Football Season Guide

After a couple of campaigns characterized by mediocrity and hard-fought salvations, last season Torino opted for a better life, hiring coach Ivan Juric, who had done great things at Hellas Verona. He managed to lead the Bulls to a 10th-place finish, especially thanks to a great defence. In fact, while they scored a mere 46 goals, barely doing better than the relegated sides, they held the 5th best defence of the Serie A, with 41 goals conceded. Only 10 more than Inter and Napoli. Juric was logically confirmed for the new season but the love story between the Croatian and the club might have come to an end, exactly as it had the one between him and Hellas Verona. History repeats itself: Juric wanted the management to strengthen the squad in order to aim at more ambitious goals but nobody heeded his requests. The squad was actually weakened over the summer. Quite surprisingly, Torino let go of one of the best strikers in their history, 29-year-old Belotti, whose contract was not extended. Once known as Mister “100-million euros”, he scored 113 goals in 7 seasons with the Bulls and ha not been replaced yet. In fact, they expect Sanabria, who hit double-digits only once in his career, and Pellegri, 6 goals in a career plagued by injuries, to do the job in his stead. Moreover, Torino lost last season’s best Serie A defender, Bremer, to Juventus and saw more starters like Pobega, Mandragora, Brekalo and Praet all returning to their parent clubs after a positive campaign. So far, Torino signed Lazaro, coming off mixed seasons all over Europe, who is going to provide some depth on the flanks and acquired Radonjic on loan from Marseille. The latter, together with Verdi returning from a loan at Salernitana, should replace the likes of Brekalo and Praet as the attacking midfielders. Torino are still looking for players in all areas, as they have all been weakened compared to last season.