Editorialist and market man for Tuttomercatoweb, he is a speaker and host for Radio Sportiva. Market expert for Rai Sport
It is true that the fans’ expectations were different. It is true that the disappointment for the sale of Alessandro Buongiorno was strong. It is true that the disappointment for the unexpected farewell of Raoul Bellanova was even more bitter. It is true that after these slaps, these slaps, the fans of Turin took to the streets. Because it is equally true that the trophy cabinet is empty and the one of satisfactions equally so. That the waterline has not yet been crossed, that little ambition has been seen, little determination, little respect for what the Granata fans had asked, are asking, had demanded and are demanding. However, this summer, which in the relationship between Urbano Cairo and the Torino fans, marks perhaps one of the points of greatest sinking, also deserves another reading. Different. The glass half full.
The strength of the players, the strength of ideas
This is modern football, in Turin as in Bergamo, in Florence as in Milan, in Rome and so on. The will of the player counts more than it once did, it is useless to make romantic speeches and cling to a past that no longer exists. And without wanting to mince words again: if the will of Alessandro Buongiorno and Raoul Bellanova was to leave, then Turin did well to let them go. Like Atalanta with Teun Koopmeiners, like Fiorentina with Nico Gonzalez, like Napoli with Victor Osimhen, like Genoa with Albert Gudmundsson. “The world is full of good players”, is the mantra that a great old man of the market repeated to me several times. The problem is choosing them functional for the project. Having ideas and strategies regardless of prestige but of the possibility of knowing how to insert the right pieces into your puzzle. The pursuit of a coach was long but Cairo and DS Davide Vagnati did well to get there: Paolo Vanoli, from the first press conferences, showed that he had the right character and characteristics to marry the Granata crowd. The press conference after Bellanova’s farewell showed that his corporate spirit reaches as far as decisions do not clash with his philosophy: it is right to raise one’s voice, it is right to ask and demand a change of direction on purchases in the required departments.
The market, the scouting, the cherry on top
Torino followed Vanoli’s ideas together with ds Vagnati, working in full harmony, in a market group also enriched by the work of scouting. Behind the arrival of Saul Coco, Borna Sosa and Che Adams there is precisely this. Are Buongiorno, Bellanova and the striker who dreamed of the square valid today? Absolutely not. But there is one aspect of the story that should not be overlooked. Functionality. All three seem perfectly functional to Vanoli’s game and the Granata environment, for character, characteristics, desire, ambitions and so on. And the same can be said for Maripan and Walukiewicz. Was there anything more to expect? In the names, yes. Definitely. A great man of communication like Cairo should know (and knows) that the eye also wants its part. And among the players who arrived in Turin there is no cover man good at calming the boiling spirits of the fans. You have to understand them. But a book should not be judged only by its cover. And this season, perhaps, is the case of the new Torino.