have considered the young man, but after Sal’s recommendation I gave it some thought and agreed. He is only 22 and is still unproven in pressure situations but is clearly our most important player so far this season and is professional, determined and has fair natural leadership abilities. Leicester made a 5.75m bit for Francisco Rodriguez that I negotiated up to 6.5m and accepted. Since I am shoehorning him into our tactic and we only paid 1.5m for him in the first place it seems too good a piece of business to pass. The board wanted to know if I wanted to change our season expectations to top half or Europa positions and I said the current mid table expectations were fine. I am not looking for additional funds to spend and I would much rather exceed low expectations than fall short of realistic ones. We had three loan offers for Carlo Loddo, who can only play out wide which we aren’t using this season and I accepted Palermo’s and rejected the two foreign clubs. Normally I would do the opposite, but Palermo was offering to pay his full salary and the others were offering to pay none. I terminated the loan of the boards favorite whipping boy Paul Williams. Let’s just say they weren’t the only ones disappointed with him. The press was mostly interested in Glik’s retirement announcement and Arias’ sale. Our U20’s moved back up to 2nd in the table with a 4-1 victory over Modena. Goals were scored by Eugenio Moschetto, Samuel Luzi, Carlo Rossini, and Antonio Lini. Eloi Gutierrez - one of our highly touted right backs - was player of the match. 1/8/23 at Lanciano - Serie A G18 - 442ND Bruno Varela, Novello, Sodje/Benyahia (67), Federhan, Bahamondes, Sissoko, Benassi, Gallo, Fortounis/Padovano (67), Martins/Martone (73), Forni; vs 4231 narrow. I had to do a lot more coaching in this game than I should have against the bottom of the table. While we did a lot of nice things in the game, defending was not one of them. We surrendered a goal against play early but before the half Loris Forni fired two goals to put us ahead, but our defense got the deer in the headlights look every time they launched an attack and eventually the game was tied at 2. I had to pull our AMC back to midfield and change roles just to get us back into the game. But, once again Loris Forni was the difference as he took a brilliant, direct pass from Stefano Gallo, corralled it behind the Lanciano defence and finished his hat trick for a 3-2 lead. Even after that I had to pull our second striker and add a second holding midfielder in front of the D-line to close the game out. But we did, finally, get the three points. Win 3-2. Torino (7-7-3 6th) at Lanciano (2-1-14 20th) Serie A G183-221 Shots 1210 On Target 512 Fouls 852% Possession 48%Goals: Alhadhur (23) Forni (26,42,73) Antonucci (49) Sal wanted me to congratulate them, but I told the players after the game that they would have to play better than that against quality opposition and they all looked like they got it. After the game Francisco Rodriguez signed with Leicester. We completed the signing of 20 year old midfielder Pape Camara, and offered 22 year old midfielder Paw Lassen a contract. I was going to work in more U20 midfielders but Both these deals are less than 2.5m and they both have the potential to be big hits, if not we are still spending less than we made in the Rodriguez sale. And by Thursday we had completed the Lassen signing as well, giving us a 2 for 1 exchange at a profit. On Friday the offers kept coming as OL came in with a 15.75m bid for the in demand Ibrahima Sissoko. Sissoko isn't over 30 like Arias, but just like Santiago we do have a number of young midfielders who could be as good as him in the future if given a chance. I’m not so sure we can keep performing at the level we have without him - but 16m in the bank would be good insurance against missing an international spot for one year. Hopefully some of our young players continue to develop….I negotiated the offer to 16.5m and accepted. Then Arsenal came in with a 12.25m bid for Duarte. If we hadn’t already sold Arias that would look pretty good, but we don’t have the young depth at left back - maybe one of them can learn it down the road, but for now selling both my half backs and my defensive midfielder would be a little too much. Duarte complained that we rejected the offer and I wound up telling him we’d accept another offer if one came. 1/15/23 vs Modena - Serie A G19 - 442ND Bruno Varela, Padalino, Federhen, Barba, Bahamondes, Lassen, Benassi, Gallo, Fortounis, Martins, Forni; vs 442. Hopefully it wasn’t a result of our player sales, but we played uninspired pitiful passive football against a team that we should have run off the pitch. We just weren’t interested. I was irritated with the effort to say the least. Draw 0-0. Torino (8-7-3 5th) vs Modena (5-3-10 18th) Serie A G190-08 Shots 42 On Target 115 Fouls 1043% Possession 57%Goals: -- I calmly told them that they weren’t good enough. It was a group discussion, no one was particularly bad, it was just no one was any good. Sissoko signed with OL the day after the game and Abubakar Sodje wanted to talk about it. He didn’t handle it well and the conversation ended with him making threats, so I put him on the unwanted list. The next day several players were supporting him. This could end badly. If I can’t sell him by the end of the transfer window I’ll move him to one of our affiliates. Loris Forni came the next day asking for an improved contract which I agreed he deserved and opened negotiations. The young man wound up with a healthy raise from 588k to 2.12m per year. 1/22/23 vs Sassuolo - Serie A G20 - Arrizabalaga, Padalino, Federhen, Barba, Duarte, Lassen, Camara, Benassi, Gallo, Martins, Forni; vs 4231. This was better as we attacked early, moved the ball nicely and scored an early goal. After we took the lead we fashioned several chances that we couldn’t convert and eventually Sassuolo got a goal on a horrendous error from Kepa Arrizabalaga to tie the game. Instead of heading down the drain however, we went attacking and actually fashioned a couple chances that resulted in another Loris Forni goal. Win 2-1. Torino (8-8-3 5th) vs Sassuolo (7-5-7 9th) Italian Cup First Round2-115 Shots 116 On Target 410 Fouls 1060% Possession 40%Goals: Forni (5,80) Sedney (61) Tommaso Padalino twisted his ankle in the game and will miss 3 weeks. We made a 1.4m offer for OM’s Salih Kalem, a 22 year old midfielder with some very good offensive skills. After appearing in just 4 games and averaging a 6.50 match rating for Leicester to whom we sold him, our former defender Manuel Nicoletti is back in Serie A as Leicester sold him to Bologna. On the Thursday before the Cagliari game we completed the Salieh Kalem signing. Our supporters were delighted, considering the signing a coup, believing he should have commanded a higher fee. Once we got him on the training pitch the coaches weren’t as impressed as our scouts had been, but I still like him a lot - he has top flight speed, flair, first touch, passing, leadership, and determination as well as a very resolute personality. His weaknesses would be jumping reach and bravery - and they don’t look all that weak. Our U20’s defeated Lazio 2-1 behind goals from midfielder Eugenio Moschetto and striker Franco Cagnazzo. Left Back Armando Gigliotti was singled out as their best player. They hold on to 3rd in the table with a 13-6-2 record. Right Back Eloi Gutierrez leads the U20 league in average rating (8.18), Player of the Match awards (4), and assists (11). 1/29/23 at Cagliari - Serie A G21 - 442 ND Bruno Varela, Novello(69 red), Federhen, Barba, Duarte, Lassen, Benassi, Gallo, Fortounis/Salih Kalem (45), Martins/Rocco (62), Forni/Bahamondes (69); vs 4231. We missed the chance to catch up with Park in this game as he was out with injury. For most of the game we played fairly good ball but failed to fashion any good chances. Just as we upped our attack and started to test the battling Cagliari defense Niccolo Novello picked up his second yellow card at 69 minutes and we had to take off one of our strikers. That was just the opportunity Cagliari needed to snatch the victory with a goal off at set piece at 80 minutes. Loss 0-1. Torino (9-8-3 5th) at Cagliari (6-4-10 16th) Italian Cup First Round0-112 Shots 75 On Target 38 Fouls 752% Possession 48%Goals: Moussa (80) So. No cup run this year then. I told the players they weren’t good enough, told the press they would bounce back, and warned Niccolo that getting sent off in such a manner was unacceptable. That about covered it. Two days later we were in our transfer deadline day and I was once again fulfilling my media obligations. DOF Roberto Goretti is still trying to find right backs to replace Arias, his latest find, Andy Nahar of Anderlicht looks very good, but we have coverage in our young players and I am not interested in spending 3m+ for depth we don’t need. Hoffenheim met Abubakar Sodje’s free release clause. Given that he has been an attitude problem twice in a half season here I’ll take the 3.5m profit on the transaction and not even feel bad that we didn’t get full value for him. With eleven and a half hours left in the window Abubakar signed with Hoffenheim, our fans were dissapointed but recognized that our hands were tied due to the free release clause and were at least happy we made a healthy profit. Goretti immediately made an offer for Cagliari’s Dario Del Fabro, who has just been another Nicoletti or Bianchetti his entire career in Serie A, so if that offer is accepted I will just walk away. It was. I did. I did make a loan offer for Liverpool's 21 year old left back Saul Trenzano and that deal was completed with a little over four hours left in the window. Goretti made a 3m bid for Inter ‘s out of favor defender Tobias Figuierdo, but one thing I learned from this off season was not to spend on mediocre defenders, I cancelled the negotiations. We are still not scouting or developing the caliber defender I require, I will have to be more proactively hands on with this in the offseason. And after that the deadline passed and business closed for the day, just in time to dive into preparations for tomorrow's Derby della Mole. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
edtheguy Posted April 26, 2016 Author Share Posted April 26, 2016 February 2023 With Gianna now going full speed ahead on a new strategic plan for the theatre and it’s performing arts companies both old and new, I was left largely to my own devices for the month. Which meant a solo trip into town to attend the rare early morning board meeting. I was still untouchable and they were delighted with my leadership qualities, pleased with the use of young players, but disappointed with situation regarding Zsolt Csamango. I wasn't aware there was a situation, the player is still too young to figure into our first team, but I guess if they have to look that far for a criticism it's a good thing. After the meeting it was straight to the stadium to prepare the squad for the derby. 2/1/23 vs Juventus - Italian Cup Quarter Final - 442 ND Bruno Varela, Novello, Benyahia, Barba, Duarte, Lassen, Benassi, Salih Kalem, Gallo/Marotta (60), Martins, Forni/Natali (60); vs 4123 DM wide. We didn’t set up to hide in a shell and play defensively and we weren’t outclassed in the game. In fact, our defense was still one lost coverage on a corner kick from stifling Juve again, but our offense was abysmal, not even managing one single shot on target. Loss 0-1. Torino vs Juventus Italian Cup Quarter Final0-17 Shots 100 On Target 320 Fouls 447% Possession 53%Goals: Goni (74) Benyahia, Gallo, Forni and Natali were all singled out for poor performances after the game and they as well as the rest of the squad seemed to react well. Roberto Mancini was in the crowd to watch three Juve players and Loris Forni - who didn’t do a thing to help his own cause in the game. The last time someone other than Loris Forni scored was December 14th. Our next game will be on February 4th for anyone counting. Both Duarte and Kamil Glik came to me to say they were happy to stay at the club now after asking for transfers earlier. I spoke to the board and they agreed to improve our youth recruitment to well established and our youth coaching to excellent. Our U20’s beat Genoa 1-0 with a goal from Diego Bergese.Their best player in the game was Papa Cissokho. We received 275k from Brentford as a result of Reece Burke playing in 50 games for them. In hindsight I might have been right when I bought him and wrong when I sold him…. 2/4/23 at Sampdoria - Serie A G22 - 442 ND Bruno Varela, Bahamondes, Federhen, Barba, Duarte, Lassen, Benassi, Salih Kalem, Gallo, Martins, Forni; vs 4312. We started well and had the edge in a close fought defensive first half. Of course this is supposed to be our offensive formation. We also did finally see someone other than Loris Forni score as Gaspard Martins put us in the lead 1-0. The second half was pathetic however as Sampdoria was able to just turn it on and create the shots and opportunities that we aren’t and finally tied the game. All we could do was hold on, barely, for the Draw. 1-1. Torino (9-8-4 5th) at Sampdoria (9-5-8 7th) Serie A G221-110 Shots 195 On Target 107 Fouls 548% Possession 52%Goals: Martins (31) Bonazzoli (82) The player of the game for the match was none other than my old friend and former Rev Donnie van de Beek. Pre match Roma’s Manager Zinedine Zidane told the press that while there was no doubt we were exceeding expectations at this point the results don’t lie and we had to be treated like a very good side. I told the press he wasn’t patronizing us and we would be lucky to get anything from the game in the light of their ten match unbeaten run. 2/8/23 vs Roma - Serie A G23 - 442 ND Bruno Varela, Novello, Federhen, Barba, Bahamondes, Lassen, Gallo, Benassi, Fortounis, Forni/Luzi (63), Martins; vs 4231. This game started hard fought and fairly even. Just when it looked like Roma was going to break through we launched a counterattack - which surprised me even though we were playing in a counter attacking mentality - and Gaspard Martins took a Bahamondes cross out of midair and hit it home with a thunderous volley. The rest of the first half was surprisingly even until, just before the break a nice play ended up with Gaspard driving home a Novello cross with a powerful header. Sal wanted to leave the players in the zone at half, but I wanted them fired up so I passionately told them to keep it up and we went out for the second half. Four minutes after the half Matheus Pereira made an otherworldly play to set up a Sean Neill Goal to cut our lead to one. I don’t know if my pep talk had anything to do with it, but after the goal we didn’t let them get anything going and looked their equal for much of the time. At 60 minutes as I evaluated the squad I opted for only one change, I pulled a underperforming (for the third game in a row) Loris Forni, and put in young Samuel Luzi, who had been tearing up the U20 league until he passed the age limit, for his Torino debut. Luzi entered the game at 63 minutes, and at 68 minutes after Stefano Gallo saved a play in midfield Gaspard Martins got on the end of another Bahamondes cross and flicked a header back across the net to Luzi who drove it home for his first ever goal. We had a 3-1 lead in the last minute of extra time when Roma were awarded a penalty, but we were going so well that even that couldn’t stop us as Bruno Varela swatted the attempt away with authority. Win 3-1. Torino (9-9-4 5th) vs Roma (13-6-3 1st) Serie A G233-112 Shots 148 On Target 312 Fouls 1041% Possession 59%Goals: Martins (9,44) Beill (49) Luzi (68) After the game Luzi made the headlines as he had previously played 31 games in Serie B for Spezia without scoring. For us it took him 5 minutes. Zinedine did an about face after the game and called us completely average and said we would be dropping off soon. I guess he was patronizing us. You know who did the dropping off today though don’t you? Thats right, Roma, who fell out of top spot with the loss to us. 2/12/23 at Bari - Serie A G24 - 442 ND Bruno Varela, Novello, Schrott, Barba, Bahamondes, Lassen, Marotta, Benassi, Gallo, Forni, Martins; vs 442. Another good performance in this game as we stressed consistency in the weeks practice and both strikers were on the board in the first half, Martins with two goals. Marotta, playing in the creative midfielder position had a wonderful game and Lukas Schrott in his debut at central defender did well. Trailing 3-0 in the second half Bari got fired up and unleashed the title wave and scored to make it 3-1 and I saw enough warning signs that I pulled forni and added a third central midfielder, Alex Padovano as a defense minded ball winner and it worked brilliantly as all of a sudden their swarm was overwhelmed every time they tried to bring the ball forward. Win 3-1. Torino (10-9-4 5th) at Bari (8-5-10 13th) Serie A G243-117 Shots 94 On Target 312 Fouls 356% Possession 44%Goals: Martins (19,41) Forni (27) Marri (66) Marco Benassi reached his yellow card limit and will miss our next game against the top of the table A.C. Milan. We have scored 41 goals in Serie A this year, and Loris Forni has 18 of them. The press is actually making us a slight favourite with the homefield advantage against A.C. Milan…. 2/18/23 vs A.C. Milan - Serie A G25 - 442 ND Bruno Varela, Padalino, Federhen/Benyahia (45), Barba, Bahamondes, Lassen, Gallo, Camara, Fortounis, Forni/Martone (56), Martins/Padovano(45-56 red); vs 4231. This was the pitiful awful terrible pathetic… you get the idea, there aren’t enough words to describe how bad we were. I gave it my best shot at halftime when we managed to escape with a 1-1 score on a fluke goal, but obviously the players didn’t get it. In order to try to stem the tide of complete embarrassment I brought Alex Padovano in again to be an extra defensive ball winner in the midfield. He lasted 11 minutes and with us trailing 2-1 was sent off for a sliding tackle that earned him a straight red. After that I played a 423 with 2 defensive midfielders and three central midfielders on contain and we managed to escape with only a 2-1 loss - mostly because Milan’s Leonardo Cataldi also got sent off for a straight red. I’d say there was some anger on the pitch. Too bad we couldn’t focus ours into anything useful.. Torino (11-9-4 5th) vs A.C. Milan (15-4-5 1st) Serie A G251-28 Shots 214 On Target 1315 Fouls 1239% Possession 61%Goals: Vujadinovic (14) Forni (38) Bertolacci (54) The press went with the headline A.C. Milan dominate game. This was one of the times they got it right. Actually it’s still an understatement. Alex Padovano was fined one week's wages as per team policy, and he took it well. Probably because the next time he appears in a game he will earn a 75k/yr pay raise. Our U20’s defeated Stoke in the Youth Club Invitational 4-2 on penalties after a 1-1 draw to advance to the Quarter Final Round where they will play CKSA Moscow’s U19’s. The regulation goal was scored by left back Armando Gigliotti. Giuseppe Pugliese is second in the tournament so far with 4 goals. I once again reviewed the current coaches report on the young man and wow, we really might have something there. He’s not quite ready to take the spot of one of our strikers… but he’s only 17…. On Thursday the U20’s were knocked out of the competition by Moscow, again on penalties after a 2-2 draw. The two goals that we scored in regulation were both scored by Giuseppe Pugliese. On Saturday, back in action in the U20 league, they throttled Inter 4-0 with goals from strikers Stefano Amato (2) and Giuseppe Pugliese as well as right back Davide Peli 2/26/23 at Chievo - Serie A G26 - 442 ND Bruno Varela, Padalino, Schrott, Barba, Bahamondes/Duarte (61), Martone/Larssen (84), Marotta, Benassi, Salih Kalem, Forni, Martins/Rocco (61); vs 4231 DM wide. There was a whole lot of nothing going on here as both teams cancelled each other out perfectly. We tried dropping to counter, stepping up the attack, removing playmakers, nothing mattered. At least we stopped Masi from scoring. Draw 0-0. Torino (11-9-5 5th) at Chievo (9-7-9 10th) Serie A G260-07 Shots 83 On Target 412 Fouls 1251% Possession 49%Goals: -- The draw drops us out of Europa League spots as Lazio passes us on the table. Our next match is against Udinese who is one spot below us in 7th, four points behind. Our U20’s moved back to 2nd in the table with a 3-1 win over Juventus. Goals from Giuseppe Pugliese, and Stefano Amato (2) Gianna is having a blast and everything seems to be going well. Since she is out of the house most of the time Gabrielle is as well, acting as her bodyguard. So now when I’m home it’s usually all alone. What a difference a month makes. It’s strange how large the villa feels without all the women and security there, but it’s been good to see that old glow on Gia’s face again as she does her thing. After all the controversy threats and worrying maybe it all worked out in the end... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
edtheguy Posted April 26, 2016 Author Share Posted April 26, 2016 March 2023 At the monthly board meeting there was little change. I was still untouchable, they still like the youth but definitely not 0-1 losses to Juventus. After the meeting I met Gia at the Teatro Regio for dinner in her new office. All I can say is wow. The woman has always had style. Both the theatre and her office are very… well… regal. When I told her that she snorted and said she should hope so. I guess I’ll stick to what I know. Two days later the U20’s again had a 3-1 win, this time over Palermo with goals from Giuseppe Pugliese, Stefano Amato, and Carlo Rossini. Due to our profitable business this year the board increased our percentage of transfer revenue retained to 90%. Which is nice, but we already have 17.8m of transfer funds available and nearly 10m in payroll available - if I were to spend all of that the club would be operating at a significant loss. Kamil Glik asked to be removed from the transfer list and I was happy to oblige, since he will be retiring as a member of the team at the end of the season and he was only listed at his request. 3/5/23 at Udinese - Serie A G27 - 4312 n Bruno Varela, Novello, Federhen, Barba, Duarte, Salih Kalem, Lassen, Benassi, Gallo, Forni, Martins; vs 4411.We started in a narrow 4312, once again risking no defensive midfielder to try to up the offense and when that didn’t work we went to the 442 narrow diamond at half, but we lack any impetus to score at the moment. Fortunately defensively we have answers for everything the opposition is trying at least. Draw 0-0. Torino (11-10-5 6th) at Udinese (11-6-9 7th) Serie A G260-07 Shots 83 On Target 412 Fouls 1251% Possession 49%Goals: -- There wasn’t much to say after the game. I mustered up the aggression to tell them to get their heads out of wherever they’ve gone and we moved on. We still sit 6th, now 2 points out of continental qualification and our next game is against bottom of the table Palermo. We will either use that as a chance for our slumping offensive players to get in gear or, more likely, give a chance to some of the hungry young strikers to put some pressure on the regulars. The Saturday before the Palermo game was youth intake day. This year's crop of 15 year olds was uninspiring. The best prospects were rated as the coaching staff as maybe three star prospects, the top of the class appeared to be 6’6” defender Massimo Verde who has good teamwork and determination as well as top flight ready tackling. He has a lot to work on other than that though. For club morale I will attend the youth candidates game on Monday, but there isn’t a lot of promise on either squad at the moment. Our U20’s lost to Sampdoria 0-1. 3/12/23 at Palermo - Serie A G28 - 442n Bruno Varela, Novello, Federhen, Glik, Bahamondes, Padovano, Marotta, Camara, Fortounis, Luzi, Rocco; vs 4411. I must have misread the schedule, because we were clearly playing Milan, not Palermo. They literally ran circles around us all game. We were very lucky to get a 1-0 lead and almost hung on, but in the end it’s Palermo who should be devastated that they didn’t get all three points, they were playing against a lower league side. Draw 1-1. Torino (11-11-5 6th) at Palermo (4-10-12 20th) Serie A G261-110 Shots 163 On Target 76 Fouls 651% Possession 49%Goals: Fortounis (28) Hiljemark (83) We clearly aren’t good enough for continental play yet. I’ll have to try to stay positive and hope the young players keep developing. Loris Forni strained a stomach muscle in training and will miss 2-3 weeks. Our U20’s beat Milan 1-0 on a goal from 17 year old striker Diego Bergese. Marco Natali wants playing time. Good for him. 3/19/23 vs Carpi - Serie A G29 - 4222 DMN Arrizabalaga, Novello, Federhen, Barba, Duarte, Martone, Lassen, Benassi, Gallo, Martins, Natali; vs 5212. Ugh. We actually managed to play even against a higher league team but, as a Seie C outfit we never really stood a chance. Loss 0-2. Torino (11-12-5 6th) vs Carpi (7-4-17 18th) Serie A G290-212 Shots 85 On Target 49 Fouls 1445% Possession 55%Goals: Adu (12) Iori (38) I didn’t even talk to the squad, I let Sal tell them they were bad. If they can’t figure it out themselves they aren’t as professional as I thought. Now that everyone can’t help but see how bad they are playing I’ll try to build them up and see how that works. It could be a long end to the season as our next game against Atalanta ends the ’easy’ part of our schedule. We agreed to loan Samuel Luzi to Swedish team Norrkoping so he could get some first team minutes. We also sent Sofiane Benyahia to Malmo FF for the same reasons. I’m starting to flash back to some of my more frustrating New England years. It’s times like this I could stand to have Gia around a little more. Well that would be any time actually, it’s just that now she would be able to talk me away from the ledge, and I’m not so good at that myself. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
edtheguy Posted April 27, 2016 Author Share Posted April 27, 2016 April 2023 Our U20’s defeated Bari 3-2. Goalscorers were Antonio Lini and Franco Cagnazzo (2). Cagnazzo, who came on as a sub at 51 minutes was player of the match. We had another early board meeting before leaving for our match against Atalanta.Despite our recent questionable form I’m still untouchable, they still highlighted young players as the good, but this month Kepa Arrizabalaga was the bad, which is at least semi-legitimate, he as been tolerable at best. 4/2/23 at Atalanta - Serie A G30 - 442 ND Bruno Varela, Padalino, Federhen, Schrott, Bahamondes, Lassen, Marotta/Salih Kalem (34), Benassi, Gallo, Martins, Natali/Padovano (56); vs 4312 narrow. It’s hard to make astute adjustments when the team is just plain playing bad football. So I didn’t. We just played our basic narrow diamond and I selected all of the players that I want to be in our starting lineup, either now or in the near future as much as possible. And while we had the edge in play Atalanta was fashioning wonder shots and bizarre scoring chances from nowhere, and it looked like just another dismal game for us. But Bruno Varela made a couple of nice saves, and his woodwork did its job once and finally Stefano Gallo did something, fashioning a gold plated scoring chance for Gaspard Martins who had the quality to finish. Despite the one goal lead we still looked shaky the rest of the half, but made it to the break up 1-0. I stayed positive at the break and told the squad I believed in them and we actually looked okay early in the second half. Atlanta went attacking early and started to look like a herd of horses galloping through the midfield, so I did finally make an adjustment, pulling Marco Natali and bringing Padovano in as the usual ball winning midfielder, a change that has produced mixed results so far this year. This time the results were good. We corralled the horses and Salih Kalem, who was in for an injured Leonardo Marotta, had his first positive impact since joining sending Martins in alone on the Atalanta keeper. Once again Gaspard knew what to do and we were up 2-0 and finally started to play with some confidence again. That newfound confidence resulted in another nice Stefano Gallo to Gaspard Martins connection for Gaspards’ hat trick. Win 3-0. Torino (11-12-6 6th) at Atalanta (7-9-13 16th) Serie A G303-010 Shots 126 On Target 57 Fouls 757% Possession 43%Goals: Martins (14,63,66) Marotta injured his foot in the game and the Physios reported he would be out between 12 days and 2 weeks. Next, despite our dismal five game stretch, we play Lazio who is only 2 points ahead of us so with a victory we would move back into continental qualification position. My hopes aren’t high though. We started heavily scouting 17 and under prospects to reinvest some of our transfer money on. On the initial reports we made an immediate offer for Hellas Verona’s prize product of this youth intake, 15 year old Manuel Brandalise, a promising center back and he agreed to terms the very next day. We held a staff meeting and Sal’s itinerary was multiple pages long. All I could think was ‘this is gonna be a long meeting’. It was. We decided to start Salih Kalem on training for the central midfield role and Marco Natali on shooting with more power. We moved van de Kracht and Resta back to the U20 squad. Sal reported that Niccolo Novello had improved to the point that he now had the current ability to be a Serie A right back and Tommaso Padalino had improved to a Serie B level..Midfielder Eugenio Moschetto was now deemed to be at a Serie B level. Leonardo Marotta, Leonardo Resta, and Giuseppe Pugliese were all singled out as having the potential to meet or exceed our current first team's ability.And finally the staff recommended we go with the 532 against Lazio. Haven’t I learned my lesson about listening to other people's tactical suggestions by now? Yes I have, we will stick with my plan, thank you very much. In the press conference I backed our players to come out on top, even though Lazio will be favored. And after Filippo Porcari’s press conference I told the press that he wasn't being patronizing when he complimented us but I disagreed that we were overachieving. 4/9/23 vs Lazio- Serie A G31 - 442 ND Bruno Varela, Novello, Federhen/Long (45), Schrott, Bahamondes, Lassen/Padovano (57), Benassi, Salih Kalem, Gallo, Forni/Fortounis (75), Martins; vs 4231 narrow. For most of the first half we had the edge in play but it was fairly even. However Lazio had the edge in scoring chances and that wasn’t even. The jumped out to the 1-0 lead and looked like they would be extending it every time they touched the ball. We made it to the half only down one though and gave the players a bit of encouragement and sent them out for the second half with the only change being pulling an underperforming Federhen. In the second half Lazio had the edge in play throughout, but Gaspard Martins took his one chance and tied the game. We made some adjustments to try to keep us in the game but all we could achieve was a stalemate. Draw 1-1 Torino (12-12-6 6th) vs Lazio (13-11-6 5th) Serie A G311-110 Shots 165 On Target 67 Fouls 448% Possession 52%Goals: Milanov (27) Martins (57) I refused to dignify the press with an answer when they asked me about our ‘perceived extreme physicality’ after the game. Now Gaspard Martins is the only player scoring. This might be easier if we could have more than one person at a time scoring goals. Our U20’s beat Roma 2-1 with Zsolt Csamango and Papa Cissokho scoring goals. Csamango was singled out as the top performer. We have now won exactly one of our last seven games, I am going to run our original 5122 next week, now that we may have three useful center backs with Barba, Federhen and the young Lukas Schrott. None of our many midfielders have shown any ability to affect the game so there really isn’t much use using a tactic that puts more of them on the pitch. Next we visit Genoa who are the team currently right behind us in the standings, then playtime is over as we will host Juve and visit Inter in a four day stretch. Our U20’s beat Carpi 1-0 on a Franco Cagnazzo goal. The coaches singled out the performance of 16 year old right back Davide Peli. Our young centre-back of the future, 15 year old Manuel Brandalise, playing for Verona’s U18’s scored a goal in a player of the match effort. I made a 2.3m offer for Stade de Remis’ 17 year old center back Richard Takyi, who was top of the list of our scouted prospects. Speaking of young players, 18 year old Eloi Gutierrez will make his debut in the starting lineup against Genoa. Pugliese and van de Kracht will be on the bench. 4/12/23 at Genoa - Serie A G32 - 5122 Bruno Varela, Federhen, Barba, Schrott, Gutierrez, Martone/Lassen (45), Duarte, Benassi/van de Kracht (68), Gallo, Martins/Pugliese (68), Forni; vs 442. We actually had the clear advantage in play, despite a deep and defensive posture and were in complete control, until we dwelled on the ball far too long, turned it over, Schrott missed his mark and Genoa scored on their first shot. But we struck right back on the ensuing kickoff, working the ball right back where it was when we turned it over and actually making the pass to the open wing back, Gutierrez who found Forni in the box for the tie. After that we continued to dominate the game in a very controlled manner all the way to the 69th minute when we scored a mirror image goal as our other wing back, Duarte found Forni in the box and we had a deserved lead. Of course four minutes later Genoa scored on a corner kick to tie the game on their only shot of the second half. Draw 2-2. Torino (12-13-6 6th) at Genoa (11-11-9) Serie A G312-212 Shots 66 On Target 39 Fouls 753% Possession 47%Goals: Rodriguez (12) Forni(14,69) Luciani (73) I let Sal talk to them after the game and he cautiously told them they weren’t good enough. Eloi Gutierrez debut made the news as he had the assist and a 7.7 match rating. Our U20’s defeated Atalanta 2-0 with goals from Papa Cissokho and Carlo Rossini, who was singled out as the top performer. 15 year old Manuel Brandalise was player of the match and scored again in Verona U18’s game. Richard Takyi rejected our contract offer. On the bright side, we are expecting a sell out for the Juventus match. 4/20/23 vs Juventus- Serie A G33 - 5122 Bruno Varela, Federhen, Barba, Schrott, Gutierrez, Lassen, Duarte, Benassi, Gallo, Martins, Forni; vs 4123 DM wide. We were pinned back for the entire first half but didn’t allow them through, until Lukas Schrott made an error and they had a 1-0 lead. Thats the end of the story. Torino (12-14-6 6th) vs Juventus (19-3-10 3rd) Serie A G330-110 Shots 165 On Target 67 Fouls 448% Possession 52%Goals: Milanov (27) I told the press we couldn’t dwell on this game and had to start working on our next match I then had to waste time explaining to the press that I didn’t lack passion, I was being professional, it seemed to be hard for them to grasp. To my pleasure, Juve Manager Gerardo Martino told the press the same thing when the asked him about my lack of passion. Good grief, lose once to a team that is supposed to beat you…. Our U20’s moved into first in the table with a 2-1 win over Bologna. Cagnazzo and Amato scored the goals and the coaches singled out midfielder Eugenio Moschetto as the top performer. 4/23/23 at Inter- Serie A G34 - 532 Bruno Varela, Federhen, Barba, Long, Novello, Lassen, Bahamondes, Benassi, Gallo, Martins, Forni; vs 442. The start of this game was horrific, we were overrun over and over but somehow Inter only managed to get one goal - an own goal from Daniel Federhen to which we instantly replied on a Stefano Gallo goal. After that things calmed down until the second half when Loris Forni actually gave us the lead by heading home a Leonardo Bahamondes free kick. That lead lasted less than a minute and Inter tied the game. We held on for dear life after that and survived, barely, with a draw. 2-2. Torino (12-14-7 6th) at Inter (17-8-7 4th) Serie A G342-211 Shots 143 On Target 66 Fouls 955% Possession 45%Goals: Federhen og(12) Gallo (13) Forni (55) Melo (55) Fabio Gaucho, who I had bid on in our prospect search rejected us and signed with Barcelona. I guess that means I was on the right track there. Loris Forni strained a stomach muscle in training and will miss 2 to 3 weeks. Roberto Benitez, a 17 year old center back, also rejected us. He signed with Atletico. We aren’t having much success here. 4/30/23 vs Bologna- Serie A G35 - 532 Bruno Varela, Federhen, Barba, Long, Novello, Lassen, Bahamondes, Marotta, Gallo, Rocco, Martins; vs 442. The first half was a smooth professional operation, we were a solid wall on defense and fashioned enough chaos in the offensive area to break open the Bologna defense. Stefano Gallo’s movement was impressive - the coaches had been working with him on being a better presence through the midfield and it seemed to help here. Gaspard Martins scored off a Bahamondes cross on a play that Gallo started and a few minutes later Martins got a rebound i the box and found Pew Lassen for his first goal with the club and we finished the first half up 2-0. The second half was more - chaotic, but for a change we finished without any defensive collapses. That was… surprising. Win 2-0. Torino (12-15-7 6th) vs Bologna (14-5-15 9th) Serie A G352-010 Shots 85 On Target 310 Fouls 544% Possession 56%Goals: Martins (22) Lassen (28) With the win we somehow move back into 5th place, and continental qualification. Next up is 11th place Napoli, who just fired their manager, then we face 18th placed Lanciano and 16th place Modena to close out the season. So after all my doom and gloom there might actually be some hope after all. Gianna would say she told me so, if she was ever home. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
edtheguy Posted April 27, 2016 Author Share Posted April 27, 2016 May 2023 The May board meeting was still encouraging. Despite what I felt were massive struggles recently I am still untouchable, the board said they were delighted with my leadership and pleased with young players, though slightly disappointed with Trenzano. They’re reaching again there. Gia and I had a good old fashioned dinner out after the meeting under the watchful eyes of Gabrielle and it was very nice. To say Gia is excited about everything she is trying to accomplish with the theatre would be an understatement. What she has told me is impressive and I have a feeling there's still more she hasn’t talked about yet. Angers SCO’s 17 year old center back Christian Ojong agreed to terms with us, he will join us on July 1. Finally we actually signed one of the prospects. 5/6/23 at Napoli- Serie A G36 - 532 Bruno Varela, Federhen, Barba, Schrott, Gutierrez, Lassen, Bahamondes, Benassi, Salih Kalem, Pugliese, Martins; vs 4312 narrow. The only thing I have to say about this game is poor. We looked like we might survive with a poor nothing nothing draw, but Surrendered an ugly goal late. Torino (13-15-7 5th) at Napoli (10-15-10 11th) Serie A G360-18 Shots 122 On Target 65 Fouls 538% Possession 62%Goals: Maldonado (68) I told the press I was embarrassed with the result and when they asked about Napoli’s goal scorer, Maldonado, and then their player of the game Valzania I said I didn’t want to talk about individual players. With a win on Sunday A.C. Milan clinched the Serie A title for the second time in three years. Juventus’ nine year run is a distant memory now, with Milan, Inter, and now Milan winning the last three years. Lazio also drew their game, putting us back into 6th place, outside continental qualification. Benassi strained his stomach muscles in the weight room, he will miss 2-3 weeks. The last continental spot will either go to Lazio, us, or Udinese, who has actually won three of their last six games. Lazio has been as bad as us lately, winless in their last nine games while we have only won two of our last twelve games. So the team that fails the least will win. Its looking good for Udinese. I really do need to keep fighting the negativity though as overall we are definitely overachieving and even though I expect more, with a young squad more patience is required. Our U20’s beat Modena 4-0 to stay in second tied for first on points. Pugliese with the hat trick and left back Ivano Mingione added the fourth. Giuseppe was, of course the player of the match. When I got home from the Napoli match I had my suspicions about Gianna’s plans confirmed as my daughter Kate was visiting, which was a very nice surprise. Apparently it might be a regular occurrence as well as the girls are partnering Kate's school of dance, which has built an international reputation, with the new ballet company Gia has formed based at the Teatro Regio. Kate herself won’t be doing quite as much dancing as she shared her big news which was that she and Andrew are going to make me a grandfather. Wow. It was a very nice reunion. We received 875k when Wellington Silva played in his 50th game for FC Lorient. In those 50 games he has 4 goals, 4 assists and one player of the match award. Not exactly numbers that will make us regret selling. 5/21/23 vs Lanciano- Serie A G37 - 532 Bruno Varela, Glik, Barba, Long, Novello, Lassen, Bahamondes, Gallo, Salih Kalem, Martins, Forni; vs 4231 narrow. We took control right off the kickoff, storming the Lanciano net and when Lanciano keeper Piscitelli made a diving save on a Stefano Gallo shot Gaspard Martins put the rebound home and we were up 1-0 inside three minutes. Off the ensuing kick off we let Lanciano walk through our three man defensive line and immediately tie the game. After we let them walk in on net three more times and survived I had seen enough and pulled Federico Barba at 20 minutes. I told him he didn’t need to practice being a turnstile any more, he had it down. After that we got better and made it into the half tied at one. The second half we continued to benefit from defenders who actually, you know, defended and at 49 minutes when Bahamondes was taken down in the box Salih Kalem scored his first goal for us from the spot and the floodgates opened. Martins and Forni added goals late and we had the Win. 4-1. Torino (13-15-8 6th) vs Lanciano (9-7-20 19th) Serie A G374-120 Shots 1210 On Target 312 Fouls 1648% Possession 52%Goals: Martins (2,82) Magnanelli (3) Salih Kalem (pen 49) Forni (71) Both Udinese and Lazio lost, leaving us in 5th place and going into the last game of the season we have our fate in our own hands. With the loss in this game Lanciano was officially relegated, we will be facing another team playing for survival next week as Modena sit in the relegation zone in 18th, tied on points with Carpi and one point behind Atalanta. Niccolo Novello sprained his ankle in the game and will be out 4-5 weeks. Paw Lassen reached his yellow card limit and will miss the next game. Aurelien Rymis, Toulouse FC’s 23 year old center back agreed to terms on a four year deal to join us when his contract expires in a month. Fernando Henrique, Golas midfielder agreed to terms after our 600k transfer bid was accepted. Our U20’s defeated Sassuolo 2-0 behind goals from Pugliese and Bergese. The win secured the league title for them. We finish our Serie A season with a match at Stadio Alberto Braglia in Modeno with our continental qualification hopes in the balance. 5/28/23 at Modena- Serie A G38 - 532 Bruno Varela, Federhen, Glik, Long, Gutierrez, Camara, Bahamondes, Gallo, Salih Kalem, Martins, Forni; vs 4312 narrow. Both teams came out with something to play for and did themselves credit. Modena was everybit up for the fight, which is usually bad news for us but this time to my relief we actually fought back. After some scares back and forth we struck first on a long range header by Loris Forni from just inside the box. Despite Modena having most of the ball we defended well and made it to the half up 1-0. We actually looked to be holding up well when Modena scored off a free kick to tie the game at one. At this point Lazio was still tied in their game so despite losing the lead we were still in a continental spot. At 51 minutes a seemingly endless back and forth battle for control of the ball in the midfield ended in Forni and Martins breaking in on goal and Gaspard put it home for a 2-1 lead and some cushion between us and Lazio. That cushion was gone within minutes as Lazio took the lead in their game and as things stood we would have to win to hold on to 5th. It looked like that wasn’t to be moments later as Modeno managed two good scoring chances,one of which was stopped by Bruno Varela and the other went well over the net. At 61 minutes Marco Benassi and Leonardo Marotta came into the game for Kamil Glik and Salih Kalem and we went into a 4132 formation. Ten minutes later, with the standings unchanged we were awarded a penalty when Gaspard Martins was tackled in the box. Loris Forni stepped up to take the penalty that would surely put us into the Europa League next season, struck the ball confidently to the left of the diving keeper..... 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edtheguy Posted April 27, 2016 Author Share Posted April 27, 2016 ...and hit the post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
edtheguy Posted April 28, 2016 Author Share Posted April 28, 2016 ...and hit the post Loris was so distraught that he was slow to react to the rebound that came right back to him and was tackled by three Modena players before he could get another shot off. Leonardo Marotta, on the other hand was lightening quick to react and got to the ball next and drove it home with authority for the 3-1 lead. Modena would not give up however and kept us under pressure until the end of the game. But we held. Win 3-1. Torino (14-15-8 5th) at Modena (9-10-18 18th) Serie A G383-116 Shots 1511 On Target 512 Fouls 443% Possession 57%Goals: Forni (35) Farago (48) Martins (51) Marotta (71) As a result of the win we are in the Europa League next year and Modena is in Serie B, I received the news story about our qualification at the same time as the announcement that Modena fired their Manager Luca Toni. We received 3.72m for finishing 5th in the league, and paid 1.9m in bonuses to the squad. I have to admit, as bad as I felt about my performance as a manager a couple seasons ago with the Revolution when we vastly underperformed is as good as I feel about the job I did this year. In the end, despite all of my frustration along the way, the players performed admirably and I feel like I got about as much out of them as was possible and the result was a season of overachievement. We held our year end banquet at the Olimpico complex so that the Serie A awards were live streamed before dinner, after which we presented our team awards. Gianna was stunning in a rather amazing evening gown, but the attention of most of the attendees was stolen by the surprise attendance of the Board and Giovanna Savelli who took over the table at the head of the room, causing the event staff no end of stress. Serie A Awards: Fair Play Player of the Year - Paolo Farago, M© Modena, 38 app 0 yellow, 0 red. Serie A Player of the Year - Leonardo Bittencourt, M(L) Inter, 36 APP 6 G 18 A 7.71 AVR Serie A Top Goalscorer award - Lorenzo Magnanelli, ST© Lanciano, 36APP 27G; Loris Forni was second with 24 goals Serie A Young Player of the Year - Almar Goni, ST© Juventus, 34 APP 22 G 5 A 7.61 AV R Serie A Goal of the Year - Melker Hallberg, M/AM(RC) Udinese, a full midair volley from 30+ yards. Serie A Manager of the Year - Antonio Conte, A.C. Milan Serie A Team of the Year - GK- Allsson (Milan) RD- S. Vrsaljko (Sampdoria) CD- Jemerson (A.C. Milan) CD- F. Ducios (Sampdoria) LD- M. De Sciglio (A.C. Milan) DM- F. Melegoni (A.C. Milan) CM- Matheus Pereira (Roma) CM- O. Ntcham (A.C. Milan) ST- A. Melo (Inter) ST- M. Gabbiadini (Inter) ST- L. Magnanelli (Lanciano) Serie A Fair Play Team of the Year- U.S. Citta di Palermo Serie A Best Club of the Year - Juventus (the award heads across to the other side of Turin as we won it last season) Our End of Season Awards: Fans Player of the Season - Niccolo Novello Goal of the Season - Gaspard Martins, the young striker took a beautiful through ball from Stefano Gallo and drove it into the top right corner against Atalanta. Signing of the Season- Tommaso Padalino D® from Cesena for 988k. Young Player of the Season- Niccolo Novello Top Goalscorer- Loris Forni - 25 Highest Average Rating - Niccolo Novello - 7.53 Most Assists - Stefano Gallo - 9 Best Pass Completion - Alex Padovano - 86% Player of the Match Awards - Loris Forni - 5 Most Yellow Cards - Leonardo Bahamondes - 7 Most Red Cards - Novello, Padovano, Duarte - 1 After all of our awards were handed out Urbano Cairo and Giovanna took the podium and announced that the club was granting a special Civic Service award to "The Citys most valuable American immigrants, the Banaliks", to recognize both my contributions to the club and Giannas to the Teatro Regio and the fabric of the Turin arts community. They cited the fact that our tireless efforts have benefited the quality of life at all levels for the whole community. They then announced that the board would be making a rather generous donation to match Giovanna's contribution to the Teatro Regio to benefit the 'greater good of the city of Turin.' The announcements stole the local headlines, making a big splash in the community and tied the Club to the Arts Culture of the city, drawing attention to both. Both Gia and I were caught completely off guard and for maybe the first time ever I saw her completely flustered and speechless. After everything wrapped up for the evening Gabrielle also pointed out that all the added media attention will add some security against any angry Savelli family members that might want to take drastic measures to regain control from Giovanna. Before the players left we held the season end meeting where we agreed as a group that we could again qualify for the Europa League next year. I just sold them on something I’m not even sure of. The next day I received a written End of Season Confidence Review - My job is now "Very Secure", somehow dropped from untouchable. Our Serie A performance was a highlight, the season's signings were successful - particularly Martins, and player performance were very high, especially Stefano Gallo. We kept pre season at 6 weeks, starting 10th July. The board set next year's budget, we have 17.4m in the transfer kitty that they are leaving alone and our payroll budget also remains largely unchanged, actually taking a slight hit from 50m to 48m. It’s a good thing I wasn’t planning on shoring up the squad for the Europa League. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
edtheguy Posted April 29, 2016 Author Share Posted April 29, 2016 Torino "Best Eleven" Serie A 2022/23 | Name | Position | Apps | Gls | Rat | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Bruno Varela | GK | 30 | 0 | 6.95 | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Daniel Federhen | D (C) | 25 | 0 | 6.93 | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Federico Barba | D (C) | 33 | 1 | 6.98 | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Hugo Long | D (C) | 13 | 0 | 6.86 | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Niccolò Novello | WB (R) | 22 | 1 | 7.53 | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Stefano Gallo | DM | 29 | 2 | 7.43 | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Leonardo Bahamondes | WB (L) | 25 | 0 | 7.30 | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Marco Benassi | M (C) | 34 | 2 | 7.18 | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Kostas Fortounis | M (C) | 17 | 3 | 7.07 | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Gaspard Martins | ST (C) | 37 | 17 | 7.34 | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Loris Forni | ST (C) | 34 | 25 | 7.32 | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Kepa Arrizabalaga | | 9 | 0 | 6.71 | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Rubén Duarte | | 22 | 0 | 7.10 | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Paw Lassen | | 18 | 1 | 7.08 | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Ibrahima Sissoko | | 16 | 1 | 7.38 | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Marco Natali | | 12 | 1 | 6.69 | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Angelo Martone | | 14 | 0 | 6.79 | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Luca Rocco | | 7 | 1 | 6.93 | | 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edtheguy Posted May 2, 2016 Author Share Posted May 2, 2016 June 2023 Back at my now quiet office the next week we got to work preparing for the upcoming season. In an effort to thin out the mounting numbers of young players we transfer listed some that won’t be breaking into the starting lineup in our estimation and interest was immediately shown in some, including midfielder Angelo Martone who entered negotiations with swiss club Young Boys. During the week we had our first superfluous off season Board Meeting - My position is ‘Very Secure’, they still like like young players but are disappointed with Saul Trenzano- um, okay… Not much else to report. Financially we are doing well, there has been a clear upward trend since my arrival, which is partly what allowed the club to ‘buy in’ to Gia’s arts community benefiting both of us. On friday the board called me back to the offices and presented me with some Training Camp options; Valle d’Aosta, Piemonte, Lombardia and Trentino-Alto Adige. When I started looking them over I almost laughed, as they were all local so I didn’t really see the point. Piemonte is the Piedmont area, centered around Turin, Lombardia is the area around Milan and Valle d’Aosta and Trentino-Alto Adige are on the northern border of Italy, which to my point of view would be like going from Boston to New York. I chose the farthest, Trentino-Alto Adige as seriously as I could. The camp will run from 7/21 to 7/31. As I was working from home over the weekend we got our official welcome orientation from the Europa League confirming that we will enter in the group stage. On the following Tuesday Angelo Martone, our hero of the season ending win, agreed to terms with Young Boys, for a 700k transfer fee and the deal will be finalized when the transfer window opens on Saturday, the 10th. Kostas Fortounis came to see me because he was bothered that he didn’t get enough playing time last season and wanted assurances that he would get more this year. In his situation the only real choice is to play him more or transfer list him. Since he has not let me down when he has played I went for the former. Liverpool made a 2.9m bid for Duarte which I negotiated up to 3.7m, still a loss for us against the 4.7 we paid for him, but better than nothing and he has lost the starting job to Bahamondes, so by selling him we can cash in and use Eloi Gutierrez and Tommaso Padalino as our second choice fullbacks, both are promising youngsters with the chance to be better than our current starters, Bahamondes and Niccolo Novello. With his next international appearance Ibrahima Sissoko will earn us 2.5m. Not bad for a player we signed on a free. We got our fiscal summary for the past twelve month period and reported a profit of 12.18m, 10.37M of which was from our transfer business, and the club had a resultant 1m tax bill. In other financial news, our cross town rivals might might just have gotten a little too ‘big’ as it hit the news that Juventus will miss out on the Champions League next season as they failed their Financial Fair Play requirements. They, along with champions Milan and 3rd place Roma were to be Serie A’s participants in the league while Inter, Lazio and ourselves are in the Europa League. While our supporters are tickled pink by the news I can’t help but worry if that won’t just hurt Italy in future seeding for the continental leagues. The press is worked up over Marco Benassi having only 13 months left on his contract, I told them there was nothing to talk about. By the end of the week Duarte agreed to terms with Liverpool. Gia and I decided not to take a vacation this year as she was completely focused on her new baby, the theater, and its not like there aren't always a million things needing my attention, weather or not we are 'in season'. Sal gave me a report on our home grown player status for Europa League registration and we, not surprisingly, are well in the clear with 9 home grown players on the first team (55 at the club) and 14 trained in Italy (64 at the club) The EPL rumor mill is churning and allegedly Spurs are chasing after one of our young strikers, Gaspard Martins. I declined to comment. Donnie van de Beek signed a new 5 year deal worth 18m with Sampdoria. By the middle of the month I broke down and finally used a tactics simulator to test out the tactics we will use next year. Mike had tried to get me to do that back in New England but I never did. By using the software to evaluate the tactics theoretical performance without the inconvenient human inputs from players who don’t comprehend their roles or can’t fluidly work as a unit we can start with a good base for the coming year. I stayed with the narrow diamond formation, it just makes sense, we don’t have quality wide players or depth at central defender so three at the back or wide formations wouldn’t get the best from the players at our disposal. What we do have are midfielders and strikers… hello narrow diamond. The Italian soccer media released their summary of the most reputable clubs in the country and in made mention of us saying that we are ‘on the rise’ and enjoyed a small boost to our reputation after enjoying a strong Serie A campaign. It’s nice to get some recognition, but I wouldn’t call last year strong - merely acceptable, hopefully strong seasons lie in the future still. The 23/24 Serie A schedule was released on the 30th and we will open at Bari on August 27. The three newly promoted clubs we will be facing are Spezia, Pescara and Empoli and they are taking the place of relegated Modena, Palermo and Lanciano. We were given our TV money of €34.43m. I met with the board for the third time of the month to discuss goals for the coming season, since the only benefit to higher goals would be a bigger budget, which I don’t plan on spending, I stayed at the minimum - Group Stage of Europa League (done) and mid standing finish in Serie A - which would actually be a huge disappointment to me. Continental Qualification again would be my goal. HOYD Massimo Bava informed me of the youth players who were moving up a squad due to age restrictions. Moving to the first team were Leonardo Resta, a young keeper with promising potential, Antonio Lini, a striker who needs a new home, Stefano Amato, a striker who I see potential in but probably won’t be able to get game time for, and Michele Riva, a midfielder who needs a new home. On the last Friday night of the month we threw a huge gala at the Teatro Regio to celebrate Kamil Glik’s retirement and recognize his iconic status with the club. Kamil seemed to really appreciate it and it was the most I’d seen Gianna all month, so it was a good night all around. It’s amazing the difference living in a culture that lives and breathes football, the event was massive and heartwarming - I can’t imagine anything like it ever happening back in the States. Tomorrow the transfer window officially opens and ten days later the players report back for training camp at Olimpico before heading off to the mountains on the 21st. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
edtheguy Posted May 5, 2016 Author Share Posted May 5, 2016 July 2023 In the latest summary from our corporate offices I read that we set a new average attendance record for the club last season at 20,094 which broke the old record of 18,944 set in 2021. It also made mention that Niccolo Novello broke Santiago Arias’ average rating record of 7.51 with his 7.53 average last season. As the media kills their ‘free time’ in the offseason they printed a summary reporting that Arsenal are the richest club in the world currently, the biggest gainers were Sheffield Wednesday moving from 100th to 53rd and the biggest losers were Bologna dropping from 64th to 82nd. Of far greater importance to me, we made it onto the list, entering at 95th. It hit the news that Gaspard Martins was flattered by Chelsea’s interest in him. Ugh. As soon as the transfer window opened DOF Roberto Goretti made a 5.5m bid for Milan defender Ronaldo, a driven 25 year old with top drawer mental and physical qualities who would immediately be our number one defender. I wasn’t planning on spending, but that move would be spot on. Well played Roberto. We welcomed our four previous signings, who could now finally join us. Manuel Brandalise, a 16 year old center-back who we signed from rivals Hellas Verona - our coaches weren’t as impressed as the scouting staff with the young man's potential, but his performances on the field in the u20 league last season backed the scouts opinions so I’m still hopeful. Fernando Henrique, a 22 year old defensive midfielder from Brazilian outfit Goias also didn’t wow the coaches, or me for that matter. Aurelien Rymas, a 23 year old center-back is at least as good as our other mediocre center-backs and still has potential to grow. And finally Christian Ojong a 18 year old enthusiastic center-back who has the potential to develop into a starter. Padova made a bid to spare part Joseph Fili and Reggiana bid on the equally unuseful Loris Vercella. We also accepted two loan offers for Stefano Amato to get him first team games, but I rejected a loan offer for Carlo Loddo, who deserves another shot at our first team. At our monthly Board Meeting, where I complemented the corporate office on their very thorough reports I was told that I was still very secure. In their estimation last season and young players are still good, but Kepa Arrizabalaga isn’t. Gia and I had a nice light meal at the Caffe Reggio and talked about the performances for the upcoming season and Kate’s next scheduled visit. Our new schedules are starting to feel rather comfortable, and for one of the first times since we’ve been married we have a sense of home and community. I hope it lasts, but I think I’m wise enough to try to enjoy it while we can. Back in the office I extended the contracts of Niccolo Novello, Alex Padovano and Giuseppe Pugliese, who all had club options in their contracts. We open our camp on the 10th with an opening day match against the u18’s that I plan on making traditional. After that the club has arranged friendlies with Grosseto, Juve Stabia, Novara, Fondi, Maritimo. and Ascoli. We don’t really need more friendlies than that, but there are a couple of two week gaps that I will most likely fill with money spinners if possible. Goretti’s bid for Ronaldo was accepted and his salary demands of 2.65m, while they would put him at the top of our pay scale, slightly ahead of the new deal I just offered to Marco Benassi, were still entirely reasonable. Since our competitors for his signature were Juve, I offered his full asking price and he said he would consider it. I did schedule two more friendlies, one against Chelsea and one in Camp Nou. Joseph Fili signed with Padova and Stefano Amato joined Belgian club Union SG on loan. The Europa League Qualifying rounds started with Serbia’s FK Rad Beograd defeating Luxembourg's F91 Dudelange 5-1. Our supporters were absolutely delighted when we announced the signing of Marco Benassi to a four year €10m contract extension on Friday, three days before camp opened. Marco said he was delighted to continue to work for a coach he has such admiration for. Italy is great. Our 18.75m transfer kitty that I hadn’t planned on touching took a 7.5m hit as Ronaldo agreed to terms signing a four year deal. We purchased him from Milan less than a year after they acquired him from Shaktar for a reported 21m, with transfer business like that how do these clubs have more money than us? The coaches liked him even more than Goretti, putting him first on the depth charts with a bullet, well clear of our second rated center-back, Daniel Federhen. Real Madrid has started a search for a new Manager as Rafa Benitez announced his retirement from the club by mutual consent. Madrid won both the Champions League and La Liga last season. Not to be outdone in the need for a Manager, the lead story on the very next day, Sunday, was Joachim Low’s retirement as Manager of Barcelona, who are now considering the same list of candidates as Madrid. Joachim’s decision follows closely the announcement by Lionel Messi that he was retiring. That makes sense to me, I’d probably retire too. On Monday the 10th the players reported back. Federico Barba, Kepa Arrizabalaga, Tommaso Padalino, Antonio Lini and Michele Riva reported in top condition and Leonardo Bahamondes was very tired. All the players were ready to compete for Europa League qualification again except Paw Lassen and Salih Kalem who thought we should be aiming higher. At the season opening Staff Meeting we discussed the Top Prospects at the club- Moha, a 16 year old midfielder, Papa Cissokho, a 18 year old defensive midfielder, Giuseppe Pugliese, a 18 year old striker who has already scored 6 goals this year in 5 games in the Italian Youth Club Invitational and Loris Vercella, a 17 year old center-back, Mainz made a 7.25 m bid for Stefano Gallo. Two problems, Stefano is valued at 8m and he is young, effective and home grown - in other words the definition of what we want to have in the squad. Rejected. Our second friendly, against Chelsea, will be televised. 7/10/23 vs Torino U18’s- Friendly - 442 nd Bruno Varela, Novello/Gutierrez (67), Ronaldo/Rymis (67), Federhen/Schrott (32), Barba, Camara, Gallo/Henrique (67), Benassi/Padovano (32), Fortounis/Kalem (32), Forni, Martins; vs 442nd. Ok, well Kepa Arrizabalaga played for the youth team to work on his fitness levels, and if he isn’t fit now he never will be. The game was as one sided as you would expect in every way except the score, which ended Loris Forni 3, everyone else in the organization 0. Torino vs Torino U18’s Friendly3-031 Shots 219 On Target 04 Fouls 1353% Possession 47%Goals: Forni (30,79,82) One concerning thing about the game was that in our new tactic positionally Kostas Fortounis fits nicely in the AMC slot, and he performed very well there when given the chance last season. But in this year's tactic the AMC is a scorers role, and last year it was a creator's position. In less than one half of action against our youth squad Fortounis reminded me just how good he is at wasting scoring chances. Good thing I just promised him more playing time. I could modify the tactic, but the simulation software we have was very clear in this tactics superiority, so I’ll just have to think of something else. Marco Natali came to see me about leaving for first team soccer, when I told him he could play in the cup games he said that wasn’t enough. I asked him if this was where he really wanted things to go and he reconsidered and said he would wait for his chance. Brad Guzan signed a new three year deal with the Revs for a pay cut from over 900k per season to 700k. Mainz upped their offer for Stefano Gallo to 9.25, which at least isn’t insulting. I told them it still wasn’t good enough. Roberto Goretti made a bid on Koln’s left back Olaza which was accepted. Olaza would be a backup on our squad and has a pitiful match history over the last several years. I declined to offer a contract. 7/16/23 vs Chelsea- Friendly - 442nd Bruno Varela, Novello, Ronaldo/Rymis (45), Federhen/Schrott (45), Bahamondes, Camara/Lassen (61), Gallo/Henrique (61), Benassi/Padovano (45), Fortounis/Salih Kalem (61), Forni/Rocco (61), Martins/Natali (61); vs 4231. Well, this is why you play friendlies. If the players thought they had arrived, they got their wake up call in this game. Every single player was outplayed by their counterpart in blue, badly. Oscar started the schooling inside 5 minutes when he took a long throw outside the box out of midair with one touch sun 180 degrees and fired a laser into the top corner on his second touch. By the half hour he had added two more goals for his hat trick and we were well and truly done. We never showed up for a moment, at least we were on TV so everyone could see how terrible we were. Loss 0-4. Torino vs Chelsea Friendly0-47 Shots 211 On Target 109 Fouls 1048% Possession 52%Goals: Oscar (3,6,31) Collins (89) The papers said we were uninspiring in defeat. I almost called to thank them for being so complimentary to us, we were far worse than uninspiring, I would have said something far more - aggressive if I had written the article. In fact my Italian is now good enough that the players are truly fortunate that I let Sal handle all pep talks in the pre season. Real Madrid filled their vacancy by hiring Inter’s Marcelino as their new Manager, now the search begins for a new boss at Inter. Michael N’Dri, scouting in Belarus sent in a report that caught my eye. It was on a 20 year old central midfielder - something we don’t need - who is already comparable to Marco Benassi, and has off the charts potential named Evgeniy Rudenkov. The young man has off the charts tackling and passing ability, outstanding determination and flair, an excellent overall mental makeup and is one of those wizards with free kicks. He would also be available for 2-4m. At that price needs don’t really matter, he would be an almost guaranteed investment. I told our chief scout Roberto Gemmi to follow the young man for three months so we could have a complete report for the next transfer window. I haven’t ruled out a move this one though. I would want to sell some of our non-starting players before I spent any more though. On Friday the 21st we arrived in Trentino-Alto Adige for our ten day training camp. We continued our same training routines and worked on match preparation for the next friendly on Saturday against Grosseto. Other than that, well the mountains were nice. 7/22/23 at Grosseto - Friendly - 442nd vs 532wb. This game was another disappointment as we struggled to beat a team we should have handled easily. Somehow we did jump out to a 2-0 lead despite spending much of the first half struggling to look like we belonged on the same pitch as the Serie C club. We did manage to give one back before the half and went into the break up 2-1. Sal is definitely going for the good cop role as he told them they were doing wonderfully and to keep it up. It worked, I guess. We did manage to look a little less embarrassing in the second half and Grosseto never had a chance to tie the game. We never had a chance to extend the lead either. Win(-ish) 2-1. Lineup:Bruno Varela, Novello (POM), Ronaldo, Federhen/Schrott (77), Bahamondes, Camara, Gallo, Benassi/Padovano (77), Fortounis, Forni, Martins. Torino at Grosseto Friendly2-119 Shots 55 On Target 26 Fouls 1350% Possession 50%Goals: Fortounis (23) Forni (29) Marigliano (45+1) Sal told them to be proud of the performance. I was more in agreement with the papers the next day that said “Toro not at their best, but victorious nonetheless.” The managerial dominoes continued to fall as Barcelona filled their managerial vacancy with PSG’s head man Leonardo Jardim, now PSG are in the market for a new boss. 7/25/23 at Juve Stabia - Friendly - 442nd vs 541 dwb. This game featured a whole lot of nothing. Like the score. Draw 0-0. Lineup Arrizabalaga, Gutierrez (POM), Rymis, Schrott, Padalino, Lassen, Marotta, Padovano, Salih Kalem, Rocco, Natali. Torino at Juve Stabia Friendly0-09 Shots 103 On Target 412 Fouls 247% Possession 53%Goals: nope The players are trying my patience with this tactic, but I know it will be fine given time. And, you know, in games that count so players actually try. 7/27/23 at Novara - Friendly - 442nd vs 442. This was more like it, the players looked like they were finally getting used to the system. Everything worked, it was complete and total domination, beautiful football. Well, except for scoring, but how important is that really? Gaspard Martins did score a nice goal on the rebound after Novara’s keeper Alessandro Piacenti made one of his one million brilliant saves of the game on a hard Benassi shot. Then less than ten minutes later Novara had their only chance of the game. Draw 1-1. Lineup; Bruno Varela, Novello (POM), Ronaldo, Federhen/Schrott (76), Bahamondes, Camara, Gallo, Benassi/Padovano (76), Fortounis, Forni, Martins/Natali (76). Torino at Novara Friendly1-125 Shots 313 On Target 27 Fouls 354% Possession 46%Goals: Martins (22) Ranelli (31) So, that happened. Moving on. Daniel Federhen injured himself in the weight room and will miss 3-4 weeks. 7/31/23 at Fondi - Friendly - 442nd vs 442. Ok, we are definitely getting it - this was more of the same. Um, including the scoring - inside the first five minutes we had already hit the woodwork twice and seen an amazing diving save where Fondi’s Francesco Pesce dove from one post to the other to stop Loris Forni. We had our plans thrown in disarray when a frustrated Leonardo Moratto got a straight red for a tackle from behind and I pulled our defensive midfielder and left everything else the same. We still hadn't allowed an attempt on our goal when Stefano Gallo finally put one in the net in first half stoppage time and we led 1-0 at half with 10 men, outshooting Forni 17-0. Two minutes after the half it was 1-1. Several amazing scoring chances later we took the lead again on a set piece as new defender Ronaldo headed the ball home. We did allow two shots against after that but surprisingly neither went in. Win 2-1. Lineup; Bruno Varela, Novello/Gutierrez (28), Ronaldo, Schrott, Bahamondes, Camara, Gallo (POM), Marotta (RED/32), Salih Kalem, Forni, Martins. Torino at Fondi Friendly2-133 Shots 714 On Target 42 Fouls 366% Possession 34%Goals: Gallo (45+2) Dengo (47) Ronaldo (72) On the Tuesday after the Forni game we wrapped up our training camp and headed back to Stadio Olympico. The training camp had some benefits I’m sure, it also had a 80k price tag. The area was beautiful though, maybe I’ll come back for a ‘weekend getaway’ with Gianna one of these days. We still have almost a month until the Serie A season starts and I don’t know what to expect from this group. I’m hopeful that we will continue to progress, but only time will tell. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
edtheguy Posted May 5, 2016 Author Share Posted May 5, 2016 August 2023 A.C. Milan made a 1.9m bid for center-back Lukas Schrott. No bleeping way - no, nope, heck no. NO. Not for that little, and definitely not to Milan. Maybe I overreacted just a bit there, but the bid is rejected. Lukas came to me after he heard I’d rejected the offer and I actually had to explain it to him, but he did finally get it. This month's pre dinner Board Meeting was, unsurprisingly, the same as last month's- very secure, last season and youth good, Kepa bad- yadda yadda... Gia and I went to another small cafe for a light snack and then and walked Via Roma window shopping afterwards. It was a very enjoyable and idyllic evening. Everything seems to be going well with her except for the fact that the theatre, and Gianna’s, biggest backer Giovanna Savelli seems to be unavailable most of the time and in a bad mood when Gia does get to see her. She assures Gia that it’s nothing to worry about, but something definitely isn’t right. Back at the office I got a report that Evgeniy Rudenkov, the promising young midfielder I had been watching, had a 1.5m free release clause, so I made a bid and he agreed to terms - and then I learned that Belarus counts as an ‘overseas signing’ and we had already used up or two allowed signings this year. Yes I am that stupid - this reminds me of my first year in New England when I didn't bother reading the war and peace facsimile that was the MLS roster rules. Nothing to be done about it now, I'll just prepare for the game. 8/5/23 at Maritimo - Friendly - 442nd vs 4123 dmw. Maybe this is actually progress. The end result looks like the last couple games, complete domination on our part everywhere except where it matters. This time though we never looked to be in trouble as the game was never as close as the final score. We built a 2-0 lead on a relentless chokehold on the flow of play and even though we still wasted a huge number of opportunities and Maritimo was able to claw one back, we were never in any danger. Progress? Win 2-1. Lineup; Bruno Varela, Gutierrez, Ronaldo, Schrott, Bahamondes, Camara, Gallo (POM), Padovano, Salih Kalem, Forni, Martins. Torino at Maritimo Friendly2-121 Shots 89 On Target 38 Fouls 254% Possession 46%Goals: Martins (53) Schrott (70) Canha (80) After the game we finalized a loan move for Olympique Lyonnais’ 21 year old midfielder Arnaud Suchet, who our scouts say is better than Rudenkov. We have a 3.9 future fee clause on the young man so I will watch him closely. I went with the minimum size field allowed for Europa League. As we are looking fluid in our narrow diamond, we added a counter attacking 4132 tactic that was developed in england by my friend Connall Madden, the 4132 was actually the base that our narrow diamond was built from. The pre season predictions have us 8th, just behind Sampdoria, Lazio and Napoli, the three teams that are significantly behind the favorites, which are Milan, Juve, Inter and Roma. West Ham made a bid for Eloi Gutierrez, after I rejected their offer for Niccolo Novello. When I rejected their offer Eloi’s agent asked for a new deal, after I had a few words with Eloi - he no longer has an agent. Papa Cissokho twisted his knee in the U20’s practice and will be out 2-3 weeks. Our U20’s won a friendly match against Cavese 7-0. Zolt Csamango and Carlo Rossini each had two goals. A.C. Milan won the Super Cup, beating Juventus 1-0. 8/11/23 at Barcelona - Friendly - 442nd vs 4231. This was much better than our debacle against Barcelona’s Champions League competitors Chelsea. While it was a task for us to keep the ball, do anything when we had it, and slow Barca down when they did, we were up to the task for most of the game. We only surrendered once, when Leonardo Bahamondes was caught on the ball at midfield and Barca broke finding Neymar wide open. We never really fashined a chance to equalize but we didn’t embarrass ourselves either. Loss 0-1. Lineup; Bruno Varela, Novello, Ronaldo, Schrott/Rymis(60), Bahamondes, Camara/Lassen(60), Gallo/Suchet(60), Benassi, Fortounis/Padovano(60), Forni, Martins/Rocco(45) Torino at Barcelona Friendly0-18 Shots 144 On Target 77 Fouls 453% Possession 47%Goals: Neymar (31) Now we begin preparations for our season opener in Bari in two weeks as Ascoli had to cancel our scheduled friendly due to a scheduling conflict. We might be without Gaspard Martins, who left the Barcelona game after a hard tackle and has a sore foot that will keep him out of action for 12-14 days. Aurelien Rymis pulled his hamstring in practice and will miss 3 weeks. We added another striker to the roster, which I’m not sure we need, but Goretti secured a deal for Inter’s Graziano Garibaldi and I’ll give it a go. I confirmed Benassi and Forni as our captains for another year. We adjusted our team training from pre season which focuses on tactical familiarity and has a high workload to our regular season routine, which has a minimal amount of match day preparation and includes rest before and after games. Kepa Arrizabalaga injured himself in the weight room and will miss 2-3 weeks, which won’t help him in the board’s estimation at all. We moved Leonardo Resta from the U20’s to be our backup during Kepa’s injury. Man United made a 16.25m bid for Park Dae-Dong, which would earn the Rev’s 2.41m and Kostas Fortounis is reportedly a target to R. Betis. On Friday the 25th we made the long trip to Bari, in southeastern Italy along the coast. They have a rather large stadium on a desolate, barren landscape outside the city on the inland side. The stadium was designed to resemble a flower with 26 pedals. Alright then. I got electronic reminder from the board of our season expectations before matchday, EURO Cup - not expected to get out of group stage. Serie A - mid-table. Italian Cup - Quarter Final I rejected bids from both West Ham and Everton for Eloi Gutierrez. The Italian Football Daily’s Enzo Papa asked me if I thought we could continue our recent tradition of starting the season with a win, I told him I always wanted to win. Then I told Jason Milne that there were a number of positives that went with starting the season on the road. I also told the press I was happy to finally get underway and confident in my players. Our U20’s started their season with a 0-1 loss to Atalanta. Park Dae-Dong signed with Manchester United, the Man U supporters were cautiously optimistic and the Cagliari fans disappointed. Our Season ticket sales ended at 12,247, slightly up from 12,098 last season. That is actually a little disappointing as we will have some Europa League games this year. 8/27/23 at Bari - Serie A G1 - 442nd vs 442. We started the game looking disorganized and uninspired, leaving Bari space everywhere on the pitch. The took advantage of our generosity inside 15 minutes earning a corner kick and heading home a nice goal. We struck back within two minutes, earning a free kick that Niccolo Novello controlled and passed accross the box to a wide open Luca Rocco, who only got the goal because he was in front of the equally wide open Loris Forni. Bari grabbed the lead right back in less than one minute walking through our defense with ease. They added another goal before half, that they also didn’t really have to work for and we had a discussion with our players at the break. We came out in the second half with a new partner for Ronaldo at center back and slightly more industry. When Saleh Kalem came in for Kostas it took him less than 10 minutes to make an impact, pulling us to within one. But that was all we could manage. Loss 2-3. Lineup; Bruno Varela, Novello, Ronaldo, Schrott/Federhen (45), Bahamondes, Camara, Gallo, Benassi, Fortounis/Salih Kalem (63), Rocco, Forni/Garibaldi (63). Torino (0-0-0) at Bari (0-0-0) Serie A G12-322 Shots 168 On Target 911 Fouls 751% Possession 49%Goals: Fornito (14) Rocco (16) Matias (17,40) Salih Kalem (74) Ugh. Patience.... After the game I had a flurry of transfer requests to take my mind off our abysmal performance. Barcelona were the latest suitors for Eloi Gutierrez, Bari wanted to take one of our players on loan so they could embarrass us even more next time, and Latina wanted Padalino on loan, I rejected all of these offers but accepted R. Betis 75k bid for Kostas Fortounis. No need to explain my reasoning there. On Tuesday Southampton made a 2.6m bid for Kepa Arrizabalaga that I accepted. But within the day Kepa had rejected their contract offer. On Thursday, transfer day started with Goretti making a bid for Chancel Mbemba, but since I don’t really want another mediocre defender I declined to offer him a contract. The media called to ask about our lack of depth on left wing, a position we haven’t used in two seasons… Kostas Fortounis signed with R. Betis. We received three more offers for Arrizabalaga that I accepted and within the hour he had signed with Tottenham. After a lot of thought I did accept an offer from Carpi for Marco Natali, who just hasn’t looked like taking a first team job in the near future. Roberto Goretti secured another striker on loan, Real Madrid’s Zoran Kurevija. Finally the transfer window closed with A.C. Milan as the biggest spenders at €87M and Udinese had the most transfers at 13. The two largest sales were the financially non-compliant Juve, selling Bounheng Thongphanith to Monaco for €82m and Almar Goni to Man City for €69m. Kate, just starting to look noticeably pregnant, was visiting from the states for much of the month, setting up some high profile ‘guest appearances’ for some of her dancers over the coming season. It was very nice having her around as whenever I was home I had a partner in crime to do things with. We visited historical sites explored some of the countryside that I hadn’t had a chance to see yet and tried out some more of the seemingly unlimited number of restaurants around the city. She told me not to worry when she flew home, that I’d have more company next month as Vivianna was returning for a while. When I told her it wasn’t the same thing at all she pretended to look shocked and laughed all the way through the security line at the airport. I seriously thought about disowning her. Apparently Viv is just as needy back in the states and drives Kate's husband Andrew as crazy as she does me, so they aren’t really sad to see her go. I guess their gain is my loss.. 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edtheguy Posted May 6, 2016 Author Share Posted May 6, 2016 September 2023 On the Friday before our home opener we had the Europa League Group draw. We were a 3rd seed, 8th of the 12 with a 16.129 rating. We were picked in Group A, with overall #1 Tottenham, Turkish club Trabzonspor, and Slovenian team Domzale. I’m not even going to pretend to guess at our chances. Board Meeting - very secure, last year and youth still good, now they are disappointed with Abubakar Sodje’s departure (I’m still having nightmares about before his departure…) Gia and I had a lovely dinner until I complained about Viv’s upcoming visit. Gianna wasn’t impressed and read me the riot act about how much Viv needs us after all she’s been through. I would have thought she’d be happy her husband isn’t excited about being trapped in the villa with a younger single and attractive woman. Shows what I know. She either does have complete faith in me, or a blind spot for Vivianna - or maybe both. It’s gonna be a long month. Our U20’s beat Sampdoria 3-0 with goals from Franco Cagnazzo and Claudio Perego (2) - who was also player of the match. Park Dae-Dong made his Manchester United debut and held his own. 9/3/23 vs Atalanta - Serie A G2 - 442nd vs 442. We played a much more cohesive game from the start but were still too tentative in the first half, surviving a couple close calls and wasting a couple opportunities ourselves. At the half I assertively told them that I found their performance unacceptable and sent them back out. Eight minutes later we were firing on all cylinders and it was, who else but Loris Forni that put us up 1-0. The game hung right there on the edge of the knife until at 80 minutes Atalanta went attacking. I resisted the urge to respond by dropping into our counter tactic and waited to see if we could take advantage of the huge amounts of space they were now giving us. To my great relief we did. Twice - both from Stefano Gallo. Win 3-0. Formation; Bruno Varela, Novello, Ronaldo, Schrott/Barba(67), Gutierrez, Camara/Padovano(67), Gallo (POM), Benassi, Salih Kalem, Forni, Martins. Torino (0-0-1) vs Atalanta (0-0-1) Serie A G13-024 Shots 910 On Target 415 Fouls 056% Possession 44%Goals: Forni (53) Gallo (86,90) The press was still more complimentary than me, calling our performance “Highly polished”. We were good, but let’s not get carried away. The supporters got carried away as they were jubilant at defeating our rivals so soundly. I am okay with the fans being emotional, that is a good thing. Now buy more season tickets you…. Ronaldo, Gallo, and Forni were all named in the team of the week, which is a nice mix - defender, midfielder and striker. Over the international break before oun next match in Bologna we had a nice gift from OL as they paid the 3.5m due for Sissoko’s international appearance clause, bringing our bank balance up to 13.9m. that is still not enough to get through the season in the black, but it is definitely headed in the right direction. The finances here in Serie A seem to be a bit of a roller coaster as you hemorrhage money all season and then get one lump sum windfall after the year is over. Over the break I saw a lot of Vivianna, who seems to be doing very well finally. She seems much happier than she’s been since the incident in the south of France a couple years ago now. So now she’s younger, voluptuous, friendly and energetic. Great. Fortunately Gianna usually was home in time to save me from any terribly uncomfortable times and when Gia was home they both acted like I didn’t even exist, which was actually kind of nice because when Gia wasn’t there Viv acted like we were the married couple. I’ve had enough of that kind of ‘romantic triangle’ drama in my life, I’m really not looking for more. At one point I came right out and told Viv that, again, and she just ignored me, again. Our U20’s defeated Bologna 3-0 with two goals from Papa Cissokho and one from Franco Cagnazzo. Cissokho was player of the match. We finish the month with 5 games over the last 14 days which will keep me away from home, and Viv is flying back to the states at the end of the month so I finally was able to exhale when we boarded the flight to Bologna. 9/17/23 at Bologna - Serie A G3 - 442nd vs 442. We had a Jekyll and Hyde first half looking brilliant to take the lead twice and then looking hopeless to give it up both times. At the half they were reminded that playing like that was bad and Daniel Federhen was banished to the locker room. In the second half we were much better, never letting Bologna have a sniff of our net. But we never found the third goal. Draw 2-2. Lineup; Bruno Varela, Novello, Ronaldo, Federhen/Barba(45), Gutierrez, Camara, Gallo, Benassi, Salih Kalem (POM), Forni, Martins/Kurevija(60). Torino (1-0-1 8th) at Bologna (0-1-1 12th) Serie A G32-215 Shots 116 On Target 57 Fouls 752% Possession 48%Goals: Forni (5,19) Balotelli (12) Erik (34) Now we will head to London for a Thursday night Europa League match against Spurs and we will play our more conservative 4132. After that we have three of our tougher league matches with Sampdoria, Roma and Milan in short order. 9/21/23 at Tottenham - Europa League Group - 4132 vs 4231. We came out in the first half and played like we belonged, executing a perfect counter attacking gameplan and even reaching the half with a 1-0 lead on a goal by Gaspard Martins, scored on a good fead from Loris Forni in a nice counter attacking move. Unfortunately someone woke the Spurs players up for the second half and we were completely outclassed, overrun and embarrassed as they scored one, two, three, four times. The fourth was by former Revolution loanee John O’Neill. Niccolo Novello had a good game, but had to leave at the half with an injury. Every defender that took the field in the second half was poor. Loss 1-4. Lineup; Bruno Varela, Novello/Gutierrez(45), Ronaldo, Barba, Bahamondes, Camara, Gallo, Salih Kalem, Benassi/Lassen(65), Forni, Martins. Torino (0-0-0) at Tottenham (0-0-0) Europa League Group Stage1-417 Shots 123 On Target 74 Fouls 249% Possession 51%Goals: Martins (22) Shaqiri (46,75) Cook (54) O’Neill (90) Well, hopefully we can put in better performances in the League. It’s a great time to be playing all the contenders. 9/24/23 vs Sampdoria - Serie A G4 - 442nd vs 4312. We looked second best for most of the first half, but stayed organized and the only times that Sampdoria made it through our defense Bruno Varela was there. On the other side of the ball we only managed one shot in the the half, but it was from Loris Forni, so we went into the break up 1-0. Things got worse in the second half, so after a couple close calls we substituted Lassen, who wasn’t looking impressive and Benassi who wasn’t looking fresh and dropped to our counter 4132. The move worked immediately and Sampdoria all of a sudden had no way through. When they went attacking at 80 minutes we hit them in their exposed backside and Loris Forni made it a win. 2-0. Lineup; Bruno Varela, Gutierrez, Ronaldo, Barba, Bahamondes, Lassen/Padovano(52), Suchet, Benassi/Marotta(52), Salih Kalem, Forni (POM), Martins. Torino (1-1-1 13th) vs Sampdoria (2-1-0 6th) Serie A G42-08 Shots 144 On Target 511 Fouls 746% Possession 54%Goals: Forni (30,85) Next we have a midweek game Wednesday in Rome's Stadio Olimpico - the largest sports facility in Italy. 9/27/23 at Roma - Serie A G5 - 442nd vs 4231. The first half was cautious and strategic as both teams methodically tested their opposition and there was only a total of 6 shot attempts between the teams. We looked to have the edge though as four of the shots were ours and we created three good scoring chances, but at the half it was still 0-0. I told the players I expected better and sent them back out for the second half which continued to be a nervy affair. In fact it was actually tighter than the first half, Roma never even looked close to finding a way through our defense, but we weren’t able to fashion any chances either. In the end, a draw 0-0. Lineup; Bruno Varela, Gutierrez, Ronaldo, Barba, Bahamondes, Padovano, Gallo, Suchet/Benassi(75), Salih Kalem, Forni, Martins/Kurevija(58). Torino (2-1-1 6th) at Roma (0-3-1 15th) Serie A G50-08 Shots 44 On Target 210 Fouls 1249% Possession 51%Goals: -- Federico Barba suffered a head injury late in the game and will miss 5-6 days, meaning after two consecutive clean sheets I will have to make a change in our defense. 9/30/23 vs A.C. Milan - Serie A G6 - 442nd vs 4231. We have a history since my arrival of letting Milan just run circles around us and embarrass us. The were clearly expecting more of the same and came out fired up and did run a lot of circles, but they were mostly outside our box as our defense was calm, professional and in command, which was a good thing - they needed to be. We only managed one shot in the first half, but once again it was Loris Forni, who didn’t miss and we hit the half up 1-0. I told them they could do better and sent them back out where a A. C. Milan team was waiting that had clearly been fired up by Conte. Within 10 minutes we had to pull back to our counter tactic and hold on for dear life. We almost made it, only when we were denied a clear penalty late in the half and Milan launched an attack that pinned us deep for several moves before they found one cross that worked did they tie the game. Draw 1-1. Lineup; Bruno Varela, Novello, Ronaldo, Schrott, Gutierrez, Camara, Marotta/Padovano(59), Benassi, Gallo, Forni, Martins. Torino (2-2-1 7th) vs A.C. Milan (2-3-0 6th) Serie A G61-18 Shots 224 On Target 78 Fouls 545% Possession 55%Goals: Forni (34) Yarmolenko (80) After the game I said I was pleased with the performance even though we didn’t get the win, and I thought we could keep our unbeaten streak going for a while yet. In his conference Conte said I wouldn’t send my team out to hurt his players in response to questions about an injury to Andriy Yarmolenko. When I got the inevitable followup about our ‘extreme physicality’ I told Davie Di Dio from the Milan Football Review that I wasn’t even dignifying that with a response. Vivianna’s flight was during our game and Gianna was working late at the Theatre and wouldn’t be home until after the evening’s festivities wrapped up in the wee hours of the morning so I left a goodnight message on Gia's phone and went home to what I expected to be an empty villa. It was not empty. Viv had missed her flight and was waiting for me. And she was very intoxicated. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
edtheguy Posted May 9, 2016 Author Share Posted May 9, 2016 October 2023 I couldn’t get Viv to budge until I had a drink with her, which went straight to my head as I hadn’t had anything to eat since before noon. After that I was able to trundle her off to her bed, with a lot of unwanted physical contact along the way that I reacted to far more than I would like to admit. Finally I did manage to dump her into her bed and close myself into the master bedroom where I downed another drink to calm my nerves, locked my bedroom door and settled down to wait for Gia to get home so we could have a talk. The next thing I knew it was morning and I was just waking up. Obviously the long day, lack of food, and alcohol did me in and I succeeded in locking out not only Viv but Gianna as well. I finally found Gia in one of the other guest rooms and apologized to her before explaining what happened. I wasn’t prepared for what Gia said when I was done. I couldn’t believe my ears, so I asked her what she just said and she said it again. “You should just sleep with her and get it over with.” What the F@#$? I asked her what she was talking about and she broke down in tears. I thought it was because of me, but in the end it turns out she has been wracked with guilt over Vivs attack ever since it happened, feeling that it was all her fault not just because it was Gia’s crusade but because she had encouraged Viv to let down her hair and have some fun before the fateful incident. Now Viv can’t relate to any men but me and Gia thinks that if Viv were to see that there are still good men in the world maybe she could finally get on with her life. Somehow me cheating on Gia to make that happen seemed to make sense to her. I didn’t bother pointing out the many flaws in that logic. I just told her it wasn’t going to happen, I haven’t been that kind of man for a long time and it wouldn’t be good for anyone. I said we would have to figure out how to deal with things together and went off to work extremely disoriented. I’m not sure I want to go back home. To take my mind off home I attacked the news feed as soon as I sat down and saw that Loris Forni, Stefano Gallo, and Ronaldo were all named to the Serie A team of the month for September. It worked for a while, then I remembered that ir was Board Meeting day and called Gia to see if she was still coming to dinner. She agreed to bring Viv with her. I’m still very secure, the board is still happy about last year and youth in the first team, they still miss Sodje’s defensive misadventures though. Gia showed up for dinner, but Viv didn’t, she had flown back to the states. Gia and I had a long talk and she was very apologetic for putting me in that situation, admitting she had never really thought it through and was just acting on emotion. I apologized for not being aware how upset she was about Viv and we agreed we would try to figure out how to handle things better in the future. I am glad this whole mess didn’t happen a few years ago - it probably would have ended very badly. Kamil Glik said in an interview that Loris Forni was a gem of a player, thanks Kamil, we’ve noticed. The press considers us sure-fire favorites to overwhelm Slovenian champions NK Domzale in a comfortable home encounter. If only it was ever that easy. I think every Manager in the world cringes to see headlines like that about their team. 10/5/23 vs Domzale - Europa League Group Stage - 442nd vs 433n. It definitely was not that easy. We gave Domzale several chances to steal a draw at the very least, fortunately for us they lacked the quality to take advantage, because we never put the game away. We scored in the first half when a nice Stefano gallo pass found Salih Kalem who cooly slotted it home on the short side and we scored once in the second half when Marco Benassi hit a powerful shot from outside the box that the Domzale keeper parried away only for the ball to fall to Giuseppe Pugliese who calmly tucked it home as all eleven Domzale players charged at him. Win 2-0. Lineup; Bruno Varela, Novello, Ronaldo, Rymis, Gutierrez, Padovano/Camara(65), Gallo, Benassi, Salih Kalem, Forni/Rocco(65), Pugliese. Torino (0-0-1 4th) vs Domzale (0-1-0 3rd) Europa League Group Stage2-019 Shots 119 On Target 410 Fouls 1260% Possession 40%Goals: Salih Kalem (24) Pugliese (67) That means Giuseppe Puglese’s first goal for the senior squad came in continental play. Early returns say the kid can probably handle pressure as well as score goals. Elsewhere Spurs abused Trabzonspor by the same 4-1 final that they had against us, meaning we now sit 2nd in the group by two points over both Domzale and Trabzonspor. The €600K in gate receipts for the Domzale game was a new club record, besting the €575K from an Italian Cup match against Juventus. 10/8/23 vs Udinese - Serie A G7 - 442nd vs 4411. Udinese sat back and defended from the start. They were fairly well organized and blocked shot after shot. It was almost the perfect plan, the only problem was they never managed to launch any counter attacks. Still they made it to the half scoreless. Midway through the first half Gaspard Martins left due to injury and at 59 minutes his replacement, Luca Rocco broke the deadlock. At 82 minutes Rocco added a second and since Udinese was completely dominated it was more than enough. Win 2-0. Lineup; Bruno Varela, Novello (POM), Ronaldo, Barba, Gutierrez, Padovano, Gallo, Benassi, Salih Kalem, Forni/Kurevija(73), Martins/Rocco(24). Torino (2-3-1 7th) vs Udinese (1-2-3 19th) Serie A G72-023 Shots 27 On Target 15 Fouls 962% Possession 38%Goals: Rocco (59,82) Martins has a bruised thigh and will miss 4-5 days. I called Paw Lassen to congratulate him on his first cap for Denmark. The press is reporting us as overwhelming favorites for the Empoli match so I played the press conference unsure, said the players shouldn’t think the game is already won and I said it would be a tricky match and we will have to see what happens. Lets hope my professional squad takes the motivation. 10/22/23 at Empoli - Serie A G8 - 442nd vs 442. We were looking pretty good until we grabbed the 1-0 lead in the first half, then we let Empoli tie the game immediately on a mistake from Rymis and the rest of the game we wasted chances and let Empoli have too many looks at our net. After Loris Forni won a penalty and, like last years season finale, failed to convert we did manage to take the lead again before the break, but couldn’t get out of our own way in the second half and eventually let Empoli get the inevitable tying goal. Draw 2-2. Lineup; Bruno Varela, Novello, Ronaldo, Rymis/Barba(61), Gutierrez, Padovano/Suchet(61), Gallo, Lassen, Salih Kalem, Rocco. Forni. Torino (3-3-1 7th) at Empoli (0-1-6 20th) Serie A G82-221 Shots 88 On Target 315 Fouls 451% Possession 49%Goals: Forni (9) Ranieri (11) Gutierrez (38) Olivieri (65) Now we have our next group game on Thursday against Trabzonspor. The papers ran a news story about my next match being the 100th of my career. It mentioned our Europa League match on the horizon and that I have come under criticism for my reluctance to sign more Italian players, instead favoring France. 10/26/23 vs Trabzonspor - Europa League Group Stage - 442nd vs 4231. We started well, winning an early penalty and another chance for Loris to get over the yips. Which he did, stepping up confidently and driving the ball home. After that the game was another s@#$ show. We couldn’t do anything right and in the second half we finally dropped to our counter tactic and finally started to gain the edge in play.. It wasn’t good enough though as Trabzonspor got a late corner kick and scored the equalizer. Draw 1-1. Lineup; Bruno Varela, Novello, Ronaldo, Barba (POM), Gutierrez/Bahamondes(58), Padovano, Gallo, Benassi, Salih Kalem/Suchet(58), Forni, Pugliese. Torino (1-0-1 2nd) vs Trabzonspor (0-1-1 4th) Europa League Group Stage1-111 Shots 123 On Target 35 Fouls 1255% Possession 45%Goals: Forni (pen 7) Rudy (84) Things are quiet at home but Gia isn’t happy because Viv will barely even talk to her now. I wish I could make the whole situation better for both of them, but I have no idea how, so I’ll just try to be supportive and wait it out for now. 10/29/23 vs Pescara - Serie A G9 - 442nd vs 442. This looked like one of those days where it just wasn’t going to work, the players played well from one to eleven and we had most of the ball on offense and good coverage of the field on defense, but we showed no signs of ever getting the goal we needed. Finally late in the second half after switching the starters from left to right sides in the midfield and at striker and making a couple substitutions Stefano Gallo, who had been moved up to the AMC found Loris Forni behind the defense and he… didn’t miss. Win 1-0. Lineup; Bruno Varela, Novello (POM), Ronaldo, Barba, Gutierrez, Padovano/Camara(73), Gallo, Benassi, Salih Kalem/Lassen(73), Forni, Martins. Torino (3-4-1 7th) vs Pescara (2-3-3 11th) Serie A G91-021 Shots 37 On Target 17 Fouls 1561% Possession 39%Goals: Forni (76) The Rev’s won the Supporters Shield for the second time in three years with a 19-7-8 record. I told Daniel Federhen when he came to my office to complain about playing time that football was a squad game these days and he would get his chance at some point, he said he would try to be patient. Eloi Gutierrez, Salih Kalem, and Stefano Gallo were all named in the Serie A team of the month for October. We have only one loss in our first nine Serie A games but with four draws only sit 7th in the table. We will hope to improve our position on the 1st of November at Carpi. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
edtheguy Posted May 9, 2016 Author Share Posted May 9, 2016 November 2023 Since we had a game in the afternoon at Stadio Alberto Braglia in Modena against Carpi we had the much beloved morning videoconference board meeting - all so I could find out I was still very secure, they still highlighted last year and youth but were now disappointed with the 2-2 draw against Empoli. 11/1/23 at Carpi - Serie A G10 - 442nd vs 442. We had the edge for the first half but looked like we might not make anything of it until a good team sequence ended with a great individual move by Niccolo Novello who cut through the box and put the ball home. After that the game was fairly even as we had possession but Carpi worked more shots. In the second half Luca Rocco continued to stake a claim to Gaspard Martins spot alongside Loris as he scored his fourth goal in four appearances. After that Carpi upped the pressure and we almost cracked, our former player, the highly motivated Marco Natali pulled one back at 82 minutes but after that we held. Win 2-1. Lineup; Bruno Varela, Novello, Ronaldo/Schrott(63), Barba, Gutierrez, Suchet/Padovano(63), Gallo (POM), Benassi, Salih Kalem, Rocco, Forni. Torino (4-4-1 7th) at Carpi (2-2-5 18th) Serie A G102-111 Shots 135 On Target 68 Fouls 957% Possession 43%Goals: Novello (33) Rocco (62) Natali (82) I told Aurelien Rymis he would need to be ready if Ronaldos form slipped. He said he would. Statistically speaking our best passer has been Pape Camara at 86% and I was tempted to put him back in the defensive midfielder position, but further statistical review showed what my eyes had already told me, Alex Padovano’s passing is still good at 82% and his tackling has been far and away superior 92%/80% and the team goal for/against ratio is far better with Alex on the field so he will remain the first choice. 11/5/23 vs Cagliari - Serie A G11 - 442nd vs 451. Cagliari came out in a defensive 451 and played very well, staying organized and tough to beat. We also played well and methodically tried to break them down without overexposing ourselves and at the half the game was still scoreless. I told the players I wanted more in the second half and at 54 minutes a well positioned Alex Padovano intercepted a Cagliari clearance and found Niccolo Novello in space. Novello launched a nice cross that found - you guessed it - Loris Forni for the 1-0 lead. Cagliari finally opened up and started to put some pressure on us and I considered dropping to out counter tactic, but insteat just put Arnaud Suchet and Zoran Kurevija in for Rocco and Salih Kalem. In less than 10 minutes Kurevija was taking control of the game and he eventually scored his first goal for the club at 69 minutes. After that the game was ours. Win 2-0. Lineup; Bruno Varela, Novello (POM), Ronaldo, Barba, Gutierrez, Padovano, Gallo, Benassi, Salih Kalem/Suchet(61), Rocco/Kurevija(61), Forni. Torino (5-4-1 6th) vs Cagliari (2-3-5 16th) Serie A G112-012 Shots 64 On Target 19 Fouls 449% Possession 51%Goals: Forni (54) Kurevija (69) I put Daniel Federhen on the loan list, he wasn’t thrilled but said he would give it a chance. Now we focus on an important reverse match against Trabzonspor in the Europa League. 11/9/23 at Trabzonspor - Europa League Group Stage - 442nd vs 4231. The Turk‘s have to be pulling their hair out. They played aggressive and attacking and came at us early and often as we struggled to get any hold on the game. Inside the first ten minutes they had hit the woodwork an incredible three times and forced Bruno Varela into a couple nice saves. It was us, however that made the breakthrough on a great passing sequence that included our entire midfield and Novello which ended with Stefano Gallo driving the ball home from the spot. Things didn’t get any better for us however as we were completely dominated for the entire game. Our opponents did finally tie the match before the half and we held on for dear live in our counter attacking tactic for the entire second half. But we did hold on. Draw 1-1. Lineup; Bruno Varela, Novello, Ronaldo, Barba, Gutierrez/Bahamondes(64), Padovano, Lassen, Benassi, Gallo, Kurevija/Martins(64), Forni. Torino (1-1-1 2nd) at Trabzonspor (0-2-1 3rd) Europa League Group Stage1-18 Shots 264 On Target 116 Fouls 555% Possession 45%Goals: Gallo (9) Rudy (33) That was not to plan, and the manner in which we were completely dominated is a little worrying, but we have still left our fate in our own hands. The one thing we couldn’t do was lose this match, now as long as we beat Domzale and don’t get a worse result than Trabzonspor do against Spurs we will advance. Now we have to get ready for Spezia on Sunday. We head into this weekends matches in third after eleven rounds, behind Lazio (8-1-2) and Inter (8-1-2). Perennial powerhouses A.C. Milan (5-5-1), Roma (3-7-1) and Juventus (2-5-4) are all of to disappointing starts. No MLS Cup for the Rev’s this year, they lost to the Fire, of all teams, in the conference semi-finals. 11/12/23 at Spezia - Serie A G12 - 442nd vs 442. Right from the start we were clearly the superior squad but Spezia was on top within 15 minutes on an absolute screamer from Spezio striker Simon Volani that beat our young debutant in goal 17 year old Giacomo Bellini. Less than ten minutes later we crafted a beautiful move that ended with youngster Giuseppe Pugliese driving home a laser of his own to even the game. After that we had complete control of the half, but couldn’t craft another goal. Right off the opening kick of the second half Spezio ran circles around us for a full minute, keeping the ball until they found Volani again at the edge of the box and he once again launched an absolute scorcher to give them a 2-1 lead. When I got done screaming at my players and kicking water bottles - oh I didn’t actually do that, I just wanted to - I moved us into a full overload and fluid posture and to my pleasure we did start charging at them in waves. At 62 minutes, with the game still tied Niccolo Novello left with an injury and we brought in Bahamondes, less than three minutes later the substitute had an impact by making a solid defensive play that started a move which ended on the talented boot of Giuseppe Pugliese and, just like Volani, he blasted the ball home for a second time. Not satisfied with a draw, we kept the pressure on and at 77 minutes Loris Forni reminded everyone that he was still here and netted the go ahead goal. I immediately pulled Salih Kalem for the more defensive Pape Camara and dropped to our counter tactic and we saw the game out for a win that was both satisfying and disappointing. Win 3-2. Lineup; Bellini, Novello/Bahamondes (62), Ronaldo, Barba, Gutierrez, Padovano, Gallo, Suchet, Salih Kalem/Camara (77), Forni, Pugliese (POM). Torino (6-4-1 4th) at Spezia (2-2-7 20th) Serie A G123-221 Shots 169 On Target 610 Fouls 455% Possession 45%Goals: Volani (14,46) Pugliese (21,65) Forni (77) The press asked about rumors of Loris Forni leaving the team after the game. I said I was confident of keeping him but asked Roberto after the match who it was that was interested in Loris and he told me it was Tottenham. Great. Loris is valued at 18.25m currently and is a testament to our youth program, the Balon Boys. On the bright side the speculation doesn’t seem to have affected him yet and he has no free release clause in his contract. We now have a rare 14 days before our next match, at home against Genoa as there is an international break next week. The Spezia game was our twelfth consecutive game unbeaten, a new club record. Federico Barba pulled his hamstring in training and will miss three weeks. I don’t like having to use more mediocre central defenders than usual… Mike Burns signed a two year extension with the Rev’s. I called him to congratulate him and we had a nice talk. Alex Padovano suffered a hernia on international duty and will miss 4-5 weeks. Our defense just took a second major hit. World Soccer Magazine printed their list of the leading development clubs for Serie A. Obviously from the way we have run things since my arrival, I want us to be near the top of the list, which we aren’t yet. We have moved ahead of Juventus though, which is something. A.C. Milan is #1 with 35 players developed, we are 8th with 17. 11/26/23 vs Genoa - Serie A G13 - 442nd vs 442. Have a game why don’t you Stefano? To Genoa’s credit they didn’t sit back and play for a draw they instead tried to come at us with a relatively aggressive 442. In hindsight that wasn’t a good idea for them. We looked as good as we could for the first half, with flowing beautiful two way play. Most of our best moments came when we stopped a Genoa attack with authority and broke into an offensive posture passing through the Genoa defense and finding several players wide open in the offensive zone. Genoa couldn’t find enough bodies to cover our players and Stefano Gallo, playing in the AMC instead of beside Marco Benassi in the center of the park took advantage with a quickfire double inside ten minutes. He had a chance at the hat trick inside 30 minutes but was denied on a nice save. Not to be discouraged, when he had another chance less than 5 minutes later Stefano dished the ball off to an equally wide open Giuseppe Pugliese who extended the lead to three. Six minutes after that Stefano did get his hat trick and we went into the locker room at half up 4-0. Genoa finally gave up on attacking and came out in an ultra defensive 41311 and won the second half 1-0. I’m glad they didn’t start the game that way. We won the game though 4-1. Lineup; Bruno Varela, Novello, Ronaldo/Rymis(67), Schrott, Gutierrez/Bahamondes(67), Camara, Lassen, Benassi, Gallo (POM), Forni, Pugliese. Torino (7-4-1 4th) vs Genoa (2-3-7 18th) Serie A G134-121 Shots 811 On Target 512 Fouls 1055% Possession 45%Goals: Gallo (4,6,42) Pugliese (36) Mancini (49) Lest anyone try to accuse Loris of having a quiet game, he didn’t. He was in the middle of most of the good moves and had two assists. Our next match is in the Europa League Thursday against Tottenham. Then back to back games against title contenders Lazio and Inter in league play. Kamil Glik was quoted as being delighted with Stefano Gallo’s performance. He’s still only stating the obvious, but it is nice to have such a vocal, high profile supporter. 11/30/23 vs Tottenham - Europa League Group Stage - 442nd vs 4231. I thought about playing our more conservative tactic but decided that we needed to just go for it - hoping that I wasn’t making the same mistake Genoa did. As the first half unfolded it was clear that it wasn’t a mistake as the game was hard fought and even. Spurs missed their golden chance as a terrible Lukas Schrott turnover resulted in a brilliant save from Bruno Varela. Schrott made a nice play later in the half that started a counter attack which ended with a goal from Giuseppe Pugliese and, just like the reverse back in London we went into half up 1-0. I did my best to fire up our players and we went out for the second half. We avoided the tidal wave of blue flooding over us like last time and played more of the same in the second half as neither team had a clear edge. I kept looking for a way to find an edge, but there were no moves that I was confident in making a positive effect on the game so we didn’t make any changes for the whole game and almost made it. At 77 minutes Ludwig Augustinsson scored on a free kick to tie the game and that was how it ended. Draw 1-1. Lineup; Bruno Varela, Novello, Ronaldo, Schrott, Gutierrez, Camara, Lassen, Benassi, Gallo, Forni, Pugliese. Torino (1-2-1 2nd) vs Tottenham (4-0-0) Europa League Group Stage1-111 Shots 125 On Target 66 Fouls 156% Possession 44%Goals: Pugliese (36) Augustinsson (77) The player of the match for the game was former Rev John O’Neill. Trabzonspor defeated Domzale moving into second in the group on goal differential. Their last game is against Spurs, so as long as they don’t win that and we beat Domzale we will be through. We collected €625K in gate receipts for the Tottenham game, a new record. Gutierrez, Gallo, and Forni were named to the Serie A team of the month for November. The new season of performances at the Teatro Regio starts next month with the Ballet Dido and Aeneas and Gianna is stressing over the details 24/7 now. If I didn’t know pressure like this was what made her tick I’d be worried. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
edtheguy Posted May 10, 2016 Author Share Posted May 10, 2016 December 2023 The monthly board meeting was actually different this time, the board was all smiles, my status is now untouchable, they consider me an integral part of the club. They highlighted our fantastic performance in Serie A as well as the general direction the club has been going in since my arrival. They did still make an effort to find a negative, but it was another stretch, they said they were disappointed with Kurevija. I can live with that being our biggest negative. Gia and I went to a new family run restaurant in the hills past our Villa and had a nice quiet, intimate dinner. We talked a lot about the last couple months and Vivianna. I never realized just how damaged Gia was by Viv’s attack, there is definitely work to be done. I mentioned seeing a professional, but she changed the subject. Back at work we are now trying to minimize the effect of interest from Tottenham in Bahamondes and Chelsea in Salih Kalem. Luca Rocco came to me asking for more playing time, he is developing phenomenally and has performed when in the side so I told him he’d get a chance. We’ve got too many strikers, it’s starting to be a problem…. 12/3/23 at Lazio - Serie A G14 - 442nd vs 4231n. We gave M’Baye Niang who has 15 goals in 16 games my Igboananike treatment and otherwise started with our base tactics. The flow of play was fairly even but we definitely had a slight edge. Lazio was determined not to let us through and defended very determinedly throughout the half, though a large number of their stops came with hard tackles in the box, which made it even more frustrating to me that we had ⅘ of the fouls and the first three cards called on us. We fought through it all however and at 39 minutes Salih Kalem picked up where Stefano left off in the AMC position scoring the game's first goal. The game was unchanged into the second half when at 62 minutes I subbed Pugliese in for Rocco, who hadn’t made an impact, and Barba, returning from injury, for Schrott who was on a yellow card. I pulled Schrott because I didn’t want to risk losing a defender to a second yellow, but 8 minutes later we lost one to a straight red as Barba was called for a professional foul from behind on a Lazio break. We dropped to a counter 4122 to try to hold on to our lead but Lazio had enough quality to find their way through a shorthanded team. Fortunately for us Bruno Varela had the quality to make the save when they did. After their one chance we held solid. Win 1-0. Lineup; Bruno Varela, Novello, Ronaldo, Schrott/Barba (62/70 RED), Gutierrez, Camara, Gallo, Benassi, Salih Kalem/Rymis(70), Forni (POM), Rocco/Pugliese(62). Torino (8-4-1 2nd) at Lazio (9-1-3 3rd) Serie A G141-015 Shots 126 On Target 512 Fouls 351% Possession 49%Goals: Salih Kalem (39) Next we have first place Inter and then Juve, for the Derby della Mole. Juventus currently sit 18th. I can’t help but wonder if failing FFP has completely undone them as they were the biggest sellers in the last transfer window as well. Meanwhile our finances have never looked better. I have to admit, I get a little excited at the thought of changing the balance of football power here in Turin, but I suspect it won’t be that easy. Rumors are A.C. Milan wants Loris Forni. I don’t even have words. I had to tell the press there was no way he was leaving. I also had to tell them that Conte calling us a good team wasn’t patronizing. 12/6/23 vs Inter - Serie A G15 - 442nd vs 4123dmw. This game was a real test. Given the current landscape of the league, which was much more open than it has been in over two decades, if we beat Inter we could make a legitimate claim to being the best team in the league - at the moment anyway. The game set up as a classic battle of the leagues best defence - Inter against one of the best offenses - us. As it turned out we neither got the win nor showed any offense. Inter was rock solid on D and used their dominance to gain control of the ball and fashion the majority of shots in the game - mostly from distance as our defense was impressive as well. Scoreless at the half I told the players they needed to do better, but shortly after the break it was obvious that we weren’t getting anywhere and we dropped into our less aggressive 4132 and the game turned into a tactical master class. In the end it was a classic Italian 0-0 Draw. Lineup; Bruno Varela, Novello, Ronaldo, Schrott, Gutierrez, Camara, Gallo, Benassi, Salih Kalem/Suchet(56), Forni, Pugliese/Martins(56). Torino (9-4-1 2nd) vs Inter (10-2-2 1st) Serie A G150-08 Shots 162 On Target 511 Fouls 749% Possession 51%Goals: -- Well, now we can definitely say we are one of the best teams in the league, which is much better than I was expecting at the start of the season and years ahead of schedule. Of course it’s a long season and we still haven’t reached the halfway point yet. The draw for the first round of the Italian Cup pitted us at home against one of our rivals in Hellas Verona - which should be a good draw for the fans. Daniel Federhen and I agreed it was time for him to move on, we transfer listed him an BMG immediately made a 1.8m offer that I negotiated to 2.8 and accepted. 12/10/23 at Juventus - Serie A G16 - 442nd vs 442. Not surprisingly Juve played one of their better games of the season in the derby, giving us all we could handle, but gone are the days when we pack the defense and try to steal a point or three. Despite their good form we took the lead on another nice stretch of possession that left Stefano Gallo as the extra man on attack and he didn’t miss. Juve converted a corner kick just before half though and we went into the break tied at 1. Early in the second half Stefano Gallo was mugged in the box winning us a penalty and without hesitation Ronaldo took charge and stepped up to the spot where he slotted the ball home in the top corner of the net just like a world class striker before anyone could believe what they were seeing. I guess we have a big game player here. It wasn’t enough for the win though as Juve fought through to tie the game again at 67 minutes to my great frustration. I moved us up to the all out attacking full freedom pasture we used once earlier in the season and it worked once again as a long breakout pass from Gutierrez found Loris Forni who made a nice cross to Luca Rocco and Luca slotted it home for the lead. After that we dropped to the counter attacking and saw the game out. Win 3-2. Torino (9-5-1 2nd) at Juventus (2-6-7 16th) Serie A G163-214 Shots 138 On Target 37 Fouls 959% Possession 41%Goals: Gallo (13) Bonucci (44) Ronaldo (pen 47) Fall (67) Rocco (83) Stefano Gallo got a cut on his leg late in the match and will miss 7-10 days. Juve Manager Leonardo Bonucci tried to play us off as the poorly behaved lower class neighbors. I ignored it. For now. During the week Leonardo Rivoira played his 50th game for Bari, earning us 475K. Napoli, sitting in 17th place ran out of patience and fired their manager Andrea Stramaccioni. Darko Kovacevic turned in his scouting report of MLS and his highest rated player was Revolution striker Dico. Yes, I signed him. Franck Kom won the MLS Landon Donovan Most Valuable Player award with 12 assists and a 7.12 average rating. and Ronwen Williams won the Allstate Goalkeeper of the year award. Yes I signed both of them as well. Daniel Federhen agreed to terms with BMD and will join them January 1st. Park Dae-Dong was player of the match in Man U’s victory over FSCB with two goals, his fourth and fifth in seventeen games since joining the Red Devils. Signed him once upon a time too. 12/14/23 at Domzale - Europa League Group Stage - 442nd vs 433. We took control early and got a one goal lead on a goal from Giuseppe Pugliese but at 30 minutes a Bruno Varela goal kick hit a Domzale player squarely in the head and rebounded back into the box where a shot was taken that went off the post, hit Bruno Varela in the back and fell into the net for a tie game. At that time the Spurs game was still tied so the freak goal knocked us out of qualifying position. Fortunately for my blood pressure the players responded and in less than 5 minutes we were on top again through a Salih Kalem goal. Salih Kalem added a second off the second half restart and we never looked back, with Paw Lassen adding a tally later. Tottenham won their game easily in the end as well so we were easily through to the knockout rounds. Win 4-1 Torino (1-3-1 3rd) at Domzale (0-1-4 4th) Europa League Group Stage4-111 Shots 125 On Target 66 Fouls 156% Possession 44%Goals: Pugliese (36) Augustinsson (77) Niccolo Novello’s former agent came to me after the game demanding an improved deal for his client. He obviously overestimated his power here. Now we have a league game against Sassuolo and then a midweek cup game against Verona, both at home. 12/17/23 vs Sassuolo - Serie A G17 - 442nd vs 4231. Things looked good at the beginning of the game, until Sassuolo got a shot at nine minutes and scored to make it 1-0, the play was a brilliant individual effort from the wing that ended with a cross to a player on the far post for a tap in. We kept playing but never got the ball into the Sassuolo box and at 21 minutes they scored on their second shot. Five minutes later they scored on their third shot. We managed to make it to the half without allowing another shot - but we didn’t take any either. After a suitable halftime ‘pep’ talk we sent them back out and we were slightly less miserable. I subbed out the players most in need of a rest and let the rest of them live with the game they had created. We did get a goal back but that was all. Loss 1-3. Lineup; Bruno Varela, Novello, Ronaldo/Rymis(65), Schott/Barba(45), Gutierrez, Suchet, Lassen, Benassi/Moschetto(65), Salih Kalem, Forni, Rocco. Torino (10-5-1 2nd) vs Sassuolo (6-7-2 9th) Serie A G161-37 Shots 121 On Target 613 Fouls 1255% Possession 45%Goals: Bonaventura (9) Montano (21) Dalmonte (26) Forni (53) They were told that was not what we were looking for but I suspect they already knew that. Next up Italian Cup against Hellas Verona. After the disappointing Sassuolo game I took off early to attend opening night for Dido and Aeneas with a stunningly made up Gianna. The performance and setting were outstanding and I had a wonderful evening, the only disappointment was even though the ballet featured a couple star dancers from her school Kate was far too preggo to attend. We made sure we sent her bootlegged videos of the show (don’t tell anyone). 12/20/23 vs Verona - Italian Cup First Round - 442nd vs 3232dm. Verona was fired up and all over the pitch, the flow of game was back and forth with good tackle answered by good tackle. They really needed to be that fired up because the weren’t as good as us. Salih Kalem scored at 6 minutes and after several close calls we made it to the half up 1-0. We stressed the need for focus and sent them out for the second half and after 35 minutes of the same Marco Benassi hit a wonder strike from outside the box putting us up 2-0. The second goal broke Verona’s will and off the ensuing kickoff Gaspard Martins broke his lengthy goal drought and we had the win. 3-0. Lineup; Bruno Varela, Novello, Ronaldo, Barba, Bahamondes, Camara/Suchet(60), Gallo, Benassi (POM), Salih Kalem, Forni, Pugliese/Martins(60) Torino vs Verona Italian Cup First Round3-023 Shots 712 On Target 48 Fouls 1365% Possession 35%Goals: Salih Kalem (6) Benassi (84) Martins (85) We will face Sampdoria in Genoa in the next round of the Italian cup and Villarreal in the first knockout round of the Europa League, but right now we have a seventeen day break. On the 23rd, after sending the players home to see their families I triggered the one year extension in Bruno Varela’s contract, shut the lights and went home for a wonderful quiet Christmas holiday with Gianna. After the holiday when we were back at light training, Dr. Albertini came into my office looking very concerned, rightfully so, as he had to tell me that Loris Forni broke his foot in training and will miss four months. Oh. That’s not good. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
edtheguy Posted May 11, 2016 Author Share Posted May 11, 2016 January 2024 Our new year's celebrations were definitely muted by the Forni injury news but the first of the month brought a nice news story as Gutierrez, Ronaldo, Gallo, and Forni were all named to the serie A team of the month for December. This month's board meeting started normally as I am still considered untouchable. They still highlighted our Serie A performance as good and Kurevija as bad, but then they wanted to discuss changing the season expectations to top half from mid table. I usually prefer low expectations that I can easily beat, but I couldn’t say that I didn’t expect at least a top half finish with a straight face so we agreed to change the goal. Gianna spent most of dinner on the phone with Giovanna’s new personal representative discussing finances so there isn’t much for me to say there. Chelsea offered 9M for Salih Kalem, I countered at 16m and they accepted. I moved Papa Cissokho up from the U18’s in anticipation of needing another midfielder. On the 5th Salih Kalem signed with Chelsea. Goretti made a bid for Romanian striker Miroslav Nikolov who looks fantastic and only wants 2m/yr. The problem is his performance in games has never lived up to his skills and the transfer fee is 12.75m. I declined to offer a contract. 1/7/24 at Chievo - Serie A G18 - 442nd vs 423dmw. We came out in this game flat and uninspired. Halfway through the first half no one had a shot on net and Chievo had a set piece that they turned into the game's first goal. We didn’t get any better and went into half down 1-0. After a firm halftime talk we looked a little better in the second half and actually got some shots on net. Finally at 58 minutes Niccolo Novello found a streaking Giuseppe Pugliese for our first goal. And the games last. Draw 1-1. Lineup; Bruno Varela, Novello (POM), Ronaldo, Barba, Gutierrez, Camara, Lassen, Benassi/Suchet(69), Gallo, Rocco/Martins(69), Pugliese Torino (10-5-2 3rd) at Chievo (3-6-8 15th) Serie A G181-18 Shots 52 On Target 210 Fouls 453% Possession 47%Goals: Ngissah (17) Pugliese (58) We moved Jan van de Kracht and Franco Cagnazzo to the senior squad to replace Forni and Salih Kalem, but we will may have to bring in one or two first team ready players, if the right ones can be found. I made a loan offer with a hefty (10.5m) future fee for 24 year old Arsenal center-back Carlos Badal Goretti made a transfer bid for 23 year old Palermo Striker Antonio Frontini, I offered a contract. 1/14/24 vs Napoli - Serie A G19 - 442nd vs 4123dmw. This was a completely useless, uninspired and terrible performance. That is all. Loss 0-1. Lineup; Bruno Varela (POM), Novello, Ronaldo, Barba, Gutierrez, Padovano, Lassen, Benassi, Gallo/Rocco(22), Martins, Pugliese/Rocco(65) Torino (10-6-2 3rd) vs Empoli (3-6-9 19th) Serie A G190-16 Shots 112 On Target 711 Fouls 449% Possession 51%Goals: Valzania (88) Stefano Gallo was injured in the game and will miss 7-11 days. Lukas Schrott injured himself in practice and will miss 9-11 days, but his spot in the squad was filled by Carlos Badal who showed up for his loan deal. 1/21/24 vs Bari - Serie A G20 - 442nd vs 442. We looked just as bad in this game as we had in the last two, and Bari out chanced and outshot us. Luca Rocco got a nice goal against the flow of play at 17 minutes and somehow we made it to half up 1-0. After more painful passage of play to start the second half we dropped to our counter attacking tactic and subbed in our more defensive midfielders and somehow managed to finish the game with all three points for a change. Win 1-0. Lineup; Bruno Varela, Novello, Ronaldo, Barba, Gutierrez, Padovano/Camara(60), Lassen (POM), Benassi, Pugliese/Suchet(60), Rocco, Martins. Torino (10-6-3 4th) vs Bari (8-3-8 10th) Serie A G201-015 Shots 193 On Target 88 Fouls 658% Possession 42%Goals: Rocco (17) Hopefully we can find some real form in our midweek cup game against Sampdoria and Donnie van de Beek. We completed the signing of Luke Lewis, who Roberto Goretti scouted and is very positive about, from Liverpool for 7.5m. Lewis is a 23 year old attacking midfielder whose arrival delighted our supporters. 1/24/24 at Sampdoria - Italian Cup Quarter Final - 442nd vs 4312. Welcome aboard Luke. We started both of our new faces, Luke Lewis and Carlos Badal and inside 5 minutes Luke Lewis was on the board and we were in the ascendancy. Pugliese added a second at 20 minutes and we were up 2-0 at the half. We had been struggling so much lately I passed on my usual demand for focus and told them they were brilliant and to keep it up. And they did. At 61 minutes Lewis added a second and when we brought Stefano Gallo in for a thirty minute fitness run in his return from injury he added a fourth. Our defense was impregnable all game with Ronaldo and Badal imposing forces screened by an equally impressive Alex Padovano. In other words, everything went to plan. I’m not surprised at all, nope. (yes, I was really surprised) Win 4-0. Lineup; Bruno Varela, Novello, Ronaldo, Badal, Gutierrez, Padovano, Lassen/Camara(45), Benassi/Gallo(61), Lewis (POM), Rocco/Frontini(61) Torino at Sampdoria Italian Cup Quarter Final4-011 Shots 66 On Target 39 Fouls 643% Possession 57%Goals: Lewis (3,61) Pugliese (20) Gallo (89) We will face Napoli in Naples for the semi final. On the 26th we finally got the call we had been waiting for as Kate and Andrew are now the proud parents of a baby girl named Amalie, my granddaughter. Mom and baby are doing well and step-grandmother is on a plane for an extended visit. I will be heading over for a two day stay between the Atalanta and Bologna games and leaving Sal in charge. I made some calls ahead of time to so we could try to take care of some issues while I’m in the states too. It’s going to be a busy couple of days. Bahamondes asked for playing time, told him that Gutierrez was playing too well, he said he understood. I offered him out and Mainz made a 7.5m bid, I countered at 11.6 and we settled at 10m. 1/28/24 at Atalanta - Serie A G21 - 442nd vs 442. We didn’t play well right from the start, but got the lead on a Niccolo Novello goal at 13 minutes. Our lack of ability to exert any control on the game cost us at 24 minutes as Atalanta got a deserved goal to tie the game. We pointed out that the players were underperforming at half and while most of them seemed to get it the reaction wasn’t what I was used to. It wasn’t that good on the pitch either but once again we got the lead against the flow of play as Luca Rocco headed home a nice tally. Since we now had 60+ minutes of evidence that we couldn't take the game to Atalanta I brought Camara on to shore up the midfield and dropped to our counter tactic, but it made no difference whatsoever and Atalanta once again found the tying goal. They should actually be disappointed that they didn’t get the win. Draw 2-2. Torino (11-6-3 3rd) at Atalanta (9-2-9 9th) Serie A G212-28 Shots 144 On Target 65 Fouls 351% Possession 49%Goals: Novello (13) Opoku (24,67) Rocco (62) Barcelona has made several bids for our 17 year old keeper Giacomo Bellini, who made his debut for us earlier in the season and now Norwich is trying to buy Papa Cissokho. I have no interest in selling promising homegrown players however. Chelsea made a 5.75m bid for Paw Lassen, that I rejected and Paw came to see me and said he wanted to move to a bigger club. A year and a half ago he was at Midtjylland, so much for gratitude. I told him I would accept a reasonable offer if one was made. I told the press I would only sell Lassen for the right price and not to expect me to shore up our depth at right wing. Roberto Goretti made an offer for Fulham’s Kyle Walker-Peters who looks good but not 6m good, especially with his poor performances over the last - well his entire career. I walked away from the deal. He then made an offer for Hull’s Kourtney House, who wanted over 3m/yr salary so I passed on him as well. The transfer window closed with an unhappy Paw Lassen unsold but with our sales of Salih Kalem and Leonardo Bahamondes being two of the biggest transfers of the window, and with me on a plane headed to Philadelphia. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
edtheguy Posted May 12, 2016 Author Share Posted May 12, 2016 February 2024 From Philadelphia I went directly to Kate and Andrew's beautiful home on the campus of their Performing Arts School and spent a wonderful day and a half with their family. I’ve never been super excited about babies that weren’t mine before but I have to say grandchildren are pretty amazing. Little Amalie has Gianna and I firmly wrapped around her little fingers already. Soon enough though it was time to head off to Boston to take care of the business I set up with my phone calls before leaving. Under the pretense of visiting the Burns’ I got Gianna and Vivianna in the same room with a professional counselor waiting outside. That was the easy part. Getting them to accept the counseling was harder. Much much harder, but necessary. Gia needs the closure and Viv needs help. Gianna has been my rock that kept me stable over these years, I need to do everything in my power to do the same for her. I have no idea how successful things were but Gianna was still talking to me when I had to go back to work so I’m hopeful. Back at work I told Aurelien Rymis not to get carried away, he’d get his chance eventually and he needed to be ready to make it count, he apologised for storming into my office and said he would. The monthly board meeting was uneventful, I am still untouchable, they highlighted the fans delight at our 4-0 cup win over Sampdoria, but were concerned with Aurelien Rymis. With a healthy bank account and an untouchable status I asked the board and they agreed to improve our junior coaching and youth facilities. 2/4/24 vs Bologna - Serie A G22 - 442nd vs 442. We looked like our old selves for most of this game, asserting our will on Bologna and creating the games only chances. Our poor recent form looked to rule the day however as, despite our good play, Bologna scored the first half’s only goal. We tried to fire the players up, but the second half was more of the same. We were excellent right up to the final product. At 65 minutes we brought on Gaspard Martins for Luca Rocco who, like the rest of the team, hadn’t been bad but hadn’t delivered either. Finally at 71 minutes Luke Lewis fought through three Bologna defenders to tie the game. After that we stayed in control but couldn’t find the winner. Draw 1-1. Lineup; Bruno Varela, Novello, Badal, Ronaldo, Gutierrez, Padovano, Gallo, Benassi, Lewis (POM), Rocco/Martins(65), Pugliese. Torino (11-7-3 4th) vs Bologna (12-4-5 5th) Serie A G221-119 Shots 98 On Target 25 Fouls 453% Possession 47%Goals: Haller (24) Lewis (71) Stefano Gallo’s agent came to request a new contract, Stefano wouldn't fire him so I wound up extending him two more years with a very healthy raise from 575k to 2.7m/yr.. At least there is no free release clause. Ronaldo reached his yellow card limit in the last game and will miss out next match at Sampdoria, who will be looking for revenge after we humiliated them in the Italian Cup. On the morning of our Sampdoria match Bruno Varela was diagnosed with food poisoning and will be unavailable for 3-4 days. 2/7/24 at Sampdoria - Serie A G23 - 442nd vs 4312. This was a tale of missed chances. Sampdoria was clearly in charge for most of the game but kept missing easy chances badly. We took a 1-0 lead on a free kick that Alex Padovano whipped into the box and Luke Lewis headed home, but it didn’t last long as the sheer volume of chances Sampdoria was creating inevitably led to a goal. Marco Benassi gave us another lead with a nice strike early in the second half and we survived another batch of close calls before one finally went in for Sampdoria to bring them level again. After that it was our turn as we spurned three absolute sitters and the game ended in a wholly unsatisfying draw. 2-2. Lineup; Bellini, Novello, Badal, Barba, Gutierrez, Padovano/Suchet(59), Gallo/Camara(59), Benassi, Lewis (POM), Pugliese, Martins/Frontini(72) Torino (11-8-3 4th) at Sampdoria (15-2-5 2nd) Serie A G232-213 Shots 125 On Target 28 Fouls 446% Possession 54%Goals: Lewis (29) Bonazzoli (33) Benassi (48) Fernando (80) Alex Padovano reached his yellow card limit and will miss our next match at home against Roma. Maddeningly that was our third straight draw in league play, but form the glass half full perspective we have been playing terrible football and are unbeaten in five straight games in all comps. 2/10/24 vs Roma - Serie A G24 - 442nd vs 4231. I’m glad I’m not the Roma Manager tonight. When this one was over my players got dressed up and down the stadium twice. If I was in charge of Roma it would have been worse. How they did not win this game by at least five goals is absolutely incomprehensible. I haven’t seen a team of mine play as bad as we did tonight since my early 352-with-terrible-defenders days in New England. We. Were. Awful. We should have points taken away from us for playing like that… oh, sorry you’re getting the player's speech now. *Game Summary: Roma wasted a lot of chances, we had one shot on target. Draw 1-1. Lineup; Bellini, Novello, Badal, Ronaldo, Gutierrez, Camara, Gallo, Benassi/Suchet(85), Lewis, Frontini/Lassen(57), Pugliese/Martins(85) Torino (11-9-3 4th) vs Roma (8-9-6 8th) Serie A G231-14 Shots 191 On Target 105 Fouls 1238% Possession 62%Goals: Naimi (33) Lewis (47) We played the whole game like we had seven players on the pitch yet somehow we only trailed for a total of 14 minutes. Boggles the mind. Our 17 year old netminder Giacomo Bellini didn’t embarrass himself for sure. I told the rest of the team to buy him a drink. One drink. Then dinner. Then I had to spend an entire press conference talking about our ‘good run’ and ‘confidence being high’. Now I need a drink. 2/13/24 at Napoli - Italian Cup Semi Final First Leg- 442nd vs 4123dmw. I was feeling sick to my stomach as the entire first half was just a continuation of the last game, as we were outshot 11-0 and down 1-0 on goals. I exercised my lungs at half time (again - note to self, get throat lozenges) and dropped us to our counter attacking strategy. We finally showed some small signs of life attempting four very wide shots and somewhere around 60 minutes I made some substitutions based on fatigue and moved us to our normal tactic in the ‘no holds barred’ posture hoping for a miracle away goal so if we managed to find some sort of form for the home leg we would be in good shape. And that was exactly what we got. Our strikers Frontini and Martins combined nicely to set up Stefano Gallo in the box and he whipped the ball into the far corner for the draw. 1-1. Lineup; Bruno Varela, Mendy, Badal, Ronaldo, Barba, Lassen, Camara/Cissokho(27), Benassi, Lewis/Gallo(65), Frontini, Martins. Torino at Napoli Italian Cup Semi Final First Leg1-111 Shots 143 On Target 79 Fouls 549% Possession 51%Goals: Maldonado (26) Gallo (88) Next up is the small matter of our away fixture against A.C. Milan. And after that Villereal in the Europa League knockout round first leg. We have now drawn five straight matches in all competitions. I don’t remember what winning is like. Unfortunately neither do the players - this isn’t a good time to be in bad form. AS Saint-Etienne fired Benjamin Nivet, I only point this out because he was the replacement for Didier Tholot, who they hired instead of me. 2/17/24 at A.C. Milan - Serie A G25 - 442nd vs 4231. This was a good football game for the neutrals. Two quality teams slugging it out, in the end neither team had anything to be ahamed of. It didn’t look good at the start for us as Milan ran out to a quick lead, but the players responded and midway through the first half we were even. Better than that we were actually playing even. The tight match continued into the second half and just when it looked like we might be getting the advantage Giuseppe Pugliese didn’t see a wide open Niccolo Novello on the overlap, dwelled on the ball, was dispossessed and Milan scored on the break. Giuseppe did what he could to redeem himself by scoring the game tying goal seven minutes later. After that both teams had golden opportunities for the winner but neither team could take their chances. Another Draw. 2-2. Lineup; Bruno Varela, Novello, Barba, Ronaldo, Gutierrez/Badal(45), Padovano, Gallo (POM), Benassi, Lewis/Suchet(64), Pugliese, Martins. Torino (11-10-3 4th) at A.C. Milan (12-7-4 5th) Serie A G252-212 Shots 145 On Target 37 Fouls 1144% Possession 56%Goals: Ombang (6) Martins (20) Espinoza (70) Pugliese (77) Well that was a better quality draw at least. It’s now been seven games since we kept a clean sheet. 2/22/24 vs Villarreal - Europa League Knockout Round First Leg - 442nd vs 4231. Well now. Who found the Torino team? I’d like to thank them for returning our players to us. We came out of the gates in this one like a red and white tide and got an early lead, hitting the Villarreal end with a barrage of shots. It started to have an ominous feel though as we just couldn’t add a second goal, but we just kept going at them. Halftime came and went, the hour mark came and went, then finally it happened. Trying desperately to stop a Novello cross from finding the head of Stefano Gallo Villarreal center-back Alejandro Crespo headed the ball into his own net and we were up 2-0. Even better we actually kept the clean sheet. Win 2-0. Lineup; Bruno Varela, Novello, Badal, Ronaldo, Gutierrez, Padovano (POM), Suchet, Benassi/Lassen(64), Gallo, Pugliese, Martins. Torino vs Villarreal Europa League Knockout Round First Leg 2-019 Shots 711 On Target 35 Fouls 1357% Possession 43%Goals: Martins (13) Crespo og(64) Huh, I think I like winning better. I hope the players do too. Villarreal Manager Fernando Hierro said he wasn’t as disappointed with the loss as he was in the way his players performed. 2/25/24 at Udinese - Serie A G26 - 442nd vs 4312. We came out professional and determined and at 15 minutes Niccolo Novello capitalized on a Udinese error to put us up 1-0. Befroe the half it was 2-0 on a Marco Benassi goal and after a pleasingly uneventful second half we had our second straight clean sheet. Win 2-0. Lineup; Bruno Varela, Novello (POM), Ronaldo, Badal, Barba, Lassen, Benassi, Gallo, Lewis, Martins, Frontini. Torino (11-11-3 5th) at Udinese (4-6-14 20th) Serie A G252-016 Shots 95 On Target 36 Fouls 960% Possession 40%Goals: Novello (15) Benassi (35) Wednesday night before our Europa League Knockout Round Second Leg in Vllarreal it hit the wire that Roma had sacked Zinedine Zidane. Roma currently sits in 9th with a 8-11-7 mark. 2/29/24 at Villarreal - Europa League Knockout Round Second Leg - 4132 vs 433. Needing goals to take back the tie Villarreal came out in an attacking 433 and wanting to slow the scoring down and hopefully nick an away goal we came out in our 4132. To my great pleasure we played them fairly even through a scoreless first half. Nine minutes into the second half, after a Villarreal scoring chance Marco benassi found a streaking Stefano Gallo in the box. Stefano was tackled from behind in a clear penalty that wasn’t called, thankfully for my sanity the ball fell to a charging Luca Rocco, back from injury, and he put home an away goal that put us in great shape with just over a half hour to go. We needed it as after that Villarreal woke up and Bruno Varela had to make two great saves and they scored twice. In the end we won the tie by two goals 3-2, with the away goal advantage. Loss (win) 1-2 (3-2) Lineup; Bruno Varela, Novello/Gutierrez(38), Ronaldo, Badal, Barba, Padovano, Suchet, Gallo, Benassi, Rocco/Camara(61), Martins. Torino (2) vs Villarreal (0) Europa League Knockout Round Second Leg 1-2 (3-2)12 Shots 165 On Target 69 Fouls 751% Possession 49%Goals: Rocco (54) Pagliacci (61) Leiva (78) Niccolo Novello left the game in the first half with a calf strain and will miss 2-3 weeks. We will face Liverpool in the second knockout round. The Reds sit fourth in the Premier League currently. 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edtheguy Posted May 17, 2016 Author Share Posted May 17, 2016 March 2024 Gutierrez, Ronaldo, and Gallo were all named to the Serie A team of the month for February. This month’s board meeting was almost enjoyable, I am still untouchable, Beating Sampdoria 4-0 was delightful, losing 0-1 to Napoli was disappointing. The board agreed to my request to improve our training facilities and I headed off to a very nice dinner with Gianna who seems to be in a good place again. The only concern is rumors of Giovanna Savelli being in poor health which might lead to another change of power in the Savelli family. That could make things messy for us. 3/5/24 vs Napoli - Italian Cup Semi Final Second Leg- 442nd vs 4123dmw. We spent a lot of time on the ball early in the first half but didn’t fashion any attempts at net. Finally late in the half we started to create some chances, our best coming on a counter attack after a rare offensive move by Napoli just before half. A long clearance found a breaking Giuseppe Pugliese out wide and his cross into the box found Marco benassi, who headed it home for the 2-1 lead in the tie. The goal was nice, but to win the tie we would either need another or a clean sheet, and we told the players as much at half. We looked even better in the second half, though the game was still tight. At 75 minutes Luke Lewis missed a golden opportunity to get us a cushion goal and it was nail biting time. Most of my nails survived , however as even when Napoli went attacking we held firm. Win 1-0 (2-1). Lineup; Bruno Varela, Gutierrez, Ronaldo, Badal, Barba, Padovano/Camara(50), Benassi (POM), Gallo, Lewis, Rocco/Frontini(74), Pugliese. Torino (1) vs Napoli (1) Italian Cup Semi Final Second Leg1-0 (2-1)16 Shots 78 On Target 46 Fouls 958% Possession 42%Goals: Benassi (45+1) Alex Padovano left the game in the second half with a sprained ankle and will miss 4-5 weeks. We organized our youth scouting for the next transfer window, all 17 and under, star potential players were put on a shortlist and designated for three months of scouting. Our youth intake was mediocre at best. A decent looking left back, Emanuele Piccoli and midfielder Filippo Tosi were about it. The youth candidates defeated our U18’s 2-1 behind a brace from Fracesco Trotta 3/9/24 at Pescara - Serie A G27 - 442nd vs 442. There wasn’t exactly a defensive clinic put on in this game. We surrendered two goals but Pescara was worse. The game started as the Samba Mendy show, as the young right-back proved he was ready for first team minutes and when he faded in the second half it was the Papa Camara show as he scored his first two goals and added an assist. Win 5-2. Lineup; Bruno Varela, Mendy, Ronaldo, Badal/Rymis(65), Gutierrez, Suchet, Benassi/Cissokho(65), Camara (POM), Lewis, Rocco, Pugliese. Torino (12-11-3 5th) at Pescara (9-6-12 11th) Serie A G275-220 Shots 139 On Target 78 Fouls 753% Possession 47%Goals: Pugliese (6,67) Lewis (21) Camara (37,52) Meite (45+2) Balestra (74) That was more like it offensively, but at the cost of some questionable defense. Now off to Liverpool for our first leg in the Europa League second knockout round. 3/14/24 at Liverpool - Europa League Second Knockout Round First Leg - 442nd vs 4231. We came out well and after one scare in our defensive end Giuseppe Pugliese put us ahead 1-0. After that though the pitch started tilting in Liverpool’s direction, slowly at first and then our players started to crack under the pressure one by one and the flow became an avalanche. It only took them 4 minutes to tie the game and then they should be embarrassed that they didn’t take a multi goal lead by halftime. They did in the second half though as we ran out of substitutions before we ran out of awful players. All three Liverpool goals came on Torino errors - 1. Barba 2. Bruno Varela 3. Mendy (who was in for Barba). Loss 1-3. Lineup; Bruno Varela, Gutierrez, Ronaldo, Badal, Barba/Mendy (45), Suchet, Benassi, Camara, Gallo/Lassen(63), Rocco/Frontini(63), Pugliese. Torino at Liverpool Europa League Second Knockout Round First Leg 1-312 Shots 226 On Target 87 Fouls 546% Possession 54%Goals: Pugliese (4) Pfeiffer (8) Abarca (64,66) I didn’t yell. We were past that anyway. I didn’t sympathize either, which Sal wanted to do. I calmly told them they were bad. By the reactions I saw around the room they know enough to be scared by that. I did single out the players who deserved it aggressively however because, well, they deserved it - and their reactions concerned me. None of them got upset, they all took it lying down. I told the press the away goal gave us a chance and apologized to the fans for having to watch that - that - that whatever you want to call it that we did instead of playing football. 3/17/24 vs Carpi - Serie A G28 - 442nd vs 5212wb. Pugliese once again had us ahead early with a marker at 14 minutes on a penalty that the keeper guessed right on but Giuseppe’s shot was just too strong. But once again we shrank away from the game as soon as that happened. We had no control over the midfield and Carpi created chance after chance. Substitutions and tactic tweaks made no difference, the only thing that could have helped was an attitude change but I couldn’t get that to happen either. They tied the game at 22 minutes, Paw Lassen left in the second half for back to back yellow cards and they got the winner 5 minutes later. Loss 1-2. Lineup; Bellini, Mendy, Badal, Rymis/Schrott(45), Gutierrez, Lassen (RED 79), Gallo, Suchet, Lewis/Camara(66), Martins/Cissokho(79), Pugliese. Torino (13-11-3 5th) vs Carpi (8-7-13 14th) Serie A G281-218 Shots 113 On Target 610 Fouls 1151% Possession 49%Goals: Pugliese (pen 14) Frugoli (22,84) There are some players in that lineup that will not play again this year. 3/21/24 at Liverpool - Europa League Second Knockout Round Second Leg - 442nd vs 4231. We looked in trouble early as Liverpool almost scored in the first five minutes and kept bringing pressure trying to get the away goal that would likely do us. It was a counter off one of their attacks that got us the game's first goal, with Stefano Gallo finishing a full speed attack to bring the tie within a goal. After that Liverpool effectively countered everything we tried, almost striking back on a counter of their own, only for Bruno Varela to make a nice save. We went into the half up 1-0 but frustrated with our inability to get anything else going. Several of the players were visibly frustrated and it looked to be affecting their play. We tried to get their heads in the right place and sent them back out, but for Gisuppe Pugliese it din’t get any better, he just kept getting more frustrated, playing worse and getting even more frustrated. Finally I subbed him out and brought Gaspard Martins in and at 70 minutes, with the score still 1-0 in the game and 2-3 in the tie and running out of time we went all out attack and as creative as we could. I almost couldn’t watch for fear of the inevitable Liverpool counter attack, but it didn’t come. Instead Luca Rocco found the net at 80 minutes and we were all of a sudden ahead in the tie on our one away goal. Less than 5 minutes later Pugliese replacement, Gaspard Martins added a third and we were truly up. Even if Liverpool scored now there would still be extra time - something I would rather avoid. We did, and finished with a thoroughly unexpected win 3-0 (4-3) Lineup; Bruno Varela, Novello, Badal, Ronaldo, Gutierrez (POM), Suchet, Camara, Benassi, Gallo, Rocco, Pugliese/Martins. Torino (1) at Liverpool (3) Europa League Second Knockout Round Second Leg 3-0 (4-3)14 Shots 66 On Target 18 Fouls 1349% Possession 51%Goals: Gallo (34) Rocco (81) Martins (85) Well I’ll be. I did not expect that. Especially after our last two games. Europa League Quarter Final. Even I would be happy with that, and it far exceeds the board's expectations of not making it out of the group stage. Eloi Gutierrez claimed it was my halftime talk (with several individual talks actually) that was responsible for our victory. Eloi has a right to make that claim, since he was the player of the match. We once again broke our gate receipts record, set earlier this season, with a €650K take in that game. We will face BMG, currently 9th in the Bundesliga, in the Quarter Final. 3/24/24 at Cagliari - Serie A G29 - 442nd vs 442. We were once again flat and uninspired and got soundly beaten by a team in the middle of a relegation battle. We lost every race to the ball, missed our shots let them get to their rebounds for both goals, and when we won a penalty missed that.. Loss 0-2. Lineup; Bruno Varela, Novello, Badal, Ronaldo/ Schrott(62), Gutierrez, Scuhet/Camara(62), Gallo, Benassi, Lewis, Rocco/Martins(62), Pugliese. Torino (13-11-4 5th) at Cagliari (6-7-16 18th) Serie A G290-215 Shots 125 On Target 713 Fouls 748% Possession 52%Goals: Rios (13) Cerri (50) The press went with the story that Cagliari struck it lucky, which if you look at the statistics makes sense. I actually watched the game however and that isn’t what happened at all. Our fans were devastated by our disappointing performance - they know what they’re talking about. I’m off to the press conference to apologize - again. The players have an international break to think about what they've done, I’ll have them work extra practice sessions in the meantime. Then we play 20th place Spezia. I will be expecting a better performance in that game. On Tuesday both Benassi and Lewis got injured in my heavy workload training sessions that the players have earned as punishment. On Saturday Eloi Gutierrez broke down in training. I lightened the team’s training load a little, I should have done that earlier. Next up; last placed Spezia on the 7th. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
edtheguy Posted May 29, 2016 Author Share Posted May 29, 2016 April 2024 Needless to say I wasn’t in the best moods for the monthly Board Meeting, but the board was all smiles - I am Untouchable, our Europa League performance is a highlight and overall they are very happy with my leadership. Of course they did mention that the 0-2 loss to Cagliari isn’t pleasing - as if I thought it was. I had a nice evening with Gianna who is still talking through her emotional scars concerning Viv - and fears that the same could someday happen to her, but overall she seems to be doing well. Back in the office during the break we bid on a couple of the 5* prospects we had been scouting for the past month. Siroki Brijeg’s Mustafa Rahimic, a 17 year old enthusiastic center-back and Real Sociadad’s Jose Antonio Casado a promising left side player. 4/7/24 vs Spezia - Serie A G30 - 442nd vs 442. Pre match I didn’t yell at them, I didn’t remind them how badly they had been in the last game, I just walked in smiling and told them that if they played their game they would win. Easy. No big deal. It might have worked too, as inside 10 minutes Luke Lewis was on the board and we were up 1-0. We never had the control of the game that I wanted to see, but Luca Rocco added a second goal just before half and we kep the clean sheet. Alex Padovano was wonderful in his return from injury until I took him off at 60 minutes, just to be safe. In fact every single player on the field for us had a good game. Win 2-0. Lineup; Bruno Varela, Novello, Badal, Ronaldo, Mendy, Padovano/Cissokho(64), Gallo (POM), Suchet, Lewis, Rocco, Pugliese. Torino (13-11-5 5th) vs Spezia (6-3-21 20th) Serie A G302-020 Shots 148 On Target 66 Fouls 451% Possession 49%Goals: Lewis (9) Rocco (43) The press was focused on Stefano Gallo, who had a great game, but really he was one of eleven who did in that one. Kamil added to the praise when the press asked him about Stefano. Stefano now has 12 assists for the season, a new club record, breaking Niccolo Novellos old mark of 11. Thursday we go to Germany for our first leg match with BMG. We are the last Italian team in the competition, which is good for our pride, but isn’t helping us in our league table at the moment. 4/11/24 at BMG - Europa League Quarter Final First Leg - 442nd vs 442. We weren’t great. BMG on the other had was almost great. Their defense was monumental, their midfield was in complete command and their forwards were a mess. Still they fashioned one great goal and one almost laughably bad Bruno Varela own goal to have a 2-0 lead at halftime despite never really looking like they were dangerous on offense. We on the other hand had exactly the number of goals we deserved. I cautiously told the players that we’d like to see better and we went out for the second half. And we were better. But not much. The game got past the hour mark still at 2-0 and I put Martins and Camara in and moved us to damn the torpedos mode to try to get something out of the game. And a few minutes later we had a corner kick that Ronaldo headed home for the away goal that might just salvage something from the game. we kept attacking and BMG withdrew into a shell around their net. For a while it looked like we might equalize, but it wasn’t to be. Loss 1-2. Lineup; Bruno Varela, Novello, Badal, Ronaldo, Mendy, Padovano (POM), Benassi, Suchet/Camara(60), Gallo, Rocco, Pugliese/Martins(60) Torino at BMG Europa League Quarter Final First Leg 1-210 Shots 72 On Target 414 Fouls 452% Possession 48%Goals: Gunaydin (12) Bruno Varela OG(31) Ronaldo (77) Not the best start to the tie, but at least we got an away goal. Now to see if we can get back on more solid ground in Serie A with a good result against Genoa on Sunday. Pelle said I had no right to criticize him after our last match against Genoa, I said he was probably just talking about it because the press asked him and I had no problem with him and the Genoa board should show more patience with their Managers when I was asked about his insecure job status. 4/14/24 at Genoa - Serie A G31 - 442nd vs 4231. This was another disinterested struggle. I really don’t get what is going on here, the players are all in good morale and are professional but their form is awful. We were down inside the first minute and it was an ugly struggle after that. To their credit, I guess, they did fight back twice and got a draw. I’m just finding it hard to watch them try to play football right now. I feel bad for the supporters. Draw 2-2. Torino (14-11-5 5th) at Genoa (10-4-17 16th) Serie A G312-211 Shots 93 On Target 39 Fouls 556% Possession 44%Goals: Oviedo (1,57) Camara (32) Rocco (63) We’ve made our league position precarious at best, now all we can realistically hope for is to match last years 5th place finish, and that is in serious doubt as our next league game will be against in form Lazio, who will pass us if they win and then we have second place Inter who could compound matters and put us well out of continental position with, by then, only five games left in the schedule. And right after those games we have the della Mole Derby. But first we host BMG in the Europa League where things are also dire, albeit not a bad as they were against Liverpool. 4/18/24 vs BMG - Europa League Quarter Final Second Leg - 442nd vs 4411. BMG came out in a defensive 4411 and looked to protect what they had. As good as their defense was in the last match that was a formidable obstacle. We looked up to the task early, playing a organized and determined style and at the half, while still scoreless we had the only shots on target. At 54 minutes however BMG connected on a cross from deep and tapped home the away goal that put us down two in the tie and needing two goals just to force extra time. I changed both strikers, hoping for a spark and went all out in an effort to get something going, which just gave BMG the space the were waiting for. Former Toro Daniel Federhen added the insult to our injury and we were out. Loss 0-2 (1-4) Lineup; Bruno Varela, Novello, Badal, Ronaldo, Gutierrez, Padovano/Lassen(54), Benassi, Camara, Gallo. Rocco/Frontini(54), Pugliese/Martins(54) Torino (1) vs BMG (2) Europa League Quarter Final Second Leg 0-217 Shots 57 On Target 218 Fouls 752% Possession 48%Goals: Diomande (54) Federhen (58) So much for our away goal. I told the press I felt bad for the way in which we lost. It wasn’t the worst performance I’ve seen, but it continues an unacceptably long run of poor performances. We have now lost 6 of our last 11 games in all competitions and allowed two goals in three straight. In the big picture a run to the Quarterfinals in the Europa League is huge for the club. It’s hard for the players or staff to look at the big picture right now though. The Lazio game will see the return of Loris Forni to the lineup. 4/21/24 vs Lazio - Serie A G32 - 442nd vs 4231n. This was one of those nervy back and forth first halfs. Both teams were playing well and had scoring chances. We converted a nice team move sending Stefano Gallo in for the game's first goal but Lazio had an answer less than ten minutes later and we went into the second half tied at 1. I was intending to pull Loris at 60 minutes in his first game back, but it was Gaspard Martins who had been playing poorly, so I brought on Giuseppe for him and held off on any other changes. At 70 minutes I looked the genius as Pugliese put home the goal that gave us the lead. As shaky as our defense has been lately, I didn’t drop to a counter attacking mode but kept the press on and it worked as Lazio went attacking but we generated the scoring chances, but no more goals. Win 2-1. Lineup; Bruno Varela, Novello (POM), Ronaldo, Rymis, Gutierrez, Padovano, Benassi, Camara, Gallo, Forni, Martins/Pugliese(60) Torino (14-12-5 5th) vs Lazio (16-5-11 6th) Serie A G322-120 Shots 88 On Target 45 Fouls 258% Possession 42%Goals: Gallo (10) Niang (18) Pugliese (70) Now our league outlook isn’t so bleak, Lazio is now four points adrift and our runout looks a lot more promising with only Inter and Sassuolo as tough fixtures remaining. Of course we have done a pretty good job playing down to the competition lately so you never know. 4/24/24 at Inter - Serie A G33 - 442nd vs 4123dmw. We actually outplayed Inter for much of this game, but we never made anything of our chances. It looked to be a tight affair for much of the first half but late in the half, after our center backs tried three times in a row to launch hollywood passes through the Inter defence, Inter finally struck to make it 1-0. We told told the players to pick it up in the second half and they did the opposite, continuing to throw themselves uselessly at the Inter defensive wall and yielding two more goals to get the loss their play merited. Loss 0-3. Lineup; Bruno Varela, Novello, Ronaldo/Schrott(64), Badal, Gutierrez, Padovano, Benassi, Gallo, Lewis/Camara(64), Rocco, Pugliese/Forni(64) Torino (15-12-5 5th) at Inter (21-6-6 2nd) Serie A G320-310 Shots 176 On Target 69 Fouls 457% Possession 43%Goals: Chaves (39,90) Kolodziejczak (63) One of those teams was a title contender and the other very much still a pretender, but that is something to look at another day, for now we need to get as many points from our last five games as we can to ensure continental play next season. I held a team meeting and told the players it was time to kick it up a notch and to a man the entire squad agreed. 4/28/24 vs Juventus - Serie A G34 - 442nd vs 41311n. Juve came out with an organized packed defense and played it well. They never looked a danger to us early, but we had a hard time getting a look ourselves so the game was going according to their plan. Finally a nice burst of speed from Niccolo Novello got him the room he needed to find Luca Rocco in the box and Luca powered a shot home. When Juve got their inevitable chance to answer on a counter attack Bruno Varela made a nice save and that was the end of the offensive action for the game. Win 1-0. Lineup; Bruno Varela, Novello (POM), Ronaldo, Rymis, Gutierrez, Padovano, Benassi, Camara, Gallo/Lewis(62), Rocco, Pugliese/Forni(62) Torino (15-12-5 5th) vs Juventus (8-12-14 16th) Serie A G341-012 Shots 104 On Target 213 Fouls 760% Possession 40%Goals: Rocco (30) Juve Manager Leonardo Bonucci told the press he saw many positives in the defeat. Oh how the mighty have fallen. The Juve supporters can not be happy with comments like that. The new Teatro Regio and its assorted arts companies are making headlines regularly, dominating the live arts news in the city. There is little mention of Gianna or the money behind the projects, which is how Gia likes it. However there has been much coverage of Kate, her school back in the states and the dancers that have made guest runs in Turin though which is definitely good for her, so all seems to be going well finally. Next up is a big match against Empoli, with a win we will have control of our own fate for continental qualification with three matches to go, with a loss it will be squeaky bum time. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
edtheguy Posted May 30, 2016 Author Share Posted May 30, 2016 May 2024 We had a morning Board Meeting as the 1st was also matchday against Empoli so I couldn’t even look forward to a nice night out with my wife afterwards. Other than that, as far as board meetings go, it was relatively painless. I am still untouchable. The board still feels our use of youth is good and losing 0-2 vs Cagliari is bad. Nothing to see there, on to the match. 5/1/24 vs Empoli - Serie A G35 - 442nd vs 442. So that form we’ve been looking for. Yup, found it. As hard as it has looked for the last month was as easy as it looked today. We had the lead inside ten minutes on an end to end rush of one touch passes that ended with Luca Rocco tapping the ball home and it never got any worse than that. This time we were the team running circles around the opposition. I almost felt bad for Empoli, we’ve been where they were tonight, almost. Stefano Gallo added two goals and I am starting to think Alex Padovano is good at free kicks, he has two assists this year on free kicks that he bent into the box and tonight he scored on a set piece with a scorcher into the top corner. Win 4-0. Lineup;Bruno Varela, Novello, Ronaldo, Rymis/Schrott(62), Gutierrez, Padovano, Benassi/Suchet(62), Camara, Gallo (POM), Rocco, Forni Torino (16-12-6 5th) vs Empoli (8-10-16 18th) Serie A G354-021 Shots 312 On Target 08 Fouls 354% Possession 46%Goals: Rocco (10) Gallo (46,69) Padovano (78) The Revs blew a first leg lead and lost the NACL final to CF America by losing the second leg 3-1. They currently sit 9th in the supporters shield. The press ran a story about our next match being my 400th in management. Then they asked if I was going to try to secure a Champions League spot. Really? No we’re good where we are now, I don’t really want any more points in the standings... 5/5/24 at Sassuolo - Serie A G36 - 442nd vs 4231. We started this game like we finished last, taking the lead inside 10 minutes, then our form was gone and by the second half we were down 2-1. In the end we were somewhere in between and fortunately for us Like Lewis headed home a nice goal to get us a draw. 2-2. Lineup; Bruno Varela, Novello, Ronaldo, Badal/Barba(70), Gutierrez, Padovano, Benassi/Camara(70), Gallo, Lewis, Rocco, Forni/Pugliese(83) Torino (17-12-6 5th) at Sassuolo (11-15-9 8th) Serie A G362-215 Shots 115 On Target 59 Fouls 453% Possession 47%Goals: Forni (4) Enoh (16) Otavio (54) Lewis (64) If we had won we would have tied Bologna for 4th. We now have two games left against Napoli in 11th and Chievo in 13th. Lazio is 4 points behind us and Bologna two ahead, Milan four ahead. 5/12/24 vs Chievo - Serie A G37 - 442nd vs 442. This game was back to the ugly struggle. If one of these teams wanted an ugly muck of a game they got what they wanted. That wouldn’t be us. We did take a lead in the first half on our only scoring chance, which Luca Rocco converted. We held on for most of the game, but Chievo got their goal at 74 minutes and we couldn’t do anything else. Draw. 1-1. Lineup; Bruno Varela, Novello, Ronaldo, Rymis, Gutierrez/Mendy(75), Padovano, Benassi, Gallo, Lewis/Camara(36), Rocco, Pugliese. Torino (17-13-6 5th) vs Chievo (10-11-15 13th) Serie A G371-17 Shots 44 On Target 314 Fouls 1055% Possession 45%Goals: Rocco (32) Fazzi (74) The draw and other results of the week consigned the last matchweek to irrelevance for us, we will finish in 5th place and the last Europa League spot no matter how the results go. We finish our season with a meaningless game against Napoli on Sunday and then the Italian Cup Final against Inter on Wednesday. 5/19/24 at Napoli - Serie A G38 - 442nd vs 4123dmw. We played the second string in this game and they played like the second string. Actually more like the third or fourth, but whatever. At times we looked pretty good, but there just wasn’t the quality for finish and more often than not our best moves ended in turnovers that Napoli took advantage of. Loss 0-3. Lineup; Bellini, Novello, Schrott, Rymis, Mendy, Cissokho, Suchet, Lassen, Pugliese, Frontini, Martins. Torino (17-14-6 5th) at Napoli (10-13-14 11th) Serie A G380-310 Shots 175 On Target 913 Fouls 652% Possession 48%Goals: Mayoral (pen 40,74,73) At the end of the day the teams relegated to Serie B were Udinese, Empoli, and Spezia. Serie A Awards: Serie A Fair Play Player of the Year; Federico Boazzoli, ST© Sampdoria Serie A Player of the Year, Sime Vrsaljko, D® Sampdoria Serie A Top Goalscorer, Ignacio Chaves, ST© Inter Serie A Young Player of the Year, Leonardo Cataldi, D® A.C. Milan - Loris Forni was third. Serie A Goal of the Year, Sebastian Rios M/AM(LC) Cagliari Serie A Manager of the Year, Vincenzo Montella, Sampdoria Serie A Team of the Year; GK - Alisson, A.C. Milan RD - S. Vrsaljko, Sampdoria CD - F. Ducios, Sampdoria CD - D. Rugani, Juventus LD - A. Masuaku, Lazio MC - S. Gallo, Torino MC - Rafinha, Sampdoria MC - A. Ames, Inter ST - P. Redaelli, Atalanta ST - I. Chaves, Inter ST - F. Bonazzoli, Sampdoria Italian Media Italian Player of the Year - Stefano Gallo Italian Media Foreign Player of the Year - Cristian Espinoza Serie A Fan’s Player of the Year - Niccolo Novello Stefano dedicated his award to me, saying I was the key reason for his consistent performances. Serie A Goalkeeper of the Year: 1st Alisson 2nd Bartlomiej Dragowski 3rd Mounir Jelassi Serie A Defender of the Year: 1st Nelson 2nd Djibril Sidibe 3rd Serge Aurier Serie A Midfield of the Year 1st Rafinha 2nd Fernando 3rd Roberto Serie A Striker of the Year 1st Paolo Radaelli 2nd Ricardo Cordeiro 3rd Roland Muca The Europa League Final is also on Wednesday and features Galatasaray vs Leverkusen. The football season in Italy will end at Stadio Olimpico in Rome with our Italian Cup Final against Inter. 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edtheguy Posted May 31, 2016 Author Share Posted May 31, 2016 5/22/24 vs Inter at Stadio Olimpico, Rome - Italian Cup Final - 442nd vs 4123dmw. The last time we played Inter we were taught a lesson in a thorough 0-3 lashing, but I wasn’t about to tell the players to go and hide in a corner for this one. Well not form the start anyway, I was prepared to do it if the game went badly like last time. But right from the kick-off the game looked even, we carried some nice attacks to them that bore fruit right away as Niccolo Novello found Luca Rocco in the box for a 1-0 lead. Five minutes later however Inter was even when they intercepted a pass intended for Rocco and found their striker Ignacio Chaves between our central defenders. And there the game stayed throughout the first half. The second half was an entertaining hard fought battle that saw both teams hold strong and regulation time ended 1-1. Three minutes into extra time the deadlock was broken off a free kick just outside the box that found Stefano Gallo, who put it home giving us a lead that lasted just nine minutes until Andry Ames picked up a loose ball at the edge of the box and fired it home to draw level once again. The second extra time saw us take the lead, again, at 113 minutes when we broke up an Inter breakout pass and sent it back into the box. One of the Inter defenders tried to make a sliding tackle and only succeeded in knocking the ball lose to a wide open Marco Benassi who fired it home - a perfect man to score a cup winning goal for us. Except Inter was once again even four minutes later when Eloi Gutierrez missed a tackle that let one too many crosses into the box. Mirko Cassano put it home and we were off to penalties - but just before the end of extra time I subbed Giuseppe Pugliese in for his spot kick abilities. Inter went first in the shootout and Leonardo Bittencourt, already named player of the match went first taking a hard shot to the right side that Bruno Varela made a diving save on. First for us was Loris Forni, who in the past has had some memorable misses from the spot, but this time he fired his take home to put us up 1-0 after one round. The second round saw Andry Ames score for Inter meaning my late sub, Giuseppe Pugliese had to convert to keep us ahead, and he delivered so after two rounds we were up 2-1. The third round saw Jeison Murillo score for inter and Ronaldo answer for us, 3-2 after 3. The fourth round Inters Serfei Darder kept the pressure on by converting and young free kick expert Alex Padovano answered calmly for us 4-3 after 4. We were up one going into the last round meaning if Bruno Varela could stop Davide Santon we would be champions, but Santon would have none of that and drove it home meaning our fifth shooter needed to convert to save us from extra rounds. He stepped up to the spot, placed the ball carefully took his sights - and drove it home. Denied by a late equalizer in extra time Marco Benassi had the last word after all and we were, rather unexpectedly, Italian Cup Champions. Lineup; Bruno Varela, Novello, Ronaldo, Rymis/Barba(59), Gutierrez/Mendy(118), Padovano, Camara/Pugliese(118), Benassi, Gallo, Rocco, Forni. Torino vs Inter Italian Cup Finalso3-314 Shots 176 On Target 715 Fouls 859% Possession 41%Goals: Rocco (8) Chaves (14) Gallo (93) Ames (102) Benassi (113) Cassano (117)Shootout:Torino - Scored: Forni, Pugliese, Ronaldo, Padovano, Benassi. Missed: noneInter - Scored: Ames, Murillo, Darder, Santon. Missed: Bittencourt As a club we have a rich history in the Italian cup, but not in recent years, while this is the club’s seventh cup victory it is the first in 31 years, having last won in 1993. The supporters appeared to be ready. A spokesperson for the supporters said having me at their manager was a source of great pride for Toro fans everywhere. It was a pretty proud moment for the players and staff as well. After all the official celebrations were done Gia and I invited the staff to our Villa and I thanked them all for their hard work - and putting up with me all season. Several coaches took us up on our offer to spend the night in some of our many guest rooms. Leverkusen won the Europa League beating Galatasaray 2-1. My old player Diego Fagundez scored Galatasaray's goal. We were awarded 11.38m for our Quarter Final finish. The press noted I could add this trophy to a growing list of honors in an impressive managing career. The board said they were pleased but wanted us to focus on future trophies and old friend Kamil called to congratulate me. I invited him to our year end banquet where he told the press that my spirit was key to the club's success. At our end of season awards banquet the winners were: Fans Player of the Season; Niccolo Novello (78%) second Stefano Gallo (14%) third Loris Forni (6%) Goal of the Season; Marco Benassi vs Verona Wednesday 20th December 2023. His one touch half volley from 35 yards (off a Niccolo Novello feed) Signing of the Season Luke Lewis Young Player of the Season; Niccolo Novello Stats: Top Goalscorer; Luca Rocco 15 Highest Average Rating; Nicolo Novello 7.99 Most Assists; Niccolo Novello 15 Best Pass Completion; Arnaud Suchet 85% Most POM Awards; Niccolo Novello Most Yellow Cards; Alex Padovano 12 Most Red Cards; Federico Barba and Paw Lassen 1 Our season review multimedia presentation for the club supporters quoted the Italian Footbal Daily’s summary that said “Few will have tipped Torino to achieve more than a top-half finish heading into the season but Toro confounded expectation by securing continental football for next season.” The presentation also highlighted our 5th place league finish, Quarter Final appearance in the Europa League, and of course victory in the Italian Cup. Our 5-2 triumph over Pescara was chosen for match of the season, which must have excluded the cup final, and by the numbers our average attendance was 18,972 - 67% of capacity and we used 31 players, the most in Serie A. After the banquet we sent the players on vacation with the goal of once again achieving continental qualification next season and the only dissenters on the squad felt we should aim higher, which was ok with me. At the season ending board meeting the next day - Untouchable, absolutely delighted. Performance in competitions very good, fantastic cup victory a highlight. Signings successful, delighted with Luke Lewis. Player performances at a high level, very pleased with Niccolo Novello, like everyone else seems to be. Scheduled a 6 week preseason, same as last year, starting 6/15/24. When I showed up at my office the next day to begin my planning for next season there was a notice in my emails from the board announcing that they were spending €10.25M to upgrade the clubs training and youth facilities. They were delighted that they would not have to borrow any funds for the project and expected it to be completed in 6 months. OK, wow, nice. We have future fee clauses on both of our loanees, Arnaud Suchet and Carlos Badal, that are well below their current estimated values that expire when the loans do in four weeks so one of our first orders of business will be to make a decision on each option. The loans are our only contracts expiring at the end of June and the squad isn’t really screaming for any improvements at the moment, sure we could splash some of the 33m in the bank and get better, but if we are patient and the young players we already have continue to improve we could actually see results just as good, or even better for free. I’ll try that first, mostly. Except for center backs, the rules are different for center backs for me. I’m not convinced by Carlos, he didn’t do anything wrong exactly, but if he were to stay he would have to be another anchor, like Ronaldo and he hasn’t been that, so we’ll pass on his 10m+ buyout. Arnaud hasn’t made himself irreplaceable either, and he plays the midfield which we have a lot of young players looking for playing time already, so it would make sense to pass on him as well. But his buyout is only 5.5m and at 22 he is already a solid Serie A player and keeping him around would allow me to continue to work our younger players in at a pace I decide. Ultimately the scouting staff confirmed my decision, finding two possible central defenders that I would rather have than Carlos, at a lower price and no attractive midfielders. So I set the scouting office to evaluate the other defenders, put the bid in wit OL for Arnaud and will let Carlos return to Arsenal. Sampdoria’s Vincenzo Montella won the Serie A managers manager of the year award. Arnaud announced he didn’t really want to play for us but was willing to listen to our offer. We settled on 2.4m/yr and he said he would think about it. Stefano Gallo and Luke Lewis, both of our attacking midfielders, were called up by their countries for the European Championships. Roberto Goretti signed 17 year old centre-back Manuel Brandalise to a professional contract and the young defender said he was delighted to be working under my direction due to his admiration for me. Arnaud rejected us and signed a 5 year deal for 1.2/yr with OL. The same day Racing Club de Lens announced interest in Lukas Schrott, currently our #4 centre-back. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
edtheguy Posted May 31, 2016 Author Share Posted May 31, 2016 2023-24 Torino Statistics (all competitions) [size=2]| Position Selected | Inf | Name | Apps | Gls | Ast | PoM | Pas %| Tck | DrbPG| Shot % | Yel | Red | Av Rat | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | GK | Tut | Bruno Varela | 50 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 85% | - | - | - | 0 | 0 | 7.03 | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | Wnt | Marco Farabegoli | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | S1 | Wnt | Giacomo Bellini | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 80% | - | - | - | 0 | 0 | 6.90 | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | S5 | PR | Federico Barba | 24 (7) | 0 | 1 | 1 | 76% | 4.15 | 0.97 | 23% | 3 | 1 | 7.01 | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | DCR | Wnt | Ronaldo | 51 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 76% | 3.97 | 0.93 | 36% | 6 | 0 | 7.24 | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | S4 | | Carlos Badal | 21 (1) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 69% | 4.43 | 0.62 | 9% | 3 | 0 | 7.13 | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | DCL | | Aurélien Rymis | 10 (4) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 73% | 3.35 | 0.42 | 0% | 1 | 0 | 6.73 | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | DM | | Alex Padovano | 30 (4) | 1 | 5 | 2 | 85% | 5.33 | 1.03 | 40% | 12 | 0 | 7.23 | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | DR | Wnt | Niccolò Novello | 48 | 3 | 15 | 8 | 81% | 3.62 | 4.71 | 33% | 1 | 0 | 7.99 | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | S2 | Wnt | Samba Mendy | 6 (3) | 0 | 2 | 0 | 75% | 3.59 | 0.78 | 0% | 2 | 0 | 6.93 | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | DL | | Eloi Gutiérrez | 45 (3) | 1 | 10 | 1 | 76% | 4.81 | 1.37 | 50% | 6 | 0 | 7.45 | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | S3 | | Lukas Schrott | 9 (7) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 80% | 3.80 | 0.41 | 50% | 6 | 0 | 6.74 | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | S6 | | Papa Cissokho | 1 (4) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 80% | 5.44 | 0.42 | 0% | 0 | 0 | 6.83 | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | MCL | PR | Marco Benassi | 48 (1) | 5 | 7 | 2 | 81% | 2.70 | 0.97 | 32% | 5 | 0 | 7.31 | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | S7 | Wnt | Paw Lassen | 16 (6) | 1 | 2 | 1 | 85% | 2.32 | 1.01 | 34% | 3 | 1 | 7.28 | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | S8 | | Arnaud Suchet | 17 (12) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 85% | 3.39 | 0.51 | 35% | 2 | 0 | 7.06 | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | MCR | | Pape Camara | 22 (16) | 3 | 1 | 1 | 84% | 4.47 | 1.03 | 38% | 8 | 0 | 7.12 | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | - | Inj | Luke Lewis | 17 (1) | 8 | 5 | 3 | 77% | 2.16 | 1.50 | 42% | 4 | 0 | 7.61 | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | AMC | Int | Stefano Gallo | 47 (2) | 14 | 12 | 6 | 77% | 2.31 | 0.91 | 49% | 4 | 0 | 7.68 | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | S9 | | Giuseppe Pugliese | 32 (4) | 14 | 5 | 1 | 78% | 0.77 | 1.38 | 48% | 1 | 0 | 7.05 | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | S10 | Wnt | Gaspard Martins | 19 (10) | 5 | 2 | 0 | 74% | 1.01 | 1.91 | 37% | 1 | 0 | 6.95 | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | STCL | | Loris Forni | 28 (2) | 13 | 7 | 2 | 82% | 1.00 | 2.49 | 47% | 4 | 0 | 7.35 | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | S11 | | Antonio Frontini | 4 (5) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 80% | 1.59 | 1.39 | 36% | 0 | 0 | 6.77 | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | STCR | | Luca Rocco | 28 (3) | 15 | 5 | 0 | 85% | 1.00 | 1.18 | 42% | 1 | 0 | 7.20 | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| [/size] Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
edtheguy Posted June 3, 2016 Author Share Posted June 3, 2016 June 2024 In our first offseason Board Meeting the board told me they were delighted with my leadership and considered me untouchable. They highlighted our young players getting first team opportunities but despite the positives pointed out that they couldn’t ignore the 0-3 defeat against Napoli and stated that the fans have voiced their displeasure. I told Gia at dinner that as I recalled I voiced my displeasure after that game as well. Real Madrid won the Champions League defeating Bayern 2-0 in the final. Liverpool were reporting serious interest in Ronaldo, who had an estimated value of 30m now and a 21m free release clause. Because of this, despite the fact that he had a very club friendly deal with three years left at a salary under 3m/yr we had to renegotiate a new deal, which he finally agreed to consider at four years at 4.95m with a 42.5m free release. Roberto sealed up another one of our youth players, midfielder Eugenio Moschetto, to a senior contract. On Monday the 10th we got our financial summaries for the year. For the Europa league period we booked a €58.78M profit. For the fiscal year we recorded a €11.72M profit resulting in a €3.6M tax bill. Our general sponsorship revenue streams increased by almost €4M and our TV revenue skyrocketed by €15.9M. Our top selling jerseys were Forni, Lewis, Gallo, Benassi, and Martins, who are all set to figure in our plans for the foreseeable future. With Arnaud committing to OL our plans have changed a little and we are looking at using our two international discoveries, one for a centre-back and one for another attacking midfielder. There are two targets we are scouting for the centre-back option, one Oliviera, a 22 year old currently playing for Botafogo who would be my first choice and Dejan Stankovic has fully vetted him, finishing with a ‘sign whatever the price’ evaluation. However there are slight concerns about his ability to adapt in a foreign country which is enough to keep my second option in the mix. That second option is Corinthians centre-back Joao Daniel, also 22 who isn’t as polished as Oliveira and doesn’t have quite as good a track record, but also hasn’t shown any concerns about adaptability. A third option would be OM’s 33 year old Aleksander Dragovic, who is top shelf but is also already under transfer bids from Bournemouth and Norwich. While he would be available for a minimal transfer fee his salary demands are likely more than I’m willing to give. For the midfield, while I would prefer a strong, defensively solid central or defensive midfielder our scouts have found Santos’ midfielder Gustavo, already being scouted by Barcelona and SLB, and tagged him with the ‘whatever the price’ label for good reason. I’m under no illusion that we can outbid or draw Barcelona, and we are already at our discovery limit of 2 for this year so we will have to wait until July and see where we stand on all three of the foreign prospects. Goretti signed 18 year old midfielder Carlo Rossini to a new deal and Ronaldo signed his new deal which delighted the supporters. Marcello Pizzmenti’s final report on Jao Daniel brought up concerns about his adaptability as well, putting Oliviera as my clear #1 target, of course we are no longer the only club looking at him either as Girondins de Bordeaux and Valencia have joined the hunt. On Friday the 14th I got a message from Urbano Cairo asking to meet to negotiate a new contract, which I agreed to without any organizational changes. The board's initial offer was €838,000, up from €750,000 and I countered with €1.15m, which is more in line with a Serie A wage. After the board recovered from their near seizure we did finally settle at €938,000. While that is still not really a fair wage it is a healthy raise so for now it is a fair compromise. When we dropped under a million I did consider looking for another job, but I really don’t fit as a journeyman gun-for-hire, my tendencies are more suited for the long haul. And Gia and I have put some roots down here anyway. Jao Daniel signed a new 3 year deal with Corinthians. The year end club and competition rankings were released over the weekend and Serie A remained 4th while the English Premier Division held on to first. On the club level Real Madrid remained first and technically Luzern were the most improved moving up to 232nd from 360th, but our rise may have been more impressive, moving up 54 places to 77th overall. The legal department reported on our Europa League status as well and we are, unsurprisingly well clear in the home grown status category as well as financially. We currently have 11 first team and 19 overall homegrown players registered. Stefano Gallo made the news for his first cap for Italy, I called to congratulate him. He seemed very excited. Spezia made a €875,000 bid for Sofiane Benyahia, which exceeds his free release clause. The price is below his value and our initial purchase price, making it a bad piece of business, but Sof has shown a lack of bravery and annoying tendency to melt down so it is a good time for us to move on. On the other hand Watford made a €3.1m offer for our depth player Zsolt Csamango, currently valued at €275k by our estimates, who we purchased for €350k. I was planning on using him as a rotation option, but we have several midfielders and 3 million is a good deal, so I accepted the offer. On Saturday the 22nd Sofiane rejected Spezia’s contract offer. So much for moving on. On Monday the 24th I called Stefano again to congratulate him on his first goal for Italy as he hit the target against Serbia. He is still not hating life. On the 26th Csamango signed with Watford. On Saturday the 29th the Serie A schedule was released. We will open at home against newly promoted Frosinone on August 25th and travel to Lazio for our second game. Our first ‘Real’ game will be the Italian Super Cup against Sampdoria on the 10th of August. Our average attendance figure for last year of 20,381 was once again a record, breaking the previous season's average of 20,094. Niccolo Novello broke his own average rating record of 7.53 with his 7.99 last season. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
edtheguy Posted June 8, 2016 Author Share Posted June 8, 2016 July 2024 Once our international discovery slots were open we negotiated 7.5m offers for both Oliveira and Gustavo. Oliveira wanted a 2.9m contract for 5 years, which I agreed to without negotiation. We need to make him feel wanted here as Botafogo have an agreement in place with Arsenal to accept any matching offers. Gustavo has no such agreements hanging over us but there is the interest from Barcelona to consider. Unfortunately his demands were higher, at 4.15 for 5 years. Regrettably for us that isn’t really unreasonable for his talents, but would put him second to Ronaldo on our pay scale. I offered 3.5 with an annual 10% raise and he accepted. Now we will have to see if we can get them signed before anyone else swoops in - and before the end of the day news hit of a 8.25m bid from Barcelona for Gustavo. There was little change in this months Board Meeting Very Secure, Delighted with leadership, last season’s successes and Young players. Gia and I had takeout for dinner at the theater where we had a internet video call with Kate about work and family, especially the current jewel of all of our eyes, little Amalie. Gaspard Martins wants to move to bigger club (Spurs interested) said I’d accept reasonable offer. Value 10M Free Release 60m, set asking price at 30m. Oliveira agreed to terms and we completed his signing. Our supporters were keen to see how he handles the move, the Botafogo supporters were disappointed to lose a long time player who had been playing so well and Mrs. Ferri signed him up for intensive language. He slots in just behind Ronaldo, ahead of where Carlos Badal was, has superb Heading, Tackling, Strength and decision making. He is also separated from our recent flock of mediocre centre-backs by very good overall mental and physical skills. That coupled with a resolute personality should do well for the young man. We will have to do our best to help him settle in. It's been four days and we still haven't heard a peep from Gustavo, so at this point I am just waiting for the news story that he has signed with Barcelona. Our U18’s head coach, Nicola Belmonte was hired by Ascoli to be their new manager. We received a little over 10k as Hibernian purchased our former backup keeper Kepa Arrizabalaga from Spurs. Goretti made an offer for Boca centre-back 20 year old Alejandro Davila which was accepted but Davila refused to negotiate because he felt we weren’t a big enough club for him. The Gustavo/Barcelona news broke on the 7th. We started looking for other midfielders. England continued their international dominance, winning the European Championship, defeating Germany 1-0 at San Siro on a Ross Barkley goal in extra time. Italy fired Roberto Mancini after a disappointing performance and speculation is that Massimiliano Allegri will be his replacement. The players reported back on the 15th and Fernando Henrique and Oliveira reported in top condition. AC Milan made a 26.5M offer, with fees that could raise it to 38M for Stefano Gallo, who is valued at 30M. First, Stefano is the poster boy of what we are trying to do here, second, if I was going to sell it’s not bloody likely it would be to Milan, and third, he is happy here right now and lists me as one of his favored personnel. So rejecting the offer is a foregone conclusion, but how it is done is the thing to consider. I finally settled on Stefano being an important first team player, and set his transfer asking price at 60M. 7/16/24 vs Torino U18’s - Friendly - 442nd vs 442nd. A fairly typical pre season opener, the senior squad was better than the U18’s. By a lot. Forni and Martins were clinical and second choice AMC Luke Lewis added a late goal. Win 4-0. Lineup; yeah right. Everyone.... Torino vs Torino U18’s Friendly4-027 Shots 414 On Target 28 Fouls 1147% Possession 53%Goals: Forni (18) Martins (26,35) Lewis (90+1) Stefano came to see me about the rejected AC Milan offer and I told him I wasn’t letting him go to a team in the same league. He felt that wasn’t fair, said he had always dreamt of playing for a bigger club and was offended when I offered him a raise, I told him to get on with his job while I was still willing to ignore his attitude. I’ll wait and see how he handles it, but might have to transfer list him before the window closes. The Gallo controversy made the papers, our captain Marco Benassi supported him, but no one else. 7/21/24 at KV Kortrijk - Klaasen Testimonial - 442nd vs 31312. We did the unorthodox full change at 60 minutes and for the first 60 minutes we were in complete control, looking like we were still playing our U18’s. With the second string (including new 2nd choice AMC Stefano Gallo) we were second best and young keeper Giacomo Bellini stood on his head. Win 5-1. Lineup; everyone. Torino at KV Kortrijk Friendly5-117 Shots 117 On Target 57 Fouls 1153% Possession 47%Goals: Dondi og(21) Lewis (24) Martins (37,41) Melo (49) Oliveira (56) No one is making another offer for Stefano who is now skulking openly, I finally dropped the asking price to his 28m value and Hamburg offered 14m, which I rejected outright. I’ll just take him off the transfer list and wait it out for now. Oliveira will be away until 25th August on international duty with Brazil U23’s. We purchased 22 year old Jean-Marc Girard from OL for 10,750,000. Our supporters were firmly behind the new signing and OL’s supporters were split but all agreed that the club got good value for him. KRC Genk purchased my perennial disappointment Carlo Loddo for 4M. Leverkusen purchased unhappy midfielder Paw Lassen for 6.5M. 7/27/24 at Hapoel Be’er-Sheva- Friendly - 442nd vs 4231n. We began with our starting eleven and brought on some selected substitutes at the half, including new signee Jean-Marc Girard at the half and walked to an easy exhibition shellacking of a lesser team. Girard wasted no time, scoring in his 27th minute on the field for us. Torino at H. Be’er-Sheva Friendly6-038 Shots 318 On Target 06 Fouls 955% Possession 45%Goals: Forni (29,44) Camara (30) Pugliese (50) Girard (72) Lewis (74) When the squad showed up for practice on Monday the everyone's attention was stolen by Giuseppe Pugliese and Loris Forni who both have new haircuts, Loris is purple and Giuseppe has a mohawk. Kids these days. I cancelled a 12M offer Roberto made for a AC Milan midfielder and put him to work trying to acquire four 17 year old prospects I targeted. It hit the news on the 28th that Stefano Gallo has now declared that he is happy to stay at Torino, since AC Milan appears to no longer be interested. Bullet dodged, perhaps. We still have three more friendlies and the Super Cup before the games start in earnest. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
edtheguy Posted June 8, 2016 Author Share Posted June 8, 2016 August 2024 The August Board meeting was still positive - I’m very very secure, the board is delighted with my leadership and pleased with young players. At dinner afterwards Gia told me that she has seen the writing on the wall as well and is turning control of the new Teatro Regio and it’s performing arts companies to the ‘family’ by the end of the year and will concentrate her efforts on working with Kate as a liaison to find opportunities for Kate’s dancers across Europe instead. She isn’t so worried about it being shut down now that the Teatro Regio has been revitalized, although she admits it is likely to wind up under the control of less than pure minded individuals. I’m just glad she’s going to walk away voluntarily before she has another big target on her very comely back. The first of my academy targets signed as Goretti came to terms with 17 year old Irish centre-back Owen Kinsella, formerly of Swansea. Kinsella is already an aerial force with promising mental attributes, but still needs to develop. Roberto made an offer for another 21 year old midfielder, but this time I agreed to negotiate terms as the price tag was only 2.1M and the player in question has eye popping playmaking abilities and unquestionably good mental makeup. The potential new Toro, currently on Palmeiras, goes by the name of Ben Hur. 8/3/24 at Fondi - Friendly (affiliate agreement) - 442nd vs 442. Another walk in the park against a lesser team. Purple hair scored again and Alex Padovano had a brilliant free kick. I’m sure Fondi was trying but we couldn’t really tell. Torino at Fondi Friendly3-028 Shots 410 On Target 05 Fouls 1464% Possession 36%Goals: Forni (25) Padovano (39) Frontini (68) Our second academy transfer target signed as Goretti came to terms with Young Boy’s and agreed to a contract with 17 year old winger Matthias Verbeke. Matthias has speed to burn, impressive physical skills a good mental makeup and is already sound in first touch and technique. Our next match is the Super Cup against Sampdoria on the 10th. When our head groundskeeper came to ask for field dimensions I decided to keep the field at a standard size. Prospect #3 agreed to terms, 17 year old winger Rob Collins, formerly of Bristol City is the newest member of the Balon Boys. Collins lacks the eye popping physical skills of Verbeke but is universally competent accross the board with no apparent weakness and also posesses a professional personality. Roberto made a 5.5M offer for another midfielder, Santos’ 23 year old Bruno Rafael, who looks like a very competent player, but I passed on contract negotiations. On the 6th Ben Hur agreed to terms and Mrs. Ferri set him up on an intensive language course. Goretti made a bid for our former defender Ruben Duarte, who has averaged a less than impressive 6.46 game rating since he left us to join Liverpool for 6.75M before last season. I declined to negotiate terms. The Serie A title odds were released before the Super Cup and A.C. Milan - without Stefano Gallo - were 7-4 favorites, followed by Inter (5-2), Sampdoria (5-1), Roma (20-1) and a host of team, including us at (33-1). Those odds make me think that if we have a good year a Champions League place might just be a realistic possibility. On the other hand the balance is Razor Thin, as technically we are predicted to finish 7th, outside of continental qualification altogether. 8/10/24 vs Sampdoria - Italian Super Cup, Stadio Olimpico, Rome, Italy - 442nd vs 4312n. The first half was hard fought as both teams effectively cancelled each other out. The first scoring chance came when we won a hard fought physical battle in the midfield and the ball broke free for Luke Lewis only to see Sampdoria’s keeper, Mounir Jelassi make a great save to keep the match scoreless. Sampdoria mounted an attack of their own just before half with their right back Sime Vrsaljko getting to the end line and finding a wide open Federico Bonazzoli in the box only to have Bruno Varela make a fantastic save of his own. The second half started scoreless and saw more tight defending from both sides. Sampdoria had the only scoring chances in the second half, but none were as good as those in the first and our defense held. At the end of regulation the game was scoreless and Lewis’ first half chance remained our only shot on goal. In the first extra time Luke came up lame with a slight heel injury and I almost took him off, which would have left us with 10 men since we were out of substitutions, but I decided to keep him on and trust our depth at midfield if he wound up injured. At 115 minutes, in the second extra time we broke into the box on a nice team move and Sampdoria right back Vrsaljko took down Fernando Henrique for a penalty that Loris Forni converted with ease for the 1-0 lead. Sampdoria tried to counter right off the ensuing kick off but their pass into the box was cut out by Ronaldo with authority and we launched a nice counter attack that saw Luke Lewis find Henrique in the box for a quickfire second goal and we were off to start this season as we finished last, with a cup victory. Win 2-0. Lineup; Bruno Varela, Novello, Ronaldo, Schrott/Barba (61), Gutierrez, Padovano, Gallo/Henrique (72), Benassi, Lewis (POM), Forni, Martins/Rocco (61). Torino vs Sampdoria Italian Super Cup2-011 Shots 143 On Target 518 Fouls 845% Possession 55%Goals: Forni (pen 115) Henrique (116) The press is calling our Italian Cup and Super Cup victories a double, as the new season hasn’t started yet I suppose. Despite my skepticism about the legitimacy of the claim the good press can't be bad for the club. Luke Lewis will miss 5-7 days with his heel injury. That was a goalscoring debut with the club for Henrique, who we purchased from Goias for 600k before last season. We were awarded 2.06M for the Super Cup victory, and the supporters came up with a new song to cheer for both me and Luke Lewis, who was player of the match. Sampdoria Manager Vincenzo Montella said he felt that I did a good job of increasing the pressure on his side before the match and it was something he would have to work on. If I did any such thing it wasn’t intentional, I just said the fans were looking forward to the match and it was a good way to start the season. 8/14/24 at Novara - Friendly - 442nd vs 4141. We were in control all game but never did anything with it so the game ended in a rather frustrating 0-0 draw. We did play several rotation players and subbed in even more in the second half, still the performance wasn’t very impressive. Draw 0-0. Torino at Novara Friendly0-027 Shots 010 On Target 010 Fouls 661% Possession 39%Goals: -- We still have a Testimonial for Filippo Scaglia against Cittadella and a friendly against our affiliate Ascoli before the Serie A season starts and if that game is any indication the preseason magic might be over. Park Dae Dong had a fantastic game for Man U that made the news, and the story cited his great year last season where he had 14 goals and 4 assists in 42 appearances. I opted for high win bonuses for all competitions, hoping to motivate the players. 8/18/24 at Cittadella - Scaglia Testimonial - 442nd vs 442. I could be forgiven for thinking this was exactly the same game we just played as we dominated but did not score well into the second half. In fact that wouldn’t be quite fair as we definitely created more chances in this game just to no avail, until Cittadella defender Nazario Ferrerro made their first mistake of the game and missed an interception that let Loris Forni have a shot. No one was particularly surprised how that turned out. Win 1-0. Torino at Cittadella Scaglia Testimonial1-024 Shots 88 On Target 25 Fouls 451% Possession 49%Goals: Forni (90) 8/21/24 at Ascoli - Friendly - 442nd vs 433. This game was a little more back and forth, we didn’t allow many chances, but there were a lot of back and forth battles in the midfield. We held solid and looked to be in control, building a 2-0 lead before and incisive strike by Ascoli got them on the board. After that they looked likely to tie the rest of the game, until we hit on a counter to ice it. Win 3-1. Torino at Ascoli Friendly3-129 Shots 69 On Target 25 Fouls 1153% Possession 47%Goals: Gallo (35) Henrique (55) Candido (78) Frontini (90+1) Now, finally, we can look forward to our season opener against Frosinone. Lukas Schrott strained his groin in training and will miss 2-3 weeks. Our fourth youth prospect agreed to terms as Udinese’s 17 year old midfielder Danilo Migliaccio agreed to terms. Danilo is another solid all around player with good potential. 8/25/24 vs Frosinone - Serie A G1 - 442nd vs 4231 DM wide. We looked flat and uninspired in the first half but generated the first scoring chance on a ball that found Loris triple covered in the box but he couldn’t convert. Frosinone had no such problem a few minutes later when they found Simone Palombi unmarked in the box and he put them up 1-0. We tried to get some emotion out of the club at the half but failed. Then we tried substitutions and more aggressive tactics, but there was nothing in these players today. Nothing at all. Loss 0-1. Lineup; Bruno Varela, Novello (POM), Oliveira, Ronaldo, Gutierrez, Padovano, Camara/Henrique (62) Benassi, Gallo/Lewis (62), Forni/Rocco (73), Martins. Torino vs Frosinone Serie A G10-18 Shots 73 On Target 316 Fouls 1252% Possession 48%Goals: Palombi (36) Not a very inspiring first game. Our U20’s defeated Sassuolo 5-1 behind goals from Claudio Perego, Jan van de Kracht, Marc Roche, Diego Bergese, Fabio Galati. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
edtheguy Posted June 29, 2016 Author Share Posted June 29, 2016 September 2024 Our season ticket sales ended at 12,417 up from 12,247 last season. The Board Meeting held no surprises, I’m very secure and they are very pleased with my leadership and our young players but can not ignore fans displeasure with 0-1 defeat to Frosinone. At Shizen, a Japanese cuisine restaurant in the hills near our Villa, we discussed beefing up Gia’s security with Gabrielle. Things are definitely getting tense around the ‘family’ again. Gianna even mentioned that it might be time for her to move on to other ventures, which wouldn’t break my heart, I don’t really want to go through all the stress associated with that again. 9/1/24 at Lazio - Serie A G2 - 442nd vs 4231n. As flat as we were in the last game was as lively as we started this game. We met Lazio, who actually controlled possession start to finish, with an impregnable defense and scored every time we moved forward, literally, in the first 25 minutes - scoring at 8, 9, 10,13, and 25 minutes. After that we were done, unfortunately, but it was more than enough. Especially since our defense was off the charts good all game. Lazio did manage a late goal on a nice play which unjustly robbed them a clean sheet. Win 5-1. Lineup; Bruno Varela, Novello, Oliveira, Ronaldo, Gutierrez, Padovano, Benassi, Gallo/Henrique (62), Lewis, Rocco, Forni (POM). Torino at Lazio Serie A G25-115 Shots 109 On Target 310 Fouls 947% Possession 53% The fans were understandably much happier with this game. On the day after the Lazio game, on the 2nd, the transfer window closed. I once again submitted to our press manager's request to ‘participate.’ Our first order of business was Roberto making an offer for another striker, Watford’s 21 year old Zac Tanner. It was just a loan offer but I still canceled the deal when it got to me, we already have Forni, Rocco, Martins, Pugliese and Frontini fighting for the two starting positions. At 9:30 Roberto came to me with another proposal, a 1.5M bid for left back Tyrone Mings of Gelsenkirchen. When I reviewed the reports on the player things looked good until I got to his game performances which had a ten year history of being poor. And he wanted a 4.95M salary. Nope. Late in the day Roberto had a two deals lined up, one for Santos 21 year old striker Chris which I also cancelled. The young man wasn’t ahead of Frontini in my estimation and I am not going to use our second international discovery and 4 million euros for something that isn’t eye popping. The other was for Fulham centre-back Antonio Milic, who has failed to perform in game for his last several clubs, cancelled that one as well. We received 22k from Manuel Nicoletti’s transfer from Bologna to LOSC. Manuel played exactly the same for Bologna as he did for us, which was underwhelmingly. And then, after a relatively quiet deadline day for us, the window closed. Loris Forni strained his back in the weight room and will miss 3-4 weeks. Away on international duty over our break are starters Novello, Ronaldo, Gutierrez, Padovano, and Lewis as well as substitutes Bellini, Schrott, and Rahimic. Apparently Genoa Manager Graziano Pelle feels I criticised him after our last match. I have no recollection of it, thin skin perhaps Graziano? I told the press they were trying to make something out of nothing. With 5 more appearances Santiago Arias will earn us 1.7M from a clause in his transfer to River. 9/15/24 vs Genoa - Serie A G3 - 442nd vs 4231 Well for anyone who missed our season opener against Frosinone, we replayed it for them here. We actually managed to do a little worse as we didn’t generate a single scoring chance all game and only one measly shot on target. Genoa got a goal late in the first half and didn’t even break a sweat locking the game down the rest of the way. Loss 0-1. Torino (1-0-1 7th) vs Genoa (0-0-2 18th) Serie A G20-111 Shots 61 On Target 112 Fouls 753% Possession 47%Goals: Matarese (39) I almost regret turning down all of those strikers that Roberto tried to bring in as Rocco and Frontini were pitiful in this game. Martins and Pugliese will play in the Europa league game Thursday. I yelled after the game, they got one chance to sort things themselves, now they are in for it. Ronaldo strained his back in the weight room and will miss 3-4 weeks. Benassi pulled his hamstring on the training pitch and will miss 3 weeks. I sent Sal to the presser. I’m already irritated with our play and no one needs to see me in this mood. 9/19/24 vs Besiktas - Europa League Group Stage - 442nd vs 433. Once again we looked to bounce back well from a flat performance as we were more fluid in the first half and got a nice Gaspard Martins goal for a 1-0 lead. Martins scored his second right off the restart and we looked to be on our way as he hit the post a few minutes later and Henrique forced a nice save shortly after that. The rest of the game was a maddening mess however as Besikas scored to make the game 2-1 and had several chances to tie the game before the final whistle. We managed to hang on in rather unconvincing fashion though. Win 2-1. Lineup; Bruno Varela, Novello, Oliveira, Schrott, Gutierrez, Padovano, Girard, Henrique, Gallo/Ben Hur (63), Pugliese, Martins (POM) Torino vs Besiktas Europa League Group Play2-120 Shots 69 On Target 36 Fouls 1060% Possession 40%Goals: Martins (7,46) Keskin (58) I told the press we would be using normal player rotation and I had complete faith in my players. Our U20’s defeated Lazio 1-0 on a goal from Danilo Migliaccio. DC United fired my old nemesis from Columbus during my Revolution days, Gregg Berhalter. The ESPN FC report of “Leading Italian producers of elite players” came out and showed A.C. Milan top with 39 players, we actually made the list at 6th, between Sampdoria and Atalanta. 9/22/24 at Sassuolo - Serie A 43 - 442nd vs 4231. Where is my football club? They certainly aren’t bothering to show up for Serie A games. Sassuolo was in complete control against a team that wouldn’t have been good enough to play a regional club. With the help of a non existent defensive group wearing Torino shirts Andrea Belotti had two goals and Sassuolo three inside 20 minutes. I took off two of our defenders at the half and another at 60 minutes and we didn’t do anything useful until the last minute of extra time when we broke the Sassuolo clean sheet on Mustafa Rahimic’s first ever goal. Loss 1-4. Lineup; Bruno Varela, Novello/Padalino (63), Oliveira/Barba (45), Schrott, Gutierrez/Rahimic (45), Cissokho, Girard, Henrique, Lewis, Pugliese, Martins Torino (1-0-2 13th) at Sassuolo (3-0-0 1st) Serie A G41-412 Shots 146 On Target 98 Fouls 554% Possession 46%Goals: Belotti (4,14) Dalmonte (16,46) Rahimic (90+2) After the game I calmly told the squad how disappointing they were, which they should already know. Then I dressed down with extreme prejudice Oliveira and Gutierrez who were embarrassments. The whole squad seemed to handle it well, except the poor 17 year old Mustafa Rahimic who scored our late consolation goal in his debut. The whole ordeal doesn’t seem to have been good for his confidence. Actually, aside from Novello, Oliveira, Schrott, and Gutierrez, everyone played a good game. Our U20’s drew 3-3 against Bologna. Diego Bergese, Mauro Porcu, and Sergio Poli scoring. 9/26/24 at Inter - Serie A 5 - 442nd vs 4123 DM wide. A largely pathetic start to the season made this game a key early season meeting with Inter. Going into the game there were legitimate concerns about the mental makeup of the squad but those were answered positively here. We came out determined and organized and played Inter even throughout a tight first half. Unlike our two 1-0 losses to poor clubs both teams had looks at goal and it was us that found a way through. After Stefano Gallo missed his third scoring chance Loris Forni, in his return from injury put the opportune rebound into the net for a 1-0 lead that we held at the break. In the second half Inter upped the pressure and after a couple unreal saves from Bruno Varela we dropped to a counter attacking 4132 and the players kept fighting. We actually had the edge in the game after the change and saw out the much needed 1-0 win. Lineup; Bruno Varela, Novello, Oliveira, Barba, Rahimic/Schrott (61), Padovano, Girard, Henrique, Gallo, Forni/Rocco (61), Martins. Torino (1-0-3 17th) at Inter (1-2-1 12th) Serie A G51-012 Shots 115 On Target 610 Fouls 654% Possession 46%Goals: Forni (23) Gaspard Martins suffered a head contusion in the match and will be out for about a week. After the midweek game against Inter we will face Bari at home this weekend and then BMG midweek in the Europa League before a game at Palermo the next weekend. 9/30/24 vs Bari - Serie A G6 - 442nd vs 442. We didn’t look ready at the start of the game and had to fight our way into the flow of play, unfortunately we found our feet only after Bari got the goal for the 1-0 lead and we found ourselves down by a goal at the half. By the break the game appeared to be well balanced and I tried to encourage the squad but at 60 minutes it looked just like another flat whitewashed performance. We made our usual one or two substitutions and pushed up the attack and, for the first time this year it worked as the players showed some character and off a Alex Padovano free kick Lukas Schrott put home a thumping header. We tightened up after the goal, hoping to get the winner through solid play without risking the all out attack, but it wasn’t to be. Draw 1-1. Lineup; Bruno Varela, Novello, Oliveira, Schrott, Rahimic, Padovano, Camara (POM), Henrique, Lewis/Gallo (61), Pugliese/Rocco (61), Forni Torino (2-0-3 13th) vs Bari (3-1-1 5th) Serie A G61-118 Shots 108 On Target 411 Fouls 744% Possession 56%Goals: Matias (15) Schrott (75) Well, it’s definitely not the start I was hoping for. Hopefully this is just a character building blip at the start of the season and not an indication of the true quality of the squad. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
edtheguy Posted June 30, 2016 Author Share Posted June 30, 2016 October 2024 We had the October Board Meeting just before heading to Monchengladbach for our second group match in the Europa League- I’m still very secure and the board is still very pleased with my leadership, their approval was underlined by fans delight with 5-1 victory over Lazio. Despite the positives they pointed out that the fans are understandably extremely disappointed with heavy 1-4 defeat to Sampdoria. Yeah, me too. 10/3/24 at BMG - Europa League Group Stage - 442nd vs 442. We started the game as underdogs, but stuck with our base, aggressive tactic and controlled much of the first half. We even avoided the one error or bad break to fall behind and if it were not for poor showings from Forni and Gutierrez might have found a lead. In the second half the game remained tight but we never looked like scoring. Eloi raised his game but Loris didn’t and was substituted. We dropped to our 4132 before BMG managed to hit us on the counter and did look more secure without sacrificing any of our meager offense. The game never saw any more action and wound down to a 0-0 draw that in the long run is probably good for our qualification chances. Lineup; Bruno Varela, Novello, Oliveira, Barba, Gutierrez, Padovano, Camara (POM), Henrique/Girard (70), Gallo, Rocco, Forni/Martins (57). Torino (1-0-0 2nd) at BMG (1-0-0 1st) Europa League Group Play0-09 Shots 101 On Target 28 Fouls 557% Possession 46%Goals: -- Of a concerning note that is the third time we’ve been blanked in 8 total games so far this season. Our U20’s eased to a 4-0 victory over Napoli. Goals came from Marc Roche, Diego Bergese (2) and Mauro Porcu. 10/6/24 at Palermo - Serie A G7 - 442nd vs 442. This was another closely fought game for most of the way. We managed to look good early on for a change and scored off the start on a nice play that started in the defensive zone and ended with a nice Gaspard Martins goal. Of course nothing can be easy and despite looking to be in control we were even by the half as we completely failed to defend a corner. We again showed the requisite character however and Luke Lewis scored the first of two second half goals less than two minutes after the half and we survived a couple late scares to see out the win 3-1. Lineup; Bruno Varela, Novello/Padalino (25), Oliveira, Barba/Schrott (71), Gutierrez, Padovano, Camara, Girard, Lewis (POM), Martins, Forni/Rocco (71) Torino (2-1-3 13th) at Palermo (3-1-2 7th) Serie A G73-115 Shots 1711 On Target 1011 Fouls 956% Possession 44%Goals: Martins (2) Rescigno (26) Lewis (46,71) Pape Camara twisted his knee late in the game and will be out 2-3 weeks - over the international break. Niccolo Novello left early with a head injury, but will only be affected for 5-6 days. I Congratulated Schrott on his first cap for Austria. Same for Gaspard on France. Alex Padovano wanted a new contract, his current 188k contract expires at the end of the season so we negotiated a 3 yr 1.17m deal, which he quickly signed citing his passion for the club. With his 50th appearance for Rizespor Davide Savino triggered a clause that paid us 400k. 10/20/24 at Bologna - Serie A G8 - 442nd vs 442. Both of our top AMC’s were lacking in fitness so we started the game with Gallo and Lewis on the bench, giving Ben Hur a shot to start a game. The game itself is a hard one to quantify, the numbers made it look like there wasn’t much going on, and that was pretty much accurate, but if you actually watched the game we never looked to be in any danger. It wasn’t until the second half, after bringing Lewis on and swapping strikers roles that we scored, with a nice Gaspard Martins header, but we were organized and went about our business all game. Even when Bologna tried to attack at the end to get back in we were fine. A fairly rewarding win 1-0. Lineup; Bruno Varela, Novello (POM), Oliveira, Ronaldo/Barba (72), Gutierrez, Padovano, Benassi, Girard, Ben Hur/Lewis (60), Martins/Camara (82), Forni. Torino (3-1-3 10th) at Bologna (2-2-3 15th) Serie A G81-012 Shots 83 On Target 35 Fouls 660% Possession 40%Goals: Martins (66) Alex Padovano, our 19 year old academy prospect who has firmly staked a claim to the defensive midfielder role reached his yellow card limit already in the game and will miss our game in Napoli on Sunday. We are 1-3 favorites for our Europa League match on Thursday against Bulgarian A team PFC Litex Lovech. Luke Lewis completed his Italian Language course and we now speak to each other in Italian as much as possible, I had never learned a new language before the move here, and was concerned about my ability to do so even though I told the board I was confident it wouldn’t be a problem. I am actually relieved that turned out to be the case. 10/24/24 vs Litex Lovech - Europa League Group Stage - 442nd vs 4231. We were clearly the better team from the start in this game, controlling the ball and generating multiple shots at net, on target and a couple of scoring chances. The best of which was a Luca Rocco shot from point blank that the Litex keeper Plamen Petrov made a last ditch save on. Moments later Litex striker Ivan Iheanacho broke past Oliveira for their first attempt on goal and a 1-0 lead. The 25 year old with mediocre skills repeated the feat ten minutes later and we were down 2-0 at the half while outshooting Litex 18 to 2. We won’t talk about halftime, but I did send the same squad out for the first few minutes of the second half so they could have a chance to redeem themselves. At 55 minutes they made an effort as Stefano Gallo headed home a nice Gaspard Martins cross for his first of the year. After that I did take off Oliveira, who was doing nothing useful in the game and brought on Loris hoping to at least salvage a point. Litex had other ideas as ten minutes after the Gallo goal Oliveira’s replacement Federico Barba lost a Litex player in the box and their left back Kamen Hadzhiev found him. It was Iheanacho. Hat trick. 1-3. Loris added a consolation mark at 89 minutes but it was not a good day. Loss 2-3. Lineup; Bruno Varela, Novello, Oliveira/Barba (60), Ronaldo, Gutierrez, Padovano, Benassi, Camara, Gallo, Rocco/Forni (60), Martins. Torino (1-1-0 2nd) vs Litex Lovech (0-1-1 4th) Europa League Group Play2-324 Shots 49 On Target 411 Fouls 1454% Possession 46%Goals: Iheanacho (16,26,65) Gallo (55) Forni (89) BMG also lost to Besiktas so after three matches everyone in the group is 1-1-1, BMG has a +1 goal differential and Litex a -1, Besiktas and us are even. I let Sal talk to the squad, they know what they’ve done. After the match I said they needed to learn from the loss, and Litex took their chances well. Antonio Frontini isn’t happy with his lack of playing time and is unwilling to waid any longer for his chance. Transfer listed. The next day we received three offers, one was for his estimated value, from Braga, that was the only offer we accepted. Our U20’s defeated Cagliari 3-0 with a hat trick from Marc Roche. They currently sit top of their table after 9 games with a 6-3-0 record. I brought Roche up to the senior squad to take Frontini’s place, Antonio can train with the U20’s until his transfer goes through. 10/27/24 at Napoli - Serie A G9 - 442nd vs 4123 DMW. Napoli literally ran circles around us at the beginning of the game but we defended well and kept them away from our goal. We came back to get the first few attempts at goal but Napoli had the first scoring chance, which resulted in a good save from Bruno Varela. Midway through the half we dropped to our 4132 to try to get something going as we couldn't do anything with the ball. At the half I told the players I wasn’t impressed and they went back out fired up for the second half. And Napoli took the leat at 50 minutes when Juan Iturbe put home a second chance after beating our defenders to a ball that Bruno Varela had parried away. We made some substitutions and threw everything we could at Napoli after that and did manage to create one good chance, that Gaspard missed the net on, by a wide margin. In the end Napoli was just better than us. Loss 0-1. Lineup; Bruno Varela, Novello, Oliveira, Ronaldo, Rahimic, Camara, Gallo, Girard, Lewis/Henrique (57), Martins, Forni/Pugliese (57) Torino (4-1-3 8th) at Napoli (4-4-0 2nd) Serie A G90-18 Shots 152 On Target 72 Fouls 949% Possession 51%Goals: Iturbe (50) When Santiago Arias makes his next appearance River will have to pay us another 1.7M. 10/30/24 vs Cesena - Serie A G10 - 442nd vs433. Given how flat we have been lately I asked Sal for recommendations based on who has looked good in training lately and decided to stick with his lineup. So even though he wasn’t as fit as I would normally require Stefano started in the midfield and Pape Camara and Federico Barba came into the lineup. And based on what I saw Sal deserves assistant of the week, for without any other changes to the lineup or tactics we were top shelf again, lively, in control, generating and finishing chances. We started at 16 minutes when Niccolo Novello fought his way to the end line and found Gaspard Martins in front of the net where Gaspard finished with authority. I feared more of the same from us less than 20 minutes later when Cesena cut us open for the tie, but that was all they could manage for the game and after that we just kept building momentum. By the half Gaspard had added his second on a nice team move and Federico Barba fought his way into the box and unleashed a scorcher for a 3-1 lead. When Cesena opened up late in the game to try to come back substitutes Luca Rocco and Ben Hur added icing to the cake. Win 5-1. Lineup; Bruno Varela, Novello, Ronaldo, Oliveira, Barba, Camara/Girard (61), Benassi, Gallo, Lewis/Ben Hur (61)Martins (POM), Forni/Rocco (66) Torino (4-1-4 8th) vs Cesena (4-1-4 9th) Serie A G105-131 Shots 914 On Target 38 Fouls 1066% Possession 34%Goals: Martins (16,39) Balazs (33) Barba (43) Rocco (89) Ben Hur (90+1) I have found over the years that when the team gets into one of those funks like we have been in where there just doesn’t seem to be any reason to be as bad as they are that part of the problem is usually something in my lineup selection that I don’t see and I’ve had fair success asking my assistant to choose the lineup. Of course I took it to the extreme in the early years in New England and let Tom pick several lineups in a row, which didn’t end well either, so like everything in this game it’s a bit of a balancing act. The two late goals were both firsts, Luca Rocco’s first of the year and Ben Hur’s first with the club. The first question in the presser was asking for my opinion on Inter parting ways with Laurent Blanc, I said I had a lot of sympathy for any Manager in his situation, it could easily happen to any of us. Antonio Frontini signed with Braga for 4.9M, just over his estimated value of 4.8M. We originally purchased him for 1.8M and he only played a half dozen games for us so that is acceptable. I can’t say I’m any more optimistic with the Serie A season now than I was at the beginning of the month, but at least our last gmae was good. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
EvilDave Posted July 1, 2016 Share Posted July 1, 2016 The league form looks to be picking up, shame about Europe though - losing to Litex can't have gone down well. Great story as ever Ed, looking forward to seeing how the rest of the Italian adventure pans out. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
edtheguy Posted August 1, 2016 Author Share Posted August 1, 2016 Quote The league form looks to be picking up, shame about Europe though - losing to Litex can't have gone down well. Great story as ever Ed, looking forward to seeing how the rest of the Italian adventure pans out. Thank you very much, I'm glad to have you following. And no, I don't even want to talk about the Litex game - but the reverse fixture and a chance for revenge is just around the corner ;-) Apologies to all for my unplanned hiatus - life happens. All is well and hopefully returning to a routine finally. I've still been playing though and have 3+ more seasons (and at least one major development) done and am still going strong, so hopefully I can do some catching up with the posting now. Side note - I go away for a couple weeks and the forum software changes.... November 2024 The monthly Board Meeting was still positive - My position is very secure, and they are pleased with our young players. They did point out that they understood the fans disappointment with our heavy 1-4 loss to Sassuolo. Thankfully they didn’t even bring up the Europa League loss to Litex, that would have ruined an otherwise positive meeting. 11/3/24 at Cagliari - Serie A G11 - 442nd vs442. We took it to Cagliari from the start and built a 2-0 lead in commanding fashion on goals from each striker. First Loris Forni beat an offside trap and drove home a signature goal and then just inside the half hour mark Luca Rocco jumped on a ball that Cagliari keeper Marco Bleve barely managed to parry away off a powerful Luke Lewis shot. Up 2-0 and cruising it looked like we couldn’t be stopped, then out of nowhere Cagliari’s Ian Paisley struck a magnificent bicycle kick from just inside the box and it was 2-1. That score lasted less than three minutes and Cagliari was even. At the half we encouraged the troops, which I don’t think they were expecting, and pulled a very disappointing Oliveira for Lukas Schrott. At 56 minutes Luca Rocco had to leave with an injury and Giuseppe Pugliese came on. At 72 minutes Niccolo Novello suffered the same fate and Tommaso Padalino came on and finally at 78 minutes Padalino found Pugliese who made a brilliant switch to the edge of the box and found waiting a wide open…. Loris Forni. Win 3-2. Lineup; Bruno Varela, Novello/Padalino (72), Ronaldo, Oliveira/Schrott (45), Barba, Camara, Benassi, Gallo, Lewis, Rocco/Pugliese (56), Forni. Torino (5-1-4 7th) at Cagliari (5-0-5 8th) Serie A G11 3-2 19 Shots 13 11 On Target 5 13 Fouls 6 52% Possession 48% Goals: Forni (12,78) Rocco (28) Paisley (34) Pasa (37) Nico Novello strained his knee ligaments and will miss 5-6 weeks. Rocco has a pulled hamstring and will miss three weeks. Alex Padovano, who has sat out the last two matches, has been labeled by the press a ‘wonderkid’. We are once again heavily favored for our Europa League match at Litex Lovech. Remember how well that worked out for us last time? 11/8/24 at Litex Lovech - Europa League Group Stage - 442nd vs 4231. In our last meeting with Litex it was Ivan Iheanacho with the hat trick on route to a 3-2 victory for his side in a game that wasn’t as close as the score. It appears that ‘someone’ on our squad was paying attention and did not want to be outdone. Inside 5 minutes we were already on the attack and when Loris Forni made a cut back in the box to try to find some space Litex defender Akos Kecskes took his legs out from under him and we were awarded a penalty. Without hesitation Loris grabbed the ball, placed it on the spot and when the whistle blew blasted it past Plamen Petrov, the Litex keeper who had even guessed correctly and still could do nothing about it. Iheanacho struck back to even the game at 29 minutes for his fourth goal in two games against us. Loris let that stand 2 minutes before he restored our lead when he took a nice Luke Lewis pass and placed it in the corner. At the half I told the players they were not good enough and I expected more and one minute after the break Forni delivered again, finishing a nice through ball from his strike partner Gaspard Martins. Now with a 2 goal lead I dropped us into our 4132 to make things harder on Litex. At 61 minutes I took off two offensive minded midfielders, Gallo and Lewis and brought on two tough as nails midfielders, Girard and Camara and at 77 minutes we pulled our second striker and brought on Ben Hur to give us a five man midfield. Everything went to plan and Loris even added a fourth in stoppage time finishing with aplomb after a brilliant Ben Hur Pass. Loris had spotted Ivan two goals coming into this one, but after two games the individual goal count is Iheanacho 4; Forni 5. Win 4-1. Lineup; Bruno Varela, Gutierrez, Ronaldo, Oliveira, Barba, Padovano, Benassi, Gallo/Camara (64), Lewis/Girard (64) Martins/Ben Hur (77), Forni (POM). Torino (1-1-1 3rd) vs Litex Lovech (1-1-1 4th) Europa League Group Play 4-1 18 Shots 8 10 On Target 5 2 Fouls 2 55% Possession 45% Goals: Forni (pen 5, 31, 46, 90+1) Iheanacho (29) Besiktas and BMG drew their match so we sit at the top of the group with two games to go. Alex Padovano reached his European yellow card limit and will miss our next game. Loris’ four goal performance was a club record. We received the 1.7M from the Arias transfer. Ronaldo was called up for the Brazil team in the Superclasico de las Americas. Our U20’s beat Pescara 3-1 behind a Claudio Perego hat trick. 11/10/24 vs Roma - Serie A G12 - 442nd vs 4231. We struggled to get anything going in the first half, but did well keeping Roma from starting anything either. Finally, just as Roma looked to be finding a way through we broke a counter attack that saw Luke Lewis, covered by two Roma defenders, send a nice cross into the box where Martins and Forni were just being caught by no less than four retreating Roma defenders. There was only one man who was going to find the ball though. And find it Forni did, putting us up 1-0. At the half I told the players I expected more and apparently Federico Barba thought I meant more yellow cards, and unfortunately he already had one. After he was sent off at 49 minutes we went to a 4131 and unfortunately his replacement, the young Mustafa Rahimic had a bad game allowing Roma’s tying goal. That was all Roma could manage but it was enough to kill any momentum we had in a rather ugly game. Draw 1-1. Lineup; Bruno Varela, Gutierrez, Ronaldo, Oliveira, Barba RED(49), Girard, Benassi, Gallo/Camara (65), Lewis (POM), Martins/Rahimic (49), Forni Torino (6-1-4 5th) vs Roma (3-3-5 15th) Serie A G12 1-1 7 Shots 9 1 On Target 7 12 Fouls 5 48% Possession 52% Goals: Forni (24) Reine-Adelaide (74) At least we scored on our only shot on target. I know how annoying that is to the opposing Manager. After the match I told the press that I thought Federico probably deserved the second yellow, but that he knows he made a mistake and will bounce back quickly. I gave Federico a warning and he agreed that it was deserved. Tommaso Padalino was player of the match in Italy U21s win over Georgia. After his last international appearance we had to pay Basel and additional 550k for Pape Camara. The work on our youth and training facilities was completed, Training are excellent and youth are top. I can’t even find anything to request of the board at the moment. Man U signed Park Dae Dong to a 5 year 43.5M extension. The United supporters were delighted to have one of their best players tied up long term. 11/23/24 at Sampdoria - Serie A G13 - 442nd vs 4312.Throughout the first twenty minutes the game was fairly defensive, but we weren’t able to hang on to the ball. With Sampdoria sitting at 69% possession I dropped us into our counter attacking 4132 and we looked to hit them on the counter. Late in the half it looked like the right move as we almost scored twice on one team move. First Sampdoria’s keeper Mounir Jelassi made a nice save on a Marco Benassi shot and Loris Forni collected the loose ball, worked his way around the two defenders…. And missed. In the second half Sampdoria continued to control possession and we continued to look dangerous on the break until at the hour mark I subbed a struggling Marco Benassi off. I left Loris in as after a bad first half he seemed to be pulling things together so I just swapped the strikers sides and waited to see what would happen. At 65 minutes it looked good again as we broke on a counter made some beautiful team passing and led Loris in on the keeper all alone. He mad a move round the keeper took his shot…. And hit the woodwork. After that I brought Giuseppe Pugliese on for Forni but neither team generated any more chances. Draw 0-0. Lineup; Bruno Varela, Padalino, Ronaldo, Oliveira, Gutierrez, Padovano, Benassi/Henrique (58), Girard, Gallo, Martins, Forni/Pugliese (68) Torino (6-2-4 6th) at Sampdoria (7-3-2 4th) Serie A G13 0-0 10 Shots 12 3 On Target 5 13 Fouls 9 40% Possession 60% Goals: -- After the match I let Sal tell the squad they did well to avoid defeat against a heavily favored team and then I called out Loris and Marco for failing to win the game and letting the team down. According to the coaches afterwards both players were motivated and inspired. The media gave Loris a 6.0 match rating for the game. I went to the press conference expecting questions about our star striker and I was right. I told the press that I thought he did some good things and sacrificed a lot for the team, sure he missed some chances but that happens. Dr. Albertini came to me after the game and told me that Alex Padovano, Ronaldo and Stefano Gallo were in need of extended breaks. Before I was done dealing with that news Luke Lewis was added to the list. I sent them all on one weeks leave as recommended, which will only cost them all one game. Unfortunately that is a big Europa League clash with Besiktas with the group hanging in the balance. Aurelian Rymis, a centre-back who has yet to see the pitch for us this year came to me saying he was starting to think he wasn’t up to playing here and I told him I wan’t going to be able to find him playing time so I would look to find him a new team, he thanked me and went on his way. Our squad got even thinner the day before the Besiktas game as Tommaso Padalino suffered a lower back stress fracture that will keep him out for 6-7 weeks. One bright side to all the unavailable player was that the squad pretty much picked itself, we had exactly 18 available first team players. How bad could it be? 11/28/24 at Besiktas - Europa League Group Stage - 442nd vs 433. We came out fired up and rolled over Besiktas for most of the first half, but things got ominous quickly. Gaspard missed an absolute sitter on the right side, a few minutes later Loris missed one on the left. Then Loris was offside on a great scoring chance, a few minutes later he hit the post. Finally, after another missed opportunity at 41 minutes Besiktas launched a counter attack and the inevitable had begun. I’m not even going to talk about the rest of the game. Ever. Loss 1-3. Lineup; Bruno Varela, Gutierrez, Oliveira/Schrott (56), Barba, Rahimic, Girard, Benassi, Camara, Ben Hur, Martins/Rocco (56), Forni/Pugliese (56) Torino at Besiktas Europa League Group Play 1-3 12 Shots 8 7 On Target 5 11 Fouls 4 59% Possession 41% Goals: Eren (41) Keskin (49,63) Camara (56) Well as horrendous as that was, we still hold our fate in our own hands. Defeat BMG in our last match and qualify for the knockout rounds. Anything else and we are done. Our lone bright spot in the game, Pape Camara suffered a bruised head before scoring his goal and will now miss 5-6 weeks. We are expecting a sellout for the Derby della Mole on Sunday. Urbano Cairo was interviewed and said he hoped for a memorable match. Our average attendance so far is a worrying 16,652, 18th in the league. Gaspard Martins asked that I let him go to SLB if they make an offer. The Rev’s won the Eastern Conference again and the press ran a story saying the fans were overjoyed that Brad Guzan and his players have continued their proud tradition. Hey, look what I started. This is still not the best season ever, but it could be worse I suppose. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
edtheguy Posted August 1, 2016 Author Share Posted August 1, 2016 December 2024 12/1/24 vs Juventus - Serie A G14 - 442nd vs 41311. Juve was clearly fired up for this game and it took all we had to hold our own in a true derby battle. For most of the first half I was expecting the worst given our recent form, but at 37 minutes Stefano Gallo stole a Juve throw in and a couple headers later Giuseppe Pugliese made a wonderful spin move and fired a 30+ yard shot home for the lead. Juve continued coming at us throughout the second half, and we kept collecting yellow cards, but finally at 80 minutes Stefano found substitute Ben Hur with a nice pass and the young midfielder drove home the insurance marker. Our defense stood strong all game, denying Juve any shots on target and at 88 minutes Pugliese added a second for a 3-0 final. Win 3-0. Lineup; Bruno Varela, Gutierrez, Ronaldo, Oliveira, Barba/Rahimic (69) Padovano, Benassi, Gallo, Lewis/Ben Hur (69), Pugliese, Forni/Martins (61) Torino (6-3-4 6th) vs Juventus (5-2-6 11th) Serie A G13 3-0 9 Shots 6 4 On Target 0 15 Fouls 9 51% Possession 49% Goals: Pugliese (37,88) Ben Hur (80) The final yellow card count was 4 to 1, which seemed odd since it was Juve flying all over the pitch like madmen, but I’ll just take the three points and call it good. Loris had another awful game, his fourth in a row since scoring four goals against Litex. The monthly board meeting was held over dinner after the game in the clubs facilities which was novel, but still managed to be routine and boring. They assured me I was still very secure and while they were pleased with my overall leadership and use of young players on the first team they still could not ignore 2-3 Europa league defeat to Litex. There it is, I was hoping to never think of that game again. I can't argue with their disappointment, though it is amusing that they didn’t bring it up until the meeting after we exacted revenge. The draw for the first round of the Italian Cup put us against Serie B club Reggiana. Juventus fired Manager Leonardo Bonucci. 12/5/24 vs BMG - Europa League Group Stage - 442nd vs 4411. BMG set up to play for the draw and played it well. We struggled through the first half scoreless, tried to fire up my suddenly very disappointing squad at halftime, failed, and struggled through the second half. Changing both strikers who were disappointing (again) didn’t help either. Draw 0-0. Eliminated. Lineup; A bunch of little s@#$%.... Ok, really then… Bruno Varela Gutierrez, Ronaldo, Oliveira, Barba, Padovano, Benassi/Girard (74), Gallo (POM), Lewis, Forni/Pugliese (62), Martins/Rocco (57). Torino (2-1-2) vs BMG (2-2-1) Europa League Group Play 0-0 13 Shots 8 7 On Target 3 9 Fouls 11 61% Possession 39% Goals: -- I obviously couldn’t tell the…. Players…. What I really thought. I promised Gia I wouldn’t go back to the New England days for the sake of her sanity and my blood pressure. I let Sal talk to them. They know what that means. Now we get to play second place AC Milan, who have only lost once this year. We probably aren’t good enough to beat them when we are playing well. Which we aren’t. Fernando Henrique came to me making threats to get more playing time. After I told him to get out of my office I assigned him to our affiliate Norrkoping in Sweden. He will train with the U20’s until then. I told the press I was in no mood before the Milan game and left the conference before the first question. The press wasn’t impressed. 12/8/24 at A.C. Milan - Serie A G15 - 442nd vs 4411. Milan washed over us in waves. They toyed with us all game, it was about as bad as I expected. It could have been different but both strikers once again missed clear cut scoring chances in the first half. This time it was Rocco and Pugliese as I told Loris and Gaspard they needed to sack up and I didn’t want to see them on the pitch until they were ready to deliver. If either one had converted in this game we would have been even at the half as Milan only took one of their let’s see… nope, I can’t count that high… we’ll just say many chances. Less than a minute into the second half Pape Camara picked up his second yellow and the rest of the story is predictable. Loss 0-3. Lineup; Bruno Varela, Gutierrez, Ronaldo, Oliveira, Barba/Rahimic (62), Camara (46 RC), Benassi, Girard/Ben Hur (46), Gallo, Rocco/Padovano (46), Pugliese. Torino (7-3-4 5th) at AC Milan (9-4-1 2nd) Serie A G13 0-3 5 Shots 17 2 On Target 10 9 Fouls 10 51% Possession 49% Goals: Ombang (18) Jesus (52) Nitcham (80) Moving on. Jean-Marc Girard suffered a back injury in the match and will miss 3-4 weeks. Giuseppe Pugliese, whose contract was expiring at the end of the season signed a new 4 year contract, delighting our supporters. Andrew Farrell rejected a two year contract extension offer from the Rev’s, his average rating per year has gone from the 7.4 range when I was there to 6.7 the last three years. 12/15/24 vs Chievo - Serie A G16 - 442nd vs 532. The game was billed as a great defense (Chevo) against a really good offense (us?). Defense wins. Fortunately it doesn’t score. Draw 0-0. Lineup; Bruno Varela, Novello(POM)/Rahimic (61), Oliveira, Ronaldo, Gutierrez, Padovano, Benassi, Gallo, Lewis, Forni, Martins/Pugliese (61) Torino (7-3-5 5th) vs Chievo (6-5-4 8th) Serie A G13 0-0 9 Shots 8 6 On Target 2 11 Fouls 6 56% Possession 44% Goals: -- After the game I transfer Listed Gaspard, who had previously asked to leave and has had people scouting him at multiple games this year. I also called Loris into my office and challenged him to pick up his game. In our Cup game we will bloody young striker Marc Roche and midfielder Eugenio Moschetto, who have both dominated at the U20 level. Ben Hur and young keeper Giacomo Bellini will also play with the rest of the regulars. 12/18/24 vs Reggiana - Italian Cup First Round - 442nd vs 4411. Bloody Hell. We are awful. We looked as bad as ever and couldn’t get anything going. We stumbled through a scoreless first half, had to bring on Barba for an injured Oliveira at halftime, subbed out both strikers for embarrassing the club at 58 minutes and finally at 72 minutes one of our formerly embarrassing strikers, Giuseppe Pugliese headed home a Niccolo Novello cross for the 1-0 win. Ugly. Lineup; Bellini, Novello (POM), Oliveira/Barba (45), Ronaldo, Gutierrez, Padovano, Benassi, Moschetto, Ben Hur, Forni/Rocco (58), Roche/Pugliese (58) Torino vs Reggiana Italian Cup First Round 1-0 3 Shots 7 2 On Target 3 10 Fouls 14 52% Possession 48% Goals: Pugliese (72) Ugh. Niccolo Novello has been player of the match in both his games since returning from injury. Both Bellini (7.1) in goal and Moschetto (7.0) in the midfield played good games. Marc Roche (6.3) on the other hand. No. We will face Bologna in the Italian Cup Quarter Final on 6th February 2025. Sassuolo had to go to penalties to defeat Serie B side Parma, so we weren’t the only strugglers. Juventus hired Luigi Castaldo as their new Manager. He has managed Crotone and Perugia in Serie B so far in his career. Interesting choice. We signed Papa Cissokho to a four year extension. The supporters were happy and Papa cited his admiration for me. 12/21/24 at Pescara - Serie A G17 - 442nd vs 442. It’s times like this I think about retiring and sipping mojitos on the patio with Gianna all day. Another pathetic performance, if I was still yelling at the players these days I would need vocal chord surgery. We launched 20 wasteful shots, allowed a team with no skill to score on us and looked like a bunch of preschoolers for most of the game. We finished the game with three shots on target out of 20 and Pescara had 6 shots on target out of 6. I could go on. Oh, somehow, and I have no idea how, we won. And Loris finally f@#$ing scored again. Win 2-1. Lineup; Bellini, Novello, Ronaldo, Schrott, Gutierrez, Padovano/Cissokho, Camara/Ben Hur (61), Gallo (POM), Lewis, Pugliese/Benassi (89), Forni Torino (7-4-5 6th) at Pescara (3-0-13 20th) Serie A G17 2-1 20 Shots 6 3 On Target 6 9 Fouls 11 61% Possession 39% Goals: Forni (74) Ben Hur (88) Hartog (90) Luke Lewis and Stefano Gallo, who - to be fair - both had spectacular games, were confused when I spent post match telling the squad just how far they are from where I require them to be. The rest of the squad seemed to get it. Our next match is in 15 days against Atalanta. Arsenal made a 36M bid for Ronaldo, which brings about personal crisis time for me. I don’t see any way I can decline it, I shouldn’t have turned down the bid for Stefano earlier this year. This offer is better, not in money, but in the fact that it is a team outside Serie A and not one of our in house players. But he is a central defender and we don’t have a replacement lined up. We do have two teenagers who are promising on the U20 team, unfortunately they are both 17 and that is probably a little too young. In the end the money makes sense and there is no way the 26 year old star isn’t going to want to go to a ‘big’ club. So there really isn’t a decision to be made. I reluctantly accepted the bid. Hopefully it doesn’t ruin this ‘wonderful' season we have going. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
edtheguy Posted August 2, 2016 Author Share Posted August 2, 2016 January 2025 Luke Lewis made the December Serie A team of the month, and he is rumored to be attracting interest in the range of 27M. Gaspard Martins is now receiving contract offers from other teams and will not negotiate with us, which is a shame, we should have got him sold before this. 1/6/25 vs Atalanta - Serie A G18 - 442nd vs 442. I was prepared to see our defense crumble without Ronaldo at the back but was pleasantly surprised to see them play well. The final score made this game look like our last couple. But where we stumbled our way around the field against teams that we should have handled easily in those games here we played well, every player had a good game and if Atalanta was going to get anything out of it they would be fortunate. At 20 minutes we completed a long stretch of beautiful passing with Eloi Gutierrez finding both Luke Lewis and Loris Forni making a run into the box. Luke won the race and put us up 1-0. We weren’t able to extend the lead, but never looked to be in any danger for the rest of what was a pretty uneventful game. Win 1-0. Lineup; Bellini, Novello, Oliveira, Barba, Gutierrez (POM), Padovano, Benassi, Gallo, Lewis/Camara (73), Pugliese, Forni/Girard (82) Torino (8-4-5 5th) vs Atalanta (8-2-7 7th) Serie A G18 1-0 16 Shots 8 6 On Target 3 5 Fouls 3 62% Possession 38% Goals: Lewis (20) I went over centre-back options with the scouting staff and Roberto and we identified a half dozen targets to evaluate over the next few weeks to see if any are worth making a move for. The first one of major interest is PSG’s Matteo Di Palma, an Italian former Atalanta centre-back whose contract is up in 5 months and PSG have listed him for loan. We made a loan offer for him that was accepted. Fernando Henrique, who refused the loan move to our affiliate agreed to terms with Flamengo for a 3.8M transfer fee. Since we purchased him for 600K, I won’t lose sleep over that deal, even though our fans were disappointed. Gaspard Martins agreed to terms with Hannover when his contract expires in 5 months. Goretti made a 6.5M offer for Napoli’s 23 year old playmaking midfielder Jorge Coman who looks unbelievable in every way except defensively and in his actual game performances. Matteo Di Palma agreed to the loan move from PSG, a move which the supporters approved of. 1/12/25 at Carpi - Serie A G19 - 442nd vs 5212 WB. For the first quarter of the game we were the better team attacking and creating chances, but not finishing any of them The worst miss was a Federico Barba header off a corner that only found crossbar. After that, however, Carpi started to take over as their counter attacks began to generate more chances than our attacks. At halftime we swapped the strikers to try to free them up but things continued to deteriorate. Finally at 60 minutes I dropped us to our 4132 to see if we could draw Carpi out and create some space. The plan worked as designed six minutes later as we broke up a Carpi attack and a long through ball to Loris saw the Carpi keeper, Wladimiro Falcone race out to try to beat Forni to the ball. Loris got there in time to block his attempted clearance and the ball rolled all the way into the Carpi net for a 1-0 lead. A few minutes later a Gutierrez cross found Loris again and we were up for good. Win 2-0. Lineup; Bellini, Novello, Oliveira/Di Palma (58), Barba, Gutierrez (POM), Padovano, Camara, Gallo/Moschetto (70), Lewis/Girard (58), Pugliese, Forni. Torino (9-4-5 5th) at Carpi (3-5-10 19th) Serie A G18 2-0 16 Shots 15 10 On Target 7 14 Fouls 13 59% Possession 41% Goals: Forni (66,69) Hey look, we’ve had a Loris Forni sighting. Goretti’s offer for Jorge Coman was accepted by Napoli and I negotiated terms. I’m not sold on the young man, but Roberto is our DOF for a reason, and I can’t find any reason to say I don’t want Coman on the team, so here we go. I did find reasons to cancel Roberto's next two proposed deals, for another Napoli player, 26 year old midfielder Hachim Mastour and Everton defensive midfielder Laco Takacs. Neither one would have been an important enough addition to justify either the price or taking playing time away from our academy players. 1/18/25 at Frosinone - Serie A G20 - 442nd vs 4312. While we had a slight but persistent edge in play and looked solid on defense we didn’t create any scoring chances in open play. Set pieces were a different story however as the press new favorite ‘wonderkid’ Alex Padovano made two wonderful deliveries, one right on the head of Marco Benassi for our first goal and the next led Loris Forni in on goal alone for our second. That was all the scoring, but in a good way as we professionally controlled everything that Frosinone tried to throw our way. Win 2-0. Lineup; Bellini, Novello, Oliveira, Barba/Di Palma (61), Gutierrez/Rahimic (61), Padovano, Benassi, Gallo, Lewis, Forni, Pugliese. Torino (10-4-5 5th) at Frosinone (6-6-7 12th) Serie A G18 2-0 11 Shots 6 6 On Target 2 3 Fouls 17 54% Possession 46% Goals: Benassi (14) Forni (38) This is almost starting to feel like momentum. Then again Niccolo Novello suffered a shin injury late in the game and will miss 5-6 days - every silver lining comes with a dark cloud. The day after the Frosinone game we completed the Coman signing. Even though I wanted to protect our bank account I confirmed Robertos next offer and negotiated terms with A.C. Milan’s 23 year old striker Marco Amadio, who Roberto ranks ahead of Loris. On Thursday we completed the Amadio signing and his 11M purchase price brought our total spending up to 45M for the season, a new club record. Ugh. No sooner had we finished the Amadio signing then Goretti made an offer for another striker, Man City’s 25 yar old Tom Fowler, who is currently stashed on their U21 squad. Tommaso Padalino suffered a chest injury during training and will be out 9-11 days. A.C. Milan made a 5.5M offer with incentives to 10.75M for Eloi Gutierrez, who we purchased for 850K and has a 9.75M free release clause. We could reject the offer but then if they came back with a flat 9.75M offer we would be losing money, as he is almost guaranteed to make the incentive clauses. I stalled their offer and offered Eloi a new contract. 1/26/25 vs Lazio - Serie A G21 - 442nd vs 4231 n. We started the game well, and then Lazio grabbed momentum for much of the first half, getting the lead on the end of a brilliant back and forth segment of play that saw scoring chances for both teams. After that, though it was all us. We were brilliant, one of the best performances of the season. Lazio keeper Luigi Sepe was player of the match, with the best performance I’ve ever seen from a keeper at any level. He made 14 saves (POM 9.2 rating), all highlights. It was so unreal it wasn’t even worth getting upset over. Loss 0-1. Lineup; Bellini, Novello, Oliveira, Di Palma, Gutierrez, Padovano, Benassi/Coman (63), Gallo, Lewis, Forni, Pugliese/Amadio (63) Torino (11-4-5 5th) vs Lazio (10-3-7 6th) Serie A G18 0-1 28 Shots 7 14 On Target 3 9 Fouls 14 55% Possession 45% Goals: Lazio (16) Speaking of dark clouds. I told the players not to worry about it they were just unlucky. It was just silly. The press agreed. On Friday it was the end of the transfer window and I was doing my PR thing. At 7:15 Goretti offered a contract to Montpelier’s striker Abdelkader Bouadla for the end of his contract. At 9:00 Goretti signed Vojvodina’s 19 year old enthusiastic midfielder Bratislav Nitkovic. At 9:30 Eloi Gutierrez agreed to a new deal, cancelling the proposed transfer to A. C. Milan. At 10:00 Abdelkader Bouadla signed a pre contract deal. Stefano Gallo injured himself in the weight room and will miss 9-11 days. At 18:45 we completed a loan deal sending Christian Ojong to Serie B side Trapani, and that was the end of our business. I got home in the early hours of the morning to find Gia on the phone. She had just received the news that Giovanna Savelli had passed away. That would surely have serious implications on Gia’s financial backing for the arts and perhaps, even her very safety. When I checked the road in front of the villa, just as I expected there was already a plain black Audi parked ominously across the way. I picked up my phone and gave Gabrielle a call to tell her we would need her services full time again and waited to talk things over with Gia when she got off the phone. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
edtheguy Posted August 2, 2016 Author Share Posted August 2, 2016 February 2025 The February Board meeting was a videoconference as we had already made the relatively short trip for a game in Genoa the following day - I’m very secure, they’re pleased with my leadership and our young players but disappointed with 0-1 defeat against Lazio. The usual. 2/2/25 at Genoa - Serie A G22 - 442nd vs 4312. We looked like we should be in charge of the game, controlling the ball and tempo of the game, but we lacked any idea on how to progress once we got in the 18 yard box and it was Genoa that piled up shots and chances for most of the first half. I finally moved us up to a more aggressive 4312 that we had been working on on the training pitch for about a month now and we looked a little better by the end of the half. In the second half we swapped strikers roles but saw little improvement. At 60 minutes we brought on Ben Hur to be a more attacking presence in the midfield. At 65 minutes Genoa finally scores on the counter to take a 1-0 lead. We moved to all out attack as genoa dropped into a defensive shell with the lead and at 75 minutes pulled Loris and brought on Gaspard Martins. Finally at 82 minutes Alex Padovano recycled a failed Genoa clearance and found Marco Amadio in the box and our new striker had his first for the club to draw us even. Seven minutes later Padovano and Benassi combined to break up another attempted Genoa clearance and Amadio was again in the right position for his brace and the lead. It was our turn to drop into a defensive posture, a new 41311 that we had also been working on for a while and we saw the game out for a nice come from behind Win 2-1. Lineup; Bellini, Novello, Oliveira, Di Palma, Gutierrez, Padovano, Benassi, Camara/Ben Hur (60), Lewis, Amadio (POM)/Girard (89), Forni/Martins (75) Torino (11-4-6 5th) at Genoa (4-6-11 17th) Serie A G22 2-1 12 Shots 19 6 On Target 6 10 Fouls 5 54% Possession 46% Goals: Martucci (65) Amadio (82,89) Eloi Gutierrez suffered an injured toe in a hard challenge in the game and will miss 5-6 days. Oliveira reached his yellow card limit and will miss our next game. PSG made a 13.75M offer for Niccolo Novello, who is valued at 18.75M. Niccolo’s coaches reports don’t give any indication he is as good as he is on the pitch, but you can’t argue with the performances, he has 5 assists 4 player of the match awards and an average rating over 8 for us - again. He is also a Torino supporter, but he won’t negotiate a new contract with us because he is unhappy with the sale of Ronaldo and our subsequent efforts to strengthen the squad this transfer window. I negotiated the bid to 15M with incentives (nearly guaranteed) up to 22.5M and accepted. Since it was Ligue 1’s deadline day it took less than an hour for Niccolo to agree to terms. His sale brought our transfer income up to 66M this season, a new club record. Marco Amadio injured himself in the weight room and will miss 2-3 weeks. I guess those two goals against Genoa took a lot out of him. 2/6/25 vs Bologna - Italian Cup Quarter Final - 442nd vs 451. Bologna set up with a defensive 451 and worked it well, creating all of the scoring chances in the match until I dropped us back to our defensive 41311 which evened the game and we started getting some chances of our own. It was Bologna who struck first however after an extended period of possession they finally worked our defense out of position and found Alessandro Mastalli making a run for the back post for his first goal of the year. After that we tried everything I could think of but had no answer. Loss 0-1. Lineup; Bellini, Padalino/Rahimic (57), Oliveira, Schrott, Barba, Camara, Benassi, Girard, Ben Hur, Forni, Pugliese/Rocco (57) Torino vs Bologna Italian Cup Quarter Final 0-1 8 Shots 15 3 On Target 7 13 Fouls 8 52% Possession 48% Goals: Mastalli (37) So much for our cup defense. Now we have a league game in two days against Inter to prepare for. 2/8/25 vs Inter - Serie A G23 - 442nd vs 4231. Inter was sharp and had the edge right from the start, against a heavily rotated lineup. It still took a glaring individual error by young left back Mustafa Rahimic for them to take the 1-0 lead inside 10 minutes. We were even at the half hour mark as we scored on our first shot on target against the flow of play with Matteo Di Palma scoring his first off a set piece. Another Rahimic error gave Inter the lead at 50 minutes and we were finally forced into drastic changes. We made a triple substitution taking off both fullbacks who were having poor games and a disappointing Loris Forni. We changed to the 4312 and ramped the pressure up in stages, hoping for the tying goal. At 81 minutes we got it as we played in all out attack mode as Luke Lewis finished a nice team move. We lowered our mentality to a more reasonable level and finished with a rather undeserved draw and a stolen point. Draw 2-2. Lineup; Bruno Varela, Padalino/Gutierrez (59), Di Palma, Barba, Rahimic/Schrott (59), Padovano, Moschetto, Coman, Lewis (POM), Rocco, Forni/Martins (59) Torino (12-4-6 5th) vs Inter (8-9-5 8th) Serie A G18 2-2 8 Shots 13 4 On Target 5 6 Fouls 8 53% Possession 47% Goals: Melo (8,50) Di Palma (30) Lewis (81) Alex Padovano reached his next yellow card limit and will miss one match. 2/12/25 vs Sassuolo - Serie A G24 - 442nd vs 4231. In a complete 360 from the last game, we were the team that was sharp and had the edge right from the start. Instead of a glaring error creating the first goal however it was a great play from Federico Barba, playing right back, finding Loris Forni in the box after beating several Sassuolo defenders and the striker put us up 1-0. Despite several more scoring chances we never extended the lead and late in the game had to pull one of the strikers for an extra midfielder and hang on, but we did. Win 1-0. Lineup; Bellini, Gutierrez, Oliveira, Di Palma, Barba (POM), Camara, Benassi, Gallo, Lewis/Girard (63), Rocco/Moschetto (75), Forni Torino (12-5-6 4th) vs Sassuolo (14-5-4 3rd) Serie A G24 1-0 14 Shots 9 9 On Target 5 8 Fouls 6 56% Possession 44% Goals: Forni (15) The win moves us to just three points behind Sassuolo for third place. Midweek our U20s won in the Youth Cup quarterfinals defeating Lazio 3-1. Marc Roche, Fabio Galati, and Danilo Migliaccio scored the goals. They followed that win with a win on penalties after a 2-2 draw in the semifinal. Fabio Galati and Francesco Trotta with the goals. 2/16/25 at Bari - Serie A G25 - 442nd vs 442. This game was a story of missed opportunities, both Loris and Giuseppe missed chances early and after Bari converted their only chance of the first half Luke lewis missed a scoring chance. After a firm halftime talk we looked determined to start the second half and Loris and Giuseppe combined for the tying goal. After that we looked likely to take the lead, but it was Bari that scored on the counter. We threw everything at them the rest of the game and it looked like it might work as our discarded defender Leonardo Rivoira fouled Loris in the box for a penalty. That Loris missed. Loss 1-2. Lineup; Bellini, Padalino (POM), Oliveira, Schrott, Gutierrez, Padovano, Benassi, Girard/Gallo (63), Lewis/Ben Hur (63), Pugliese, Forni Torino (13-5-6 4th) at Bari (7-6-10 13th) Serie A G25 1-2 22 Shots 11 8 On Target 5 8 Fouls 3 56% Possession 44% Goals: Matias (20) Pugliese (47) Kampl (67) Around us in the standings, Sassuolo lost keeping them just 3 points ahead, and Sampdoria lost, staying 4 points behind. Our U20s won the Youth Club Invitational, defeating KV Kortrijk U19s in the final 2-1. Carlo Rossini and Marc Roche with the goals. 17 year old winger Vaclav Kosti, currently one of our best prospects, signed a professional deal Soon to be departing and now peripheral first teamer Gaspard Martins injured his heel in training and won’t be practicing for 5-7 days. Oliveira came down with the flu and will miss our next game. 2/22/25 at Palermo - Serie A G26 - 442nd vs 4411. Palermo set up defensively and kept the game tight. We struggled to find a way through but were solid ourselves, not allowing any dangerous counterattacks. At the half hour mark Pape Camara had to come out with an injury and we brought on Jean-Marc Girard, bypassing the less defensively sound Stefano Gallo. At 45 minutes Palermo tried to launch a counter, but Eloi Gutierrez stepped in front of their striker and sent the ball back ahead to Loris, who one touched it to Luke, who in turn one touched it to Giuseppe, who put us up 1-0. The second half was more of the same. We tried our 4312, but it fared no better, and was perhaps a little more vulnerable to the counter. At 64 minutes Loris left the game with an injury and Marco Amadio made his return from injury. Amadio had our only chance the rest of the game firing a missile just over the crossbar after we had dropped to our defensive 41311. That was more chances than Palermo could muster though. Win 1-0. Lineup; Bellini, Gutierrez, Di Palma, Schrott, Barba, Padovano, Benassi, Camara/Girard (30), Lewis (POM), Pugliese, Forni/Amadio (64) Torino (13-5-7 4th) at Palermo (7-9-9 12th) Serie A G25 1-0 9 Shots 9 4 On Target 3 6 Fouls 6 57% Possession 43% Goals: Pugliese (45) Pape Camara has a strained calf and will miss 2-3 weeks. Loris has a strained groin and will miss 2-3 weeks. Gianna is still biding her time at the Teatro Regio, waiting to see how the latest power struggle in the Sevilla family affects her charitable foundation for the arts before she decides what she is going to do. We discussed it though and she has started making plans to leave just in case, and already severed ties with Kate’s school so they can’t be drawn into any potentially sinister activities in the future. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
edtheguy Posted August 3, 2016 Author Share Posted August 3, 2016 Groundhog day double post... nothing to see here, just move on to the next post.... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
edtheguy Posted August 3, 2016 Author Share Posted August 3, 2016 March 2025 Another video Board meeting on the road - very secure, young players, fans discontent with 0-1 defeat to Bologna in Italian cup cannot be ignored. 3/2/25 at Bologna - Serie A G27 - 442nd vs 4231. We were poor in this one and wasted a lot of possession. Bologna was incisive with far less time on the ball and created a slew of chances in the first half. Fortunately our young keeper Giacomo Bellini was a human highlight reel and kept the game scoreless to the half. At 55 minutes Stefano Gallo, who was on for an injured Luke Lewis was pushed off the ball and Bologna broke away for the game's first goal. I pulled a very ineffective Marco Amadio for Gaspard Martins and we went to our 4312. Less than 5 minutes later we were on the ascendancy as Gaspard scored the first of two quick goals that put us up 2-1 at 64 minutes. We couldn’t hold the lead, howeve has Bologna drew even less than 5 minutes later. The rest of the game was back and forth but held no further scoring. Draw 2-2. Lineup; Bellini, Gutierrez, Oliveira, Di Palma, Barba, Padovano, Benassi, Girard, Lewis/Gallo (17), Amadio/Martins (55), Pugliese/Coman (64) Torino (14-5-7 4th) at Bologna (5-10-11 17th) Serie A G25 2-2 7 Shots 14 3 On Target 6 6 Fouls 2 54% Possession 46% Goals: Erik (55), Martins (59), Benassi (64), Suso (69) It was a poor performance, we were thoroughly outplayed by a team we should be beating, and I told the squad so, calmly, after the match. They all seemed to agree. Luke Lewis will miss about two weeks with a twisted knee. Stefano has been disappointing this season, but he will still get first crack at Luke's position. Ben Hur and Jorge Coman are chomping at the bit for playing time though, so it’ll be a short leash for Stefano. After playing a very poor game against 17th on the table our next match will be against leaders Napoli. Giacomo Bellini twisted his ankle in training on Friday and will miss 3 weeks. 3/9/25 vs Napoli - Serie A G28 - 4312n vs 4123 DMW. Not wanting to watch Napoli wash over us in waves all game if we could help it we went with our attack minded 4312 to start the game and it had a good effect. We generated the first few shots of the game and kept Napoli off the ball for good stretches, but we didn’t generate too many good looks at goal. I told the players to keep it up and they did in the second half. We continued to play keep away with the ball and finally at 53 minutes a string of high quality passes ended with Marco Benassi finding Marco Amadio making a run at goal and the Marco’s put us ahead 1-0. There was no immediate change in the game after the goal and seven minutes later Alex Padovano, who dominated the central midfield all game found Amadio on another good run into the box and we were up 2-0. After that Napoli started firing shots from everywhere but only got one good look, at 86 minutes, when they hit the woodwork. Win 2-0. Lineup; Bruno Varela, Gutierrez, Oliveira, Di Palma, Barba, Benassi, Padovano, Girard, Gallo, Martins/Ben Hur (61), Amadio Torino (14-6-7 4th) vs Napoli (17-9-1 1st) Serie A G28 2-0 8 Shots 19 5 On Target 5 17 Fouls 8 56% Possession 44% Goals: Amadio (53, 60) The win set off minor seismic shocks at the top of the Sere A table. With only their second loss of the season Napoli now finds themselves even on points with A.C. Milan (Marco Amadio’s former club) at the top and our three points move us into third ahead of Sassuolo, who lost again, and we are 9 points adrift of the co leaders. Not bad for a club that has really struggled at times this year, has sold its two best defenders (Ronaldo and Novello) and has a 17M net transfer profit for the year. Federico Barba reached his yellow card limit in the Napoli game and will miss out next match against 16th placed Cesena. We will probably use Tommaso Padalino at right back and move Eloi back to left back, where he played when Niccolo was here. On Monday the 10th we welcomed our new Balon Boys graduates to the club.The report on the youth candidates that I received from our Head of Youth Development Massimo Bava was actually not that bad. There look to be four defenders, Ludovico Albino, Lamine Dia, Giampiero Muto and Rocco Sasso a couple midfielders, Giulia Vitaterna and Jonah Graziani and a goalkeeper, Renato De Angelis, who all have a reasonable chance of playing in Serie A. None of them are eye popping potential wonderkids at the moment, but Albino has the makings of a future star halfback. The youth intake exhibition game was on Tuesday and I attended. The talent Bava spoke of in the youth candidates was apparent in the game as despite losing 2-1 they clearly outplayed the U18s in the match. The player of the match was the U18s Graziano Pinelli, who scored the winning goal. The youth candidates had good games from a couple prospects that weren’t singled out by Massimo, midfielder Giovanni Nanni and striker Andrea De Bortoli. One of the top rated prospects, Rocco Sasso, despite his great name, had a poor game. I would be foolish to change tactics after our victory against Napoli, but obviously Cesena will be setting up more conservatively against us so I will have to be prepared to make adjustments. In an interview between PSG matches Niccolo Novello mentioned that he was excited by our good form and predicted it would continue, adding that he always enjoyed returning to Stadio Olimpico. Niccolo hasn’t gotten into a single Ligue 1 match yet, but has been used in 3 Europa League matches, achieving a 8.07 average rating in them. Our U20’s have suffered a massive dip in form that has seen them fall to7th in the U20 group 1 table. I am following young, 18 year old resolute and enthusiastic Ireland national Owen Kinsella with interest. He is developing rapidly, is among the leaders in key tackle and headers, interceptions and, unfortunately, mistakes. But he looks very promising overall. 3/16/25 at Cesena - Serie A G29 - 4312 n vs 433. So much for Cesena playing more conservatively than Napoli. They came out in an attacking 433 and we looked to take advantage of the space early, missing on three clear scoring chances in the first 5 minutes. Which unsurprisingly was followed by a Cesena goal when Matteo Di Palma muffed a header back to Bruno Varela. We continued to generate chances until Loris Forni finally pounced on a loose ball in the box to tie the game at one just past the half hour mark. Less than seven minutes later we were down again as Oliveira completely failed to defend his man in front of goal. Off the ensuing restart we stormed the net and tied the game again on a Stefano Gallo tally. At the half, tied at 2 I told the squad in the strongest terms possible that I expected better than this and pulled Oliveira, whose play had gone downhill since his mistake that led to the second goal. Things didn’t look much better in the second half as their three strikers continued to trouble our defensive line and we were down again at 53 minutes. Rather than try to counter their attack I poured everything we had into attacking them and we once again scored on the ensuing restart to tien the game at 3 on a Marco Benassi goal. We kept throwing everything at Cesena and finally, at 76 minutes got the lead for the first time on a Tommaso Padalino tally against his former club. After that we did drop to our defensive 41311, but continued to generate scoring chances as we saw the game out. Win 4-3. Lineup; Bruno Varela, Padalino, Oliveira/Schrott (45), Di Palma, Gutierrez, Benassi, Padovano, Girard/Camara (63), Gallo, Forni, Amadio/Ben Hur (76) Torino (15-6-7 3rd) at Cesena (7-6-15 16th) Serie A G29 4-3 29 Shots 8 15 On Target 5 7 Fouls 3 56% Possession 44% Goals: Moncini (6) Forni (31) Balzas (38) Gallo (40) Mlakar (53) Benassi (54) Padalino (76) Ugly, but three points in the end. I’m sure it was entertaining for the neutrals at least. For the Cagliari game on the 22nd we will feature third string keeper Marco Farabegoli, as Bellini is still injured and Bruno Varela on international duty. 3/22/25 vs Cagliari - Serie A G30 - 4312 n vs 442. This was the game I was expecting against Cesena, Cagliari set up to defend and try to get something from the match and they did it well, causing us to struggle and take a lot of speculative shots. And, of course, it was Cagliari who scored first, on a horrible defensive breakdown in front of our own goal as Alex Padovano passed the ball to a wide open Ian Paisley for Cagliari. Farabegoli wasn’t expecting that and we were down 1-0. We tied the game on a nice Loris Forni finish just inside the half hour and spent the last 60 minutes attacking, to no avail. Draw 1-1. Lineup; Farabegoli, Padalino, Oliveira, Di Palma/ Gutierrez (62), Darba, Benassi, Padovano, Girard (POM), Lewis, Forni, Amadio/Pugliese (62) Torino (16-6-7 3rd) vs Cagliari (10-6-13 12th) Serie A 30 1-1 20 Shots 4 6 On Target 2 13 Fouls 3 53% Possession 37% Goals: Paisley (9) Forni (27) Pape Camara suffered a twisted ankle on international duty and will miss 3 weeks, almost two of which will be the international break. With his international appearance on the 27th Luke Lewis triggered a 2.1M clause we had to pay to Liverpool. Over the break I got to call and congratulate both Mustafa Rahimic and Oliveira on their first international caps and on Saturday Jorge Coman came to complain about playing time, which I understand, but his tone was too aggressive for me, fortunately I kept my cool and told him that the wonderkid Padovano was doing too well at the moment but I needed Jorge to be ready as soon as there was an opening. Coman seemed fine with that answer and left my office happy. I agreed to loan Papa Cissokho to our affiliate Norrkoping as well to reduce our crowded midfielder situation. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
edtheguy Posted August 4, 2016 Author Share Posted August 4, 2016 April 2025 We had a ‘normal’ Board meeting this month - I’m still very secure, they still like young players, but are now disappointed with Jorge Coman. Gia and I went to a restaurant that specializes in stuffed potatoes, of all things for dinner, with our security entourage. We have had a pleasantly surprising absence of ominous cars or visitors the last couple months but Gabrielle assures us that tensions are still boiling below the surface. Gia is definitely planning on turning her position over to someone else as soon as she finds the right person, but there still hasn’t been any real movement as far as that goes. 4/6/25 at Roma - Serie A G31 - 4312 n vs 4411. We looked ok in this one early, but Roma was better than just ok and was clearly outplaying us when Marco Amadio struck a ball into the corner of the net against the flow of play. I tried changing to the 442 narrow diamond to see if we could get into the flow of the game and we immediately controlled the ball better. And Roma scored. Three times. Poor poor game. Loss 1-3. Lineup; Bellini, Padalino, Oliveira, Di Palma, Barba, Benassi, Padovano/Coman (59) Girard/ Ben Hur (59), Lewis, Forni, Amadio Torino (16-7-7 3rd) at Roma (6-11-12 17th) Serie A 31 1-3 12 Shots 13 6 On Target 9 12 Fouls 8 57% Possession 43% Goals: Amadio (35) Germano (40,75) N’Doye (58) I let the coaches talk to the players, I’ll just look ahead. Which is what I told the press. We completed the signing of 17 year old promising midfielder Waldemar Dragowski from Polish club Jagiellonia. Stefano Gallo strained his back in the weight room and will miss 3-4 weeks. That will take him out of consideration for the next two games, which could be very important for the Serie A table, against Sampdoria, in 4th and Juventus in 5th. These games come at a bad time for our defense as well as both Oliveira and Di Palma have seen their form dip lately and each will rest for one of the games. 4/13/25 vs Sampdoria - Serie A G32 - 4312 n vs 4312 n. We were powerless to resist Sampdoria and let them do whatever they wanted. We did tie the game at 1 with our only shot on target, but that was as good as it got. Pathetic. We were lucky to only lose by 2. Loss 1-3. Lineup; Bellini, Padalino, Barba, Di Palma/Schrott (66), Gutierrez, Benassi, Padovano, Girard, Lewis, Forni/Ben Hur (45), Amadio Torino (16-7-8 3rd) vs Sampdoria (15-9-7 4th) Serie A 32 1-3 10 Shots 23 1 On Target 6 18 Fouls 6 44% Possession 56% Goals: Sandrihno (4) Barba (13) Bonazzoli (43,78) I was gentle with the squad as a group, as morale will dip now. I was un-gentle with Loris and Matteo, whose performances were completely unacceptable. The loss drops us to 6th outside of continental qualifying position with 6 games to go. Luke Lewis reached his yellow card limit so we will play Juve without either him or Stefano. We have given up 10 goals in four games since shutting out Napoli. 4/19/25 at Juventus - Serie A G33 - 4312 n vs 442.It was a struggle at the beginning for us as once again we had the ball but little ability to to anything useful with it and Juve generated the first three shots on goal for the game. Then at 16 minutes Ben Hur delivered a perfect corner onto the head of Federico Barba and we were up 1-0. The terrifying one goal lead survived to the half. We fired the players up and sent them out for a nervy second half. We never looked like we were going to be able to keep the lead but as the game went on we got a few chances of our own. At the hour mark we made substitutions and moved to a 4132 formation and Juve started to struggle. They did generate two goals late, but both were clearly offside and at the final whistle barba’s goal was still the only one. Win 1-0. Lineup; Bruno Varela, Padalino/Schrott (63), Barba (POM), Oliveira, Gutierrez, Benassi, Girard, Camara, Ben Hur, Forni/Pugliese (63), Amadio Torino (16-7-9 6th) at Juventus (17-5-10 4th) Serie A 33 1-0 13 Shots 10 4 On Target 3 11 Fouls 4 57% Possession 43% Goals: Barba (16) The win moves us back to third place, temporarily as Sampdoria still has to play their 33rd match. Now Ben Hur has injured himself in the ever dangerous weight room and will miss 2-3 weeks. At least Luke Lewis is back now. The next day Marco Benassi suffered the same fate. 4/27/25 at Chievo - Serie A G34 - 4312 n vs 4123 DMW. We started with the 4312, but fell behind quickly and Chievo kept sending their striker through our d line so we changed to the narrow diamond which put Girard right in front of the d-line for a screen. Inside 20 minutes we were even as Loris converted a controversial penalty that we were awarded in the box. We struggled to handle Chevo into the second half and at the hour mark put Martins in for Amadio. Ten minutes later Gaspard rewarded the move finishing a nice Forni pass. After that we completed the trifecta, changing to our third tactic, the 41311 to see the game out. Win 2-1. Lineup; Bruno Varela, Gutierrez (POM), Oliveira, Di Palma, Barba, Camara, Girard, Padovano, Lewis, Forni/Moschetto (72), Amadio/Martins (62) Torino (17-7-9 5th) at Chievo (15-9-10 9th) Serie A 34 2-1 8 Shots 12 4 On Target 4 9 Fouls 9 58% Possession 42% Goals: Sambu (5) Forni (pen 19) Martins (71) With four games to go we sit 5th, two points behind both Sassuolo and Sampdoria, who have both played their next game and two points ahead of Juve, who is on the same number of games as us. Our next match is against A.C. Milan who has somehow dropped 5 points behind Napoli, despite Napoli now having 4 losses. 4/30/25 vs A.C. Milan - Serie A G35 - 4312 n vs 4411. This game was close. It played like two high quality, evenly matched teams were going at it. Our midfield of Camara, Girard and Padovano was tough, and needed to be, Milan’s looked just as good. We had more control of the tempo, they had more creative impetus and at 70 minutes the game was still tied. The fact that we were tied wasn’t too surprising if you were watching, but the fact that it was 0-0 was, for there were goals to be had, a seemingly endless stream of good saves, missed nets and woodwork. The scoring drought ended at 72 minutes when, on the fourth effort inside the box Milan finally put one home, Eduardo Perez doing the honors. We upped our tempo and threw all we had at them and after a similar scrum in the box Alex Padovano scored his first of the season on a nice placed shot. Milan managed several more chances, but the game ended in a Draw 1-1. Lineup; Bruno Varela (POM), Gutierrez, Oliveira, Di Palma, Barba/Padalino (61), Camara, Girard, Padovano, Lewis, Forni/Martins (61), Amadio. Torino (18-7-9 5th) vs A.C. Milan (20-8-6 2nd) Serie A 35 1-1 13 Shots 14 7 On Target 8 8 Fouls 8 61% Possession 39% Goals: Perez (72) Padovano (79) Marco Amadio strained his groin in the match and will miss 2-3 weeks. Despite how frustrating this season has been at times we still have a chance at a good finish so the last three games, against Pescara, Atalanta and Carpi, will be interesting. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
edtheguy Posted August 8, 2016 Author Share Posted August 8, 2016 May 2025 The May board meeting was typical, I’m very secure, they are very pleased overall leadership and our young players but were disappointed with heavy 1-3 loss to Roma. After the meeting I went to dinner with Gia and our ever growing security entourage. We now have a personal driver hand selected by Gabrielle. I’m pretty sure he carries a firearm. It’s nice to have extra security, but the fact that we need it - again - is disquieting. Our next match is against Pescara who is only clear of relegation on goal difference. They are tied on points with Cesena and Bologna (both of whom have given us problems this year) for 16-18th. Genoa is four points back of them and Carpi appears doomed sitting seven back of Genoa. After a match against mid-table Atalanta we will finish our season against Carpi. 5/10/25 vs Pescara - Serie A G36 - 4312 n vs 442.This game was frustratingly dull. We were perfectly wasteful, conrolling the game but taking 80 minutes to attempt 10 shots at net, none of which were actually on target. Pescara threatened once all game and Bruno Varela rose to the task, fortunately, or we would have gotten nothing out of the game. Just like our offense. Draw 0-0. Lineup; Bruno Varela, Padalino, Oliveira, Di Palma, Barba, Camara, Girard, Padovano, Lewis (POM), Forni/Benassi (64), Pugliese/Martins (71) Torino (18-8-9 5th) vs Pescara (10-4-21 16th) Serie A 36 0-0 14 Shots 7 1 On Target 2 16 Fouls 9 51% Possession 49% Goals: -- There was a clear explanation of just how bad that was after the game. Everyone agreed. Good, now lets see if the players can do something about it. Benassi reached his yellow card limit in his return from injury and will miss the Atalanta game. Roberto Goretti extended 17 year old striker Marc Roche’s contract. 5/25/25 at Atalanta - Serie A G37 - 4312 n vs 442. This was another close hard fought game. Atalanta played like they were actually playing for something and objectively were the better team start to finish. Fortunately we scored right off the opening kick, as Ben Hur found Gutierrez who found Gaspard Martins. After that it was an ugly struggle for us to do anything. Yet somehow at 25 minutes we were up 2-0 on a nice Ben Hur set piece delivery that Pape Camara put home. Fortunately for us it took Atalanta until the 85th minute to get their deserved goal and the game ended before they could equalize. Win 2-1. Lineup; Bellini, Gutierrez, Oliveira, Di Palma, Barba, Ben Hur (POM), Padovano, Camara, Gallo/Lewis (62), Martins/Rocco (68), Amadio/Forni (57) Torino (18-9-9 5th) at Atalanta (15-6-15 10th) Serie A 37 2-1 10 Shots 12 5 On Target 8 16 Fouls 2 53% Possession 47% Goals: Martins (1) Camara (25) Frey (85) The win means we just have to match Juventus result on the final week to hang onto 5th spot. We play 20th Carpi and Juve face the already crowned champions Napoli. On the other hand if we win and BOTH Sassuolo and Sampdoria draw or lose we would move up to third. We received 7.48M in TV revenue for this years Europa League. Revenue is good. June 2025 6/1/25 vs Carpi - Serie A G38 - 4312 n vs 442. We created a dozen shots in the first half and nine on target. Carpi’s keeper had a phenomenal game but young striker Giuseppe Pugliese did score twice. Giacomo Bellini in our net did not have a good game and allowed answering goals each time on their only two shots on target. The second half was worse as we lost any ability to approach their net and they scored again. We sent them back to Serie B in a good mood at least. Loss 2-3. Lineup; Bellini, Gutierrez, Oliveira/Schrott (45), Di Palma, Rahimic, Ben Hur, Benassi, Moschetto, Coman, Rocco/Forni (64), Pugliese. Torino (19-9-9 5th) vs Carpi (6-6-25 20th) Serie A 38 2-3 8 Shots 12 4 On Target 4 9 Fouls 9 58% Possession 42% Goals: Sambu (5) Forni (pen 19) Martins (71) I guess that’s what happens when you use all of the backup players in the same game. I don’t want to talk about it. At least Napoli beat Juve, or I might have actually had to worry about my job as we would have been knocked out of Europa League qualification. 6/2/25 Serie A awards; Fair Play Player of the year - Federico Bonazzoli, ST(C) Sampdoria Player of the Year - Sime Vrsaljko D(R) Sampdoria Top Goalscorer - Federico Bonazzoli, ST(C) Sampdoria (26) Young Player of the Year - Cheikh Fall M(L) Juventus (Luke Lewis finished third) Manager of the Year - Gheorghe Hagi - Napoli Team of the Year GK - R. Zleler - Napoli D -S. Vrsaljko - Sampdoria D - A. Romagnoli - A. C. Milan D - F. Duclos - Sampdoria D - L. Valler - Napoli M - S. Rios - Cagliari M - L. Lewis - Torino M - K. De Bruyne - Inter F - Z. Kurevija - Lazio F - F. Bonazzoli - Sampdoria F - A. Belotti - Sassuolo Atalanta won the fair play club of the year Sassuolo won best team in Serie A. Italian Media Player of the Year - Andrea Belotti Italian Media Foreign Player of the Year - Juan Iturbe Serie A Fan’s Player of the Year - Gerson Torino year end awards: Fans Player of the Season: 1st - Luke Lewis (48%) 2nd - Eloi Gutierrez (26%) 3rd - Stefano Gallo (16%) Goal of the season - Giuseppe Pugliese, a nice spin move followed by a placed shot in the lower corner from outside the box with two Juve defenders on him. Signing of the Season - Matteo Di Palma Young Player of the season - Luke Lewis Top Goalscorer - Loris Forni (21) Highest Average Rating - Luke Lewis (7.62) Most Assists - Luke Lewis (11) Best Pass Completion - Alex Padovano (86%) Most Player of the Match Awards - Luke Lewis (6) Most Yellow Cards - Alex Padovano (16) Most Red cards - Federico Barba and Pape Camara (1) The press quote of the season was from the Italian Football Daily “Torino were expected to be among the leading contenders for continental football qualification spot and they lived up to that billing by securing one for themselves.” Serie A - 5th Europa League - Knocked out in group stage Italian Cup - Lost in Quarter Final (v Bologna) Italian Super Cup - Winner Match of the Season - Lazio 1-5 Torino Moment to Forget - Sassuolo 4-1 Torino Average Attendance 17,582 (62% full) Total Players Used - 29 (Joint highest in Serie A) I told the players we would be pushing for Champions League next year and everyone but Marco Amadio was on board. End of Season Board Meeting - Very Secure. Very pleased with my performance. Competition performances satisfactory. Signings were successful, highlighted by Matteo Di Palma. Player performances were high especially Eloi Gutierrez. We kept a 6 week pre season, scheduled to start in 7th July 2025. Atalanta were awarded a sporting play spot in the Europa League. We reported a 68.01M profit over the Eurpoa League season. For tax purposes we reported a 10.9M profit that resulted in a 3.3M tax bill. Our revenue streams were down from the year before mostly due to a loss in gate from the Italian Cup and Europa knockout stages. Our top selling jerseys were Luke Lewis, Loris Forni, Stefano Gallo and Marco Benassi Stoke is looking at Luke Lewis, who has a 32M value and no free release clause. They made a 28M bid but walked away from negotiations when I countered at his value. Italy fell behind France in the latest European coefficients table, dropping one of the Europa League qualifiers to the third qualifying round. Which would be us if it took effect for the coming season, fortunately it doesn’t. On the 30th the Serie A schedule was announced, we will open at home against Chievo on Sunday 24th August. June passed relatively uneventfully at home, Gianna feels she will be able to hand the reins over to some shady member of the 'family' by the end of summer. She's not particularly happy about it, but no other solutions seem to be presenting themselves. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
edtheguy Posted August 9, 2016 Author Share Posted August 9, 2016 July 2025 We moved up to 43rd from 49th on the world's rich club list. HOYD Massimo Bava was let go. He had done a good job but his contract was expiring and we found a very comparable candidate with a better personality who was ⅕ the price. Roberto Goretti made a 14M bid for another striker, River’s 21 year old Horacio Ferreira. He seems obsessed with strikers. Unfortunately the kid looks too good to pass up. The July Board Meeting was predictable - I’m still very secure, they like last seasons successes, young players are good, but they are disappointed with losing Gaspard Martins. Yeah, me too, since he left on a free - I botched that one. After the board meeting was less predictable. Gia asked if we could go to dinner outside the city, at Gabrielle's request, where we met a suitably shady character and the rest of the board of directors and she officially handed over her chairmanship of the Theatre board. I had been relieved to think that was the end of it until we got to the road to our Villa and we saw a thick pillar of black smoke over the rooftops ahead. As we drew closer my worst fears were realized. Our Villa, and the surrounding area were a total loss. Well not my worst fears - at least Gia hadn’t been home. Gabrielle lost two good people though who had apparently tried to stop the rival capo’s men from breaking in. They had clearly wanted to stop Gia form handing the reins over by any means necessary and had to settle for leaving a message. Hopefully her actions tonight have rendered us irrelevant to the ongoing battle between the crime lords. We wound up in a hotel near the city center and by the time I left for work the next day Gia was already calling people she knew in the real estate business to start looking for a new home. I had the unenviable task of dealing with the insurance company. Back at work the Ferreira contract negotiations were alarming. He looks to be on another level, but so are his demands, his signing bonus would bring the transfer const over 20M and he want’s 6M/yr salary, our current top earner is Marco Benassi at 3.6M. We already have five competent strikers and Marc Roche on the U20’s. I just can’t justify the expense. I then made a 5M offer for 18 year old River Centre-back Alexis Insaurralde and as he is a youth level signing Roberto handled the negotiations. I hope they go better than mine did. I followed that with a 17M offer to PSG for Matteo Di Palma, whose loan they wouldn’t extend, unfortunately Man City are also bidding for him. When it came time to negotiate I had to walk away due to his contract demands. On the 3rd of July the squad returned from break, Barba, Padalino, Rymis, and Girard were all in top condition. Padovano was tired. Alex was given another week off and Pape Camara will train outside the top 23 as he is under two separate 10M transfer bids. 7/3/25 vs Torino U18s - Friendly - 442 n vs 442 n. This was standard camp opening fare. We easily handled the youth who hung in as long as they could. At the moment it looks like this might be one of the lowest turnovers in the squad that I’ve had, and we are in our third season using the 442 narrow diamond, which is about as long as I’ve used one tactic as well. Hopefully stability will be a good thing. Win 4-0. Lineup; Many, many players. Torino vs Torino U18 Friendly 4-0 24 Shots 4 8 On Target 3 1 Fouls 11 48% Possession 52% Goals: Amadio (15) Lewis (34) Benassi (42) Rocco (65) Luigi Porchia signed on to be our new HOYD. Luigi joins from Lanciano, where he had been HOYD for just one season after a eight year stint at Brescia. Aside from a professional personality, Luigi is more determined, disciplined and a better motivator and judge of ability than Massimo was. The Insaurralde negotiations did not go any better and he turned us down. Manchester City signed Matteo Di Palma. Pape camara signed with Bournemouth. Not exactly an inspiring transfer window so far. I made an offer for Atalanta centre-back Erik Almqvist and negotiated terms. He is also talking renewal with Atalanta and transfer to Tottenham though so we will just have to wait and see. 7/9/25 at KV Oostende - Friendly - 442 n vs 442. Our second friendly was predicted to be an even match against Belgian Pro League outfit KV Oostende. With our starters in it wasn’t close at all as we controlled the game and our front three fashioned two nice goals. Our substitutes gave one back but no one got injured and the game ended 2-1. Torino at Oostende Friendly 2-1 13 Shots 13 4 On Target 5 11 Fouls 1 58% Possession 42% Goals: Forni (16) Lewis (27) Roberto made an offer for Santos 21 year old midfielder Jose Mario. He looks - unbelievable. Hmmm. OL made an 11M bid for Marco Benassi that I rejected. Our offer for Jose Mario was accepted and after some difficult negotiations we finally arrived at a salary and signing bonus that the board would allow and he took our offer to consider. Three days later, on Sunday, Jose agreed to our terms and we finalized the signing. Our supporters were firmly behind the signing and Santos’ were disappointed that they lost a fan favorite and said he would be missed. Once we got him on the training pitch everyone was all smiles. He has a resolute personality and is technically gifted in first touch, passing and technique, mentally he is world class in concentration decisions positioning and vision and physically - just wow - acceleration and pace, agility, balance, stamina, strength. His weakest weakness would be considered average for a Serie B player. His track record in competition for Santos was fantastic as well. On Tuesday we finalized the Almqvist signing as well. So much for a quiet transfer window. Our supporters were concerned that he came from Atalanta but were willing to give him a shot. The Atalanta supporters were disappointed, feeling he still had some good football left. 7/16/25 at Hoffenheim - Friendly - 442 n vs 442. This was an efficient and impressive performance, too bad it’s just preseason. Both first string strikers scored and we moved the ball well all game. Both new signings came off the bench and looked to fit right in. Win 2-0. Torino at Hoffenheim Friendly 2-0 16 Shots 5 5 On Target 2 3 Fouls 9 61% Possession 39% Goals: Forni (19) Amadio (23) Luke Lewis left the game with a facial injury and will miss 5-6 days. Jose Mario was given a week's leave to get over his travels as he showed up from Santos tired. Goretti made a loan offer for Milan striker Dragan Jelic that was accepted. 7/23/25 at STVV - Hendrickx Testimonial - 442 n vs 442. Another basic preseason performance. The Stefano Gallo to Loris Forni slide rule was working and they combined for our two goals. Win 2-0. Torino at STVV Hendrickx Testimonial 2-0 16 Shots 3 7 On Target 1 6 Fouls 5 61% Possession 39% Goals: Forni (25,33) Jose Mario won the Copa Libertadores best player award for his 3 goals in 10 matches and average 7.57 rating before transferring to us. As Loris is heading into his last year under contract we offered him a three year extension, I do have nagging doubts that he’s the guy to take us to the next level, but we can’t let him get to the last 6 months of his contract. We will face Serbian outfit FK Metalac Gornji Milanovac in the Europa League third qualifying round on the 31st July, in seven days. The second string will play as much of the next friendly as possible. 7/26/25 at Nacional da Madeira - Friendly - 442 n vs 4123 DMW. There's a reason you’re second choice. Jose Mario, who is only on the second eleven for a short while made two brilliant passes early on and neither was converted as both Ben Hur and Luca Rocco missed the net. So did everyone else on our club. Nacional had no such problems. Loss 0-2. Torino at Nacional da Madeira Friendly 0-2 19 Shots 6 3 On Target 2 14 Fouls 5 55% Possession 45% Goals: Benoit (8) Matheus (65) On Sunday Loris signed his extension, citing his admiration for me and the supporters were delighted. 7/31/25 vs FK Metalac Gornji Milanovac - Europa League Third Qualifying Round - 442 n vs 4213 DMW. Metalac came out in a defensive shell hoping to frustrate us and their hopes lasted less than ten minutes before Stefano Gallo found Loris Forni for the 1-0 lead. We easily dictated the rest of the first half but couldn’t add another goal. We did get our second just short of the hour mark off an Alex Padovano free kick that Luke Lewis put home. By the end of the game we were still controlling play and it was actually disappointing that we only won by two. Win 2-0. Lineup; Bellini, Gutierrez (POM), Oliveira, Barba, Rahimic, Padovano, Benassi, Gallo/Jose Mario (59), Lewis, Forni, Amadio/Jelic (59) Torino vs Metalac Europa League Third Qualifying Round 2-0 15 Shots 4 6 On Target 1 8 Fouls 8 55% Possession 45% Goals: Forni (6) Lewis (58) Neither the insurance claim nor the house hunting are going particularly well. On the plus side Gabrielle thinks the offended crime lord is going to lose the power struggle and won’t have the time to get revenge on us. That’s very encouraging. I guess. At least the new Serie A season is drawing near. Maybe that will go well. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
edtheguy Posted August 10, 2016 Author Share Posted August 10, 2016 August 2025 The August Board Meeting was by video as we were in Trabzon, Turkey preparing for our next friendly - I’m still Very Secure, last season’s successes remain fresh in their memories and they remain pleased with our young players and disappointed with Gaspard’s departure. 8/3/25 at Trabzonspor - Friendly - 442 n vs 4231. This was a friendly against another Europa League team and for us it was rather sloppy and inefficient. We fell behind early but dictated play most of the rest of the game. Jelic scored a tying goal and we wasted many chances for more. In the end it was a Draw 1-1. Torino at Trabzonspor Friendly 1-1 12 Shots 10 4 On Target 5 11 Fouls 7 53% Possession 47% Goals: Carlos (15) Jelic (21) We went straight from the game in Turkey on to Serbia for our Europa League Qualifying Round Second Leg in Gornji Milanovic against Metalac. 8/7/25 at FK Metalac Gornji Milanovac - Europa League Third Qualifying Round - 442 n vs 442. This time Metalac came out in a basic 442 and found a fluke goal early to give them some hope. We were up to the task however and answered quickly as Luke Lewis found Dragan Jelic to tie the game and give us a big lead in the tie. After Loris added a second for us Mustafa Rahimic was called for a handball and we were even at 2 in the game but still up two plus an away goal in the tie. We added two more anyway for safekeeping. Lukas Schrott was robbed of a goal on a dubious own goal decision and then we got our own chance from the spot and Dragan added his second of the game. Win 4-2 (6-2). Lineup; Bellini, Gutierrez, Oliveira, Schrott, Rahimic/ Padalino (60), Padovano, Benassi, Gallo/ Jose Mario (60), Lewis (POM), Jelic, Forni Torino (2) at Metalac (0) Europa League Third Qualifying Round 4-2 (6-2) 16 Shots 8 5 On Target 2 8 Fouls 14 65% Possession 35% Goals: Karaklajic (16) Jelic (17, pen 85) Forni (36) Piermartiri (pen 56) Veselinovic og(60) We will play Israeli club Bnei Sakhnin in the Europa League Playoff The preseason Serie A odds were released; A.C. Milan 7-4 Sampdoria 8-1 Inter 8-1 Napoli 14-1 Torino 20-1 Juventus 33-1 The Juve supporters won’t like that. With those odds we really need to improve on 5th and make a push for champions league this year. 8/14/25 vs Atletico - Friendly - 442 n vs 442. So much for the end of pre season stinker. This was a purely entertaining game gor the neutrals, which, since it was pre season, I could enjoy as well. Our second string looked good and inside the quarter hour mark Tommaso Padalino found Luca Rocco in the box and Luca sent home a powerful volley. Atletico answered twice by the half hour mark as our centre-back pairing of Almquist and Kinsella struggled. Shortly after the half Padalino and Rocco combined again, followed by Atletico’s third. Kinsella had to come off to preserve some dignity but the rest of the players were let go to finish the game and Stefano Gallo and Jorge Coman both scored to give us a 4-3 come from behind win. Torino vs Atletico Friendly 4-3 19 Shots 14 10 On Target 6 9 Fouls 10 56% Possession 44% Goals: Rocco (14,49) Garcia (20,52) Lukaku (29) Gallo (65) Coman (82) The players credited my inspirational half time talk for the comeback, which was amusing, first, I let goalkeeping coach Mirco Paluzzi give the team talk and second, it’s preseason guys. Next we have a Thursday night Europa League match followed by our Serie A opener on Sunday, both at home. I kept Benassi and Forni as captain/vice captain. Roma made a 10.5M bid for Ben Hur, which would offset the spending this year, but I’m not selling to another Serie A club. Alex Padovano pulled a stomach muscle in the weight room and will miss 2-3 weeks. Jose Mario left the club for international duty. 8/21/25 vs Bnei Sakhnin - Europa League Playoff - 442 n vs 4312 n. We looked the better team from the start nearly taking a quick lead only to see Luke Lewis hit the crossbar. Then a poor Oliveira header led to a near automatic Bnei goal only for Bellini to save Oliveira’s backside with two acrobatic diving saves. Shortly after that Marco benassi was presented with a nearly identical chance to the one Luke hit the crossbar on and Marco headed it home with ease for the 1-0 lead and we were off to the races. By the half we had no less than 21 attempts at goal and a 3-0 lead. The second half was uneventful as they dropped into a 532 defensive shell and the game ended with a Win 3-0. Lineup; Bellini, Gutierrez (POM), Oliveira, Almquist/Barba (74), Rahimic, Girard, Benassi, Gallo/Coman (64), Lewis, Jelic, Forni/Bouadla (64) Torino vs Bnei Sakhnin Europa League Playoff 3-0 25 Shots 6 13 On Target 4 6 Fouls 3 56% Possession 44% Goals: Benassi (7) Forni (12) Jelic (15) The board forwarded their official competition expectations before Sunday’s Serie A opener against Chievo. Europa League - Reach Group Stage Serie A - Qualify for Europa League Italian Cup - Not Important. (What?!?) Our season ticket sales were 12,468, up slightly from last years 12,417. 8/24/25 vs Chievo - Serie A G1 - 442 n vs 4123 dmw The first half was to plan, we looked like the highly polished and organized team that we want to be and built a 2-0 lead on goals from Luke Lewis and Loris Forni. We were in control on the ball making several intricate team moves across the entire length of the pitch and firm defensively when Chevio was on the ball, waiting for our chance to take the ball away and launch quick counters. We were none of that in the second half and Chievo striker Idrisa Sambu was everything he needed to be, scoring twice to even the game. By the 90th minute we were hanging on for dear life when Mustafa Rahimic was sent off for his second yellow which necessitated Loris Forni playing left back. Chievo couldn’t take advantage however and the game ended in a Draw 2-2. Lineup; Bellini, Gutierrez, Oliveira/Schrott (74), Rahimic (RED 90), Jose Mario/Girard (67), Benassi, Gallo, Lewis, Jelic/Rocco (67), Forni Torino vs Chievo Serie A G1 2-2 11 Shots 15 4 On Target 4 15 Fouls 3 44% Possession 56% Goals: Lewis (19) Forni (45+1) Sambu (62,68) Fiorentina made a 3.8M offer for Giuseppe Pugliese and bari made a 2.9M offer for Luca Rocco. I rejected both, of course. 8/28/25 at Bnei Sakhnin - Europa League Playoff - 442 n vs 4312 n. This game was a little harder than the first leg as we showed some of the defensive fragility that was evident in the second half against Chievo, but in the end we were well and away the winners. We jumped off to a quick lead, let Bnei tie the game and then eventually added two more goals from Loris to ice the win. Lineup; Bellini, Gutierrez (POM), Oliveira, Almquist, Rahimic, Jose Mario, Benassi, Gallo/Girard (62), Lewis, Jelic/Ben Hur (70), Forni Torino (3) at Bnei Sakhnin (0) Europa League Playoff 3(6)-1(1) 17 Shots 9 8 On Target 2 7 Fouls 9 54% Possession 46% Goals: Jelic (1) Tobau (23) Forni (51,70) The win means we qualify for the group stage, meeting the board's goals for the Europa League. We went into the group draw as the 9th rated 2nd seed. Atletico and Manchester City were by far the highest rated first seeds. We were drawn in group D with 1st seed Girondins de Bordeaux, 3rd seed Olympiakos and 4th seed Rio Ave. 8/31/25 at Cagliari - Serie A G2 - 442 n vs 442. We didn’t play nearly as well as the first half against Chievo but we still built another 2-0 lead on a Forni brace. This time, after a little reminder to stay focused at the half, we never let up and finished with a Win 2-0. Lineup; Bruno Varela, Padalino, Oliveira, Barba, Gutierrez, Jose Mario/Girard (64), Benassi, Gallo, Lewis/Ben Hur (64), Jelic, Forni (POM) Torino (0-1-0 10th) at Cagliari (0-1-0 11th) Serie A G2 2-0 19 Shots 11 6 On Target 3 9 Fouls 9 55% Possession 45% Goals: Forni (22,41) We will face Lazio in 14 days, after the international break. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
edtheguy Posted August 10, 2016 Author Share Posted August 10, 2016 September 2025 September comes in with the transfer deadline day. Roberto’s first proposed move was another striker, Velez’s Federico Erro. I cancelled contract negotiations. HOYD Luigi Porchia made an offer for 18 year old Guarani striker Mario Correa. Guarani wished to negotiate the offer but Porchia declined. I got to take a break from the team offices for a trip down Via Roma to the corporate offices for the monthly board meeting. Normal Stuff - Very Secure, very pleased with leadership, pleased with number of young players, disappointed with 2-2 draw with Chievo. Gianna didn’t object to skipping dinner due to the transfer deadline as she and her shadow, Gabrielle were still making the rounds looking for suitable lodging for us. Back at the office, after rejecting several offers for our strikers and cancelling several offers by Goretti for other people's strikers the window finally closed. Marco Amadio twisted his knee in training and will miss a couple weeks. Dragan Jelic suffered a head injury on international duty and will miss 5-7 days, meaning he may not be available for the next game. 9/14/25 vs Lazio - Serie A G3 - 442 n vs 4231 n. This was a game of missed opportunities right from the start. Loris missed first, but after that Lazio dominated the game, wastefully, fortunately for us. At the half I pulled a ineffective Forni and the second half saw more of the same. Finally tired of being outplayed we pushed up to the 4312 and took our turn at missing opportunities. Draw 0-0. Lineup; Bruno Varela, Padalino (POM), Oliveira, Barba, Gutierrez, Jose Mario, Benassi, Gallo, Lewis/Padovano (62), Rocco/Jelic (62), Forni/Bouadla (62) Torino (1-1-0 10th) vs Lazio (0-0-2 19th) Serie A G3 0-0 13 Shots 13 6 On Target 4 15 Fouls 3 49% Possession 51% Goals: -- Next we open Europa League group play at Girondins de Bordeaux on Thursday. On Wednesday I met with the board to discuss further improvements to our training facilities, which they agreed to immediately. We started another intensive academy prospect search. Identifying 20 or so youth for our scouts to vet over the coming months. 9/18/25 at Girondins de Bordeaux - Europa League Group Stage G1 - 442 n vs 352. We actually looked pretty decent at the start of the game but as the first half wore on Girondins started to generate more and more scoring chances, finally taking the lead around the half hour mark. We kept sliding backwards until I called for a change to the 4312 at the hour mark. Before the adjustment could be made they struck again for a 2-0 lead. After the change we took the play to them, only to see every effort swatted away by their defense with ease, and at 70 minutes they added a third. In the end we were nowhere near good enough. Loss 0-3. Lineup; Bruno Varela, Gutierrez, Oliveira, Almquist, Rahimic, Padovano/Gallo (60), Benassi, Jose Mario, Lewis, Jelic, Bouadla Torino (0-0-0) at Girondins de Bordeaux (0-0-0) Europa League Group Stage G1 0-3 15 Shots 10 6 On Target 7 6 Fouls 4 60% Possession 40% Goals: Grob (27) Krejza (60,71) I calmly told them that was poor and moved on. For the Genoa game, which will be my 200th in charge of Toro, it’s time to consult with Sal on the lineup. Before the match the press highlighted the fact that I had won the MLS Coach of the year and been shortlisted for Serie A Manager of the year four times. We have completely dropped off the list of leading producers of elite players. Hopefully that will change as our recent and current academy players progress. 9/22/25 at Genoa - Serie A G4 - 442 n vs 3232 dm. We were unbelievably poor in this game, while we did in the end generate seven shots on target, none of them would have troubled a youth squad. It’s a minor miracle we only lost by 1. Loss 0-1. Lineup; Bruno Varela, Gutierrez (POM), Oliveira, Almquist, Rahimic, Padovano, Girard, Benassi/Jose Mario (62), Lewis, Jelic, Forni/Amadio (62) Torino (1-2-0 10th) at Genoa (1-0-2 15th) Serie A G2 0-1 13 Shots 17 7 On Target 9 8 Fouls 16 58% Possession 42% Goals: Kral (46) That is the third game in a row that we haven’t scored. 9/25/25 vs Inter - Serie A G5 - 442 n vs 4231. Nothing came easy in this game. Both teams were effective at cancelling each other out and every inch of possession was a battle. A hard fought physical battle, played like a derby. By the end of the game there had been no less that 10 yellow cards handed out by referee Orsato. Just before the half we struck as Luke Lewis found Loris Forni, who had come deep and Loris flicked the ball ahead to a breaking Dragan Jelic who slotted it home with ease. In the second half the tight grind continued and we weren’t able to extend the lead. Fortunately no matter how much Inter tried to turn up the pressure we were able to keep them at bay. Win 1-0. Lineup; Bellini, Gutierrez (POM), Oliveira, Barba, Rahimic, Jose Mario, Benassi, Gallo, Lewis, Jelic/Amadio (74), Forni/Padovano (58) Torino (1-2-1 13th) vs Inter (2-1-1 6th) Serie A G5 1-0 10 Shots 9 6 On Target 5 11 Fouls 7 56% Possession 44% Goals: Jelic (44) It wasn’t particularly pretty, but when you are in a funk like we have been an ugly win might be just what is needed. Sometimes you just have to put in the work, and we told the players as much after the match. 9/28/25 at Sassuolo - Serie A G6 - 442 n vs 4231. With several tired players we had to rotate some and it resulted in our soft underbelly showing again. We fell behind on Sassuolos fourth corner kick in the first 20 minutes and moved up to our attacking 4312 which did pull us back into the game. At 40 minuted Marco Benassi scored on a nice pass from Dragan to even the game, but Andrea Belotti put Sassuolo back on top at 45 minutes. The second half remained back and forth and we evend the game again with another nice Jelic pass finding Loris, but despite having the lions share of scoring chances after that we couldn’t get the lead. As the clock wound down so did our chances. Sassuolo instead started storming our net and found the winnwe at 86 minutes. Loss 2-3 Lineup; Bellini, Padalino, Oliveira, Barba/Schrott (61), Gutierrez, Padovano, Benassi, Gallo/Rocco (86), Ben Hur/Girard (61), Jelic, Forni. Torino (2-2-1 8th) at Sassuolo (3-0-2 4th) Serie A G6 2-3 20 Shots 14 13 On Target 8 10 Fouls 9 50% Possession 50% Goals: de Lange (21) Benassi (40) Belotti (45+1) Forni (53) Labrou (86) In the end three goals allowed is never good enough, and we need to improve in many areas. The squad was told as much. Outside of work things are almost starting to feel normal again. Gia is more relaxed and playful than she has been in years and the hotel suite is almost starting to feel like home. I’m almost getting used to Gabrielle's recent hyper vigilance and twitchy demeanor too. I’m going to hope all of those are good things, I can almost get away with believing that if I don’t think about our old Villa. Back in the States both kids are doing well, Kate, Andrew and the little one are enjoying life at their school and David is now running the IT department for the school as well. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
edtheguy Posted August 11, 2016 Author Share Posted August 11, 2016 October 2025 The October Board Meeting was uneventful, I’m still very secure and they are very pleased with my leadership and last season’s successes. They appreciate our use of young players but were disappointed with our 2-2 draw vs Chievo. Gia and I enjoyed a nice relaxed meal after the meeting and all was well even though she still hasn’t found a new home that meets her standards. 10/2/25 vs Rio Ave - Europa League Group Stage G2 - 442 n vs 4231. We came out and quickly fell behind to a team we should be beating on a counter attack and I was already grinding my teeth and thinking about executing our defenders. Fortunately the players kept their composure and tied the game just over ten minutes later on a commanding Loris Forni header, as he out jumped a taller defender. At the half hour mark we were ahead on a Luke Lewis goal. After that we remained in control and really should have added to our lead, but never did. More importantly though our defenders were able to defend the rest of the game. We did shore things up after the hour mark by bringing Jelic off for another midfielder, but there was no other drama for the remainder of the match. Win 2-1. Lineup; Bruno Varela, Padalino (POM), Oliveira, Barba, Gutierrez, Jose Mario, Benassi, Padovano, Lewis, Jelic/Girard (61), Forni Torino (0-0-1 4th) vs Rio Ave (1-0-0 2nd) Europa League Group Stage G2 2-1 21 Shots 7 10 On Target 2 8 Fouls 13 56% Possession 44% Goals: Lopes (2) Forni (13) Lewis (30) Our next game is against 20th place Fiorentina, which sounds bad for them, but this early in the season 20th place means little, they are only 3 points behind us. 10/5/25 at Fiorentina - Serie A G7 - 442 n vs 442. We once again struggled to do anything in our narrow diamond and eventually Fiorentina was awarded a penalty and took the lead inside the half hour. So, for the umpteenth time in a row we had to move to an all out attacking 4312 to gain some control of the game. We managed to pressure the Fiorentina D into an own goal late in the half and kept attacking the rest of the game, but couldn’t manage to put the ball in the net a single time ourselves. Draw 1-1. Lineup; Bruno Varela, Gutierrez, Oliveira, Barba, Rahimic, Padovano, Benassi, (POM), Jose Mario/Girard (61), Lewis/Gallo (61), Jelic, Forni Torino (2-2-2 9th) at Fiorentina (1-2-3 20th) Serie A G7 1-1 17 Shots 6 7 On Target 3 16 Fouls 5 53% Possession 47% Goals: Selke (pen 27) Correale og(36) When I showed up in the office the next day Sal informed me the squad had requested a team meeting to discuss my poor leadership so far this year. I told them in no uncertain terms that no one was blameless in the slump and if they wanted things to improve it was up to every single person in the room to work together. The reaction was good and everyone came around except Ben Hur. The meeting made the media and I had to hold a press conference, I said we were underperforming and of course there was pressure, but that is what coaching was all about. Not surprisingly a parade of players came to the office over the rest of the week to complain about various things, mostly asking for playing time. I handled them all without incident having been through this before - it happens every time when a team is struggling. Only 14,000 tickets were sold for sundays game against Catania - great, now the fans are revolting too. I guess it’s only fair - our play has been pretty revolting after all. Just to add gasoline to the fire Dr. Albertini informed me that Dragan Jelic needed a week's leave. Well then, we should be all ready for Catania now - on to the game. 10/18/25 vs Catania - Serie A G8 - 4312 n vs 442. It looked like it might be time for me to start filling out my CV as Catania came out and dominated us early, scoring inside the first 15 minutes for the 1-0 lead. The tide turned a little over 10 minutes later though when Federico Barba stepped up and intercepted yet another Catania pass into the offensive zone, headed the ball to Marco Benassi, who turned and found Loris making a run between the Catania defenders. Loris slotted the ball home and we were even. All of a sudden the game calmed down and we looked like we knew what we were doing again. Just before the half Eloi Gutierrez found Marco Amadio at the back post and we were up 2-1. I let the coaching staff handle all of the halftime duties as I was apparently the players excuse for performing poorly and in the second half we still looked to be in control. We brought Erik Almquist on as a sub to give him a chance to blend into the squad and gave Ben Hur a chance to put his play where his mouth was as well. At 74 minutes we finally got what might actually be our first 2 goal lead of the season as a loose ball in the box rolled to Loris Forni and just before the end of the game a highly motivated Loris ripped home what might be the most powerful shot he has ever taken for his hat trick. Win 4-1. Lineup; Bruno Varela, Padalino, Oliveira, Barba/Almquist (62), Gutierrez, Lewis/Coman (56), Jose Mario, Benassi, Gallo/Ben Hur (51), Amadio, Forni Torino (2-3-2 14th) vs Catania (3-1-3 8th) Serie A G8 4-1 18 Shots 13 8 On Target 3 13 Fouls 2 56% Possession 44% Goals: Lucerno (12) Forni (23,74,90+2) Amadio (42) And with one win Ben Hur announced to the media that he was happy to stay here now. The thing is - I’m not so sure he should. Despite his announcement ben Hur came to me the very next game and said he wanted more playing time, I told him I didn’t think he was on the right team, transfer listed him and moved him to the U20 squad. 10/24/25 vs Olympiakos - Europa League Group Stage G3 - 4312 vs 442. While we had a clear edge for most of the first half we struggled to do anything with the chances we created, either missing the net, hitting the woodwork or having our shots blocked. After what seemed like forever, but was only 26 minutes a nice passing sequence found Marco Amadio in the box and he made a nicely placed shot into the far corner for the game's only goal. The rest of the game was completely uneventful, which does benefit the team with the lead. I guess. Win 1-0. Torino (1-0-1 4th) vs Olympiakos (1-0-1 3rd) Europa League Group Stage G3 1-0 16 Shots 11 3 On Target 2 13 Fouls 5 57% Possession 43% Goals: Amadio (26) The win moves us into second in the group, even on points with Girondins de Bordeaux with 6, while Olympiakos and Rio Ave each have 3. 10/26/25 at Atalanta - Serie A G9 - 4312 n vs 442. This was another tight closely contested game. We had a couple chances in the first half but wasted them and the game was still scoreless as we approached the hour mark when we had Atalanta pinned in their defensive zone. Alex Padovano intercepted an attempted clear and sent the ball to Marco Benassi in the middle of the park and he found Dragan Jelic at the back post where Dragan unleashed a missile to the far corner. Jelic added a second goal at 75 minutes and we pulled Forni for an extra midfielder to see out the clean sheet. Win 2-0 Lineup; Bellini, Padalino, Oliveira, Barba/Almquist (59), Gutierrez, Benassi/ Pugliese (59), Coman, Padovano, Gallo, Jelic (POM), Forni/Schrott (76) Torino (3-3-2 7th) at Atalanta (3-1-4 13th) Serie A G9 2-0 13 Shots 11 5 On Target 3 14 Fouls 7 57% Possession 43% Goals: Jelic (59,75) The win puts us back into our accustomed 5th place in the Serie A table. On Monday the 27th Juan Agudelo announced his retirement at the age of 32. After scoring 76 goals in 150 games for us in New England before joining AJ Auxerre he scored only 7 in just 35 games for them. 10/29/25 vs Frosinone - Serie A G10 - 4312 n vs 4231 dm. This game looked like 5th vs 20th, and for a change, we looked like the 5th placed team. After several early chances Loris put us ahead inside the first 10 minutes and we continued to pressure Frosinone for the rest of the half. It wasn’t until the hour mark that we were able to extend the lead, when Jose Mario made his first goal for the club on a true wonder strike. Jose Mario came from his holding position in the midfield at a full run, took a pass from Federico Barba on the bounce and hit a rocket on the volley into the top corner from outside the box. Win 2-0. Lineup; Bellini, Padalino/Rahimic (69), Oliveira, Almquist, Barba/Gigliotti (69), Benassi, Jose Mario, Padovano, Lewis (POM), Amadio/Girard (74), Forni Torino (4-3-2 5th) vs Frosinone (3-1-5 15th) Serie A G10 2-0 11 Shots 9 6 On Target 1 10 Fouls 10 56% Possession 44% Goals: Forni (7) Jose Mario (57) I made a 1.4M offer for Cesena’s 17 year old midfielder Gianmarco Gagliano, Luigi Porchia negotiated terms. November will start with a game at Bari as we try to build some momentum in the Serie A season. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
EvilDave Posted August 12, 2016 Share Posted August 12, 2016 Looks like Torino are over their early-season slump, some nice results lately. Curious as to how much longer Peter and Gia stick around given their remarkable ability to attract trouble though. In short, keep it up - this is excellent as ever! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
edtheguy Posted August 12, 2016 Author Share Posted August 12, 2016 3 hours ago, EvilDave said: Looks like Torino are over their early-season slump, some nice results lately. Curious as to how much longer Peter and Gia stick around given their remarkable ability to attract trouble though. In short, keep it up - this is excellent as ever! Thank you - I am glad you are still enjoying it! The start to season caught me... er - Peter... by surprise, but it's things like that that keep the game interesting. The Banalik's do seem to attract drama - but that's probably part of what keeps them interesting too.... Hopefully, for their sake, now that Gia has moved on from her latest enterprise the worst is past.... November 2025 The November Board Meeting was by video as we were in Bari for our next game. I was told that I was still very secure, they remain very pleased with my leadership and use of young players but are disappointed with 0-1 defeat to Genoa. Well. I’m glad we had this talk…. On Sunday, just before kickoff we finalized the Gagliano signing, he will join us 4 January 2026. 11/2/25 at Bari - Serie A G11 - 4312 n vs 442. The whole tone of this game changed at the 16th minute when Tommaso Padalino made an ill advised attempt at a sliding tackle from behind and was rightly sent off for a straight red. We pulled a striker, went 4311 and still managed to look competitive. The change in power presented Bari with a chance and they were able to generate several fair scoring chances, giving Giacomo Bellini a chance to affect the game, and the young keeper did, having a very good game and keeping us even. We changed Loris to a poacher and he was presented with several chances himself, giving him an opportunity to affect the game, which he did - poorly. We finally had to pull him at the hour mark, but by then the opportunity was lost. Bari finally did get one goal late and we were done. Loss 0-1 Lineup; Bellini, Padalino (RED 16), Oliveira, Almquist, Gutierrez, Benassi, Coman, Padovano, Lewis, Jelic/Barba (16), Forni/Amadio (56) Torino (5-3-2 5th) at Bari (2-1-7 20th) Serie A G11 0-1 17 Shots 14 5 On Target 7 11 Fouls 5 58% Possession 42% Goals: Avdijaj (63) I told the press that Tommaso just got carried away, but I would be talking to him, which I did, fining him one week's salary. The young man understood and said he would do his utmost to improve on his discipline in the future. One of Loris’ many missed opportunities may not have been his fault. He had a goal disallowed that was clearly not offside - which I pointed out to the press. The FA issued me a warning for criticising the disallowed goal in our last game and our board warned me about bringing the attention of the FA to our club. I am more concerned with how the players react in their next game. 11/6/25 at Olympiakos - Europa League Group Stage G4 - 4312 vs 4231. Before the game Olympiakos manager Giorgos Zisopoulos called out Federico Barba as our weak link, which I dismissed with a laugh as I always do. Federico has never given me cause to worry about his makeup in his years here so I didn’t even consider not playing him. That was a mistake. Apparently Giorgos was right. At 15 minutes an error from Federico allowed a cross into the box that put us down 1-0. After Loris set up a Dragan goal to pull us even Federico fouled an Olympiakos player in the box and the converted penalty put us down again and spelled the end of the game for Federico at 30 minutes. Loris had to leave the game at the half with an injury, using our second substitution. Early in the second half Marco Amadio, in for Loris, found Jelic for his second and we were even. Five minutes later and on fire Jelic put us ahead for the first time 3-2 with his hat trick. Late in the game we pulled Jelic to the midfield to shore things up without using our last sub and it worked, with Stefano adding an insurance marker late. Win 4-2. Lineup; Bruno Varela, Padalino, Oliveira, Almquist, Barba/Gutierrez (31), Gallo, Jose Mario, Benassi, Lewis, Jelic (POM), Forni/Amadio (45) Torino (2-0-1 2nd) vs Olympiakos (1-0-2 3rd) Europa League Group Stage G4 4-2 18 Shots 14 12 On Target 9 12 Fouls 5 58% Possession 42% Goals: Limnios (15) Jelic (28,48,53) Machaka (pen 30) Gallo (84) Well, that was eventful. The win gives us a firm hold on second place in the group, we only need one point from our last two games to qualify. Loris will be out for 5-6 days with a head injury. I told the press Olympiakos did themselves credit, Federico would bounce back and Dragan was outstanding. Bruno Varela said it was my inspirational words at half time that inspired the comeback. Huh, something must have been lost in translation, I wasn’t feeling very inspirational. 11/9/25 at Palermo - Serie A G12 - 4312 n vs 4411. This game wasn’t as easy as the score indicates as somehow Palermo was able to generate a number of scoring opportunities, but we were able to generate the better chances and convert so in the end it was a good game for us. In the first ten minutes a nice team move ended with the two strikers combining, Jelic to Amadio for the 1-0 lead. Inside 20 minutes we recycled possession into the area and Stefano Gallo was the extra body in the box and scored his second of the season. Just before half Amadio added his second of the game and it was 3-0. Early in the second half Amadio left with an injury and for the rest of the half Palermo was the better team but we kept the clean sheet. Win 3-0. Lineup; Bellini, Gutierrez, Oliveira, Almquist, Rahimic, Benassi, Girard/Jose Mario (59), Padovano, Gallo (POM)/Lewis (64), Jelic, Amadio/Bouadla (48) Torino (5-3-3 6th) at Palermo (2-2-7 20th) Serie A G12 3-0 19 Shots 16 7 On Target 5 13 Fouls 10 56% Possession 44% Goals: Amadio (9,35) Gallo (18) Marco Amadio sustained torn knee ligaments in the match and will miss two months. Fiorentina was taken over by a Maltese investor named Artemio Franchi, who has vast resources and announced that he will stop at nothing to make them one of the greatest forces in domestic and continental football. I spoke to Mike Burns after dinner one evening and he told me he’d signed another extension with the Rev’s. I am happy for him and Michelle, they have made a good life for themselves and he is overseeing an impressive MLS franchise now. We are still on the leading development list for Serie A players, at 6th on the list, with 19. 11/23/25 at Roma - Serie A G13 - 4312 n vs4411. We did everything well except finish our chances and after we wasted a half dozen scoring opportunities we made Erik Almquist made a horrendous back pass that gifted Roma a lead. We managed to generate enough chances that one of them lucked in to tie the game then Roma took their next chance for a 2-1 lead at halftime. There were words at the half and we managed to tie the game again, but then we wasted every other chance we could create. Draw 2-2. Lineup; Bellini, Gutierrez, Oliveira, Almquist/Barba (60), Rahimic, Jose Mario, Padovano, Benassi (POM), Gallo, Jelic, Forni/Pugliese (60) Torino (6-3-3 5th) at Roma (5-1-6 9th) Serie A G13 2-2 16 Shots 6 5 On Target 3 16 Fouls 6 58% Possession 42% Goals:Reine-Adelaide (15,42) Gutierrez (44) Jelic (67) The whole squad got it with both barrels collectively and in groups after the game. Some of the players looked like they were expecting to hear how well they had done to come back in the game. They were wrong. Abdelkader Bouadla, who we signed on a free and has yet to score a goal for us asked to leave for playing time and as soon as I transfer listed him new rich kids Fiorentina offered his full value, 20.5M in cash. I accepted. 11/27/25 vs Girondins de Bordeaux - Europa League Group Stage G5 - 4312 vs 532 wb. We were dominant throughout the first half, taking the lead early on a Loris Forni goal and not allowing a single attempt on target to a team that walked over us 3-0 in the first goup match. Even when we extended the lead to 2-0 the players managed to frustrate me though as it only happened on the fourth consecutive chance after we failed to score on two great saves and a hit post. Then in the second half my frustration boiled over as we allowed two goals and had to settle for a Draw 2-2. Lineup; Bruno Varela, Gutierrez, Oliveira, Barba, Rahimic, Benassi, Jose Mario, Gallo (POM), Lewis, Jelic/Padovano (63), Forni Torino (3-0-1 2nd) vs Girondins de Bordeaux (3-0-1 1st) Europa League Group Stage G5 2-2 18 Shots 7 10 On Target 3 11 Fouls 15 58% Possession 42% Goals: Forni (24) Benassi (45+1) Wallace (51) Landals (68) This would have been the perfect gentleman’s agreement game, as the draw puts both teams into the knockout rounds, but I was not in an agreeable mood. The players got another not good enough speech afterwards but I don’t expect it to help. The theme of this season is clearly underachievement and just as obviously it isn’t in the players here to change things. That will have to be up to me. This could be an interesting midseason transfer window. 11/30/25 vs Sampdoria - Serie A G14 - 4312 n vs 4312 n. This game, for the first time in a while the narrative changed from us completely outplaying the opponent but throwing away chances and points. Instead it was a very even game, with few chances for either team that we had a slight edge in. Just before the half We stopped Sampdoria from clearing after a corner and Stefano Gallo found Luke Lewis still in the box and he put us up 1-0. The second half remained close, but we remained firm on defense and in the end the 1-0 final was a fair representation of the entirety of the game. Win 1-0. Lineup; Bellini, Padalino, Oliveira, Barba, Gutierrez, Benassi, Jose Mario, Gallo/Padovano (72), Lewis, Jelic, Forni/Girard (62) Torino (6-4-3 5th) vs Sampdoria (6-2-5 7th) Serie A G13 1-0 10 Shots 8 4 On Target 3 11 Fouls 10 57% Possession 43% Goals:Lewis (41) Jose Mario hit his yellow card limit in the game and will be suspended for the next match. Bouadla agreed to terms with Fiorentina, he will join them when the window opens 4 January. The local paper ran an investigative report citing local mafia infiltration in key areas of the city as organized crime looks for new homes after decades long crackdowns by the authorities on the crime empires in the south. It didn’t center on the battle over the redevelopment around the Teatro Regio, but it did mention it and in doing so it mentioned me as well, through Gianna’s involvement in the project. So now in one month I've attracted negative attention to the club from both the FA and the local media - The board wasn’t impressed with that either. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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