Luciano Castellini, former goalkeeper who won the 1976 Scudetto with Torino, focuses on the current events of the Granata club in an interview with The Press: “The problem is a group with little quality, let’s start from this point. But when that’s the case you have to bring out that extra 30% because you’re a Taurus and you have to have it. But that’s not happening. We will be romantic and rhetorical: once upon a time it was better. We had an identity… All these foreigners, I don’t know how much they understood del Toro.”
On Cairo became the longest-serving president of Torino after Pianelli: “They are two eras that cannot be compared, even if my patronage has also been contested. And he had won. Pianelli was a man sui generis. He wasn’t the big boss who intimidated, he came to the retreat and played cards with us. He knew how to listen.”
On how to build a winning teamsays Castellini: “Pianelli spent a lot of money on Sala, who previously played with me at Monza, but was taken from Serie B Graziani and from Serie C Salvadori. Then he recovered Zaccarelli from the loans and found Pulici grown up. And what a surprise Pecci was, no one thought that he was already a coach on the pitch at such a young age.” And again: “In Cairo I would say to get advice from someone who has worn the grenade shirt. Then he is not the only one guilty, his collaborators also made mistakes.”
And to the question if with a real project Torino can become competitive againCastellini responded by concluding: “It depends: before, if you did well they confirmed you, now they sell you. Even the players are different, they sign four-year contracts and play well for one season. In order to have 2/3 million more, we were always on the pitch, I too had a broken finger, and I was a goalkeeper. Zaccarelli did the pre-match tryout due to a swollen ankle at the petrol station: because there was asphalt.”